by Kara-Leah Grant, Musings from the Mat Earlier this year I took a short workshop with Duncan Peak from Power Living. In the workshop he mentioned the term 'vasana', defining it as character traits or tendencies and he talked about how our practice stirs up these tendencies and brings them into consciousness. Now I'd never heard of vasanas, and struggled to remember the term after the workshop, which happened the day before Wanderlust. The day after Wanderlust, I was driving from … [Read more...]
How Understanding the Kleshas and Gunas Helps Your Asana Practice
by Kara-Leah Grant Asana is a powerful tool to access our psyches, release tension in the body, and help us understand the hidden aspects of Self. Practicing asana gives us the opportunity to observe our relationship with the postures, with our bodies, with our minds and with our breath. This relationship is what reveals ourselves to ourselves. In other words, paying attention to questions like this is how we use asana to awaken. Are you liking the pose? Disliking the pose? Or are you … [Read more...]
Drinking Alcohol: A Big No-No for Serious Yogis?
by Kara-Leah Grant, Musings from the Mat It was one of those behaviours or activities that started softly, softly, slipping in under the mat and under awareness. A shared bottle of wine once a week. A shared bottle of wine twice a week. A bottle of vodka in the house - a cocktail before dinner four or five times a week, then a glass or two of wine. Never more than two or three drinks in a night, never every night of the week. But still... As time went by, this behaviour began to tug at my … [Read more...]
Mind-food: Cultivating Sattva through food
By guest author Carmen Howell of The Sadhana Studio These days meditation and yoga are my vices - positive habits which have evolved and have slowly woven into my bodily intelligence. When I find myself transforming and experienceing the discomfort that can often be present with transformation, rather than slipping back into the grip of unsupportive habits - such as enslaving myself to a diet, convincing myself that vitamins are the cure for my lack of energy, punishing my body by over … [Read more...]