Think yoga, and likely you'll think of a person bending their body into a posture. You'll imagine the cover of Yoga Journal and think, that's yoga. Except it's not. It's one aspect of Yoga - Hatha Yoga, or physical yoga. Yoga has many paths one can walk, including Bhakti Yoga, Raja Yoga, Karma Yoga, Jnana Yoga, Tantra Yoga, Mantra Yoga... some of these paths don't involve twisting and turning of the body at all, yet they are still yoga. … [Read more...]
Kara-Leah Grant gets up close & personal about life on and off the yoga mat as she puts her life back together after a Kundalini Awakening experience.
How yoga gives you faith in your ability to cope
It's been a full-on week at work - lots of different projects on the go, lots of meetings, lots of reviewing other people's writing, and lots of writing. Yesterday, it was a beautiful blue sky Wellington day. At about 1pm I decided I needed a break from the computer screen, so did the fast change in the bathroom, grabbed my yoga mat from it's posse under my desk, and dashed out into the sunshine for a power practice. … [Read more...]
What is this heart-opening stuff all about?
Is your heart closed, or open? Do you feel yourself as a separate entity, or do you feel yourself to be a part of a whole? Do you see other people in a judgmental, critical way... or do you see them through eyes of love and compassion? If your heart is closed... are you ready to open up to a new way of being? … [Read more...]
My nine favourite places to practice asana, pranayama and meditation
Part of my mission as a yoga teacher and writer is to show people that asana, pranayama and meditation can happen anywhere, anytime - not just in a yoga class, at a yoga studio, in a gym or on your mat at home. Breaking free of our ideas of how asana, pranayama and meditation "should" be practised gets yoga off the mat and integrates it into your everyday daily life. And when you integrate your practice into your everyday, daily life, you will see great gains, giant leaps, and experience … [Read more...]
How to stay young forever with yoga
by Kara-Leah, It's the Holy Grail of Modern Life, the never-ending quest for the elusive fountain of youth. That potion or procedure or diet that will keep one looking and feeling young forever. Pity the poor celebrity, faced with growing older in the glaring light of public scrutiny, forever surrounded by images of themselves as a younger, brighter star. But it's not just celebrities that fight the ever-advanced march of time. Regular citizens like you and I pour millions of dollars into … [Read more...]
Because you want to make a million and meditate on it too
Every now and then, you read a book that stops you in your tracks. It blasts through your mind and fires up your heart. It makes you leap out of your seat and want to run around yelling the message from the top of your lungs. These are the best books - books that speak to my heart, reminding me of all I already know. The kind of books that I read and I feel like I'm not just reading the messages contained within, but that I'm remembering them. The first is The Diamond Cutter, about … [Read more...]
Bhakti Yoga & Kirtan – it’s How Yogis get High
by Kara-Leah The mission of this website is to get everybody in New Zealand doing yoga - but it's really important to remember that yoga is not just about the physical postures called asana. One of the lesser known and yet perhaps most powerful forms of yoga is Bhakti Yoga. This is the yoga of devotion and is often practiced via kirtan - or chants. Take a moment to think of your favourite music right now, and how it makes you feel when you sing it - when you lose yourself and get right into the … [Read more...]
What Can Yoga Do For Me Physically, Mentally and Emotionally?
by Kara-Leah, Yoga is the science of life. It is thousands of years old, and with regular practice, yoga can bring you back into balance physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. What does this mean? It means that no matter what issue you are dealing with in your life, yoga can help you manage it. And increasingly around the world, the scientific and medical world is doing the research to back this up. Spend some time digging around on the 'net, and you'll uncover more and more … [Read more...]
Will Yoga Give Me a Great Body?
By Kara-Leah Grant, The short answer is... YES. The more interesting answer is that as you practice yoga, your perception and understanding of what a "great body" is will change. And even more interesting... the concept that happiness is reliant upon creating specific circumstances (i.e. when I lose weight I'll be happy, when I win the lotto I'll be happy, when I find my perfect partner I'll be happy...)... is revealed to be an illusion. What this means is that whether or not your body is … [Read more...]
What do you mean ‘We are all One’?
In his book, The Elements of Yoga, Godfrey Devereux uses physics to explain how our perspective can limit our understanding of 'reality' He says: While we perceive a tree as solid, if we change our frame of reference and perceive a tree from the viewpoint of an electron, a neutrino or any of the elusive sub-atomic particles which populate the Universe of quantum physicists, it melts into a vortex of dancing, scintillating energy. ... Material objects, viewed as fields of energy, do not … [Read more...]