by Kara-Leah Grant, author of Forty Days of Yoga This week's Home Yoga Practice questions comes from Catherine in India. She writes: I have practiced yoga for many years and for the last 6 months have been doing a regular home practice. However last month I had an MRI scan due to persistent backache and discovered that I have a slipped disc. My doctor has asked me to stop yoga - forward bends are a definite no - and his opinion is that I should walk and swim as exercise (which I have been … [Read more...]
Search Results for: prana flow
Is Awakening the Evolutionary Destiny of Humanity?
WIN a copy of Kara-Leah’s new book ‘Sex, Drugs & (mostly) Yoga - Field Notes from Kundalini Awakening’, publishing in November 2018. Guaranteed to take you on an intimate journey into the depths of the Kundalini experience. Click here to sign up for the book launch list and go into the draw to win one of THREE print copies. by Kara-Leah Grant I once knew a yoga teacher who would joke how awakening would never happen to her - she wasn’t far enough along the path, or didn’t know enough, or … [Read more...]
What Does it Mean to Open Your Heart Chakra?
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...]
Five Mistakes I Made As a New Yoga Teacher
by Seka Ojdrovic-Phillips, Spirit Fire Yoga Yoga in all its forms has brought me head-to-head with my greatest challenges and the satisfaction that comes from working through them. My own brand of yoga evolution led me to teaching, first in New Zealand and now in the States. As with every evolution, I learned tons each time I showed up to teach. Showing up at anything is all it takes. While making mistakes as a teacher, I grow and learn to become more connected to others, and kinder to … [Read more...]
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...]
Kundalini Awakenings: Symptoms, Process, Benefits, Support & Help
WIN a copy of Kara-Leah's new book 'Field Notes from Kundalini Awakening', publishing in 2018. Guaranteed to take you on an intimate journey into the depths of the Kundalini experience. Click here to sign up for the book launch list and go into the draw to win one of THREE print copies. by Kara-Leah Grant Whether you've had a Kundalini Awakening, are curious about the process of awakening Kundalini, think you might have some of the symptoms of a Kundalini Awakening or are looking for … [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: Honouring the forces within. Part 3
by guest author, Swami Karma Karuna, Anahata Yoga Retreat All cultures of the ancient world worshipped the principles of the Mother, Shakti or Devi. Although it may have been called by different names, the concept of a force which bestows life, nourishes, loves, comforts, supports and transforms has always been present. In Christianity, we know her as Mother Mary. In Japan, she was Amaterasu, the sun-goddess; in Greece, she is Demeter, the corn-goddess, Aphrodite, the goddess of passion and … [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...]
How to conquer your monkey brain and calm your world
by guest author Carol Lux, The Yoga Life Remember those horrible flying monkeys from the Wizard of Oz? Now picture those ghastly villains taking control of your brain. What a horrible nightmare that would be! So what does it feel like when a Flying Monkey Brain has taken up residence in your mind? Surprisingly, you may know the feeling well. Think of the last time your thoughts were so scattered, your mind so incessantly busy, that you just lost control over what is happening now. You … [Read more...]