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Inspiring stories of how the practice of yoga has changed and shaped people's lives.

No Going Back: On Listening and Not-Listening to That Inner Voice

September 22, 2015 by Guest Author Leave a Comment

By Leza Lowitz, Sun and Moon Yoga I never thought I’d open my own yoga studio, let alone do so in a foreign country. Years ago, while I was meditating at a yoga retreat in Haiku, Hawaii, a voice had said, "You must move to Japan and open a yoga studio in Tokyo." Was it my inner voice? The voice of island’s Goddess Pele? It didn’t matter. I didn’t listen. I had no intention of returning to Tokyo, where I’d lived once before. I loved California; there was no going back. Until the day my … [Read more...]

Filed Under: How Yoga Helped Me, Teaching Insights, The Business of Yoga Tagged With: adoption, Fertility, infertility, inner listening, Japan, opening a yoga studio, sacrifice, surrender, travel, trust

How I Learned to Live My Yoga and Rock My Life

April 2, 2015 by Kara-Leah Grant 2 Comments

Yoga rhythms

by Kara-Leah Grant Ten years ago I was six months out of an Acute Psych Ward after two psychotic episodes, and was just beginning the process of cutting down the medication I'd been given after a diagnosis of bipolar. The emotional pain of being dumped by my fiance was still fresh and raw, and I'd only just stopped sobbing my heart out every day. Not that I was crying only about our break-up. The psychosis had ripped open decades of unexpressed emotion plus the spiritual awakening I'd had at … [Read more...]

Filed Under: How Yoga Helped Me Tagged With: mental health, recovery, success, yoga philosophy, yoga webinar

How Yoga Helped Me Find My True Voice and Share it With The World

March 23, 2015 by Guest Author 1 Comment

By Premratna, Premratna Music If I try to imagine what the course of my life would have taken without yoga, I get an image of the movie Life of Pi: a small boat, huge swells, a tiger on board and a lot of fear. Yoga found me while I was doing my ‘big O.E.’; that phase of life where we are typically searching for adventure. I was no exception. In between hiking, skiing, singing and songwriting, I went to a yoga class at the gym in the Canadian Rockies where I was living and working. The … [Read more...]

Filed Under: How Yoga Helped Me, Kirtan, Practices Tagged With: authenticity, Daily Practice, healing, How Yoga Helped Me, kirtan, letting go, yoga music

How Yoga Helped Me Emerge From the Darkness of Depression

February 27, 2015 by Guest Author Leave a Comment

By Astrid Vause I have been practicing yoga for a while now, in fact I am a yoga teacher, but it wasn't until I got sick that I fell deeply in love with this beautiful practice and it's healing powers. It was a warm sunny and vibrant day in my new home in Los Angeles and my children were building towers with wooden blocks and laughing as they toppled over. I sat on the floor with my knees tucked up to my chest and watched the crashing blocks, wincing as they hit the ground. I felt like … [Read more...]

Filed Under: How Yoga Helped Me Tagged With: ashtanga, Crohns disease, depression, illness, suffering, yoga

How Yoga Helped Me at Every Stage of Life

October 8, 2014 by Guest Author 7 Comments

Sara Foley

In celebration of  the launch of The No-More-Excuses Guide to Yoga, I’ve invited some friends and colleagues to write articles relating to the theme of the book’s subtitle: Because yoga is for every body.  Sara is an Australia-based writer and I first met her when I asked for volunteers to be Beta-Readers for Forty Days of Yoga. Little did Sara or I know how that was to be the beginning of a strong connection. Sara is a talented writer and courageously faces into the difficulties of modern … [Read more...]

Filed Under: How Yoga Helped Me Tagged With: forty days of yoga, Iyengar yoga, motherhood, yoga beginner, yoga in pregnancy

How My Ashtanga Practice Taught me to Practice Courage

September 22, 2014 by Guest Author 1 Comment

Eight limbs of yoga, as defined by Patanjali in Ashtanga Yoga (as opposed to Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga as taught by Pattabhi Jois)

by guest author Pip Bennett After all that darkness of my last article, I decided I wanted to up my practice. I wanted to devote myself and commit to the Ashtanga practice as it demands: six days a week. To take on the challenge and see the benefits of a regular practice. Two weeks later, I hadn’t practiced yoga even once. It’s now been a couple of months since then. I did get myself back into the yoga room, but only for a couple of weeks. Turns out that although you can do yoga anywhere and … [Read more...]

Filed Under: How Yoga Helped Me Tagged With: ashtanga, commitment, confidence, courage, dark spaces, dissatisfaction, failure, home practice, iyengar, philosophy, running away

Embody Your Purpose: Insights from an Off the Mat Workshop

September 8, 2014 by Guest Author Leave a Comment

What's your purpose?

by guest author Jen Wilson, Off the Mat, Into the World I had never been to a ‘proper’ yoga workshop before despite I’ve practiced on and off since my teens. To start with I guess I thought yoga was cool, a bit hippy – I dug that. As life went on I wanted and needed more yoga, but I wasn’t sure where to find it. I was often overwhelmed, prone to the black dog, and scared of everyday life. I started to realise yoga was always there when I fell down. I committed to my yoga practice and … [Read more...]

Filed Under: How Yoga Helped Me, Yoga & Community Tagged With: Acceptance, attention, collaboration, community, compassion, courage, freedom, Off the mat, passion, paths, understanding, workshop

Five Ways Yoga Improved My Body Image

August 29, 2014 by Guest Author 3 Comments

Anna Guest-Jelley

By guest author Anna Guest-Jelley, Curvy Yoga When I began practicing yoga in the late '90s, it didn’t occur to me that yoga would have any impact on my body image. In fact, I wouldn’t have wanted that at the time because I was spending my days bouncing between diets, waiting for the day I’d finally have the perfect body I’d always wanted. Who needs a positive body image when they have the body of their dreams, right? Ha! What I got instead, much to my initial chagrin and later delight, was … [Read more...]

Filed Under: How Yoga Helped Me, Yoga & Body Image Tagged With: anna guest-jelley, body image, curvy yoga, yoga

How Yoga Helped Me Deal with the Emotional and Psychological After-Effects of Trauma from Living and Working in Afghanistan

July 31, 2014 by Guest Author Leave a Comment

by Marianne Elliott, author of Zen Under Fire When it comes to working with fear, yoga is one of my secret weapons. Fear is not just a thought or idea. Fear is a neurobiological reaction to perceived threat. This is where modern neuroscience catches up with the wisdom of yoga and meditation. The autonomic nervous system (i.e. the part you don't consciously control) is divided into two sections: the sympathetic and the parasympathetic nervous systems. The sympathetic nervous system acts to … [Read more...]

Filed Under: How Yoga Helped Me Tagged With: alternate nostril breathing, brave, bravery, courage, fear, nuerobiology, pranayama, stress, yoga

Video Interview with Bikram Teacher Lucas Miles on Drugs, Addiction and Yoga

March 14, 2014 by Kara-Leah Grant 4 Comments

by Kara-Leah Grant I first met Lucas Miles at the lecture Bikram gave in Auckland in January of 2012. He was this crazy tall, lanky tattooed guy who spoke a mile a minute and had some damn interesting things to say. Later, he sent me a link to some articles he'd written about his journey into yoga. It was intense reading - Lucas has lived one helluva life. I attempted to cajole him into writing something for The Yoga Lunchbox, but he never got as far as sending me an article. Then this … [Read more...]

Filed Under: How Yoga Helped Me, Teacher Interviews, Video Interviews Tagged With: addiction, Bikram yoga, drug addiction, drugs, Lucas Miles, video

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