Poop, Pray, Move [Part 1] – with apologies to Elizabeth Gilbert
This is my secret recipe for inner peace and outward calm, the kind I felt during my yoga stay in India last year. I've summarized the most important things I learnt at Kailash Tribal School of Yoga into five essentials. Yes, we studied yoga philosophy and yoga psychology and Vedic wisdom and ancient Sanskrit and sequencing of yoga asanas –...
Make Your Home An Ashram
Desperate for a weekend break, a getaway, an escape from it all? Here's how to go on a yoga retreat while you're at home. When we asked Yogi Sivadas how to package up the peace of our yoga school and take it with us, one of his suggestions was, "Make your home an ashram." Excellent idea! Create peace in your home and make it the sort...
Yoga to the Rescue on New Year’s Day
New Year's Eve started off perfectly, with a pre-midnight prosecco toast at home, giving us time to then join a group of yoga friends and chant a continuous Om again and again, as a beautiful way to herald in 2015. (Thank you, Simply Yoga, Andi and Karen). The next treat was a walk on the beach with my husband, watching...
Where Are The Goats?
Yes, I’ll admit it. It’s been difficult to adjust to “normal life” after months of yoga bliss in the Himalayas. I’ve been back home now for over two months and apart from the happiness at seeing my husband, family and friends again, the re-entry into Western life has been challenging. During the last few days of our yoga program, Yogi Sivadas...
Meeting The Dalai Lama at 36,000 Feet
I met His Holiness the Dalai Lama on my flight to Delhi today...
Goodbye, McLeod Ganj
It's our last day in McLeod Ganj and my sunrise walk took me through the peaceful woods on the way to the Buddhist temple - a kaleidoscope of Tibetan prayer flags flapping in the breeze, prayer wheels spinning to the hum of Om Mani Padme Hum, stray dogs lazing in the early sunlight. I realize how little quiet time we've...
Tushita and the Hairy Bearded Dude Meditation
I finally made it to Tushita today, a Buddhist meditation center between McLeod Ganj and Dharamkot, where you can drop in for daily morning meditation. It was our day off, so the walk through the forest with its silent, tall trees was a welcome shift from the tuk tuk, taxi and car fumes we try to avoid by breathing through...
Ayurveda and Yoga
Ayurveda is the Vedic science of healing for both body and mind, developed in ancient India around 1500 BC. The word means "wisdom of life". It's a vast subject, and I like the way it's summarized in the book, Yoga for Your Type - An Ayurvedic Approach to Your Asana Practice (David Frawley and Sandra Summerfield Kozak): "We develop disease because of...
Daily Scenes of McLeod Ganj
[gallery type="circle" ids="522,69,91,114,120,145"] Halfway through the teacher training tomorrow; amazing how quickly it's whizzed by and how the foreignness of things has subsided into the new normal. The monkey that came ransacking last week appeared again tonight at my door and this time I was armed with my squeegee/mop thing to chase him off the balcony. I am officially a local! Other...