“Longterm, committed Yoga practice is not exactly as glamorous as seen in glossy social media posts.” 🙃 Happy New Moon in Aquarius & New Year of the Rabbit! To all my Yoga friends around the world & on magical Madeira island, every week I sequence
Conscious Entitlement. The self-righteous path of a ‘victim of trauma’. The following words are strong, so please do not continue to read if you take everything personally or easily feel offended. I write here in honest acknowledgement of my own pathology and blindspots. I am
Every week I share a class theme with my global online Yoga community and my local Madeira based in-person Yoga group. Our theme for Week 44 (Wednesday 2 November 2022) is ‘the middle path’. Our focus will be on natural inner alignment, uniting opposite patterns
Happy Diwali! (festival of lights in Hindu / Yoga culture) & Happy Scorpio New Moon Solar Eclipse! (galactic planetary alignment). To flow through this intense energy, our Yoga class theme for week 43 (Wednesday 26 October) is to ‘stay light & playful in the face
Samkhya is the foundation philosophy of Yoga and Ayurveda. Rooted in the knowledge of the Upanishads (800BC), the concepts of Samkhya are explored in many ancient Yoga texts, including the Bhagavad Gita (400BC) and the Yoga Sutras (250BC). It is believed that Samkhya philosophy developed
One truth is for sure, every physical form is impermanent. We are alive in an emotionally tumultuous, unpredictable and chaotic time, forcing us to face our fears. and inspiring us to tune deeper into the natural flow of life. to surf the cosmic waves as they rise and fall. to dance the frequency of authentic rhythms. to let go and trust.
Liz Koch, a progressive body therapist, whom has done extensive research on the psoas, sees the psoas as the primal messenger of the central nervous system. She believes the psoas is more than just a muscle, it is intimately connected to our Autonomic Nervous System and our survival instinct, connected to our fight or flight response.
Ever since I can remember I tried to make my mother happy. I thought it was my fault that she is so angry and so sad. Although it was not her intention, she passed her survival stress on to me. During birth I sensed her fear, during childhood my nervous system shaped around her anxiety, by the time I evolved into adolescence I was a carbon copy of her turbulent insecurity.
When you think a bit about what people really want to do with their time, you find they like to make rhythms. They listen to music, they dance, they sing or do something of a rhythmic nature. Given the chance, everybody wants to spend their time swinging.
Your own direct inner experience is your truth, not what some outer ‘guru’ tells you the truth is according to his or her interpretation. In all honesty there is no such thing as an outer being that can give you inner clarity. Ultimately the practice itself is our only real teacher.
Nature’s cycle of creativity has come full circle for me, stimulating this imploding impulse to exuviate the next layer of limiting self-beliefs and surrender to the river of life in its raw essence, unbounded and free. Turbulent, stripped of societal norms, beyond ideas of right or wrong.
The more I encounter inner blockages and outer obstacles, the more I see how Yoga is about inner peace, not outer physical achievement. A fit body and worldly success is of no use to me if my mind is not silent. A fleeting moment of calm after a strong asana practice is not the same as sustained meditation in every moment of ordinary life.
The interaction of the five elements of earth, water, fire, air and ether, however simple it may appear, often inspires a feeling of true mystery in me. The more I study the elements, the more I discover how multi-layered Samkhya philosophy actually is. In essence all the elements are present, to varying degrees, in every physical appearance, including our own bodies and minds.
An important law of the mind is that whatever we focus our attention on that we tend to become. Whatever we give our greatest attention to in life is the Divinity we aspire to become. Discover your greater Self in all of nature, in the plants, rocks and animals, in the clouds, stars, galaxies and beyond.
Spanda is a Sanskrit term often used in Kashmir Shaivism, referred to as the flow of Shakti or ‘creative life-force’ and means ‘movement’ or ‘vibration’. Within the context of Samkhya, Spanda can be seen as the pulse that stirs Mula-Prakriti or ‘un-manifest potential’ into being.
“Vinyasa” is derived from the Sanskrit term “nyasa”, which means “to place” and the prefix “vi”, which means “in a special way”. We see Vinyasa in nature all around us, as night flows into day, day flows into night, following the cycle of the sun and the moon, the transition of the seasons, the rise and fall of the ocean tides.
Yoga means “union”, derived from the Sanskrit root “yui” which means “to yoke” or “to join”. Yoga is a collection of physical, mental and spiritual practices that originated in India during the Vedic period, around 1500 BC and developed during the Sramana (aesthetic seeker) movement around 600 BC.
Ecstasy, how much I loved to dance your vibrant juices, from sunset to sunrise, my body, mind and soul surrendered to your delicious pulse, sensually swaying my goddess essence on the fertile earth of your exotic trance temples, pouring my life force into your fires, praying for one more deep bass line to take me beyond.