by Sarah Spence ‘Mindfulness’ is a buzz word these days. I ponder whether ‘reflection’ will join it, given that leadership teams in corporate organisations are now given journals to write in. Regardless, let’s celebrate that these kind of tools are making it to the mainstream. The quality of self-observation is key to both yoga, mindfulness and to managing the mind. I discovered reflection as a yogic tool when I showed up at a yoga ashram in Western Canada. I’d been attending Power … [Read more...]
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How Yoga Taught Me to Live a Fearless & Authentic Life
by Stephanie Spence, Editor's note: This is an excerpt from Yoga Wisdom: Warrior Tales Inspiring You On And Off Your Mat The setting: a luxurious villa on the Caribbean island of St. Barts. A wife and husband, along with several of his clients, are partying on a terrace overlooking the glittering ocean and sun-kissed beach. They flew in from Pittsburgh aboard his private jet that morning. The woman seems to have it all—she’s a self-made success story, wife, and mother. But beneath her mask … [Read more...]
Why The 3 Bandhas Are Not Optional in Yoga
by Daniel Fow All of the muscles in the body need to be exercised, stretched and worked with. Most of us know this, and we do yoga, go to the gym, walk, hike, run, or do some sort of work with our skeletal muscles. But these muscles are all generally on the outside surface of the body, either on top of our skeleton or immediately beneath. What we often tend to forget about is the importance of muscles that exist on the inside of the body. The pelvic diaphragm and the respiratory diaphragm are … [Read more...]
Are Plant Medicines Part of Traditional Yoga?
by Daniel Fow, Cardinal Points: Healing Arts "The Mystic States (Siddhis) are attained by yogic practices from previous lifetimes, or by special plants, mantric repetition, asceticism, or by meditation." - Yoga Sutras of Patanjali The ancient Rishis and Yogis often spoke of an ancient plant medicine known as Soma which would be made into a tea. Upon drinking it, the third eye would awaken and mystical states would occur, even the state of samadhi or enlightenment. The use of Soma as a plant … [Read more...]
Why Yogis Need The Deep Lessons of Karma Yoga
by Ram Davies, Sivananda Yoga Centre I was lying in bed in an apartment in South Beach, Florida, reading Meditations and Mantras by Swami Vishnudevananda, when it dawned on me: I don’t enjoy where I am and what I’m doing. Straight away I put the book down and emailed a yoga teacher that I had trained with the previous year. I asked him if I could stay at the ashram for a four month period as part of the karma yoga program. I heard back from him the following day, quit my job, and booked a … [Read more...]
How Yoga Kirtan Helped Me Find My True Voice and Share it With The World
By Premratna, Premratna Music If I try to imagine what the course of my life would have taken without yoga, I get an image of the movie Life of Pi: a small boat, huge swells, a tiger on board and a lot of fear. Yoga found me while I was doing my ‘big O.E.’; that phase of life where we are typically searching for adventure. I was no exception. In between hiking, skiing, singing and songwriting, I went to a yoga class at the gym in the Canadian Rockies where I was living and working. The … [Read more...]
The Yoga Body Myth & My Late-30s Body
By Roseanne Harvey, It's All Yoga Baby Recently I was having brunch with my granny and she said; “You’ve gained weight. With all the yoga that you do, you should be skinny!” There’s nothing like being fat-shamed by your grandmother. But she was echoing a common misperception about the “yoga body,” something that has been presented by the dominant culture, a way of understanding the effects that yoga has upon a woman’s body. Reflections On A Changing Body Of course, my 84-year-old granny didn’t … [Read more...]
But First The Giant Must Dissolve in a Puddle of Tears on the Yoga Mat. Again
by Kara-Leah Grant, Musings from the Mat It's post-Bali yoga teacher training with the crew from Power Living and I am totally spaced out. I don't know whether I'm coming or going. One minute I was in conversation with Duncan & the PLAY crew poolside at Potatohead in Seminyak, then I was in a taxi and off to the airport, flying for eight hours overnight, arriving the next day in Auckland, driving 2.5 hours to Tauranga to pick up Samuel, sleeping some more, and driving four hours to … [Read more...]
How Compassion Makes Yoga Relevant
by John Guthrie Sitting quietly, the dawn chorus yet to begin, I think of that one word, compassion. The image of a hermit in a cave somewhere comes to mind, and I reflect on this as the embodiment of compassion. Away from the world, yet radiating out the peace that arises from compassion, which has been birthed in the depth of their silence. A place that could just as well have its roots in suffering. There are those whose compassion has arisen from personal suffering. In the last … [Read more...]
My Worst Yoga Class Ever
By guest author Zahir Gilani I have been doing Hot Yoga for six years. I have been nomadic in my practice and have tried many different studios and instructors. Some classes have been great, and some instructors have been amazing. I have left classes feeling tranquil, and have even carried on the rest of my day in an ineffable euphoric state. But even if I do not achieve an inner peace while there, at the very least I’ll know I have got a good workout in and had a chance to … [Read more...]