by Kara-Leah Grant Since stopping regular coffee drinking back in 2013, I have become fastidious about never drinking coffee before practicing or teaching yoga. Since I practice every day, and teach often, there are very rare windows when caffeine is an option for me. At a recent summer festival, I realised how deeply this belief I have about the importance of not having caffeine in the system when practicing and teaching was ingrained. A couple of hours before I was teaching a class, I … [Read more...]
Ana Forrest on Breaking Down the Barriers With Yoga {video}
by Kara-Leah Grant Meet Ana Forrest. Ana is the creatrix of Forrest Yoga, an internationally renowned yoga teacher and medicine woman, and the author of Fierce Medicine. She's also headlining Wanderlust NZ 2015. Ana's approach to yoga could be summed up in this quote from her: "If you want to use yoga to heal emotional pain, you must find out where it resides in your body and learn to take your breath there. I don't teach yoga to help people to transcend. I want people's Spirits to … [Read more...]
Video Interview with Bikram Teacher Lucas Miles on Drugs, Addiction and Yoga
by Kara-Leah Grant I first met Lucas Miles at the lecture Bikram gave in Auckland in January of 2012. He was this crazy tall, lanky tattooed guy who spoke a mile a minute and had some damn interesting things to say. Later, he sent me a link to some articles he'd written about his journey into yoga. It was intense reading - Lucas has lived one helluva life. I attempted to cajole him into writing something for The Yoga Lunchbox, but he never got as far as sending me an article. Then this … [Read more...]
Oh God, Am I Addicted to Email and Facebook Now?
by Kara-Leah Grant, Musings from the Mat Living my yoga means a constant awareness of my state of being. It means checking in with myself to see what's really going on below the surface of daily life - of parenting, working, practicing yoga, looking after the house, spending time with friends and family. Lately, I've noticed a lack of joy or fun in my life, even though on the surface, everything seems to be going from strength to strength. I successfully moved from Glenorchy to Napier and … [Read more...]
Oh the obsessive, compulsive, lusting nature of deep desire
by Kara-Leah Grant, Musings from the Mat I went to a party a few weeks ago. A man sat down beside me. We talked. And we talked. And at some point I looked into this man's eyes and thought, damn you're an intelligent, witty bastard. That's always the first step for me. Desire can never arise unless a man is smart and sharp and somehow knowing. But that's not all that there needs to be. I've known intelligent, sharp, witty men before whose company I really enjoyed. I knew they were … [Read more...]
How Yoga Cured My Coffee Addiction
By Kara-Leah Grant, Musings from the Mat I'm jittery right now, and struggling to write this article. I feel like I've had a line of speed. Maybe a line of cocaine. My heart is beating faster. I'm struggling to calm down enough to find the flow of my words. My breathing is erratic. There's no drugs in my system though. At least, not a drug we think of as a drug. I have just had my first cup of coffee after a ten day cleanse, The Ultimate Cleanse. I've been looking forward to … [Read more...]
How I Finally Kicked my Co-dependent Relationship to the Kerb
by Kara-Leah Grant, Musings from the Mat Who'd've thought? Strong, independent, courageous Moi was stuck in a co-dependent relationship. Yep, me neither. Despite getting wind of this fact about halfway through our 3 year or so relationship, it took me another 18 months to break the pattern. Which in the end meant breaking off the relationship. This relationship had been increasingly volatile ever since I got back from Prana Flow yoga teacher training in LA. I'd made a commitment to … [Read more...]
How yoga helped me… recover from drug and alcohol addiction
This is an on-going series of yoga stories from readers about how yoga has made a difference their life. To contribute your story, click here. Submitted by Clare S. (not her real name) of New Zealand Coming from a dysfunctional family, it is not really a surprise that I got involved with punk rockers and street kids in my early teens. I felt a sense of belonging, I was needed. I brought them food and snuck them home for showers and meals. It didn't take long for me … [Read more...]
Journeys with Satyananda in Rikhia – one yogi tells all
by guest author Christopher Gladwell, Engaged Yoga There was a time in my life when there was so much unresolved emotional trauma that I sought to dampen the pain of being alive. I don’t know if you have ever been through this or indeed if you still regularly seek anaesthetic experiences? For me, this manifested in some serious addictive behaviour with alcohol and narcotics to begin with, the drive towards truth moving me out of this addiction, I fell into addictive behaviour with food, … [Read more...]