Over the last couple of weeks, I've been musing about the nature of reality, and life, inspired by Steve Pavlina's latest thirty day trial. I've written about Steve before - he's a blogger and personal development guru I much admire. From possible prison and definite bankruptcy, he's risen to become the most successful blogger in America, a book author, and organizer and creator of the Conscious Growth Workshops. Life is one giant experiment to Steve - he's always playing around with how … [Read more...]
Search Results for: power living
An interview with Swami Muktimurti about the power of sound to transform
There is a rich Satyananda Yoga tradition in New Zealand, which means we are fortunate to often play host to traveling Satyananda Swamis from around the world. Next month (March 2010), Anahata Retreat just outside of Nelson is hosting Swami Muktimurti from Mangrove Mountain near Mountain. An expert in Mantra and ancient Sanskrit, she is hosting a nine day/ten night retreat focused on Nada Yoga, or the yoga of sound. Swami Muktimurti is well known for her singing. She has pursued a deep … [Read more...]
How yoga has the power to transform and release avidya (self-ignorance)
My first experience with the power of avidya came about twenty minutes into my third ashtanga yoga class. Or maybe my second. The exact number is not important, just that I was a broke backpacker partway through a pre-paid ten week yoga course. The teacher, a long, lanky woman in her early forties, brought us into Warrior One - Virabhadrasana I. My hips were skewed decidedly sideways. My back heel struggled to connect with the floor. My arms were crooked and screamed in protest as I … [Read more...]
How yoga helps unleash the power of truth in your life
By Kara-Leah Grant, Musings from the Mat It is so common to lie in our day-to-day lives that most of us don't even know we're doing it. It is so acceptable to withhold truth in order to gain advantage that it's considered good business practice or smart politics. Truth is seen as something that gets in the way of a good sale, it gets in the way of what we want to do, or where we want go. Truth is simply, as Al Gore put it - inconvenient. It is true that we can not sustain the lifestyle … [Read more...]
Why adding Pranayama to your yoga practice is so powerful
One of the most common reasons I hear for why people don't do yoga is that they're "not flexible enough". Aside from the fact that this is exactly why they would get so much out of yoga, I find myself wanting to scream from the rooftops: practicing yoga does not require you to be flexible! When I went to my first class my body was so tight that just to sit on the floor with a straight spine and straight legs, I had to perch up something like four blankets! … [Read more...]
When it turns out Exile was just a Sabbatical • My return to the Yoga World
by Kara-Leah Three weeks ago, after a three or four year sabbatical, I stepped back into a Yoga Studio to teach. I’d stopped teaching because my practice no longer resembled a studio yoga class, and it was impossible to teach something I wasn’t doing. It felt contrived, and wrong. Walking away from teaching felt like walking away from a core part of my identity. But sticking it out felt like a lie. So I stopped teaching. And I stopped going to studios because I was invariably … [Read more...]
How to Connect with the Energy of the Divine Feminine
by Kara-Leah Grant I'm leading a Women's Circle at Power Living Wellington on July 8th where I've promised that women will learn how to embody and evoke the energy of Maha Shakti - one aspect of the Divine Feminine - through the practice of asana, pranayama and meditation. But what does that mean? I feel the energy of Shakti in me when I practice, when I walk, when I dance, when I write, when I make love. She is always there, within, only a breath away from my awareness. But how do … [Read more...]
Is Ancestral Trauma a Source of Modern Day Depression and Anxiety?
by Kara-Leah Grant Since 2004 I have progressively healed myself through a combination of yoga, meditation and a wide variety of healing techniques. As I went through this process, my old coping techniques slowly but surely fell away - in the past I've used everything from drugs, alcohol, exercise and relationships to distract myself. Dropping these various distraction techniques was never easy. I didn't give up marijuana until I was pregnant. When life got really tough and I found … [Read more...]
How Yoga Trance Dance™ Destroys World Weariness and Opens Up Creative Flow
by Kara-Leah Grant If you know me, you know I love dancing. Always have, ever since I saw Flashdance at age 8, and got hooked on the original Fame TV series. That was me... always dancing. But there was never any chance I could become a professional dancer because I had zero flexibility, plus at age 16 I had a spinal fusion. (I still remember the first day I danced again after that operation... the doctor said three months, I gave it two.) However... life moves in mysterious ways and in … [Read more...]
How Al Gore Shocked Me & What He’s Got to do with Yoga
by Lisa Wade I turned up to be transformed. To give my all to Al Gore’s Climate Reality leader’s training program that promised to take me from being a leader to an exceptional leader, all in the name of the environment. I was expecting slogans, fanfares and maybe a few cheerleaders. When Al Gore mentioned Ghandi I yawned, yep here comes the cliché machine, tick. Then he spoke of Satyagraha, truth force; “Ghandi said the greatest power in the world is truth”. I sat up because I’d … [Read more...]