by Kara-Leah Grant, Musings from the Mat It's post-Bali yoga teacher training with the crew from Power Living and I am totally spaced out. I don't know whether I'm coming or going. One minute I was in conversation with Duncan & the PLAY crew poolside at Potatohead in Seminyak, then I was in a taxi and off to the airport, flying for eight hours overnight, arriving the next day in Auckland, driving 2.5 hours to Tauranga to pick up Samuel, sleeping some more, and driving four hours to … [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.
Forty Days of Meditation and Manifestation – Did It Work?
by Kara-Leah Grant I've just finished a Forty Day Meditation and Manifestation practice. It's something I completely made up. I'd been wondering for many months about combining daily meditation with a conscious manifestation process because I'd observed in my own life that the first key step for creating anything new is always getting clear. Usually, before I write, I meditate or walk first. This helps to shift me into the ground of being, and out of my head. Out of this space, creativity and … [Read more...]
If All Ambition Falls Away, How Does Anything Get Done?
by Kara-Leah Grant, Musings from the Mat It's a crisp, clear, clean autumn morning in Napier, New Zealand. Almost a frost, but not quite. Cold enough for me to see my breath as I stood waiting for the jug to boil. I have entire day stretching out before me with no appointments and no yoga teaching. My only commitments today are to The Yoga Lunchbox and writing. Something's missing though. Something that's been with me for a long, long time. Possibly since childhood. Actually, … [Read more...]
What are Vasanas and How Do They Affect Your Yoga Practice?
by Kara-Leah Grant, Musings from the Mat Earlier this year I took a short workshop with Duncan Peak from Power Living. In the workshop he mentioned the term 'vasana', defining it as character traits or tendencies and he talked about how our practice stirs up these tendencies and brings them into consciousness. Now I'd never heard of vasanas, and struggled to remember the term after the workshop, which happened the day before Wanderlust. The day after Wanderlust, I was driving from … [Read more...]
Transmutation of Feeling States or What To Do When You Feel Like Shit
by Kara-Leah Grant, Musings from the Mat I'm making video tomorrow, of me teaching, to you, a home yoga student who wants to be inspired in your practice. I've done this before, a couple of years ago, when I started the Yoga Exploration Series. This is more of the same, yet different. Then, I stopped filming because I didn't have the audio quality necessary and was getting complaints from people about not being able to hear what I was saying. That project went on the back-burner while I … [Read more...]
Why a Great Yoga Teacher is Sometimes Crucial to Progress Your Practice
by Kara-Leah Grant, Musings from the Mat Six weeks or so into regular Mysore-style classes with Peter Sanson and I've having some serious insights and openings - not just on the physical level, but also on the emotional, mental and energetic level. But of course - how could it be any other way? These things are all intertwined and I've known this for a very long time. Before I found Peter, I'd been searching for a yoga teacher for a decade or so, while doing a home practice and sporadically … [Read more...]
What is Love? Deep Acceptance of the Other, and Opening to Vulnerability
by Kara-Leah Grant, Musings from the Mat I've been pondering the nature of Love over the last year or so, holding many deep conversations with my wonderful girlfriends and reflecting over two decades of short and long-term relationships. I've got plenty of material to draw upon! And you know what? I think I've got it. I know what love is - and what it is not. Love is a deep acceptance of the other person. Out of that ground of deep acceptance arise actions that create one's day to … [Read more...]
How Living Your Yoga Can Mean Taking Parenting Lessons From The Rock (Dwayne Johnson)
by Kara-Leah Grant First night in Napier, staying at my Uncle's house. The TV's on. I haven't lived with a TV for three years. It's novel. I sit to eat my dinner and catch the beginning of a movie. By the time I've finished my dinner, I've grasped the plot and I'm chuckling at the weirdness of the Universe. The movie is about a high-achieving, selfish, self-centered football player who discovers - when she shows up on his doorstep - that he has an eight year old daughter. The plot revolves … [Read more...]
The Terror of Single Parenthood
by Kara-Leah Grant, Musings from the Mat Three years ago this New Year's Eve I took my year old baby boy and left my mentally unstable and addicted partner. I had zero dollars in my bank account, and an ambivalent attitude towards motherhood - something I had chosen under duress because of the pathetic belief it would make my partner happy. Stupidity to the nth degree. It did not make him happy. Instead, a child was brought into an already unstable and messed up relationship. And … [Read more...]
Sometimes We Have to Say Goodbye to What We Love
by Kara-Leah Grant, Musings from the Mat Oh I am sad. Sad, sad, sad... By the time you read this article, I will have left Glenorchy, headed north once again on a new adventure. It's been just over a year since I came back to spend some time with my Mum and write a book. Right now, I'm sitting at my desk in front of a window all but taken over by a plum tree, but I can still spy the snow-capped mountains in the distance. It's a perfect Glenorchy day - 28 degrees and clear blue skies. The … [Read more...]