Yoga in One Syllable

In my last article I talked about jnana yoga, the yoga of knowledge, and how practitioners of this form of yoga spend their life trying to understand the nature of the mind and how it works. All this sounds like an extreme sport version of intellectualisation. But we all know that humans don’t just think [...]

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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 [...]

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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!

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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 [...]

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“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 [...]

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I hope you’ll forgive me a moment of nostalgia, but I’ve had a very old Bjork song floating around in my head for the last week, and it won’t rest until I give it due attention. The song in question, or the fragment of it that keeps coming to my lips, goes “there’s mo-o-ore to [...]

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Yoga encourages you to consciously observe your experiences. It also encourages you to learn from them, and to put what you learn into practice in all spheres of your life. My grandfather was a great one for saying “the day you stop learning is the day you die”. When I first heard this zany idea [...]

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These days it’s becoming more widely accepted by western science that the mind and body are interlinked in a thousand ways, some obvious, some incredibly subtle. This, however, is no news to many other cultures and philosophies, including Yoga, which have accepted and explored the link for thousands of years. From a yogic perspective we [...]

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We can spend a lot of time, and money, chasing after “new”. New cars, houses, clothes, and, of course, experiences. A car with a DVD player to silence those back seat “are-we-there-yets“; a kitchen makeover filled with the latest stainless steel gadgetry; a month long holiday off-the-beaten track. Whatever the object of our desire, we’re [...]

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Most of us make New Year’s resolutions. And most of us, despite all the best intentions, have watched our commitment and enthusiasm wane as the hard reality of lasting change kicks in. Remember that rush of self-reforming zeal that leapt up on you on December 31st? Guaranteed it’ll be passed out in an unsightly heap [...]

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