Hanuman Comes Visiting
[caption id="attachment_1396" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Monkey Business[/caption] Today, a monkey strolled into my yogi cottage. And when I advanced towards him, shooing him away, HE advanced towards ME, and bared his teeth. I backed off and watched as he made his way to the kitchen shelves and started to pick things up and toss them across the room, while I tried my...
Yoga Kriyas and Welcome to the Digestive System
Yogi Sivadas' teaching of yoga is classical and is also strongly influenced by Ayurveda, the ancient science of better health. He believes that most emotional, hormonal and physical imbalances and agitations of the mind are caused by bad diet, poor digestion and a sedentary and/or stressful lifestyle. Healthy digestion and elimination is crucial. The exasperated expression, "Oh, she's full of shit!",...
Bhakti Chanting, Sanskrit and Mythology
Out of the mountain of our yoga teacher training study materials, I was immediately drawn to the chanting books; Bhakti or devotional chanting, which I love. We sing the invocation to Patanjali every day, and it's nice to begin asanas with this familiar chant that I know well from many Iyengar yoga classes back home. For the first week, we have...
Little Tibet: Settling In
[caption id="attachment_73" align="alignright" width="300"] Vibrant and happy yoga room[/caption] Loving it here! It's a combination and contrast of chaos and peace! Goats, dogs, cows, bikes, tuk tuks, taxis and people, all claiming possession of the narrow main street; vehicles missing you by millimetres as their horns blast loudly in your ears. And then inside our tranquil little yoga school perched on the...
Delhi to Dharamsala and McLeod Ganj
Good morning, Delhi! A comfortable, clean and quiet night at the Lemon Tree Hotel, just 5-10 minutes away from the airport. I'd recommend this as an easy overnight stay, especially if you're arriving or leaving late at night. I flew to Dharamsala with domestic airline, SpiceJet, which I thought won first prize for a fab name for a local airline (and...