How yoga helped me stay grounded before flying. By Veronica King Feels surreal to be writing this piece on my parent's kitchen table in Adelaide. The trip that was cancelled 3 times due to border changes, it would appear that it was 4th time lucky. The last few years we have been shrouded in fear, separated from our loved ones, and unsure if anything we planned would actually go ahead. As I prepared for this trip, I knew my practice was helping me stay steady and grounded. I’m sharing … [Read more...]
When Overwhelming Thoughts Take Over Your Restorative Yoga Practice
By Nityda Bhakti, The Yoga Wellness Space Yoga is a practice of turning inward or pratyahara (withdrawal of the senses). It can be hard to do this at times in a more rigorous yoga class, especially for those still learning the poses and therefore needing to fix their focus to others in the room in an effort to get their bodies into the right position. Restorative yoga allows us the space to hold poses for longer, with the support of props, so that we don’t have to use physical effort to do … [Read more...]
Why I’m Bringing Yoga & Meditation to Teenagers with The Soul Laundry
By Nina Rogocki, The Soul Laundry About three years ago I was new to Auckland from the UK, and embarking on a new journey that was unexpected but welcome. To settle into my new environment, I found myself a gym, as you do, and I started to attend classes and set my routine. One afternoon in a daze, I got in the lift and ended up on the wrong floor. The doors of the lift opened up to reveal a welcoming, warm environment that was quiet and felt like total calm. Upon investigation I realised … [Read more...]
How I Learned to Live My Yoga and Rock My Life
by Kara-Leah Grant Ten years ago I was six months out of an Acute Psych Ward after two psychotic episodes, and was just beginning the process of cutting down the medication I'd been given after a diagnosis of bipolar. The emotional pain of being dumped by my fiance was still fresh and raw, and I'd only just stopped sobbing my heart out every day. Not that I was crying only about our break-up. The psychosis had ripped open decades of unexpressed emotion plus the spiritual awakening I'd had at … [Read more...]
Yoga can help heal mental illness. Big time.
by Kara-Leah Grant I need to tell you a story, about a woman coming home after spending eight years overseas. This woman had left seeking fame & fortune, certain that out there in the world lay her destiny. She came home broken, tormented by her mind, which had betrayed her and cost her the world. Everything she valued - her fiance, her friends, the town she'd made her home in, her sense of Self... all of it had been torn away. She came home with nothing, except a diagnosis of … [Read more...]