Top 10 Best Yoga Articles of 2018

by Lucinda Staniland,

In the last days of my 2018 work year, I couldn’t shake a nagging feeling that I’d forgotten to do something important…

After much racking of my brain and searching of my to-do lists, I decided that I’d just have to leave it and moved on to packing my bags and preparing for a family holiday. And finally, just when I was leaving for the airport, my brain finally clicked into gear and I remembered – far too late – what it was that I was meant to do.

Every December, The Yoga Lunchbox publishes a list celebrating our ten most popular articles of the year, a tradition that always gives us an insightful snapshot of what the year held for the local and international yoga communities.

So, although I’m now more than a little late to the game… here it is!

Looking at this list, I was reminded that it has been a somewhat tumultuous, but overall exciting and positive year for the NZ Yoga Community: We experienced the sudden and dramatic demise of Wanderlust Great Lake Taupo, the equally sudden birth of the homegrown Lovelake Festival and our first ever national yoga conference – Hauora. We also hosted talented international yoga teachers, some of whom you’ll see on this list, and, with great sadness, mourned the death of Jason Corliss.

Internationally, interest in animal and plant medicines like Kambo seems to rising (Chris Kelly’s directives about Kambo made it #1 because the article is getting some serious Google juice), as is interest in restorative and trauma-sensitive yoga practices, such as Yoga Nidra.

#1. 12 Things You Must Know About Kambo Before Getting Pricked

by Chris Kelly, If you’d told me years ago that the slimy secretion from an Amazonian tree frog – sometimes called “ordeal medicine” – was incredible for my health, I’d think you were a little nuts. If you told me it was applied directly into the lymphatic system through small little burn marks on the skin, I’d think you were completely nuts! I never would have believed that I’d be applying these very same burn marks and this slimy frog secretion to myself, let alone regularly serving it … [Read more…]

#2. Jason Corliss: Love Fully, Live the Moment, Believe in the Magic

by Kara-Leah Grant, The last time I saw Jason Corliss – Organic Mechanic founder, wizard, shaman, healer, sage – was at Kawai Purapura on Sunday, February 11th, 2018, for a Cacao Ceremony. He was outside, dancing, in the rain. This weekend – the weekend of his funeral, was the International Yoga Festival at Kawai Purapura, and I was presenting. Grace meant I was scheduled only for Friday and Sunday, so I was able to go and sit with Jase at the funeral home on Saturday morning before … [Read more…]

#3. What the Hell Happened with YEANZ Ltd & Wanderlust Australia New Zealand?

by Kara-Leah Grant, It’s the news that has ruptured the New Zealand and Australian yoga community and shattered the dreams of thousands of people. On January 12th, 2018 YEANZ Ltd, the company that held the license for Wanderlust in Australia and New Zealand, went into liquidation. Eleven days later, the worst was confirmed – Wanderlust Great Lake Taupō was effectively cancelled. The Yoga Lunchbox has been part of the Wanderlust journey right from the beginning: I’ve interviewed many Wanderlust … [Read more…]

#4. 8 Reasons Why Yoga Nidra is the Hottest New Yoga Trend

by Lucinda Staniland, By now you’ve probably come across Yoga Nidra, one of the hottest trends to hit the Yoga scene in recent years. Everyone is doing it, from your trend-setting Instagram-loving best friend to your old-school internet-free great Aunt. But what is Yoga Nidra exactly, and does it deserve its sudden popularity? To the latter, I answer with an emphatic YES, which I trust will quickly become clear in the eight points below. And for an answer to the former, I turned to Swami … [Read more…]

#5. Why I Don’t Go To Yoga Classes Anymore (But Maybe I Will)

by Lucinda Staniland, I have a confession to make. Even though I practice yoga every day and work for a yoga website, I haven’t regularly attended yoga classes in years. My home yoga practice is consistent and serious, I’m constantly consulting my bookcase of yoga books, and I attend the occasional one-on-one session with a teacher. But yoga classes? That thing where you join a group of people to be led through asana and perhaps some pranayama and meditation? The answer used to be, … [Read more…]

#6. Ana Forrest & Jose Calarco on Bringing Mysticism, Magic & Indigenous Culture to Yoga

by Kara-Leah Grant, For the last four decades, Ana Forrest has been bringing her particular brand of fierce medicine to the yoga world. She’s long woven Native American ceremony into her classes and workshops, calling on the forces that helped her heal from an abusive and challenging childhood. So it’s no surprise that when she met and fall in love with the man who would go on to become a co-director of Forrest Yoga that he too would have a long history with shamanism and healing – just in a … [Read more…]

#7. Dr Scott Lyons on The Art of Being Human & Embodied Flow™ Yoga8.

by Lucinda Staniland, It’s always a joy to come across someone who takes real pleasure in the work they do in the world. Without a doubt, Dr Scott Lyons is such a person and I could tell so immediately when I began watching his conversation with Kara-Leah Grant. Although he clearly takes a serious and earnest approach to his work, there is also an overflowing sense of delight and lightness to him, which I couldn’t help but be enchanted by. Dr Scott Lyons is a Clinical Psychologist and … [Read more…]

#8. Lessons from the Overwhelming Success of LoveLake Festival

by Kara-Leah Grant, Five weeks and three core staff – that’s all it took to produce a full programme at LoveLake Festival including yoga, meditation, workshops and DJs in three different rooms over four days. Oh, and another four people who joined in the final week for delivery. That, and incredible support from Wairakei Resort Taupō, who hosted the event, and massive buy-in from the conscious community, including the presenters. Because it was a bold move by DJs Chris Scott and Sandon Ihaia … [Read more…]

#9. Our Habits Are a Path to Deep Transformation

by Tara Fowler, Habits are our regular and repeating behaviours which are done unconsciously. For me, this is picking my skin. For as long as I can remember I’ve picked my skin. As a small child any itchy bite I would scratch and scratch, tearing it apart. Then when it formed a scab I would pick that off also, leaving my skin covered in scars. I remember when I was around nine years old, a friend noticed the scabs and scars on my legs and said to me. “Gross, do you still … [Read more…]

#10. A Review of the Hauora Yoga Conference 2018

by Lucinda Staniland, On a rainy Saturday morning in Auckland, I found myself in a packed auditorium, with around 85 yoga teachers and students, and several hundred fitness professionals, listening to renowned international yoga teacher Donna Farhi give a keynote presentation on interoception and kinesthesia. As Donna lead us through ten slow diaphragmatic breaths, the whole audience dropped into deep, yet focused, stillness. There were so many magical moments like this at the Hauora Yoga … [Read more…]

Curious about the most popular articles for previous years? Here they are:

• The Top Ten Best Yoga Articles of 2017
• The Top Ten Best Yoga Articles of 2016
• The Top Ten Best Yoga Articles of 2015
• The Top Twenty Best Yoga Articles of 2014
• The Top Twenty Best Yoga Articles of 2013
• The Top Twenty Best Ever Yoga Articles of 2012