Looking over my scrapbook

I’m very excited that I’ll be launching my new website very soon. This one’s been good for me; it’s just time for a little pre-Christmas tidy up, complete with new shoes and hair.

What’s been so fun is going back through all of my content over the last couple of years. I get to immediately associate where I was at that time and what was going on in my life, a bit like looking back through a scrapbook.

It’s true that when we’re on this journey that we often don’t take time to look back and admire the view. That’s because we’re always thinking that we have to move forward, to get further, higher, deeper, whatever. I am very guilty of this particular desire. It’s almost as if we have to “schedule in down time” as my friend likes to call it.

That in the end is a bit like skipping Savasana. It feels like it shouldn’t really matter, however, it’s the thing which matters most, the pose which is most challenging and most transformative. Plus, it is so honest to goodness de-lic-ious.

Sewing the seeds

As we enter what I affectionately refer to as “vata season” I find the need to tune in and really listen to what my body is telling me, as opposed to what I would do BYE (Before Yoga Era): become erratic, run around and not focus on anything in particular.

If you’re not familiar with Ayurveda, yoga’s sister science here’s a quick run down. Ayurveda treats the whole person as an individual, we are said to be made of three parts to create our unique constitution: pitta (fire), vata (air), kapha (earth). We are born, live and die with this constitution so the more we understand about it and our propensities within it the more we can live balanced and harmonious (sattvic) existence. If we choose to, free will is a whole other discussion.

The point being, that while we made up of these essences, so we see it revealed in the nature we find around us. Autumn and spring are particularly vata times, there’s a lot of change happen, quite literally (eh-hem) a lot of wind flying around. And since I'm particularly vata, I feel this season particularly. We can feel scattered and thrown to the four corners. The beauty of aryuveda is that one doesn’t treat this as such, it merely provides us with a whole range of tools which we can use to bring more balance.

So for me that means, porridge and stews. It means warm drinks. It means a grounded, slow practice. It means time on the sofa under a duvet enjoying my favourite books and giving myself space for contemplation. Because as autumn is a time to slow down it is also the time we plant the seeds we wish to gestage and then grown in the spring. So it’s the time to turn inside and give space for your creativity to be sewn.

Peek a boo

This week, as I’ve continued my delve into the Bhagavad Gita <small plug for my other blog> the idea of concealment and revelation has been, well, if you’ll pardon the pun, re-revealed to me. I’m assuming a general understanding of the story of The Gita, if not, stop reading this blog and instantly go and get a copy now. I have Easwaran, however, I’ve also heard good things about Stephen Mitchell’s translation. The books I'm using to support my study are Ram Dass' Paths to God (a truly transformative read) and Dr. Douglas Brooks' Poised for Grace.

One of my favourite scenes is when Krishna reveals himself to Arjuna in his entirety. It’s one of the moments which draws me back time and again to The Gita and I’m amazed every time I see it repeated throughout every culture’s literature. My first, aha on that was when Macbeth sees Banquo’s heirs down the ages revealed to him by the three witches in Macbeth. That one truly stopped me in my tracks and made my mouth hang open! It’s like we’ve been given little sign posts along the way just to gently just our conscious mind into remembering. Today I had a hit when my IPhone shuffled its way to David Bowie, how could I forget how great that music is?

The point is this. Forgetting is in no way a problem because forgetting is an entryway into remembering what we already know. It’s the moment when your brain grasps onto something and starts wheezing because it’s desperately trying to recall something, that’s the moment of revelation. That’s the moment of friction between concealment and revelation. That’s the edge we get to play.

Embrace your inner Goddess

I've been contemplating the cycle of the three goddesses of late: Kali, Saraswati and Lakshmi. It somehow helps is I place myself at any one time within their realm and understand "oh, that's where I am now, huh, so this is what I need to do".

If you're not familiar with the three goddesses, here's the lowdown:

Kali is your mother when she's really mad and fighting your corner. That's right, you wouldn't want to get on the wrong side of her.

Saraswati is the one Bridget Jones always wanted to be. Organised and structured, she's in charge of music and literature.

Lakshmi is bountiful beauty, when I want to bring something into my life I look to Lakshmi, she's the
nectar. She is abundance.

What I love about these three girls is that they are all within me at any one time. We move through
the cycle because none of them work alone. We have to have fierce, raw power to destroy that
which we no longer need. Then things become a little clearer and we start to organise and plan.
After that, we get to enjoy the fruits of our labour. It helps me a lot to accept things when it all goes
a bit pear shaped, the motivation and tools to rebuild and remain humble when my dreams come
true.

A small confession

I have a little confession to make... I've fallen off the practice bandwagon -*shock*. I know it happens; I’m not flaying myself with a birch branch about it and I know our practice ebbs and flows, that’s just how it is. However, I have noticed how it’s affected my life in some very specific and clear ways:
 

Goodbye energy:  I can’t focus, I’m down, my get up and go has got up and gone

Goodbye awareness: Conscious eating is out of the window, think before I speak? – not so much, getting gnarly about the small stuff is on the rise
 

Goodbye fun: there’s a heaviness to everything, a desire to sit under my mat not on it, I haven’t phoned a friend in a while

Interesting isn’t it. The thing about yoga practice is that when you start it’s like a hit that lights you up for days afterwards. Then after you get accustomed to feeling happy and bright most of the time it’s a huge imposition to not get that feeling. Then you get a bit complacent about it and think, it’s cool, I’ll get back to that in time. Then all of a sudden your mats in a corner gathering dust.

‘nough said. Less blogging more mat time.

A little thank you

I was reminded of some words from Elena Brower today: “when stuff happens I think about how I can teach this, I par it down to one sentence and refine it. Then I ask how can this be of service to others and I teach that”.

I’d forgotten these words and I’m so happy that I was reminded of them. Life deals some curve balls, stuff we didn’t expect, stuff with think is unjust, stuff which just makes you angry at the world. These words reminded me of two specific things that I’m profoundly grateful for.

Number one: that somehow I have access to this great mass of yoga philosophy through some truly phenomenal teachers. It’s like having my own personal satnav to help me find where to go when things gets really tough. Somehow my brain clicked right into it and I remember it, that’s how I know it’s serving me. I’m so grateful for that.

Number two: that I get to teach people yoga. That I get to take my experience and offer it back out into the world in a way which might just help someone, or at least that’s my intention when I teach. That in a small way have to look at my own response and work really hard to find the lesson, the nugget of gold. I’m so grateful for that.

Thanks Elena.

How Yoga Can Improve Your Sex Life

I'm delighted to introduce, Lisa Redding's guest blog on how yoga can improve your sex life...

There are many reasons to practise yoga, and many short and long-term benefits. They include better general fitness, improved mental focus, increased energy levels and decreased stress along with a myriad of other mental, physical and social benefits. Did you know that yoga can also improve your sex life?

It is not a common reason to begin practising yoga, but many people find it is a welcome, if surprising, extra benefit. Many people find that practising yoga leads to an increase in their sex drive and in better sex. People can find that they have better orgasms and more emotional closeness during sex. Couples who have been having problems with their sex life can find that yoga helps them rekindle their old desires. There is even evidence that yoga can help men who have been having problems with premature ejaculation.

Connections

There are some fairly obvious superficial parallels between yoga and sex. Both are activities that involve physical, mental and sometimes spiritual effort together. Yoga’s ability to help improve the mind and body in various ways should, by reason, also help improve someone’s sex life. There is, however, more to it than that. Studies have found some very specific connections between practising yoga and improving one’s sex life.

Physical Effects

Yoga improves general health, and so it is likely to improve general sexual function. Benefits of yoga can include improvements in the cardiovascular system and better muscle tone, which tend to just make our bodies work better in general. Better blood flow through the body can lead to more intense orgasms and can help men maintain better erections. Being more flexible can mean being able to try out more sexual positions. Being stronger can mean you can cope better with the physical demands of sex, and have sex for longer. Practising yoga regularly can often mean you have more energy in general, and of course, that can be useful during sex.

Certain yoga poses can have quite specific physical effects, especially the Mula Bandha, or root lock. This acts in a similar way to pelvic floor exercises to strengthen the muscles around the pelvis and genitals, making them stronger. In women in particular, that can help lead to explosive orgasms.

Mental and Emotional Effects

Yoga’s physical effects, such as having improved orgasms, are also linked to the mental and emotional effects – as you would expect, given that the connection between mind and body is so fundamental to yoga practice. On a quite basic level, yoga tends to led to increased body confidence, which can lead to increased sexual confidence. Practising yoga also helps people focus on intimacy when they are having sex. This is where yoga links to tantra, although that does not mean that practising yoga means you will have tantric sex (although it could be a good place to start). However, practising yoga means that you tend to be better able to clear the mind of chatter and negative thoughts, and focus better on the connection between you. When the mind and the body are fully relaxed, sex tends to be more intense and emotional.

Yoga has also been shown to help men with premature ejaculation. One study compared the effectiveness of yoga with the drug fluoxetine (Prozac - anti-depressants are often prescribed for premature ejaculation) on men who suffered from premature ejaculation, and found it to be more effective. The men in the study practised a number of yoga poses for three months, and were found to have general improvements in their sex lives as well as being able to delay orgasm. It seems that yoga can help people have a healthy sex life in both general, and quite specific, ways. Some people might find that their sex life improves as a side-effect of yoga, but yoga can sometimes be used as a treatment for sexual problems.

While you should see plenty of benefits to your sex life from practising yoga separately, practising yoga together could become, like sex, part of your life together as a couple. Some yoga poses need two people to work together to help each other, and doing that together can help build trust in each other. Yoga should not be seen just as a tool for having better sex, but as part of a holistic approach to improving your lives, both individually and together. Though naturally, better sex can be a very enjoyable part of that!

Today's post is brought to you by the number 7...

It’s 3:42am on 8th July 2012 and I’m called on to write, I will not be able to rest until I do. I have never wished to speak about my experience on 7th July 2005 while I was going to work except in the most private of situations and I don’t wish to express it now. We all have our stories that we all carry with us. Our experience, like tiny shards of coloured glass, make a stained glass window for light to stream through in the most unique way. It is who we are, this experience is part of who I am as much as everything else which has happened to me. It is me.

Seven appears to be symbolic. Seven anniversaries have passed since what happened that day. These seven years are bookended by my country winning the Olympic bid and now being ready to deliver The Games. Seven years and my body has completely renewed itself of all its tissues. I am literally a new person. Yet I still carry the experience in every fibre of my being. What I left behind on that train made space for me to carry what my friend and hero once described as my 52 silent friends.

Words never really seem enough and yet, words are sometimes all there are. Always when I have felt like I had nothing left to give, I reached out for help. When I thought there was no help, I reached out. When I didn’t know I needed help, it came. While I sit here now I realise I had the words, they already exist and have done for centuries, they dropped into my head this morning and have been repeating themselves in my mind all day.

 

लॉका समस्ता सुखिनो भवंतु

Lokah Samastah Sukhino Bavantu

"May all beings everywhere be happy and free, and my the thoughts words, and actions of my own life contribute in some way to that happiness and freedom for all"

May -  this is my intention. I may not get it every moment of every day. However, in the act forgetting is the act of remembering. I will ease up on myself when sometimes, oftentimes I miss the mark.

All beings everywhere - even just within myself this asks much, yet this is what I truly believe I am being asked to step up to do. Can I accept all parts of myself: the part which forgets, the parts which gets angry, the parts which I try and hide. All of me. And all beings, that’s harder still. Every single being is here because they are meant to be. When I don’t except parts of me, when I pretend some beings are separate from me I become disconnected. When this happens, the darkness has won. If I miss one of those shards of coloured glass, light cannot shine fully through me. Therefore, I welcome and acknowledge all parts of myself and all beings.

Be happy and free - It is our nature to be happy and free. Even on days when it feels inappropriate or our outward expression cannot be one which is joyful. We are in the uniquely privileged position of a human birth. Happy and free is what we are, this what we are meant to be. This is the light which shines through the window of my experience. Even when my window gets dirty and the light isn’t so bright, it is always there. I will shine my light.

And my the thoughts, words and actions of my own life contribute - thoughts, words and actions are powerful. Thoughts are unmanifested words, actions are words becoming reality. What I think, say and do is important. I choose to the best of my ability to choose my thoughts, words and actions carefully with the knowledge that I am happy and free, just like everyone else.

In some way - “No man is an island, entire of itself. Each man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main” - John Donne. My thoughts, words and actions make up part of the consciousness of humanity, a part of our collective stained glass window. We are many and we are one.

To that happiness and freedom for all - As much as my nature is to be happy and free, so is it every other being on the planet. Every single one. To ignore one is to diminish all.

To my 52 silent friends, I carry you with me always. And I set this intention for you.

Lokah Samastah Sukhino Bavantu

Play time!

This week it's mainly been about rocking out on my yoga mat and everyone I meet. At least to the best of my abilities!

The Sanskrit word for this is lila - play. That’s what I’ve been doing my best to embody, why? Why not? Who doesn’t want to have more fun in their lives. The other day I was visiting my three year old nephew and his mum called him in to brush his teeth. His response - “I’m too busy mummy”. He was too busy lining up cars. I had to leave the room and take a little walk I was shaking so much trying not to laugh.

Man, I want that feeling! When nothing else matters except what you’re doing right now. Not who you were yesterday or what happens if you don’t do whatever it is perfectly. Because really none of that stuff matters, because there’s nothing you can do about it anyway. All you can do is do whatever you’re doing completely, presently and with a full heart.

Be the butterfly

It has been a week of watershed. Slightly ironic since there’s been a lot of water around for a June. There are some times in life when you have to let go of stuff. I think it’s the yoga that’s made this a lot easier than it used to be. We like, as humans to hang on to things, things which seem to define us and make us unique. What we forget is that we already are unique, every inch of amazing us.

What’s brilliant about yoga is that it gives us permission to redefine ourselves, from breath to breath and remember how special we are. It is said that the yogi is twice born, like the butterfly. The caterpillar creates itself a chrysalis and completely dissolves its form to arise as a butterfly. Human cells also replace themselves at varying speeds and are completely replaced every seven years. It’s pretty cool to think that we get a completely new body every seven years and even cooler to think parts of our physical bodies change much more frequently than that. Our blood cells are continuously being replaced. When we practice yoga each breath, each pose, each practice is like a shedding of past habits and fears to awaken to a new dawn a new part of ourselves are revealed and once it’s started to be revealed it just keeps on coming.

The butterfly never returns to being a caterpillar.

We could be heroes, just for one day

Some days it’s hard to muster up the courage to do what we know we ought. I for one am an absolute expert at finding myself things to be busy about, especially when I know there’s an elephant in the room or within my heart which I really need to have a conversation with.

This is the challenge of the yogi. Because sometimes knowing the right thing to do isn’t enough. Sometimes we need to take action. We need to stand tall in our own power and own it. Whatever it is. When we take the seat of the yogi we’re asked questions of ourselves and we get to choose how to respond. Sometimes that response isn’t easy, sometimes it means going against the status quo.

I love that the word courage comes from the French word for heart, coeur. Because that’s what yoga gives us. The courage to stand in our own heart, in our own courage, in our own strength.

That’s why I get on my mat and practice. To know myself more, to know my heart’s longing, so that when I get asked to respond to challenge I have the power. Then I get to stand up as a yogic warrior and act.

Feeling Full

I love cooking. There's nothing better for me when I go home to get in my kitchen and create something delicious. Last week when I got home I had planned to make a biriyani, so I got out all the ingredients to make sure I had everything I needed. Hunting around I was out of raisins, so searched a bit more and found some apricots which I thought would do just as well. Looking at the ingredients I felt it looked a lacking on the veggie front so threw in some mushrooms. I then got to firing up my stove, pouring in the oil, smelling that delicious aroma as the onion and garlic fried. It was a labour of love but eventually we sat down to eat.
What I realised from this is that I really already had everything I needed. Whether it was recipe perfect or not really doesn't matter. What matters is that I trusted in my own intuition and from that trust I could pour my love into making the meal.

So what has that got to do with yoga? One of the attributes of the divine as defined by the tantric system is Purna. The knowledge that we are complete, full, whole. That we don't need to look outside ourselves, everything is within. That's an exciting feeling but it takes a lot of trust so when I come to my mat and want to embody this quality I go straight for backbends, which get me right out of my negative self doubt and into a full, expansive me.

Try it, it just might work!