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...]
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...]
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...]
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...]
Do too many perfect yoga images do yoga a dis-service?
By Kara-Leah Grant, Musings from the Mat Check out that image to your right. It's beautiful. A beautiful woman in a beautiful setting doing a beautiful posture. I love to look at images like that. But it's not the kind of image I've chosen for the cover of my book Forty Days of Yoga. I've chosen an image of me sitting on a chair - not even a beautiful chair - just a nondescript chair on a white background. I'm wearing jeans and a t-shirt. I'm not doing a recognisable yoga … [Read more...]
Thoughts on living in an awakening world
An Interview with Prajnaparamita, an awakened Master Prajnaparamita is leading a retreat at Kawaipurapura on Feburary 16 and 17. Find out more here. 1. There seems to be a big shift in the way businesses are being run and in the way people are reconsidering their lives. What do you see happening? Globally, structures are breaking down on all levels. They can no longer hold themselves. The banks, politics and many corporations, the way they were used to operating is no longer … [Read more...]
How Yoga Cured My Coffee Addiction
By Kara-Leah Grant, I'm jittery right now, and struggling to write this article. I feel like I've had a line of speed. Maybe a line of cocaine. My heart is beating faster. I'm struggling to calm down enough to find the flow of my words. My breathing is erratic. There's no drugs in my system though. At least, not a drug we think of as a drug. I have just had my first cup of coffee after a ten day cleanse. I've been looking forward to this coffee since Day 1 on the cleanse. Dreaming about it … [Read more...]
On having the courage to pull the plug at the 11th hour
by Kara-Leah Grant, Musings from the Mat Last week, I wrote the acknowledgements and officially signed off from Forty Days of Yoga, completing the final draft. It was a surreal moment - as if I'd been here before and knew what to do. And of course I have, many times, in my dreams. I've been a writer since childhood and always knew I'd write a book. What I didn't know was how many people would join me on this journey, how supportive they would be and how humbling it would be to receive … [Read more...]
Keeping New Year’s Resolutions is not about willpower or discipline
by Kara-Leah Grant, Musings from the Mat I was up early on New Year’s Day. It’s one of my favourite ways to start the year. Early morning, the world seems fresh and alive and ripe for new opportunities and new ways of being. The possibility of new choices and new ways of being seems stronger. 'How will I live this day?' 'How will I live this life?' On January 1st, this sense of potential and possibility feels stronger. New Year’s is a time for resolutions, as we make up our minds we’re … [Read more...]