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...]
I Give Up
by Kara-Leah Grant I just wrote some 700 words and I realised that I've been telling the same damn story on this website for the past five years. A story of struggling to earn money through teaching yoga and writing. And now, I'm dropping the story and simply saying: I give up. I've had enough. I don't care anymore. I'm going to stop trying to earn a living from writing and teaching. Oh, I won't stop writing, nor will I stop teaching. These things I will continue to do, always and … [Read more...]
How Yoga Kirtan Helped Me Find My True Voice and Share it With The World
By Premratna, Premratna Music If I try to imagine what the course of my life would have taken without yoga, I get an image of the movie Life of Pi: a small boat, huge swells, a tiger on board and a lot of fear. Yoga found me while I was doing my ‘big O.E.’; that phase of life where we are typically searching for adventure. I was no exception. In between hiking, skiing, singing and songwriting, I went to a yoga class at the gym in the Canadian Rockies where I was living and working. The … [Read more...]
On having the courage to pull the plug at the 11th hour
by Kara-Leah Grant, Musings from the Mat Last week, I wrote the acknowledgements and officially signed off from Forty Days of Yoga, completing the final draft. It was a surreal moment - as if I'd been here before and knew what to do. And of course I have, many times, in my dreams. I've been a writer since childhood and always knew I'd write a book. What I didn't know was how many people would join me on this journey, how supportive they would be and how humbling it would be to receive … [Read more...]
Folding forward into Easy Pose for instant stress-relief
by Kara-Leah Grant The last couple of years I’ve been getting up close and personal with long, slow holds in seated poses. There’s a couple of reasons for this. One is that I’m often exhausted from being a single parent and running my own business - the thought of standing postures or sun salutes sometimes makes me shudder. Giving myself permission to just sit on what mat and see what unfolds from there means I'm far more likely to practice every day. The second is that I’m yang enough - … [Read more...]
How a Journey into the Underworld Brought Me Home at Last
by Kara-Leah Grant, Musings from the Mat I'm leaving Wellington soon, and part of my impending shift down south to Glenorchy is about wiping the slate clean. Starting fresh. Letting go of everything, and then allowing back in only what truly matters. People keep asking; 'Are you moving down for good?' Good? What does that mean? I know I'm going for a couple of months. After that... who knows? I don't know what will arise in these two months. This is the letting go. This is … [Read more...]
The joy hidden within chaos
by guest author Peter Fernando, Meditation and Mindfulness On the surface of things, spirituality can seem to be about control, right? 'Mind Control' perhaps. Or 'Body Control'? On the far end of the spectrum you even get teachings suggesting that the point of life is to have ultimate control over the universe. Sounds good, doesn't it? But is that what 'spirituality', or more accurately, freedom is about? I personally wonder if it is. What could be more gratifying to our ego than … [Read more...]
Why ‘Letting Go’ and ‘Detachment’ Can be Pitfalls on the Spiritual Path
by guest author Peter Fernando, Meditation and Mindfulness I received this honest and moving question a few weeks back: If you have never bonded with your mother and so have never experienced secure attachment in a primary relationship, how can you work with non-attachment? And letting go? When you have never really experienced having anything to hold onto? The first thing I should say is this: I am no expert in this field, so please don't take my word as gospel. I can only reflect from … [Read more...]