by Kara-Leah Grant When Wanderlust asked me to submit four classes to teach at the inaugural four-day festival in New Zealand, I pondered how to theme those classes. One of my yoga students had recently told me how she thought my teaching was Goddess-focused and she always felt like I was helping her step into her feminine power in class. I pondered that for a few days. And then it hit me. I was a long-time Tarot enthusiast and love the symbology and depths of insight revealed in Tarot … [Read more...]
Forget New Year’s Resolutions. Ask Yourself this One Question Instead
by Kara-Leah Grant It's my first day back at "work" in 2015. I'm starting by renaming "work" as "creation", because that's really what I do. I create. And I love it. I create words, movement, ideas, processes, life and ultimately, myself. This year I'm cranking up the mojo on my speaking career (find out more about booking me here) and I'm working on launching my first webinars. Actually, I was meant to do the webinar thing last year, but I kept putting it off. Out of the comfort zone, … [Read more...]
The Full Creative Abundance Sun Salutation Sequence
by Kara-Leah Grant Welcome to the sixth and final Creative Sun Salutation Abundance flow video here on The Yoga Lunchbox. This week we put it all together - everything that we've been exploring over the last five weeks. This time, I verbally talk you through two circular sun salutations - once on the right leg and once on the left leg. This is to help you fully learn the sequence. However, once you've got it, forget about watching me and the video and instead play and explore in your … [Read more...]
How Many Years of Yoga Practice Does it Take to Get Flexible?
by Kara-Leah Grant This is an impossible question to answer - at least, to answer definitively, but I'm still going to give it a damn good crack. And with good reason. Despite the fact that yoga has nothing to do whatsoever with flexibility - that flexibility is a side benefit of one's yoga practice and no measure of the depth or strength of one's yoga practice - yoga and flexibility are intimately intertwined in the modern idea of yoga. There's a good reason for this. We are predominantly a … [Read more...]
Why it’s Possible to Evoke Abundance through a Yoga Practice
by Kara-Leah Grant Welcome to the fifth Creative Sun Salutation Abundance flow here on The Yoga Lunchbox. This week we explore our final three postures, facing the back of the mat. As always, we're using the same tools and techniques to find freedom and ease in our bodies - breath, micro-movements, pulsations. It's also becoming more clear how it's possible to evoke a sense of abundance through a sun salutation. Our first posture this week is about releasing and bowing to the earth - … [Read more...]
The Ups and Downs of Mastering Squat Pose
by Kara-Leah Grant Welcome to the fourth Creative Sun Salutation Abundance flow here on The Yoga Lunchbox. This week we explore a transition posture as we move from the front of the mat to the back of the mat - an important part of working with circular sun salutations. In this particular variation, I'm using a squat to make that transition, which gives us a greater sense of our roots or foundation. Squatting is all about our relationship to the earth - we have to both surrender downward … [Read more...]
On the Dilution of the Genuine Transmission of Yoga Part 2
by Kara-Leah Grant, Musings from the Mat I've been contemplating the many reactions I received to this article over the past week or so, On the Dilution of the Transmission of Yoga. One person unsubscribed from the website (or at least - one person told me they had because of this article, more people may have!) saying that I had made some good points but she found the article judgemental and unyogic. Other people rejoiced that someone was speaking such things out loud. It does feel … [Read more...]
Exploring How to Release the Iliopsoas Muscle Group in Warrior I
by Kara-Leah Grant Welcome to the third Creative Sun Salutation Abundance flow here on The Yoga Lunchbox. This week we move into the heart of our abundance sun salutation, moving through variations of Warrior I pose. Most of you will be familiar with Warrior I, yet no matter how many times you may have done it, there's always something to learn. Taking time and playing within each pose, separating out the components of it, is a masterful way to learn the posture from the inside … [Read more...]
How to Cultivate Abundance on the Yoga Mat Part 2 {video}
by Kara-Leah Grant Welcome to the second Creative Sun Salutation flow here on The Yoga Lunchbox. As with the last six-part series, the first two episodes in this series are free for anybody to access, and the final four are for Insiders only. (You can become a member of Inside the Box here.) This week we add on to the beginning of our abundance sun salutation, moving through halfway lift, high plank, low plank, upward dog, downward dog, three-legged dog and knee to nose. Most of you … [Read more...]
How to Cultivate Abundance on the Yoga Mat Part 1 {video}
by Kara-Leah Grant Welcome to the second Creative Sun Salutation flow here on The Yoga Lunchbox. As with the last six-part series, the first two episodes in this series are free for anybody to access, and the final four are for Insiders only. (You can become a member of Inside the Box here.) When I teach and practice yoga, my tendency is to work with different energies on the mat, cultivating those energies as required, depending what's going on in my life at that time. This particular … [Read more...]