An interview with KeiShana Coursey KeiShana is the course director of Contemporary Yoga's Pregnancy Yoga Teacher Training starting in July 2021. This is a 100+ hour teacher training collaboration between Opti-mum and Contemporary Yoga and includes anatomy, physiology, asana, ayurveda and much, much more. KeiShana brings a wealth of experience and expertise to this very special training having worked with many women on their childbirth journeys. In this interview, KeiShana talks about … [Read more...]
Yoga Nidra for Sobriety – A journey to wholeness.
By Veronica King, Grassroots Yoga & Health As a tantric yogi I have always enjoyed saying yes to life, all of it! For years I’ve had boundless energy to work, play, practice and party. All in equal measure. But over the last few years I noticed a significant shift, my tank that was always full, was not topping up and suddenly I had a completely empty tank. I was depleted, exhausted, facing a health crisis. So I sat with the question, what depletes me and what nourishes me? … [Read more...]
Unity, change and fresh memory: The precipitation of change for yoga in uncertain times
by Felicity Molloy : PhD I MEd I GDHE I MNZ RMT I YogaNZ Council Senior Level 4 1000h I BodyStill massage & yoga clinic I must be honest – although I love the world of thinking, I have not yet fully thought through a framework that accommodates our future for yoga. Yoga that responds to a pandemic, keeping in mind the urgency, the devastation, remembrance, and the next wave of hope. I offer these thoughts as theoretical embryony, not to cut across anyone’s experience … [Read more...]
The forgotten bass note
by Elly Barry, Yoga and Body Centred Inquiry Each of us contain within, a symphony of thoughts, whispers, and truths yet to be given breath. To listen within asks more than the ability to become quiet. To listen to another, more than the willingness to be all ears. Attributing a gesture of great love and attention to one body part alone, is to fall short. Deep listening begins with the ability to inhabit for a moment, the source of someone else’s longings and unmet … [Read more...]
Building Resilience with Yoga and Meditation
By Swami Karma Karuna, Anahata Yoga Retreat What is Resilience? No matter who we are, the state of the bank balance, or which country we live in; the twists and turns of life, deaths, jobs, relationship stresses, natural disasters, and trauma can affect us all. Change influences each of us differently, altering our biochemistry, thoughts, and emotions. Resilience is our ability to come back to our centre, to rebound from adversity, and to respond to a challenge in a creative … [Read more...]
The Yoga of Self-Enquiry
Exploring Witnessing, Strengths, Weaknesses, Aims and Needs By Swami Karma Karuna, Anahata Yoga Retreat We are currently living through a time that has thrown the ‘norm’ out the door and despite the challenges for many, it is also a wakeup call, an opportunity to think about our lives and take stock. Jnana yoga is a process of sincere self-inquiry with the aim of finding true inner wisdom. Whilst the physical practices of yoga continue to be important, looking in and connecting to … [Read more...]
Spring Equinox Rising
by Sonya Simpson, SSY Sonya Simpson Yoga Have you felt a slow rising of energy over the past few weeks or days? A gentle nudge from within encouraging you to start creating and building? Spring equinox is upon us and with it, the light is brightening and the blanket of winter is becoming easier to throw off. The natural slowing down that occurs in winter, those quiet months when the light is low and the weather cooler, is starting to feel less necessary. Nature is reflecting back to us … [Read more...]
Tantra and Purpose in the Time of the Pandemic
by Una Hubbard, Meditation and Yoga with Una As I write this we’re over halfway into the “Year of the Pandemic”, or what boils down to the “Year of Great Upheaval and Uncertainty”. If you’ve been on Facebook you’ve no doubt seen the many memes declaring 2020 the year we all would just as soon forget. It’s as though we’re all holding our breath until this Covid thing is over. We’re biding our time, waiting it out. And at some point in the future, there will be a fix …. and then we’ll be … [Read more...]
Mindfulness and the Prefrontal Cortex
by Dyana Wells, Open Ground School of Meditation A lot of us have heard about mindfulness and its possible benefits. Recently I have learned a few interesting things about the brain that have made the benefits of mindfulness meditation even clearer to me. Meditation produces a thickening of the prefrontal cortex – the part of the cerebral hemispheres above and behind the eyes. The prefrontal cortex increased in size massively during our evolution into human beings and it may hold the … [Read more...]
Chakras – Our Centres for Transformation to Truth
by Nisha Kumar Joon, YogaOra A chakra is an energy structure, a whirling vortex of energy that acts a bit like a spiral pulling energy through the body’s central vertical electrical current aligned with the spine. Whilst the spine curves, the main energy feeder, line of light, that draws energy into the body system’s energy line, is straight. In our human body we tend to work with seven main chakras but there are many, many more. Chakras are also known psychic centers in the subtle body, … [Read more...]