Blog Posts / News / Articles
PRESS RELEASE: Introducing Our New Yoga Teacher Training
Four highly experienced yoga teachers have joined together to create the Centre for Contemporary Yoga Studies, based in Remuera. With over 80 years of yoga practice and teaching experience between them, Dyana, Karla, Neal and Vincent co-founded the centre with one key...
Donna Farhi on Yoga Nidra
From our Yoga teacher, Donna Farhi ..."Recently I taught a weekend workshop on the practice of Yoga Nidra in Hobart, Tasmania. After reading the evaluations from the fifty people who attended, I was struck by how many of the participants commented on their desire to...
The Pilgrimage To My Self
This morning a poem arrived …
In my childhood somebody suggested,
“Just be yourself.”
What a wonderful notion!
But what did it mean?
What Moves You? A cute little video
I recently came across this cute little video ... it beautifully touches on what may be our original motivations for moving out into the world. The beginnings of our movement intelligence may be traced back to our time spent in the womb and our first years post birth....
I breathe In
This wonderful poem by Anne Powell was recently shown to me by a lovely Yoga student. Feels good to share it. Enjoy! I breathe inI am landI breath outI am listening I breathe inI am riverI breath outI am flowing I breathe inI am kauriI breath outI am strong I breathe...
The Eight Essentials of Restorative Yoga
A few years ago I enrolled on my second Yoga Teacher Training course for a year at the Yoga Academy Auckland - I was on a mission to learn more about this practice and to equip myself with as much knowledge as I could. If I was going to teach Yoga, then I wanted to be...
A Year of Yoga
Last year I taught a lot of Yoga! So much so that by November I was rather tired, exhausted even. I found that I was way out of balance, working late to keep up with the workload, waking up early when our daughter Tula wakes up. The sleep deprivation was certainly not helping re-gain my vitality.
I felt that my regular classes on Waiheke were suffering somewhat from my tiredness.
I turned up to each class of course but often with only a vague idea of what I would teach. Part of this was actually useful and interesting … how do I teach when I’m under this amount of pressure? Can I improvise class after class?
It was in fact engaging simply to turn up to class and meet whoever walked through the classroom door, and create on-the-fly classes and sequences geared right to these students exactly as they were in that moment.
Moving Towards Our True Nature
I have been studying the the iRest approach to Yoga Nidra recently and in the teaching manual, founder and teacher Richard Miller talks about the qualities of our true nature:
Loving, Kindness, Presence, Unconditional, Peaceful, Friendliness, Unattached, Happy, Joyfulness, Faith, Trusting, Transparency, Mindfulness, Responsive, Purity, Truthfulness, Contentment, Luminous, Powerful, Knowing, Full, Empty, Tender, Spontaneous, Authentic, Creative, Intimate, Complete, Aware (and more).
Raw Brownies
I recently shared these delicious treats at the end of a class and everyone was unanimous in their delight! This simple yet stunning recipe comes from a great raw food website called My New Roots, which is by chef Sarah Britten - do check it out - some amazing recipes...
Supported Reclined Bound Angle Posture
Once experienced there is little doubt of the benefits of Restorative Yoga. There are many Restorative postures, but often my students' favourite is Supported Reclined Bound Angle Posture (in Sanskrit, Salamba Supta Baddha Konasana). In this posture we lie back onto a...
What is Restorative Yoga?
Read The Eight Essentials Of Restorative Yoga >> A few years ago I enrolled on a Yoga Teacher Training course for a year at the Yoga Academy Auckland - I was on a mission to learn more and more about this practice and to equip myself with as much knowledge as I...
Chinese Symbol For Presence
I recently took an early morning private group for yoga here on Waiheke at the Marae. It was a very beautiful start to a few days ... practicing as the sun was rising, casting a beautiful light on the ocean shore just down from where we were. We're blessed on Waiheke...
Feeding and looking after India’s homeless and destitute … inspirational
Narayanan Krishnan brings hot meals daily to India's homeless and destitute. Since 2002, the chef has served more than 1.2 million meals through his nonprofit organization, Akshaya Trust. For me, this is an example of yoga in action ... enjoy and be inspired ......
Inspiring Books and Music
Here are some of our favourite books music and and other media - ones that have radically altered what we do, how we move, and our approach to life. We highly recommend you checking them out...enjoy! Everything listed here is available from Amazon or The UK Book...
The Heart Moving
Each morning, awakening fresh and vibrant
And the night, not a collapse in a heap, exhausted,
but a presence to the wonderful art of resting.
Liquid pouring onto the earth,
Meeting the end with a breathing, beating heart,
And be held with great love
And turn and wonder, “My beloved, how does kindness move here?