Food for thought, food for the soul
We have just moved house, my partner and I. In the midst of trying to insure we have all our things in spaces that make sense, I’ve been eyeing the large deck and huge lounge floor. This house is made for practicing Yoga. Which I haven’t done in I don’t know how long. Not specifically the sort that everyone thinks of when they hear the word ‘yoga’, anyway. That is to say: my life has had no asana practice for a couple weeks. Since asana is only one of eight – 1 of 8! … [Read more...]
See the end of this review for a chance to win a copy of Love and Happiness. I’m a sucker for snail mail. I’ll take just about anything if it’s going to come in the post. So when I was offered up a copy of Swami Govindananda’s Love and Happiness DVD I jumped at it. A few days later a lovely brown package showed up in my mail box. Unwrapping the packaging, I flipped it over to read the description on the back, I opened the case looked at each of the six discs, then put the … [Read more...]
Swami Govindananda, affectionately known as Swami Ji, is a Kiwi boy born and bred, so he always loves coming back home to spread the yogic word. He's back on tour here in New Zealand in April, May and June. You can find full details of his workshops and retreat here. An entertaining and inspirational speaker, Swami Ji gives some interesting insight into what it means to be a swami, and why every serious yogi needs to find a Guru one day. 1. What does it mean to be a Swami? In … [Read more...]
Win your own copy of Swami Ji's Bhakti - The Path of Love. See the end of this article for details. I’ve always considered myself a bhakti yogini – 4 of my 5 tattoos are overt reminders to myself of my relationships with the Divine. Yet it wasn’t a topic covered by any of my trainings or workshops. Bhakti Yoga is one of the major paths of yoga, alongside Hatha Yoga, yet very little of this particular approach is shared in the West. So I was rightly chuffed to be assigned … [Read more...]
Part 1 of this series in the Beginner’s Guide to Yoga gave you a heads-up on things to be aware of before rocking along to your first yoga class. Part 2 of this series in the Beginner's Guide to Yoga explored how our connection to breath and prana means we create our postures from the inside out, rather than impose them from the outside in. Now it's time to take our journey into yoga one step further - where doing asana 'right' is also about the relationship you have with the pose while … [Read more...]
I'm so excited. Swami Govindananda is coming to New Zealand, and touring up and down the country giving talks on yoga philosophy beyond the mat. He won't be making it to Dunedin (this time), but is coming to Queenstown, which gives me an excuse (none needed!) to hightail it up to the mountains to visit my mum and take in the talk. Yes, it's an eight hour round trip and I might only be able to stay one night... but some things in life are just worth doing - family, friends and yoga … [Read more...]
