Moving house!

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Review: Bala Yoga and Interview: Jodi Boyd

Bala was one of the first studios I visited when I arrived in Melbourne. Despite the fact that it took me a hour and a half to get there, I just kept going back, until work got in the way! Jodi Boyd's classes, although vigorous, helped me start to rehabilitate from my sacro-iliac injury, and were completely safe, even for the likes of me. Also, the studio is beautiful and smells nice. I am always keen on the sweet-scented spots!

Jodi practising bakasana in the studio at Bala

Glamour shots of the studio...

And. Did I mention that there is a boutique? Prana yoga gear, mat bags, eye bags in delicious silks, and assorted natural goodies and books. A great way to pass the time before or after class!

They have an online store, for those of you who can't make it down to Beaumaris.

So, without further ado, read on to find out more about Jodi...

1. How long have you been practicing yoga, and how did you start?

My first class was about 18 years ago in high school, I was told it would help my asthma and my performance in the different sports I was competing in at the time (Surf Life Saving and Triathlons). I was pretty random in my practice - once a month, before or after an event - more stretching than the true sense of 'Yoga'.
Yoga became an essential part of my life a little over 10 years ago when I found two Yoga videos by Louisa Sear & Rachel Zinman. I practiced those videos morning and night until I knew them of by heart and that's when my journey really began.

2. How has yoga changed your life?

I am not sure how much of my changes have come from having Yoga in my life or have just come with age ('older and wiser') I know I put a lot down to yoga but I have 4 sisters who don't have yoga in their lives and they have had similar experiences - so a lot of my changes are inevitable - yoga or not. I know I am much kinder to myself and my body than I was in my teens/early twenties mostly due to yoga. I am very conscious and in tune with my surroundings, and my feelings, as well as what I want and what I actually need in/from life.
I know I was pretty sad and empty for some time and now I am the opposite. I lead a very happy and full life but my husband has a lot to do with that so it's not all Yoga.
And of course, it aided in changing my career path from Television Editor (which was not a bad job either!) to yoga teacher and studio/boutique owner.

3. You have been a triathlete, beauty queen, surf lifesaver, and TV editor. How did you come to add yoga teacher to the list?

My husband's job took us to Taiwan, and editing TV was not an option (I don't speak Mandarin). I had a pretty strong personal
practice then and one of the friends I made over there asked if I would teach some to her. I was nervous about teaching her things wrong so with my husbands encouragement (and my teacher at the time - Joy Armstrong) I did a teachers training course and I then started with teaching her at my house. 1 friend grew to 2, 2 friends grew to 4 then 8 and before long I was teaching 2 -3 classes a day all over Taipei some private some with 20+ students attending. People were telling me how I was changing their lives. I know it's the yoga not me, I am not disillusioned, I know I am not some kind of yoga Guru, it is just a great feeling to know you are helping to bring some happiness to other peoples lives, so there - a Yoga Teacher was born!

4. What kind of teacher do you strive to be?

Compassionate, approachable and understanding of my student's needs.

5. Lastly, tell us about the studio that you and your husband, Roger, own.

Hard at work behind the reception desk

It is a wonderful place for me to spend my days and hopefully an environment my students look forward to coming to, not just for the yoga but also for the comfort and calm they feel in being here.
My husband and I put it together, painted, scrubbed and assembled with a bit of help from a few friends and some tradesmen.My husband came up with the initial design, focused on a resort feeling with a Zen flow. We tried to create a spacious feeling with fresh flowing air, as well as being a quiet, calm and clean oasis with an Asian influence. Because the style of yoga I teach is very modern and not so traditional it was important to me that the studio reflected this.
The ambiance was very important to us also, dimmable lights, candles and oil burners with our unique bala scented oil. We are both into the minimalist style featuring large open spaces with the occasional piece (e.g - the Buddha's head) to add to the feel. Plus, I am an artist and I wanted my oil paintings surrounding me, they inject some colour along with our colourful students. I think your state of mind and the quality of your practice is effected by your environment, this is why I wanted to create something calming, open and uncluttered.

We called it 'BALA', it's a Sanskrit word associated with the meanings 'Strength, Energy and Power' reflecting the style of yoga I teach (a blend of the various different types of yoga practices I have tried over the years). I also like how the word 'BALA' implies balance.
With all the smiles on faces after a class and the lovely illustrated notes I receive from my Bambini (4-7yrs) and Nava(8 - 12yrs) students - 'I Love Jodi' and 'I Love Yoga', life can't be more rewarding! The Bala studio is a beautiful place to be.

Review: Studio Cirq and Interview: Lindsay van Niekerk

This post should have appeared much earlier in the week, but, dear readers, I have been busy!

Studio Cirq is tucked away in a side street in the centre of Melbourne, owned and run by a gracious woman called Lindsay van Niekerk. Yes, she hails from South Africa originally! A long time ago though. Lindsay has created a lovely space for people to go before or after work, and at lunch, and get their yoga fix. The studio also offers pilates classes, meditation, and shiatsu.

I have been attending the lunchtime Dynamic Yoga sessions, which are taught in the Sakshin Ghatasha style, and I love them! Just vigorous enough to keep you interested, not so vigorous that you need to shower before continuing with your day.

Image from a workshop held at Studio Cirq. See more on their Flickr

The studio is filled with interesting things; hand made stools from a local Melbourne designer, piles and piles of interesting magazines - yoga mags, health mags, Vogue. And then, of course, Lindsay herself is very interesting. Read on to find out...

1. How long have you been practicing yoga, and how did you start?
I think I started when I moved to Australia. It would be in the early 90s I dabbled in the odd Iyengar class at a school in Fremantle with a teacher called Kale Leaf (!) who was a wise and witty man who I believe is still teaching. I remember those classes fondly though I’m sure I hadn’t a clue what I was doing. The school was next to a strip club and I remember a Friday evening pranayama class where it took supreme mental strength not to be distracted by the amplified commentary coming from next door. It was a memorable experience and helps when I get stressed about the noise here at night with so many bars and restaurants around me. And now I am very drawn to Yin Yoga which emphasises working the joints by holding a pose for up to five minutes.

2. How has yoga changed your life?
The change has been a gradual process of changing the way I think about things. Trying not to be too dogmatic or believing their is one solution to things. Also being aware of the instinct to push oneself physically may be appropriate in many other activities, but in yoga we can rise above that and listen and learn instead of impose.

3.How did you come to open a yoga studio? What are the challenges? What keeps you at it?
I opened the Studio because I had lost interest in what I was doing (twenty years of film and television starting in Johannesburg) and wanted to do something that combined my skills in production management with my love of Pilates and yoga. My concept was very clear from the start and I researched it thoroughly, spending 8 months on a business plan. I love having my own business, making decisions every minute of the day that are all mine to make. Running a business can be a very creative process and I thrive on the human contact, particularly as it is something people want to do and the Studio is a place that is a great escape from the office.

4. What other things excite you?
Many things excite me. I read voraciously on many topics. I am also a huge user of the web, in particular blogs on topics ranging from architecture to politics. There is so much good stuff out there – I could spend hours on the web though I do restrict myself. I’m a bit of an early adopter and will research topics that interest me. Right now I am becoming more interested in growing things and have been messing around with making terrariums at home. Its something that will take a while as it is very much trial and error. Also I’ve discovered martial arts – and I do something called Swimming Dragon which is just the best thing as it is very expressive and beautiful to do. I’ve always been interested in design, music (my first job was at a record library in Johannesburg), cooking and I love animals, particularly my two large and noisy Siamese cats.

5. Lastly, tell us about your ultimate indulgence.
I’m not one for over the top luxury, though if you had to offer me a weekend at the Peninsula Hotel in Tokyo with unlimited spending, I may say yes please!!

It's a circle of love!

Remember the interview of BlissChick I posted?

Well, if you click here, you can read the one she did of me: It makes me sound super-special, and now I love the BlissChick even more than I did before - it's a circle of love!

I think there are grammatical errors in this post, bear with me, late-tired-incoherent.

Just Breathe...Out!

I was so grateful to receive this email from Nischala Joy Devi:

1:34 Slow, Easeful Exhalations can be used to Restore and Preserve Balance


Rhythmical breathing allows the mind and emotions to return to their natural state of equilibrium.

This is her interpretation of the Yoga Sutra 1.34. I wasn't breathing so well, having just spent 15 very uncomfortable minutes with a guy at the laundromat* who insisted on telling me about all the women and girls in the area who had been raped and assaulted. In fact, he said the word rape so many times, I was starting to feel quite twitchy. I would have left, but had to wait for my laundry to finish. Needless to say, I had to stop and take a few deep breaths, and a few more deep exhales, once I escaped!

Thank you for the reminder, Ms Devi!

*Still waiting for my furniture to arrive, and with it, my beloved washing machine. Sigh. Soon.

Melbourne Yoga Expo!

How exciting! A big, YJ-style yoga expo, in Melbourne. It has been running for several years in Sydney, but this year is the first in Melbourne.

Here is the official schpiel:

Come as one, bring two.

Share happiness. Introduce your friends to yoga.

The essence of yoga is union. Practicing yoga gives rise to a sense of being connected with all others - in effect to become ‘at one’ with them. The main aim of Yoga Expo is to help bring about this sense of oneness within the yoga community and within the community as a whole.

When we are ‘at one’ we can connect with ourselves and our natural reaction is to share the joy of this connection with others. Therefore, the Yoga Expo’s theme this year is for all yoga practitioners to come in a mood of oneness, of unity, but to bring along other friends to share in the joyful experience. In other words to ‘come as one and bring two’, to ‘share happiness and introduce your friends to yoga’. For more info see: www.yogaexpo.com.au

Interview with BlissChick

Have you chanced upon the BlissChick blog? If not, you are missing out!

When Christine Reed, the eponymous BlissChick, approached me to do an interview for her blog, I asked her to answer her own questions for mine. She is a fascintating woman, an inspiration for living right, a lyrical writer. Read on to find out more about her, and also, admire this magnificent portrait of her, painted by her partner Marcy Hall. I love Marcy's work, especially her animal portaits. If I was certain I wasn't infringing copyright, I would have posted those here too!

1. Describe the PrimaryBliss of your life. How did you come to know that this was your PrimaryBliss?

My PrimaryBliss is centered around story. Thinking back, it's been like this since I was a small child. We moved a lot, so books became my best friends. I ate them, one after another. And at night, to put myself to sleep, I would make up stories, imagine different lives, faraway places, all of that. So I've always found some of my greatest joys in reading. And now I write stories; I am rewriting a very long novel, actually. Which has been a surprise to me -- to be writing a novel. It has taken me a long time to realize that I'm not "just" an essay writer or a poet but a storyteller. It seems like that should have been obvious to me from the beginning but I've taken a long and circuitous route to my PrimaryBliss! I also collect stories. When I meet a new person, it's the first thing I do -- try to get their story, the overall narrative arc of their life. And I teach other people about finding their stories. Whatever I am teaching -- whether it's creative writing or communications -- and wherever -- in a traditional setting or a nontraditional setting -- I realize that I am essentially trying to teach people that their lives are comprised of stories and that this is important, that their stories are important.

2. What types of choices and sacrifices did you make to be able to craft this bliss-filled life?

My partner and I realized a long time ago that having bliss-filled lives, for us, meant having time. Time to read and write and for her, to paint and write, and time to garden and be at home and with each other and our animals. So we bought a smaller house than the bank thought we should. We gave up our car seven years ago -- for reasons that started out as personal and then after 9/11 became more political. We simplify every chance we get. We don't travel -- again, also for environmental reasons. Now, we live on basically one full-time salary. But this means, yes, that we have fewer things, but that's totally okay because we have time. We are on our paths and our hearts are fulfilled and we are stimulated and challenged and invigorated. Living bliss-filled life is about making choices, choices based on your purpose here, purpose beyond accumulating things and planning for a retirement that none of us are guaranteed to get.

3. How does your PrimaryBliss radiate out into the rest of your life?

My PrimaryBliss and the resulting choices touch every aspect of my life. Once you make choices, the next important step, I think, is always keeping them in mind. Not just reacting miscellaneously to life but acting from your center. So when a full time job opportunity came up that sounded momentarily interesting to me, I had to work through that and realize that it didn't fit. That it would just end up being a distraction from what I say is most important to me. Changing your mind is one thing, but it can't happen every other day. Commitment to your choices is vital. Otherwise, we are like little boats on wild oceans, not ever really navigating for ourselves.

4. What are some other activities that also give you this sense of bliss? Things that make you lose track of time?

Gardening. Even just weeding takes me out of my head. Which is good. I have to do things to get out of my head and into my body. So yoga is so necessary. I would say that yoga works in tandem with writing for me to keep me balanced. Kundalini yoga specifically. I love riding my bike and being at the water. Bird watching was one of the first activities that I encountered where I could totally just lose myself and be in sync with nature (I've been such a city girl for most of my life). Music is crucial and films and sitting with friends and trying new wines. And food -- I love to eat good food.

5. What is your daily or weekly spiritual practice?

I have a real eclectic approach to my spiritual life. I turn 40 later this year and I am finally accepting the fact that I have a need for a variety. (I come from a family that was very into specialization -- we'll put it that way.) Anyway, I would say that I am a Reluctant Catholic Yogi. I find a beauty in the mystical aspects of Catholicism and there's an emotional and visceral reaction to the Mass, when done well, that I can't get away from (as hard as I may try!). And I am very attracted to Mary -- the idea that she is really the last vestige of feminine divinity in any Western religion. The rosary beads helped me through some deaths. Of course, I do yoga almost every day. And I'm a big candle person -- and I try to make intentions with the lighting of any candle. And finally, I find it's important to me on every level, especially spiritual, to be outside every day. To walk. Especially in the winter, when we can get so cozy inside that we forget there is more outside our four walls.

6. What music is your bliss?

Music is one of my blisses overall. I love to listen to music, live and at home, all the time. And thanks to Kundalini yoga, in which there is a lot of chanting, I rediscovered my love of singing. Something I used to do spontaneously when I was little. I would just make up songs about whatever. My partner and I now do this, so our house can seem a bit like a musical sometimes. But I love everything, from Frank Sinatra to Azam Ali to Vampire Weekend to Yo-Yo Ma, everything. I am a child of the 80's so I have a particular soft spot for U2 and INXS and Duran Duran.

7. Name books or authors/poets or people who are your bliss, who influenced your bliss.

Obviously, books have been a significant part of my path. I have an MA in English so for a long time, I only read dead people. I return again and again to Virginia Woolf and have recently fallen in love with Proust. But I've been trying to branch out into the land of the living... I adore anything by Joanne Harris, Neil Gaiman, Barbara Kingsolver, Jonathan Carroll, Jennifer Egan. I read a lot in mythology/theology/philosophy. In poetry, I seem to have a thing for Latin men, like Neruda and Lorca.

8. What advice would you give to someone who feels they have not yet discovered their PrimaryBliss?

Journal. I think writing through all your "stuff" is really powerful, and if you don't know your bliss, I'm guessing you have "stuff" to unpack. Think back especially to your childhood and to what you spent your time doing -- when you had free choice in the matter -- and think about what your wildest dreams were, what you fantasized about, what you thought was out of reach. The journaling process can go on for a long time, but if you stick with it, I guarantee it will work. Also, I think people can take this all way too seriously sometimes, so remember to play and laugh and have fun. And look at this with, as some indigenous cultures would say, "soft eyes." When we look too hard, we can scare away the clues and the helpers.

9. Do you have a favorite quote you would like to share?

My current one is "all shall be well, all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well" by Julian of Norwich. I think that contains all the theology/philosophy any of us ever really need.

Brahmacharya

This is a fantastic piece, republished with permission from the author, Christine over at Yoga Every Day. I had not thought of brahmacharya in quite this way before!

Brahmacharya is one of the Yamas, or Suggestions for a firm foundation for practice. Brahmacharya means conserving your life force. As I was listening to folks discussing our current gas prices and “Energy Independence” on the radio, I realized that this is another application of Brahmacharya.

When we are aware of where and how we expend our life force - our precious time, energy and resources - we can make choices that reflect our deepest values.
Energy Independence begins with not using our life force carelessly. So if we’re sitting in front of the TV it’s because we mean to, and we’ve chosen the images we’re taking in. Or, if we realize mid-activity we are involved in something that doesn’t reflect our deepest truth, knowing we can choose differently any time.

The other part of Energy Independence is choosing the most efficient methods for moving through the world. On the mat this might mean being aware of whether we’re gripping in a pose, and releasing areas of unnecessary effort. A good rule of thumb is not to reach out further or with more vigor than we are reaching in.

In relationships, everyday interactions and helping others, our practice on the mat is really practice for respecting our own life force and the energy of everyone we meet. That’s why, though yoga makes us more flexible, healthier, thinner and happier, we have so many more reasons to find our feet on the mat.

And now, if you feel so inclined, you can do an asana session themed on this yama, from Kelly at SamadhiRUSH!

I'm ba-ack!

Yay! Finally got home email sorted. Phew.

So now I can blog on a (hopefully) more regular basis; also, visit the blogs I love and have been missing (see sidebar) and actually respond to the lovely comments you leave. Instead of the deadening silence that has been meeting emails and comments.

Now for a little fizzle:
I got a rather nice email the other day. It appears I was 'blogged':




Stay tuned for the next few weeks: I plan a scintillating round of interviews and Melbourne studio reviews!

Now if you will excuse me, I am skipping off to waste time at Ravelry.

Settling in

I still don't have home internet access. If anything, the Australian state telecoms provider are slower than the South African! The home-phone saga has been going on for three weeks now...

So, still visiting the library whenever I can to check email, blog a teeny bit, and so on. Mostly, though, my days are filled with yoga. Lots and lots of yoga; partly in the interests of getting to know the yoga community, partly in the interests of getting the community to know me!

In general, I have been overwhelmed by the generosity of the yoga folks in Melbourne. This is a recurring them, since I have already said how wonderful most Melburnians are, but even more so the yogis. One teacher runs by-donation classes - just like in the old days, you pay only what you can afford, into a little tin. Two studios have offered me yoga classes for FREE. Why? Well, it seems, mostly because I have just arrived. Can you imagine that? Loads of free yoga just because I am a cash-strapped migrant? That is insanely generous behaviour, if you ask me.

So I have been going to lots of classes, and it seems there is a wider variety of yoga on offer here than in JHB - Jo'burg has a more polarised scene - either very vigorous yoga or very gentle. Melbourne seems to have more in-between stuff. Well-trained teachers, kind, safe. Safe being a big issue since I am just dipping my toe back into the world of non-therapeutic yoga after my back injury.

That said, I did attend a class last week where the teacher didn't ask about injuries at the beginning of the class and then gave me an adjustment which caused my injury to flare up again. I think I am going to have to find a chiropractor, actually. When I told my husband the story, he was furious with me. He wanted to know why I had let this happen when I so obviously know better. I said I really hadn't wanted to make a huge scene in the middle of the class: I moved away the first time the teacher tried to adjust me (non-verbal cue) and the second time, said something about my injury (verbal cue). Then I just gave up and took the adjustment.

My hubby is right though. I shouldn't have, since I was in so much pain that night I didn't really sleep. Bah!

Note to self: stick to the SAFE teachers.

Oh Dear

How did that happen?
What, you ask?

Well, it seems I am (clears throat) an endorphin junkie. Wow. I had no idea. I have been super-stressed and injured for so long, I had forgotten what it felt like to inhabit my 'real' body. Good, as it happens.

It also happens that I get cranky on days when I haven't done some heart-rate raising activity - brisk walk or fairly vigorous yoga practice, for example. This is how I know I am addicted to exercise. How did this happen to me? The kid who had to do cross-country because she was so bad at all other school activities? Who was quite sure that lying in bed reading was an Olympic sport?

It must be nature's way of inducing me to do what's healthy. Exercise, move, etc. Strangely enough, it seems that on days when I walk a lot (most of them, at the moment) my back hurts less. Although it hurts less in general these days. I can almost pretend no injury ever happened. But I won't. I promise to keep trotting it out on this blog for as long as I possibly can...

Now, limited internet access, must trot along and try to deal with my email.
Take care, all of you!

xxx

Good for You: Yoga

little yogini, originally uploaded by hlkljgk.

Soooo, I've been rather quiet lately. Sorry. No internet access. Once my home phone is sorted I will be back in action, but for today's post, we have a guest post from Danielle Grilli. She is the content director of Rvita.com, and contacted me asking to do a guest post. Hell yeah, I said, I am not up to much, so go for it! I like that RVita quotes actual studies, not hearsay, so I can use the info from their site to offer my students proven benefits.

Read on...Publish Post

If I tried to count all the reasons why I’ve been doing yoga for 15-plus years, I think I’d probably lose track around about a thousand. I mean, yoga makes us FEEL good right? It makes our bodies feel tall and strong; it’s great exercise, and there’s no denying the small pride we all feel when manage to pull off some incredible feat of balance or strength or movement. It’s an evolution that, once you embrace, unfolds and unfolds before you in a seemingly endless journey towards…I’m not sure where, but it’s got to be good.

Any long-time lover of yoga knows well enough that yoga is curative inside and out. With roots in an ancient system of healing, an Indian philosophy borne from the desire to unify the body, mind, and spirit; yoga lays a path toward physical and emotional well-being. But how effective is yoga really? What do the scientific trials say? What can those who have never experienced yoga first hand expect from the practice and how can it be used as a treatment for various physical and emotional conditions?

Although many CAM (Complementary and Alternative Medicine) treatments have the disadvantage of being “clinically neglected”, yoga is an exception to the rule. In fact, over there years there have been hundreds and hundreds of reputable scientific trials which have touted the benefits of yoga. As a result, cumulative data tells us that there is “good scientific evidence” that yoga can be effective in the treatment of anxiety, stress, asthma, depression, heart disease, high blood pressure, OCD, schizophrenia, epilepsy and ADHD. Additionally, it has been suggested that yoga might be beneficial to those who suffer from fatigue, diabetes and reduced lung function among other chronic health conditions. To date, I don’t believe that there have been any scientific trials that have shown that yoga is a BAD thing to do although, as we all know, it’s important to watch yourself to prevent injury.

In the end it appears that yoga doesn’t just makes us FEEL better, it actually makes us better, healthier and stronger - inside and out.

One step at a time

I like maps. And guidebooks. And, you know, books of instructions.
They make me feel like the world is a safer place because it has been documented.

We have a ridiculous number of photos of me consulting maps - in Paris, in London, in Melbourne. In the Melbourne Aquarium. I mean, really. A map? To navigate the aquarium? Yes. I did. And I made my poor, long-suffering husband do it too.

Another thing I keep reminding myself of right now: how many migrants have come to these shores before me. And survived. And prospered. There is even a flashy monument with the numbers of people who have come from Eritrea, Macedonia, everywhere. And a museum. I have visited the monument, but not the museum yet. Soon.

It's like Mr Desikachar says in his translation of the Yoga Sutra (yes, the one I almost always consult):

When we are confronted with problems, the counsel of someone who has mastered similar problems can be a great help.

YS 1.37

Such counsel can come directly from a living person or from the study of someone alive or dead.

It's all yoga. Even the difficult stuff. Especially the difficult stuff, actually.

Lost in Translation

South African Flag, originally uploaded by afromusing. Australian Flag, originally uploaded by pookado.

Haha, taking advantage of the internet access while I have it.

So, although I speak English, it is not quite the same language as that spoken in my new country.
Some examples:

Did you want? = Would you like
See you later = Goodbye, because chances are you aren't going to see the person later. Or maybe ever again.
How you going? = Hello, or in SA we would say Howzit?
Singlet = vest or tank top
That's alright = It's a pleasure

That said, most everyone I have met so far has been as foreign as me, if not more so (not distance wise, but certainly language and culture wise.) So I actually don't know what Authentic Australianese is. Maybe it's to be found at my new favourite sushi bar where you can get lunch for $4 (R30) - so cheap! So friendly, so kind. Oh, wait, that's everyone in Melbourne.

Whirlwind!

Oh wow, one week in Melbourne today! People here are very very friendly, very very helpful. I have lost count of how many maps people have drawn for us, and restaurants recommended, kindnesses offered. AND. We walk around at night. After dark.

This utter lack of xenophobia makes me sad about what is going on in my erstwhile nation. It's such a stark contrast.

Anyway, I always find it hard to write about things while I am living them, so here are some photos instead!



See the originals here! And nothing will be said about all the cupcakes and coffee. Mmmm.

PS yes, I did knit that green hoodie. Love it.
PPS Thank you for all the emails and comments. Your support means so much! xxx

See you on the other side!

It's a week until we go to Melbourne; the cat goes into quarantine tomorrow, the movers come on Tuesday, and on Sunday evening, we fly!

Things are crazy here right now, and the phone and ADSL will be cut off tomorrow(ish), so this is me, signing out until I get to Australia and internet access there!

Sorry if I haven't responded to your comments and emails - I will get to it, eventually.

xxx
Nadine

A Yogini by any other name...

I was flipping through one of my old Vogues (yes, again!) and noticed for the first time a Saks Fifth Avenue advert, featuring 'actress and yogini' Fernanda Torres wearing this Carolina Herrera cropped jacket.



Now, I checked it out, and the cuffs on that? Fox fur. Not fake. Real.

As I understand the word yogi, or for women, yogini, it means 'one who has attained yoga'. That's why I have taken to saying yoga practitioner!

If you have attained yoga, you are by definition enlightened, and therefore have practiced and mastered all the limbs of yoga, including ahimsa - non-harming. Which precludes wearing fur. This actress is not a yogini. She is just some chick who does yoga poses to stay buff.

Yoga Butt

My friend Anna tells me there is a technical term for what ails me: yoga butt. Don't laugh, it's a technical term!
And no, it doesn't mean the beach-ready, hot pants wearing type of yoga butt we are all told we are aspiring to, but rather, as she puts it:

SI inflammation/instability often confused with sciatica

Yup, that's what I got. That's what a whole bunch of yoga practitioners I know have, too. Let me tell you how I think it all started with me...

I did a lot of Ashtanga. A Lot. Every day, primary series, with all vinyasas, for several years. Then I started to get hurt - sore wrists, sore hamstrings, sore knees, sore lower back, sore neck. It got to the point where I would dread getting on my mat in the morning. But, you know, yoga makes you feel better, right? So the more yoga I do the better I will feel, right?

Hmm. The end result seems to be that I have overstretched some ligaments deep in my hips, so my whole pelvic area is not as stable as it should be. (Yes, I have talked about this at length before, I know!)
A word of warning: if your hip structure doesn't want to do supta kurmasana, or any of those other pretzel poses, don't. Otherwise you will end up like me...

That's why I went looking for a kinder way to practice and teach yoga, and, thank goodness, I found it. But the legacy of my silly, joint-compromising past lives on.

Visiting the chiropractor has helped a lot. In fact I am thinking of recommending him for canonization. But. He wants me to do asymmetrical strengthening with more attention to the weaker side - and the first time I did that, I dislocated again and had to go trotting back for another adjustment.

So I am sticking to really simple stuff - the fab sacrum sequence from Yoga for Wellness by Gary Kraftsow - he has a dvd of this out now too!
I toss in a few other poses, almost all symmetrical, no one leg forward one leg back stuff, and definitely definitely no pigeon. That pose, much as I love it, is lethal to my current condition.

In fact, I am finding that the poses which feel 'right' are strength builders, mostly with my back at least a little supported - like locust (and variations), boat (and variations), bridge, gentle versions of urdvha prasarita padasana, and of course, the not cat-cow, chakravakasana.

On the recommendation of my mom-in-law, who is a naturopath, I am also taking the supplement MSM which is hopefully going to help with healing.

It appears that my yoga butt is just going to take time to heal. And patience. And we all know how well-endowed I am with patience. Maybe I should get some hot pants to tide me over?

Divine Sunset

Yesterday was one of those hot, bright, dusty Jo'Burg Autumn days that make you want to hide in the shade until things cool off. Needless to say, dusk was welcome: the temperature dropped, a fragrant little breeze arose, and the sunset. Ah, the sunset. I stood on my balcony and watched the pinks and indigo's play across the sky until they faded to grey.

It was the kind of sunset you only get in Africa, the kind of sunset that had to come from Something Greater.

The kind of sunset that makes you feel blessed.

Nature is the greatest cathedral in existence.

Fashion First Aid

Vogue Cover Dec 1965, originally uploaded by Rootje.

I have a confession: I have been reading Vogue. You should see the looks on people's faces when I tell them this - like I am a yoga teacher with a drug habit or something! Thing is, the pictures are pretty, and it distracts me from daily life. This is what I want. Daily life is hard at the moment; Vogue is fluffy and somewhat vacuous. I love it! Yes, I am aware of the problems with women's magazines. But Vogue is what I need right now. And you know what? I can vindicate my habit...

In the Yoga Sutra, it says:

Any inquiry of interest can calm the mind

YS 1.39, translated by TKV Desikachar

A wise yoga teacher I know once referred to this, and its neighboring sutras, as first aid measures. Basically, when nothing else is working, do what you need to do to get your mind off the negative track and back into a more neutral one.

I remember reading a while ago, in the magazine I am trying justify, about Norris Church Mailer, wife of the more notorious Norman. She had been very ill and had undergone several surgeries, leaving her health tenuous and her body very thin. So thin, in fact, that she could wear couture, bought vintage at auction from the wives of New York's wealthy. Now that, I say, is making lemonade out of lemons! Why not find some enjoyment in life despite ailing health?

So, any enquiry of interest can calm the mind. Why not Vogue, why not fashion, why not pinup art or motorbikes for that matter?

Just as long as we bear in mind what Desikachar goes on to say in The Heart of Yoga:

But such enquiries should not replace the main goal, which remains to change our state of mind gradually from distraction to direction.

Bring on the mind candy!