by Lucinda Staniland Meet Amy Ippoliti—yoga teacher, author, earth activist and founder of 90 Monkeys, an online professional development school for yoga teachers. One of the first things I noticed when I watched this video interview with Amy was her irrepressible enthusiasm for the practice of yoga. Yes, there's no doubt in my mind that this woman loves yoga, and loves sharing it with the world. And yet, while Amy is incredibly open hearted and enthusiastic, she also cultivates a sharp … [Read more...]
The Community Speaks: How Has Yoga Changed Your Relationship With Your Body?
by Lucinda Staniland Bodies are strange things. They are our home—our only means of experiencing and connecting with the world—and yet many of us are profoundly disconnected and cut off from the lived experience of the body. Add to that our collective obsession with the superficial experience of the body, and the relationship becomes even more confusing and complex. We wanted to know how the yoga community are responding to this challenge, so we asked a group of NZ and Australian yoga … [Read more...]
Is It Normal To Feel Tired All The Time? How I Embraced Darkness & Found Deep Rest
by Lucinda Staniland I’ve been practicing yoga for eight years, and while I’ve experienced many benefits from a regular practice, deep sleep hasn’t been one of them. Despite my daily home yoga practice—and the deep relaxation and release that it enables—until recently, a really good night’s sleep was an elusive thing for me. Let me get this straight; I've never been an insomniac. I've never experienced the terror of a full blown sleep disorder or extreme sleep deprivation. But I do know what … [Read more...]
The Simple Trick That Transformed My Meditation Practice
by Lucinda Staniland I'm a perfectionist. I love getting things exactly right. So when I got interested in meditation, I had a lot of questions about how I should be doing it: How long should I meditate for? Eyes open or closed? Should I focus on the breath or chant a mantra? Visualise chakras or empty my mind completely? I tried all these things. But somehow, no matter what I did, I felt like I was never quite getting it right. Meditation always felt like hard work to me. It was … [Read more...]
Why ‘Ambivalence’ Is The Most Powerful Word I Know
by Lucinda Staniland I've been using the word 'ambivalent' a lot recently. I like the sound of it. I like that it acknowledges complexity - of myself and of the world. I like that it doesn't lock me, or anyone else, into a box. Take getting married for example. My partner and I were married in January 2017, and for me, it was a classic experience of ambivalence. In fact, it was during the preparations for our wedding that the word 'ambivalent' became a core part of my vocabulary. I … [Read more...]
10 Things I Wish I Knew Before I Started Yoga
by Lucinda Staniland Most of us come to yoga with a whole lot of misconceptions about what yoga is. I was no different. Here are some of the mistakes that I made, and lessons that I learnt, as a new yoga student. 1. Asana does not equal yoga. When I started doing yoga I was awed by the strength and grace of the physical practice I saw my fellow students doing. I couldn't wait for the day when I too would move with such beauty. I fell in love with asana. But asana (physical postures) is not … [Read more...]
Five Reasons Why Crossfit & Yoga Complement Each Other
By Lucinda Staniland I started doing Crossfit because I wanted to get strong and build good bone density, not because I wanted to improve my Yoga practice. And I didn't think that my daily Yoga practice would help much when it came to the high-intensity strength training and cardio workouts that form the basis of Crossfit. Turns out I was wrong. The thing that surprised me most about Crossfit was not how hardcore it was, or how sore it made me, or how competitive everyone was, but rather … [Read more...]
How Do I Know if a Yoga Teacher Training is Good Value for Money?
By Lucinda Staniland It's the holy grail of the yoga world: A Yoga Teacher Training that is transformative, comprehensive, and great value for money. But how do we find such a thing? Currently, the price of Yoga Teacher Trainings can vary hugely, from (very rare) free or koha based trainings, to $4000 for an average NZ or Australian based training, to upwards of $16,000. As someone who is seriously considering undertaking a Yoga Teacher Training (but just hasn't found the right one yet) I've … [Read more...]
The Benefits of Yoga: Are They Proven By Science?
by Lucinda Staniland The benefits of yoga are well advertised. We hear that yoga will help us (among other things): lose weight, breathe better, live longer, have better sex, recover from depression, cure sciatica, heal our digestive system, build core strength, alleviate back pain, heal mental illness, and build bone health. But does science agree that yoga can really heal us in all these ways (and more)? Is Yoga really the silver bullet we've been waiting for? It turns out that yoga and … [Read more...]
The Real Stories Behind The Top 4 Yoga Myths
By Lucinda Staniland The internet is full to bursting with articles debunking the ‘Top Yoga Myths’. They tell us that contrary to poplar belief, Yoga is not a religion, that it’s not just for skinny, rich, flexible young women, and that it really is good exercise, as well as a holistic spiritual experience. Opinion is divided in these articles as to whether yoga really does or doesn’t give you great abs and fantastic orgasms. But, in general all these articles paint the same picture. Don’t … [Read more...]