🌟Stillness🌟
Building on last week’s theme of Simplicity we looked at Stillness. By cultivating stillness within our yoga practise and in our lives, we are able to relax and be in harmony with ourselves. In our modern lives’ stillness is not necessarily encouraged. It can be seen as being lazy and for some of us it […]
🌟Simplicity🌟
In class this week we have been focusing on simplicity. So, in our asana practise we took it back to basics, the breath, Inhale – pause – exhale – pause. Keeping our practise simple, clear on how we can move and not over complicating the pose we can breathe easily and feel the benefits. Similarly, […]
🌟 Forgiveness 🌟
Our theme this week has been about letting go and forgiving, both ourselves and others. Forgiveness does not mean that we accept or ignore the mistakes and harm caused, it means we allow ourselves to move on. By forgiving and moving on we can and acknowledge our true nature – Our true nature is kind, compassionate and peaceful. If […]
🌟 Steadiness🌟
Steadiness in yoga is sthira. Patanjali’s Sutra states that in all that we do we should have steadiness and ease, sthira sukham asanam. To instil steadiness or strength in ourselves we need to put in effort. To become stronger, we need to occasionally move out of our comfort zone, go beyond our limits, face our […]
🌟 Happiness🌟
Happiness is our natural state that is within us, beyond our senses. In yoga this is sukha – ease/happiness. You may have heard me mention this quality in our poses, stira sukham asanam (steadiness and ease). This steadiness and ease should be in all that we do. This sukha/happiness is not extreme pleasure but more […]
🌟 Patience 🌟
In class, we looked at what it means to be patient – To be able to tolerate delay without becoming annoyed or anxious. An attitude of patience can be translated to how we practise our yoga. Being patient with ourselves and not in a hurry to achieve a pose or be still and instead nurture ourselves […]
🌟 Gratitude 🌟
This week we thought about what we do have and allowing gratitude to arise, to notice how it feels. It’s a lovely practise when we take time out to pause and truly be thankful. This can be done through moments of prayer, keeping a gratitude journal or mindfully noticing the many things we can be grateful […]
🌟 Impermenance 🌟
Impermanence is the truth of life; everything is always changing. However, as humans we generally feel more secure when things stay the same. Buddhist monks spend days, weeks, even months making beautiful and intricate mandalas out of coloured sand and then cheerfully destroy them in celebration of impermanence. This is not too dissimilar to my […]
🌟Japa🌟
We’ve been looking at various methods for our meditation and this week I shared with you the Japa method which is repetition of a mantra or divine name. By repeating a mantra (japa) it can help our focus (dharana). Our mantra can be repeated, mentally, verbally or written – but probably best not to think […]
🌟Breath Meditation 2🌟
This week we looked at adjusting our meditation technique to help keep our mind focused. With meditation, it is important for us each to find a practise that suits us. Our meditation gives us permission to pause and be present, to encourage peace and happiness, to improve our health and connect spiritually. In meditation, one […]
