by Kara-Leah Grant It's Day 17 of my forty days of a heart-opening kriya (see below for PDF of this kriya). Every day I hit the mat and do seven postures in a specific order. Often I do other asana, pranayama and meditation as well. But no matter what, there is always the consistency of the heart-opening kriya to anchor me in my home yoga practice. So, is it working? Is this yoga practice opening my heart chakra? Before I answer that, I want to take a step back and define what that … [Read more...]
Search Results for: depression
The Five Koshas Explained: How They Impact our Yoga Practice
by Kara-Leah Grant, Do enough research, and it seems we can find evidence that regular practice of yoga can positively impact everything from anxiety, depression, and panic attacks to thyroid conditions, sciatica and asthma. In fact, it could be said that yoga can positively impact anything that has to do with the functioning of our physical bodies, minds or emotions. How can this be possible? Surely yoga’s not a silver bullet? Well no, it’s not. However, yoga works to harmonise the body, mind … [Read more...]
The Unbearable Lightness of Being: Yoga, weight, body image and weightlessness
By guest author Nanditha Ram, author of Blissful Mom, Blissful Baby I have borrowed the title of one of my favourite novels to serve as title of this article. It's a post modern philosophical product of the 1980s, The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera. I've borrowed it because it brought to my mind, in a round-about sort of way, a connection with yoga and weight... and our modern day crisis of how we view the self. Yoga is a great weight busting practice. A truly reliable way to … [Read more...]
Sacred Feminine and Yoga: Practical Tools. Part 4
by guest author Swami Karma Karuna, Anahata Yoga Retreat There are more practical tools than can be described belonging to tantra and yoga that are beneficial for a woman’s body, mind and support the connection to the inner sacred space. The practices all work in different ways with the ultimate goal of helping one to reconnect with their higher self or the inner Shakti, which in fact is the sacred feminine. Shakti is the life force. When it is blocked or out of balance, physical and … [Read more...]
Sacred Feminine and Yoga: It’s all about balance. Part 2
by guest author Swami Karma Karuna, Anahata Yoga Retreat The Tantric view of creation is that there are two forces called Shiva and Shakti representing the male and female aspects of creation, which exist within each and every person. Shiva, also called Purusha, is the masculine force and is pure ‘consciousness'. Shakti or Prakriti is the feminine force that is pure ‘energy’. One cannot exist without the other and both are within each of us. This duality is also described in the word 'Ha' 'Tha' … [Read more...]
How identifying with NOT being something also causes great misery
By Kara-Leah Grant, Musings from the Mat It's 7am and I've been up for half an hour. Child-free time and totally blissful. Made even more so because since I returned from my book tour I've had no childcare at all. When my lovely Porse childcare woman told me she was stopping work to have a second child, I could feel part of me wanting to panic. "No, you can't! I need childcare. I'm a single mum with a start-up business who's just written a book! What am I going to do?" After all, I … [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...]
Yoga can help heal mental illness. Big time.
by Kara-Leah Grant I need to tell you a story, about a woman coming home after spending eight years overseas. This woman had left seeking fame & fortune, certain that out there in the world lay her destiny. She came home broken, tormented by her mind, which had betrayed her and cost her the world. Everything she valued - her fiance, her friends, the town she'd made her home in, her sense of Self... all of it had been torn away. She came home with nothing, except a diagnosis of … [Read more...]
Is our addiction to Spirits a symptom of an UnSpirited society?
by Melissa Billington MYOGA’s second focus in the deeper part of winter has been on the 7th chakra - Sahasrara - a place of surrender, acceptance, unity consciousness and spirit. As I let my vision be filled by these ideas, I became more and more aware of society’s mass disconnection from a sense of anything larger than ourselves – from Source - and how this shows up in our levels of medication and self-medication. It is no accident that alcohol is called ‘spirits’ - it shares the same … [Read more...]
Help Yoga Education in Prisons Trust fund a free yoga manual for prisoners
By guest author Adhyatama of Kalpa Taru, Wellington Some of you may know I have been teaching Yoga up at Rimutaka prison for the last year and Waikeria and Springhill for the four years before that. I drive up to Rimutaka every Tuesday and spend a couple of hours in a Unit with serious violent offenders teaching asana (postures), breathing techniques to calm and relax them and Yoga Nidra. All I can say is that I just love it, and I love them! That may sound weird but honestly what magic … [Read more...]