By Kara-Leah Grant, Yesterday Samuel and I went for our usual morning walk around the boardwalk. As I pushed his pram down the dusty trail beside the river I started and stopped. Was that a dead dragonfly on the trail? I doubled-back and carefully picked up a grey, wizened and dusty dragonfly and placed it on the palm of my left hand to show Samuel. I was startled when the dragonfly moved one leg out into a more comfortable position and I realized it wasn't dead - at least, not entirely. We … [Read more...]
The Benefits of Practicing Yoga While Watching TV
By Kara-Leah Grant During class on Wednesday, as we moved from posture to posture, I drew my students attention to the way they were beginning to intuitively move their bodies in counterposes and releases after a more intense posture. They weren't thinking about it, it was just happening as their body moved spontaneously and they followed along. One of my students looked up and exclaimed: That's what's happening when I watch TV now! A-ha! One benefit of practicing yoga while watching TV is … [Read more...]
There is nothing wrong with you. You don’t need fixing
By Kara-Leah Grant, Musings from the Mat I wrote this article about four weeks ago. It's an example of how subtle our layers of reality are. It starts with a story I'm telling about my life and about myself. Out of that story, I extrapolate an unconscious belief, identifying this belief as something that needs fixing, changing, letting go, or releasing so my conscious reality will change. This has been a useful process that's helped me heal much over the last few years. Yet this process … [Read more...]
How to anchor your home yoga practice
By Kara-Leah Grant, author of Forty Days of Yoga If you prefer to video to reading, check out the ten minute video at the end of this article. The whole premise of Forty Days of Yoga is built on the idea that by letting go of our fixed ideas of what a yoga practice is we can find a practice that works for our life and our lifestyle. It's about being kind and compassionate to yourself and working with what you needs. However, the flip side of this approach is that it can be easy to … [Read more...]
One way that Forty Days of Yoga has revolutionised my life
By Kara-Leah Grant, Musings from the Mat Today I did something that has the potential to revolutionise my life. I set an alarm and deliberately got up before my three year old son. I wanted to be up by 6:30am and I wanted the early morning peace and quiet to do my yoga practice. This is a huge break-through for me. Once upon a time, I effortlessly arose before 7am and spent a couple of hours on the computer writing, often getting my day's work down before 9am. I loved this - it … [Read more...]
Exploring the Niyamas: How do we cultivate Samtosha (contentment) in our life?
by Kara-Leah Grant Of all the yamas and the niyamas I've explored in my life so far, this one made the most sense simply by looking at the word. Contentment. Yip. Know what that means. I didn't need to go and hunt through all my books reading what various yoga teachers and yogic scholars have written about contentment. I didn't need to search on Google to explore the different nuances. I got it. Out of the box. And I need it. Oh do I need it so bad. Wait... is that an oxymoron - to … [Read more...]
How to anchor your Forty Day practice with consistency amid fluidity
by Kara-Leah Grant, author of Forty Days of Yoga In the 40,000 words of Forty Days of Yoga I give no specific instruction on asana or set sequences. That means that if you're looking for a home yoga practice book that will tell you what to do, this is not it. I know – you're looking for a magic bullet. That perfect home yoga practice that will turn you into a yogi. I know this because at workshops and in classes, via email and in comments, student after student after student asks me, and … [Read more...]
How avoiding feelings avoids the present moment and avoids life
By Kara-Leah Grant, Musings from the Mat This morning, the wonderful woman who looks after Samuel four days a week while I work told me she's finishing up with PORSE (home-based early childhood education) on April 6. This is a big deal. I live in a small town with no kindergaten or other early childhood education facility. There is no other childcare available (right now). I'm also a single parent working from home and those childcare hours are my livelihood - not just for my business but … [Read more...]
A tale of Mat Resistance, and practicing anyway
By Kara-Leah Grant, Musings from the Mat Mat resistance. Happens to the best of us, no matter how long we've been practicing. Here's a glimpse into a moment of mat resistance in my life. Notice how I respond to it, notice the process, notice life isn't all peaches and cream because I'm practicing yoga everyday. ***** It's been a rough week or two. Of course, since I successfully published my first book ten days ago, it's meant to have been an exciting and wonderful few weeks. So … [Read more...]
Five Strategies for Starting & Maintaining Your Home Yoga Practice
by Kara-Leah Grant, author of Forty Days of Yoga If you'd rather watch a video than read an article, skip to the end of this article and you'll find a short video of me going over these same five points. These are simple and effective strategies for creating and maintaining your home yoga practice and it's the type of thing we explore in more depth in Forty Days of Yoga. None of these strategies are rocket science - it's all plain common sense, but these strategies can challenge underlying … [Read more...]