What’s Love got to do with it?

Living with an open heart

by regular columnist Peter Fernando, The Meditation Guy. You can ask him anything! (On meditation that is.) In many traditions, the practice of kindness and love is an integral part of the meditative journey. You may wonder, 'why?' Sometimes the way that the concept of  'mindfulness' is presented can make it seem like a utilitarian technique to become more efficient, or more functional in the world. This is certainly a part of it, of course. But then there's the love thing. You can't … [Read more...]

I’m alive! I’m alive! I’m alive!

Kara-Leah in a twisting lunge

I've had a rough few weeks, since moving into my new house with my three wonderful flatmates. First I caught a 12 hour vomiting bug that saw me curled up on my sister-in-law's bathroom for seven hours in child's pose, just moving to lift my head and vomit. Then I caught the flu and a nasty cough and was bed-ridden for over a week. Just as I was beginning to feel well, almost two weeks after first getting sick, I woke up with red welts all over my body and swollen lips. My best guess … [Read more...]

Dunedin Yoga Teacher: Emma Furness

Dunedin Yoga Teacher Emma Furness

Emma's one excited yoga teacher - she's just bought the Dunedin Yoga Studio in Moray Place and will be taking over in early June. She's been teaching yoga for about five years and used to teach scuba diving before that. A writer with several short stories and one poem published in literary magazines, Emma recently spent four months sailing up the East Coast of NZ  with her six-year old son. Her practice helped her overcome post-natal depression, and now informs the way she lives her … [Read more...]

How yoga helped me… lose weight and feel good again

Tash practicing yoga

This is the first post in a series of yoga stories from readers. Tell us how yoga changed your life and go in the draw to win a yoga prize package. Submitted by Tash of Lower Hutt, winner of a Yoga Prize Package At fourteen years old, I felt completely depressed, empty inside and lost in the world. I was overweight and stuck in toxic friendships. I was at rock bottom. I found yoga when I was browsing the TV listings (Yoga TV with Kris Mcintyre, Barbara Behal and Nils Vesk) and … [Read more...]

What causes depression?

An artistic impression of depression

What causes depression? No one knows. No really - not even the medical profession. Do a quick google search and see what comes up. The best they can offer is a few theories of biological factors combined with environmental and behavioural issues. They can estimate how likely someone is to experience depression based on this, but they don't know the root cause. Makes it hard to heal something when you don't know what is causing it! So we DON'T treat depression, instead we treat the … [Read more...]