Yoga in One Syllable

Yoga places a heavy importance on abdominal strength and the suppleness of the spine. Maintaining strength and suppleness in these areas ensures a consistent supply of fresh oxygenated blood to the internal organs and so helps to keep them at their optimum performance. Part of this is achieved through the subtle consistent movements of the abdomen as you inhale and exhale – your organs are getting a gentle 24 hour massage.

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In Ancient Greek philosophy, the workings of the world were governed by four basic elements: earth, water, fire and air. Yet for the Indian philosophers, the Greek classification omitted the most important element of all: space. For them, space was essential. It was the overarching environment in which all things could occur.

Space was the element that allowed for the movement of everything from water to ideas, and just as water will only flow when nothing blocks its path, so will our best ideas only come when we give our minds the space to think.
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Do you remember the first time you had to stand up, alone, in front of a crowd and do something? Whether it was a music recital, a sporting event or a public debate, its a fair bet to say you didn’t want to fail. As you expressed your nerves and fears did your parents or teachers gently calm you down and reassure you that the outcome doesn’t matter so long as you try your best? Did you believe them?

What does trying your best mean? [Read more →]

In the last week I’ve really noticed how much longer the days are becoming. Where only a few weeks ago it felt like the nights were going on forever, now by a little after 5.30 in the morning the sky is filled with lovely golden light.

Unless you fly from Europe in the depths of winter to a glorious December day in Sydney, the change from one season to the next consists of a myriad incremental shifts in light and colour that are so tiny they’re virtually impossible for us to observe. One day the tree outside seems bare and barren; the next, it’s bursting with bright green buds.

The swiftness of the perceived change comes about because we only sporadically pay attention to conditions on the other side of the window. But when we want to make changes in our life, we tend to like them to be as big and dramatic as the ones we perceive in nature: to go from corpulent, 20-a-day, borderline depressive caterpillar to integrated, healthy and successful butterfly in one easy stride.

We forget that just like the caterpillar, cocooned in its chrysalis for days on end, we can only make our transformation by means of a sequence of slow, subtle alterations in the way we choose to live.

One way we can remind ourselves to take this approach is through the practice of Asana. As you practice any Asana you can observe constant minor adjustments in the body, the breath and the mind that alter the sensations and experience.

We know at the end of the class that our physical and mental experience of ourselves is quite different from when we first lay down in Savasana. But can we pinpoint the exact point at which that change occurred?

Image by Vicki DeLoach on Flickr

Truthfulness, or Satya as the yoga texts term it, is something that most of us value highly in ourselves, and in others. It is also one of the key values we are encouraged to live by when we practice yoga. However, practicing Satya is somewhat more involved than fessing up to your fourth grade teacher about the rubber fight you instigated at the back of the classroom. It’s about striving to achieve harmony between your thoughts, your words and your actions.

There is no easy way to get to this state – it’s not something you perfect on the first go. Even with the best of intentions, it can be surprisingly hard to actually back up your intentions with actions.  [Read more →]

As promised, details of the India 2011 Tour are now live and online.

Plans have changed slightly, and our three-week tour now fits neatly into 16 days. Check out the unique South India travel package David and I have put together. And if you can, come along to Hazelbrook on September 4th for a chai!

The people of Australia have spoken. By comment and email you begged me to run a yoga analysis on Greens leader Bob Brown. And to prove that a vote for Green is not a wasted vote, here he is.

I’ve found it a fascinating and challenging process this week, to examine public figures without reference to my ambient knowledge about them – to simply home in on the raw facts of how their bodies work.

With Bob Brown, it’s even harder: he’s been part of Australian life for long enough to truly earn the title of “icon”.

Depending where on the political spectrum you sit, you either see Bob Brown as an irrelevant nagger who pops up on TV whenever a tree gets cut down, a national treasure determined to offer a high-moral-fibre alternative to the main parties, or an infuriating meddler whose sole purpose is to obstruct the path of progress.

But let’s not get into preferences here. Let’s instead take an unbiased look at Bob’s body politic. Is he as straight up and down as we think? Does he lean to the left or right? What’s the condition of the Green Senator’s backbone – physical, rather than moral? [Read more →]

Regular readers of these articles know that I’m not in the habit of casting my weight around on affairs of state – some places, after all, should be havens from the mudslinging, fearmongering and spin that accompany political campaigns.

In fact, I try to keep myself away from the news as much as possible when there’s an election looming. It’s not that I don’t care about who’s running the country, or where they plan to lead us. It’s simply that for the most part, the analysis you hear and read is almost as shallow as the vapid, vote-courting utterances of the politicians themselves.

But whenever I watch the party leaders on the hustings, ranting away about refugees or stimulus packages, I can’t help zoning in on the things a yoga teacher instinctively looks for, and a media strategy doesn’t take into account:  their posture, the way they hold themselves and use their bodies.

These ingrained and largely unconscious habits can clue us in to the type of person they really are – and what kind of leader we can expect them to be.

So I’ve lined up the two main candidates, to give you my analysis of what their bodies reveal. Will Tony’s action man physique win out over Julia’s well-concealed femininity? Who’s looking after themselves? Who’s got the composure, the calm, the sense of perspective to lead the country for the next four years. And because I’m not here to mudsling, I’ve also given a few prescriptions, should Tony or Julia Stumble or Tweet their way here, of simple asana they could use to work on those problems and change their lives for the better.

Ladies first, then… [Read more →]

“One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.”

Henry Miller

I’m planning a trip to India in January, and rather than make it a complete break from all my classes, I’m inviting you along for an inspiring journey of yoga, culture, colour and spiritual rejuvenation.

The idea for leading a group to India has been in the wings for a while, and from the conversations I’ve been having with some of you lately, it really seems like the time has come.

From a yoga perspective, India takes us directly to the source of things. Every time I go there I learn things and gain new insights that I could scarcely have imagined – insights about yoga, about myself, about the powerful current of spirit and soul that flows through everything we see and touch. [Read more →]

As I’ve been planning and writing The Yoga Brain it’s given me pause to reflect about beginnings and endings. We seem to get quite excited by the idea of something new, yet as humans we often find endings difficult to accept.

But you can’t have a beginning without an ending, or an end without a beginning – spring only arrives at the passing of winter, and only with the end of spring does summer come – so there is often a bitter-sweet mix of emotion that surrounds periods of change in our lives.

Beginnings signal the possibility of something new, but with that excitement can come more than a dash of trepidation. An ending, on the other hand, means leaving behind the comfort of knowing who we think we are and the place we’ve created for ourselves in this world.

Even if we don’t necessarily like the situation we’re in, the sheer familiarity of it can seem better than the unknown and uncharted – better the devil you know, and all that. Thus an ending can be both saddening and fearful.

Yet, like a lizard or a snake, there are times when we need to shed our present skin in order to continue our natural growth. As we evolve in our understanding of ourselves we need to remember that a fundamental part of us will always remain the same: a lizard losing its skin doesn’t emerge as a possum. Amidst all the beginnings and endings that leave us with a mixture of emotions from fear to excitement, nothing occurs to prevent us from being ourselves.

So as we watch and participate in all the beginnings and endings that swirl in and out of our lives we can take both comfort and strength knowing that fundamentally we will remain the same person. And each story and lesson that comes our way can only help us to come to a greater understanding of our core nature.

Image by mikebogle