by Valerie Love Have you ever wondered why some people can eat heaps and stay slender, while others can eat less and still gain weight? Why in the same room, some people will feel cold and others complain of heat? Why some people respond to a difficult situation with anger or fear, while others stay calm and collected? Ayurveda can help answer these questions. “Ayurveda” is Sanskrit for “knowledge (or science) of life,” and provides a framework for lifestyle and medicine aligned with … [Read more...]
Breaking down my self-made prison through truth
by guest author Seka Ojdrovic-Phillips The practice brought me to Denver for 27 days of karmic hell and dharmic euphoria. The practice reincarnated 28 years of emotional bullshit compost into rich spiritual soil. The practice destroyed the facade of "reality" in terms of conditioning and societal truths. I died in the practice. The practice brought me back to life. I realized this all at about 5:30 in the morning on Week Two of my Forrest Yoga Teacher Training. It was finger-numbingly … [Read more...]
“How’s puku?”: Unlock the wisdom of the belly
by Valerie Love For most transplants to New Zealand, the first words they learn in Maori are "Kia ora” (hello) or “Haere mai” (welcome). But for me, it was “puku", which means belly or abdomen. Although I’m originally from the United States, my partner is from Wellington. And from the very start of our relationship, she's always asked me, “How’s puku?” as a way of checking in on how I’m doing as a whole. And it’s an important question. Because the answer to “How’s puku?” reveals so … [Read more...]
Mindful eating: a powerful practice in transforming your relationship to food
by regular columnist Valerie Love, Yoga on a Plate Six years ago, I went to visit a friend from college who was teaching English in Kyoto, Japan. A day or so after I arrived, she took me to an outdoor market in the city. Wandering together through stalls of artwork, antiques, handicrafts and food, I was drawn to a table where a woman was selling daifuku, sweet rice cakes filled with red bean paste. As my friend spoke Japanese and I did not, she kindly did the work of ordering one for … [Read more...]
How yoga helped me… enjoy a fulfilling pregnancy
Submitted by Mandy Lawson of Cobano, Costa Rica The day I found out that I am pregnant with my first child was one of the most astounding, emotional and happy days of my life so far. In our minds we can imagine how we will feel and react when something long awaited happens, but this was much more intense that I could have guessed. I doubt that I will ever forget the amazement and disbelief that I encountered upon seeing the two little pink lines on the pregnancy test. I just kept … [Read more...]
Looking for the man of your dreams? … Don’t!
I’ve found the man of my awakeness by guest author Alys Titchener My flatmate Kara-Leah and I were sitting on our lounge floor one afternoon doing some stretches before dinner. I was deep in thought and before I could censor myself, I blurted out; I feel like I’ve found the man of my awakeness. I wasn’t quite sure what I meant by that, only that this statement arose because what I was experiencing was… not so familiar. What has become familiar about those times I’ve fallen in love with the man … [Read more...]
Yoga morning glories – what’s your practice look like?
by guest author Jenifer Parker, Healium Yoga Studio, Wellington If you are reading this in an email or on a mobile device and can't see any of the videos, please click here to read the article on the website. Recently, this video from Equinox has been floating around the web. Love it or hate it, it made me laugh. At myself. You see, this is not what I look like in the AM practicing yoga. And, I like practicing in the morning, but i'm all kinds of. . . well, you'll see. I just … [Read more...]
Nadine Fawell shares why Yoga is her chosen faith
by guest author Nadine Fawell, a Melbourne-based yoga teacher, blogger, and author of the yogAttitude cards. She is most interested in yoga's power to heal body, mind, and spirit. I’ve just come back from leading a yoga retreat in Bali. I got on the airplane feeling anxious, for all sorts of reasons: I was about to shoot my first yoga DVD: strong*stretched*serene (which put me so far out of my comfort zone, I couldn’t even see the horizon), I didn’t know whether the hotel would take good care … [Read more...]
Learning to wait, and wait, and wait some more
by guest author Nadine Fawell, a Melbourne-based yoga teacher, blogger, and author of the yogAttitude cards. She is most interested in yoga's power to heal body, mind, and spirit. I was very sick a while back. I was too ill to leave the house for three weeks, and, two moths later, I am still coughing. When I went to the Doctor, she told me, “It’s a virus. I can’t do anything for you: go home and sleep it off.” I am, essentially, convalescing. I can’t walk too far or too fast, I get … [Read more...]
How to heal your toxic emotions
by guest author Deepak Chopra, author of many books including Buddha: A Story of Enlightenment. Deepak Chopra is in Auckland on August 2nd. See the bottom of this article for event details. Emotions are mysterious and often dangerous things. Thirty years ago mind-body medicine made the connection between emotions and illness. The so-called cancer personality had its vogue, preceded by the type A personality linked to early heart attacks. Despite advances in drugs for depression and … [Read more...]