Blog Posts / News / Articles
TED Talk: Happy Brain – How to Overcome Our Neural Predispositions to Suffering, with Amit Sood
I recently came across this TED talk by Amit Sood and wanted to share it here. I love the combination of neural science, coupled with super simple but really effective everyday practices for kind, compassionate living and connection. Check it out here: ...
Waiting In The Wings
I am not talking about some distant dream or fantasy.
This is more intimate, close in.
You can feel it, sense its nearness. Hear it,
Waiting in the wings for you,
Ready to be beckoned on to your stage.
This unlived part of you,
A vital, known, missing piece of your life
Is reaching out to be welcomed.
Building Resilience – an interview with Donna Farhi
In November 2020, in preparation for her January 2021 workshop in Auckland, Donna Farhi and I talked about resilience. We share the highlights of this interview below in a few shorter extracts.
What is resilience?
Resilience, self-love and care
Resilience and vulnerability
Resilience tools
Kindness, an iRest® Meditation
We hope you enjoy listening to and practicing this iRest Meditation on Kindness.
For many years, simple yet meaningful Kindness has been completely central to my Yoga practice and my life. It has been at the very heart of my practice, guiding me in my Yoga practice and teaching, and in how I live with my family and friends and community.
Kindness has so many facets – generosity, love, friendship, healthy boundaries and much more. It is the great connector. It is what will help us survive and what will help us thrive … and ultimately, it is who we are.
Mindful Self-Compassion, a course review
From August to October, over eight 3-hour sessions, every Wednesday evening, including a day retreat, I attended a course on Mindful Self-Compassion, led by Mara Elwood.
This is a review of the course. And let me say right up front that I absolutely loved the course – all the material and the skilled, compassionate facilitation from Mara too.
Stepping Over
This poem speaks to the unknown pathways which at times in my life I must take. Anxiety often arises as I face the hidden journeys ahead - sometimes when I step into a teaching space, in my relationships, parenting, and also in my life as I come to certain thresholds....
The Friend Arrives
It's strange the way a poem arrives - I can never know when the writing muse will come, and then I need to remember or be awake enough to write some ideas down. On Christmas night this year I woke around 3am, some words started arriving, something about friendship and...
Half Moon to Child’s Pose Flow
We’re gearing up for playing more with video – it’s a great medium for showing movement as opposed to a static photo of a posture. There is so much that may be explored in the transitions between postures, in how we flow, in how we move.
Sun Salutation, Yielding and Sequencing Through Movement
I was just hanging out at the studio with my friend and teacher Karla Brodie and we had time to play with shooting a quick movement video - just a couple of minutes. So exploring fluidity and the movement principle of Yielding within a Sun Salutation sequence. Each...
Morning Gratitude
Awakening into warmth and quiet stillness
I wander through the soft dawn
Then rest within our loving presence
Yoga Education in Prisons
Read Helen Elscot's Report on her experience of teaching yoga in prison 'Accepting life's circumstances and making positive change' We're inspired by the work of The Yoga Education in Prisons Trust, a registered charitable trust providing yoga and meditation...
Links to our favourite sites round the web
Surfing the web for inspiration? Here are our favourite online websites, resources and teachings and we hope you may enjoy them too…
iRest Yoga Nidra coming to New Zealand
Back in 2005 when I had already been teaching Yoga for a couple of years but was scouting around for further studies and looking for potent teachers, I came across Donna Farhi's books and was immediately hooked in to her approach ... mindful, detailed, precise and...
Your Shining Vulnerability
Last month I attended a wonderful seven day iRest Yoga Nidra retreat in Melbourne with Anne Douglas and Fuyuko Toyota. They are such wonderful teachers indeed – a beautiful experience. About half way through there was rich discussion on being vulnerable …
The Ayur Mantra
On a recent Yoga intensive with Donna Farhi, she taught us a beautiful chant, the Ayur Mantra. This is a mantra for health and nourishment. It can also be practiced with the ancient art of nyasa, a type of mudra practice, where the placing of the mantra on or around the body is said to be beneficial to the nourishment and protection of the psyche.
Each line from The Ayur Mantra maybe accompanied by a Mudra. Donna recently posted this video on YouTube – a great chant to learn …