by Kara-Leah Grant Twenty one years after my first yoga class, I finally learned the most basic of all yoga - I learned how to breathe properly. Yes despite all those years on the mat, and all the many teachers I went through, and all the years of home yoga practice, I didn't master Yogic Breath until 2016. Yogic Breath is elementary to yoga practice.It involves inhaling first into the belly, allowing it to fully expand out, before filling the chest and finally the clavicular (under the … [Read more...]
The Art of Conscious Relationship
How's your relationship? Intimate, connected, open, transparent, loving, caring, nourishing, and satisfying? If not, what's getting in the way? One of these articles might provide some insight for you.
Top Ten Best Yoga Articles of 2016
by Kara-Leah Grant It's a diverse list of articles that made the Top Ten for this year.As always, there's a few interviews that made the list, including a Skype video interview with Les Leventhal and a written interview with Tom Myers. Kundalini articles prove as popular as ever, as so articles on the relationship between men and women.A how-to article from regular guest author Neal Ghoshal on maximising your potential as a yoga teacher made the list. So too did a parenting article from … [Read more...]
Lessons from a Yogi: How to Deal with Criticism & Being Called Out
by Kara-Leah Grant Today I received a long comment on the article I wrote about my disappointment at how Madonna has chosen to age, because it means I'm now looking for another role model on the ageing front.The author, Cherise, shares her perspective on the way I wrote the article. You know what? I read this article this morning and mulled over it all day. There’s something in here that really annoys me Kara-Leah.I am a contemporary of Madonna. I am nearly 58, which I believe she is … [Read more...]
How Love’s Shadows Invite Us Into Deep Intimacy
by Kara-Leah Grant I didn't expect to feel this way when he arrived in my life.But this man who I'd been friends with for four years online before finally meeting in person landed in my heart with the softness of a blown dandelion flower gone to seed.Looking back, I asked myself, when did I know? When did I realise that we had this connection, this intimacy, this opening into relationship?Was it when he stayed at my house after getting off the plane? Was it when he got off the … [Read more...]
A Personal Exploration of Vairagya (Non-Attachment) in Romantic Relationships
by Kara-Leah Grant There is a man I was recently immensely attracted to - on all three levels, sacral, heart and wisdom.It felt like that attraction was reciprocal. It felt like we had a similar depth and perspective on life, similar histories, values, vision and lifestyle.So potential and possibility arose, and on my side at least, intense desire. He and I had several conversations around relationship, sexuality, purpose, life visions and purpose. It felt like we were feeling each … [Read more...]
How to Liberate Yourself from the Tyranny of Desire in Romantic Relationship
by Kara-Leah Grant When I was twelve years old I started a long short story - more of a novellete - about a young woman snatched from her home who finds herself in this other-worldly detention centre for teenagers. She's feisty as all hell, and makes a break for it with one of the other teenagers - a boy.As she and the boy go on the run, most of the action revolves around their relationship, which is fiery as all hell. Their banter is antagonistic, she gets mad at him often and isn't shy … [Read more...]
What Women Need so They Can Invite Men to Step Up
by Kara-Leah Grant, Musings from the Mat I attended an all-girls high school in Dunedin and remember clearly one year the annual production was Lysistrata. Written by Aristophanes and first staged in 411 BCE, it's a comedy detailing one woman's extraordinary mission to end the Peloponnesian War.Her method? Lysistrata convinces the women of Greece to withhold sexual privileges from their husbands until their men agree to negotiate a peace.As a teenage girl, I loved this play. I loved … [Read more...]
The Road to Living a Life of Outrageous Joy
by Kara-Leah Grant My road to a life of outrageous joy began with waking up in the Acute Psych Ward at Lion's Gate Hospital in Vancouver.I'd been "committed", which meant I wasn't free to leave until the doctors had deemed me sane and safe enough - to myself and to others. But being committed to a psych ward wasn't the most devastating realisation that morning, it was the knowledge that my fiance had broken up with me. I had been dumped by the man I loved deeply because he didn't like who … [Read more...]
Top Ten Best Yoga Articles of 2015
by Kara-Leah Grant I love checking the data and seeing which articles came up tops out of the 100+ that The Yoga Lunchbox published in 2015. After awhile, you start seeing the patterns.First are my personal articles which detail my breakdowns and breakthroughs on everything from men to my yoga practice to my relationship with teaching and money. People love these articles and respond with lots of comments and messages, and of course, views.Then there are the articles that I write … [Read more...]
On the Way Fear and Limiting Beliefs Keep Us Silent
by Kara-Leah Grant I have been observing a pattern of mine in relationship for some fifteen years now. I first became aware of it in 2000, during a two and a half year relationship with a beautiful man that adored me. Despite becoming aware of it then, and seeing how destructive it was for our relationship, that same pattern deepened in my next relationship, from 2002 - 2004. That pattern of behaviour was part of the reason the end of this particular relationship tipped me over the edge into … [Read more...]