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...]
How teaching yoga can trigger your issues
by regular columnist Elissa Jordan, Adventures in Teaching I’m feeling utterly dejected this morning. Getting out of bed - struggle. Getting to work - struggle. Talking to people - struggle. What’s got me so down? While teaching last night one of my students remarked about what a difference there was between the Wednesday and Monday night classes. Wednesday, my class, on the night was six people. Monday, another teacher’s class, was overflowing. No real judgement was made - good or bad - … [Read more...]
I’m exhilarated, and terrified, all at the same time
by Kara-Leah Grant, Musings from the Mat Today I claimed my moment, owning what it is I want to do with my life. I declared to the YLB audience, and all my friends and family on Facebook, that, with their support and help, I was going to publish a book. It was petrifying. Oh sure, it was also exhilarating and exciting and awesome... but it was also petrifying. Ten minutes after Facebook'ing out the article I'd written, announcing there's going to be a PledgeMe campaign to raise the … [Read more...]
Tossing aside the familiarity of struggle for the mantle of success
by Kara-Leah Grant, Musings from the Mat A friend asked me this week (and I'm paraphrasing and editing for dramatic effect): How come you always write/talk about your struggles with life? Does your life suck that bad? And I explained that I had to write that way... that I loved writing about life, and only had my life to write about, and that meant sharing my struggles with the world - so other people could resonate, realise they're not alone, feel inspired and connect with me as a human … [Read more...]
How yoga helped me find my fortune in the big city
Two years ago my partner and I left Arrowtown to seek our fortunes in the big city. I'd been following my twin passions of writing and yoga as a freelancer in Queenstown, but was struggling financially in a big way. Everything I tried to do, I came up against brick walls- left, right and centre. Nothing seemed to be working for me at all. After a short three day trip to Wellington over the summer of 2008, I knew that Wellington was where I needed to be. Fortunately, it was where my … [Read more...]
Day 40: Completion of my Forty Day Sadhana of Sodarshan Chakra Kriya
by Kara-Leah, I've done it! Yes, on Saturday, 94 days after I made a commitment to complete a forty day sadhana, I did my forty days in a row. After a couple of false starts, I was back into it and truly committed. I'd failed once, and knew this time what it took to complete the sadhana. Every day when I woke up, one of my first thoughts was, "When am I going to do my sadhana?" It became the one concrete action in my day that everything else had to bow down to - and this was good. I looked … [Read more...]