by Donna Farhi, On December 16, 2017, the Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse delivered a landmark report; the conclusion of an extraordinary five year investigation into systemic and decades long abuse within the Catholic Church. The upshot of this broad sweeping report is the conclusion that the Catholic Church can no longer continue to operate within the protective insularity of it’s own institution and may soon be forced through new government … [Read more...]
Search Results for: depression
Being Wonder Woman: Yoga & Feminism
By Sam Loe, Originally published on samloe.yoga I will admit that I thoroughly enjoyed the Wonder Woman movie featuring Gal Gadot. I loved watching a super-goddess with powers of courage, strength and age-defying perfection on the big screen. It makes a change from the usual Hollywood, male-dominated super-heroes anyway. In fact, I went to see it with a bunch of my good girlfriends last year and we came straight home from the cinema and raided the kid's dressing up box and used the … [Read more...]
Are Plant Medicines Part of Traditional Yoga?
by Daniel Fow, Cardinal Points: Healing Arts "The Mystic States (Siddhis) are attained by yogic practices from previous lifetimes, or by special plants, mantric repetition, asceticism, or by meditation." - Yoga Sutras of Patanjali The ancient Rishis and Yogis often spoke of an ancient plant medicine known as Soma which would be made into a tea. Upon drinking it, the third eye would awaken and mystical states would occur, even the state of samadhi or enlightenment. The use of Soma as a plant … [Read more...]
12 Things You Must Know About Kambo Before Getting Pricked
by Chris Kelly, If you’d told me years ago that the slimy secretion from an Amazonian tree frog - sometimes called “ordeal medicine” - was incredible for my health, I’d think you were a little nuts. If you told me it was applied directly into the lymphatic system through small little burn marks on the skin, I’d think you were completely nuts! I never would have believed that I’d be applying these very same burn marks and this slimy frog secretion to myself, let alone regularly serving it … [Read more...]
Health & Healing Through Yoga Therapy: An Interview with Mark Stephens
by Lucinda Staniland I love getting things for free. And I have a voracious and life-long love of books. So the first time I was offered a free review copy of a Yoga book (as part of my Yoga Lunchbox role) I was fairly swept off my feet. You mean, you really want to send me a free book? About Yoga? Now that's an offer I can't refuse. However, I'm now at a point where I do in fact refuse some of these offers. I've learnt that just because a book is free and about yoga, doesn't mean that it … [Read more...]
How Teaching Yoga on a Remote Island Helped Me Cope with Grief
by Julie Stansfield, Ebb and Flow Yoga As I travel along the road that connects the south with the north of the island to teach my weekly yoga class in Port Fitzroy, I reflect on how my life has changed since I first moved to Great Barrier Island thirteen years ago. I certainly wouldn’t have thought I’d be travelling fifty minutes to share my love of yoga with a group of enthusiastic women. Driving on a winding, gravel road which takes me from my home on the western side of the island, I … [Read more...]
The Only Thing to Fear is Fear Itself? Bullshit
by Kara-Leah Grant We all know the saying - the only thing to fear is fear itself. But it's wrong. Completely totally and utterly wrong. And if I was a conspiracy theorist, I would say that disseminating that piece of wisdom is a sneaky way to disempower people completely and turn them into comfort-seeking, convenience-addicted sheep. Fear is not to be feared. In fact, fearing fear feeds the fear and locks us up into a big old contracted mess that will do anything to avoid how … [Read more...]
Yoga May Not Cure Disease, But It Can Help Us To Live Joyfully With Our Illnesses
by John Guthrie, International Yoga Teachers Association of New Zealand The whole notion of disease is an interesting subject. Those of us who take on yoga as a part of our lifestyle can easily find ourselves striving to be absolutely whole and well; after all, why shouldn't we? To have a strong healthy body fit that enables us to integrate the various limbs of yoga is a noble endeavour indeed. But is perfect physical health always a guaranteed result of a yoga practice? And have we failed as … [Read more...]
The Terror of Relaxing and Enjoying Life
by Kara-Leah Grant I’m in one of my favourite places in the world - Glenorchy. The sun is shining. The day is still. It’s at least 20 degrees, which passes for a good summer’s day in what has been the worst summer in years. There’s so much in my life to be grateful for - a loving partner, growing son, supportive family, expanding retreats, selling books, thriving website, incredible friends. I am where I always wanted to be. And yet, I am not relaxed. Nor am I enjoying myself. And I am … [Read more...]
Why it Took Me Twenty Years to Learn the Most Basic Yogic Breath
by Kara-Leah Grant Twenty one years after my first yoga class, I finally learned the most basic of all yoga - I learned how to breathe properly. Yes despite all those years on the mat, and all the many teachers I went through, and all the years of home yoga practice, I didn't master Yogic Breath until 2016. Yogic Breath is elementary to yoga practice. It involves inhaling first into the belly, allowing it to fully expand out, before filling the chest and finally the clavicular (under the collar … [Read more...]