Bra-Free Pyjama Practice: My Yoga at Home

Bra-less hippie girl

As I’ve grown as a practitioner, I’ve liked group classes less and less. I remember being impressed by people in my yoga teacher training programs who were there only to enhance home practice. While I was there to learn to teach, home practice is so integral to teaching that I’ve barely bothered to take any group classes since graduating my first Yoga Teacher Training in 2004. I like it that way. But why? Group class teachers aren’t bad, or offensive.  Some are downright … [Read more...]

Confessions from a living room dancefloor

Dancing can create positive samskaras

I love to dance. Really love to dance. It's been my passion ever since I was eight years old and first saw Flashdance. There was something about that movie, and the main character that sang to my soul. Here was a woman who defied the mainstream in all respects - Alex was a welder by day, stripper by night, dancer in her dreams. She faced down her fears by auditioning for a prestigious dance school, despite being different from all the other dancers. She did it her way, and she soared, … [Read more...]

Why sangha (spiritual community) is the most precious thing on your path

Because yoga can happen anywhere

In Buddhist practice, the three jewels of life - or the three refugees - are what you turn to for support, for guidance, and for friendship. These are: The Buddha nature - the ideal or highest spiritual potential that exists within all beings. The Dharma - the teachings of Buddha, or the path one walks in following the teachings. And finally, Sangha - the community of other spiritual folk walking that same path, albeit in their own individual way. While these are Buddhist concepts, … [Read more...]

How to unleash your inner Goddess

Yoga Goddesses at play - KL, Lauren and Kelly

There is a Goddess that lives inside each and every woman. In some women, the Goddess is obscured by thick, heavy clouds of fear. Posture is weighted, cramped and hunched. Skin is pale. Eyes dart. In other women, the Goddess has been laquered over with a mask of perfection. Glitz, glamour and gloss strut their stuff, leaving no time nor room for the sensual, knowing, easy delight of a Goddess. Then there are those women who fear for the safety of their Goddess in this (apparently) … [Read more...]

How to introduce your children to yoga

Kids love yoga!

The power of yoga to improve the quality of life for our children is an untapped resource. by guest author Amanda Reid of Samadhi Yoga Although yoga has enjoyed popularity with adults for many years, it is only recently that we have come to understand how helpful it can be for children in their formative years, increasing their self-awareness, building their self-esteem, and strengthening their bodies - truly a welcomed oasis in a culture that offers little in the way of mindful yet … [Read more...]

How to use the creativity of yoga to unleash the child within

Seka, delighting in playful yoga

We’re all too often wrapped up in the tasks of life.  As we age, we run the risk of diminishing our natural creativity for the sake of ‘being a grown-up’.  The practice of yoga will help keep the inner child alive, and creativity flowing. By Seka Ojdrovic Children can be our best teachers Nearing the end of a particularly child-like weekend (spent tumbling down a waterslide, enjoying a double-scoop ice cream cone and visiting a toy store), I was thrilled when the sun shone … [Read more...]