by Kara-Leah Grant Today is Day 138 of a 1000 Day practice I'm doing. It should be about Day 500. But earlier this year, on Day 338 something happened and I dropped the ball. I've been doing Forty Day practices for nearly a decade now. At first, it took great dedication, commitment and mindfulness to practice yoga every day for forty days in a row, especially when I was doing the same practice each day. I learned so much about myself, how my mind worked, and where I was sabotaging … [Read more...]
Adventures in the Field with Camilla Maling {video interview}
by Kara-Leah Grant Camilla Maling is a fascinating woman with a deep perspective on our embodied experience as sensate beings, honed through her many years of dance, yoga, storytelling and life experience. She's endlessly fascinated about the intersection of our being - our psyches and our bodies and how these things map to each other. Spend time talking to her - as I did - and you can feel her passion and curiosity and desire to expand people's understanding of the body they inhabit. She … [Read more...]
Nine Ways to Master Yourself, and Therefore Life
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...]
How to Calm an Overactive Mind with Yoga
by Kara-Leah Grant There are days when I spend too much time commuting, too much time on my computer, and have far too many balls in the air. My mind feels like it's going a million miles a minute, flitting first from one thing, then to the next. Sometimes this monkey mind is shadowed by anxiety or fear, lurking deep in the belly and driving me out of my body and up into my head. Sometimes it's just because it's a New Moon and there's something going on astrologically - at least, it's … [Read more...]
Oct 19-22 Labour Day Weekend: Anahata Yoga Retreat, A Life of Choice, Yoga Retreat
A Life of Choice, a Yoga Workshop with Sannyasin Kalikamurti Suich & Swami Gyan Dharma Are you living the life you choose? Are you taking an active role in creating your own present and future? Learn how to fine tune this internal world and integrate it into your everyday life. Gain insight into realising your goals to make choices that will enable you to live your life fully and with balance. Creating your own success Gain awareness as to your goals and aims in … [Read more...]
September 13: Turangi, Relaxation and Health with Yoga Nidra
Deep Relaxation through Yoga Nidra with Swami Muktidharma & Swami Karma Karuna Allow your Self to experience fundamental relaxation and its reconstructing effects on the whole body with a powerful and ancient practice that is highly applicable to the challenges of modern life! The mind is the most perfect super computer and it has an inbox where it stores all the information received through the senses. It is constantly overloaded with all kinds of impressions from over stimulation of … [Read more...]
August 18: Whangarei, Witness the Stillness Within, A Yoga Workshop
Stillness - The Gate to Inner Experience, a Yoga Workshop with Swami Muktidharma In a restless river, the reflection is blurred, then with the right techniques the lake settles into stillness, everything becomes crystal clear. This transformational workshop explores powerful yoga tools to gradually bring the Self into inner stillness. Developing the Witness (Antar Mouna-Inner Silence) Become an observer of the mind and its “antics” rather than getting all tangled up in its web. Learn the … [Read more...]
Is peace on earth possible? Yes, yes it is. Today.
by Kara-Leah Grant, Musings from the Mat Peace on earth? Possible? Yes. Not sometime off in the future. But right now. Peace is possible - in my heart, and in yours too. I know this. And I know you know it too, although you may not have remembered it. Yet. Each day, small reminders of the power of now seep into my bones and make me feel grateful for being alive. For the work I've done to change the way I perceive the world. For the road I've travelled and the path I've been on. And now, … [Read more...]
How do I Stop These Compulsive Thoughts Invading My Brain?
by Kara-Leah Grant It happens all the time - people tell me they can't meditate because they think too much. They can't stop themselves from thinking... But none of us can stop ourselves from thinking, even when we've been meditating for a long time. Meditation is the process of being aware of the thoughts... The following dialogue was inspired by a couple of emails from readers, who wanted to know how to control their thoughts. How do we stop compulsive thoughts from invading and taking … [Read more...]