"There are only two movements of energy," my yoga teacher noted as we arranged ourselves in Shavasana – the corpse pose – ready for relaxation, "expansion and contraction."
I adjusted my legs, relaxed my neck, and closed my eyes. I observed my lungs: expand, and then contract.
For the next five minutes or so I meditated on this idea. Expansion and Contraction.
It is true that our bodies are constantly expanding and contracting – whether we are breathing, drinking, or eating.
In Read more [...]
Posts tagged Health
Expansion and Contraction
"There are only two movements of energy," my yoga teacher noted as we arranged ourselves in Shavasana – the corpse pose – ready for relaxation, "expansion and contraction."
I adjusted my legs, relaxed my neck, and closed my eyes. I observed my lungs: expand, and then contract.
For the next five minutes or so I meditated on this idea. Expansion and Contraction.
It is true that our bodies are constantly expanding and contracting – whether we are breathing, drinking, or eating.
In Read more [...]
“Just Relax” “Forget” “Breathe”
Do you ever tell yourself to “just relax” and then continue to do the very opposite? Or tell yourself to “forget it”. Or “frick’n focus!” And then find it impossible? Well that what happened to me today. Then it reversed itself in a way I didn't expect.
It started with a 75-minute hot yoga class at Y Yoga, my health retreat since arriving in Vancouver. Today was different: a hundred and one thoughts frolicked through my mind — which means today I was not doing yoga. I was stretching, Read more [...]
Feel the fear, and do it anyway
The first time I sat on my scoot I trembled with fear. I drove it around the block, parked it, and waited half an hour for the adrenilin to calm and my heart rate to slow.
The second time I did some drills with a friend. My thumb hurt too much the next day to even look at it.
Third time lucky, well sort of. I tried to ride to Bondi, but too scared to change lanes ended up in Double Bay.
The fourth time, still feeling the fear, I rode first to the petrol station (even filling up some strange Read more [...]
New Year, New Food Pyramid: eating for health, longeivity and a better future
Before I begin my rant about food, I would like to say a big HAPPY NEW YEAR to you all! I hope it has kicked off to a better start than mine (7am New Years Day I was at the hospital having barnacles taken out of my feet) and that you had a great night celebrating (my night of swimming in the harbour and watching the fireworks was worth this pain the next day).
I thought this post better wait till after Christmas and New Years celebrations. Now is the time that, if you indulged in the delicious Read more [...]
Humanity: are we an empathic civilisation???
Something many of us probably do not know is that connected to our drive to survive, is an empathic disposition driving the evolution of "civilisation". Humans have a long history of empathy that unfortunately our history books tend to forget about. The book The Empathic Civilisation - The Race to Global Consciousness in a World in Crisis, by Jeremy Rifkin, tells another story.
As a commenter on Peace: How Do We Find It? said, "so now all we need to change, is the minds of the entire human population." Read more [...]
Ikigai – a reason to wake up in the morning
Why do you get up in the morning? Does an answer come into your mind straight away? It does for the people in Okinawa, and it thought to be one of the key factors in their longevity - estimated to lengthen the lives of the people by 7 years! Ikigai is kind of like the French raison d'etre - 'a reason for being'. It could be a creative passion, your relationships, your job... Everyone has a ikigai, even if you don't know it yet.
In Okinawa they do that thing they love until they die. Why do Read more [...]
And now, I relax
6am "knock knock" my revolting tasting medicine (of who knows what) arrives at my door... 630 yoga; 730 walk and feed monkeys; 830 breakfast (fruit and random-looking-but-delicious Indian vegetarian goop); 10am reflexology; 1030 continue reading "Holy Cow! An Indian Adventure" (awesome book btw); 1230pm massage (naked - completely naked); 130 vegetarian lunch and more gross medicine; 230 massage (thumped with hot pounds of herbs); 3pm intermediate yoga (soooo hard); 4pm ginger tea; 5pm medicine Read more [...]
India’s default detox
Next Thursday I am going to India and I have a feeling I will be making up for the failure of my February detox.
My sister tells me coffee in India sucks, so that's a start. I wonder if they have chocolate? ... Suppose I'll need a little mayhem after presenting my paper at a Peace and Education conference in Mumbai, but I'll for sure make up for that at a 7-days Ayurvedayoga retreat. Following yoga, hot baths, massages and healthy foods, I'll be doing it rough and tough with 10-days on trains Read more [...]
“There’s no such thing as balance.”
The fourteenth day = detox half-way mark.......
It’s after midnight. I’m a little tipsy. What happened to my detox?
As I've mentioned in my last post, I "fell off the horse" by no fault of my own - the 3rd ankle sprain in three weeks justified a decafe coffee, a small cheat which turned to complete failure when they brought me a real one. Since this day it has become easy to fall off the horse – again, and again.
Oh well.
A new goal for February… To find BALANCE. Balanced habits Read more [...]
