by Kara-Leah Grant There are two ways to live life. One is as a victim, getting upset and angry at what life throws at you, and trying to change the people and circumstances around you to make life easier. The second is as a Master, taking whatever life throws at you and using it to change yourself, making yourself stronger and more resilient so life becomes easier and easier. If you've been wasting energy on trying to change people around you, or wasting energy on reacting to the … [Read more...]
The Yoga Body Myth & My Late-30s Body
By Roseanne Harvey, It's All Yoga Baby Recently I was having brunch with my granny and she said; “You’ve gained weight. With all the yoga that you do, you should be skinny!” There’s nothing like being fat-shamed by your grandmother. But she was echoing a common misperception about the “yoga body,” something that has been presented by the dominant culture, a way of understanding the effects that yoga has upon a woman’s body. Reflections On A Changing Body Of course, my 84-year-old granny didn’t … [Read more...]
Peering into the Darkness with Ashtanga Yoga
by guest author Pip Bennett I’ve had some dark, dark clouds following me around these past couple of weeks. One day at a work lunch I found myself judging everyone for how happy they were. I was thinking, they are only happy because they have such-and-such. If I had those things, I would be happy. They don’t understand what it is like to not have choice, be in a difficult situation. Oh dear. I’ve listened to enough Buddhist teachings to know that these thoughts are not true. Things … [Read more...]
This Moment is Enough: A Simple Practice for Peace
By guest author Mary O’Malley In this moment, I invite you into the peace and the ease that you long for. After your next in-breath, allow yourself a long, slow out-breath. Melt into your out-breath, letting any tension in your body melt with it. Now, on the next in-breath, tighten your muscles. Exaggerate the tension in your body and then say “ahh” as you melt again into your out-breath. Revel in the deliciousness of a deep out-breath coupled with the powerful healing sound of “ahh”. (You … [Read more...]
What is Love? Deep Acceptance of the Other, and Opening to Vulnerability
by Kara-Leah Grant, Musings from the Mat I've been pondering the nature of Love over the last year or so, holding many deep conversations with my wonderful girlfriends and reflecting over two decades of short and long-term relationships. I've got plenty of material to draw upon! And you know what? I think I've got it. I know what love is - and what it is not. Love is a deep acceptance of the other person. Out of that ground of deep acceptance arise actions that create one's day to … [Read more...]
Sometimes We Have to Say Goodbye to What We Love
by Kara-Leah Grant, Musings from the Mat Oh I am sad. Sad, sad, sad... By the time you read this article, I will have left Glenorchy, headed north once again on a new adventure. It's been just over a year since I came back to spend some time with my Mum and write a book. Right now, I'm sitting at my desk in front of a window all but taken over by a plum tree, but I can still spy the snow-capped mountains in the distance. It's a perfect Glenorchy day - 28 degrees and clear blue skies. The … [Read more...]
There is nothing wrong with you. You don’t need fixing
By Kara-Leah Grant, Musings from the Mat I wrote this article about four weeks ago. It's an example of how subtle our layers of reality are. It starts with a story I'm telling about my life and about myself. Out of that story, I extrapolate an unconscious belief, identifying this belief as something that needs fixing, changing, letting go, or releasing so my conscious reality will change. This has been a useful process that's helped me heal much over the last few years. Yet this process … [Read more...]
Exploring the Niyamas: How do we cultivate Samtosha (contentment) in our life?
by Kara-Leah Grant Of all the yamas and the niyamas I've explored in my life so far, this one made the most sense simply by looking at the word. Contentment. Yip. Know what that means. I didn't need to go and hunt through all my books reading what various yoga teachers and yogic scholars have written about contentment. I didn't need to search on Google to explore the different nuances. I got it. Out of the box. And I need it. Oh do I need it so bad. Wait... is that an oxymoron - to … [Read more...]
How avoiding feelings avoids the present moment and avoids life
By Kara-Leah Grant, Musings from the Mat This morning, the wonderful woman who looks after Samuel four days a week while I work told me she's finishing up with PORSE (home-based early childhood education) on April 6. This is a big deal. I live in a small town with no kindergaten or other early childhood education facility. There is no other childcare available (right now). I'm also a single parent working from home and those childcare hours are my livelihood - not just for my business but … [Read more...]
Take everything as it comes, discomfort and comfort alike
by Kara-Leah Grant, Musings from the Mat The day we arrived at Anahata Yoga Retreat, nature and God were both sodden, and the retreat was wrapped in the clouds. I hadn’t thought to check the driving conditions before arriving at Anahata, and Samuel and I were traveling in my long, low, loaded-up station wagon. I made it round the first muddy gravel corner and thought. “Nope, there’s no way I’m going up there.” There was a sense of defeat in letting the road stop me now, after I’d got … [Read more...]