notes & news
'notes & news' began in response to requests share writings, poetry, thoughts, philosophy, research, or inspirations woven into what I offer in conversation, classes, and workshops ... enjoy browsing
Pausing
We have just tipped past the balance of the autumn equinox ... The practice sent via email today to those enrolled with me for the term is an audio recording of an autumn equinox practice from 2018. Here is an excerpt from my class notes for the...
… go easy, be filled with light, and shine …
In the 1600’s Jan Baptist van Helmont studied plants. The prevailing theory at the time was that plants grew by eating soil, and van Helmont devised a clever investigation to test this idea. He weighed a willow tree and weighed dry soil. He planted...
Tree Lessons
2020, Term 1 classes with me at Yoga from the Heart are inspired by trees as I prepare for running 22km at the Tarkine raising much needed funds and awareness toward saving this precious temperate rain forest. Tabonuco trees in the tropics...
Enough
I have been reading a book called Doughnut Economics. It speaks about how Economics and the unsustainable goal of continual economic growth pervades our lives, often in an unconscious way. Forward and upward is emphasised, and we have this in our...
Shrink wrapping is a choice
Over the weekend my two girls and I ran the 22km Ultratrail Australia event in the Blue Mountains. We got on the bus to head to the start line and I recognised Michael Milton Australia’s fastest downhill skier (at 213km per hour), 46 year old one...
Paradox of Plasticity
Plasticity is the quality of being easily shaped or moulded, and the adaptability of an organism to changes in response to the environment. Plasticity can limit, and free us, depending on our choices! India is a constant reminder that you are not...
Strong back, soft front
I returned from my three week trip to India on Sunday. I find India an incredible place; challenging, contradictory, chaotic, full of paradox. The experience of being there I feel is exercise to strengthening a way of being in the world that Joan...
Tuning & Attuning
I attended a workshop with Phillip Beach a couple of weekends ago. Phillip Beach suggests that we tune our bodies through spending more time on the floor in what he calls Archetypal Resting Postures (squatting, kneeling, cross legs, half lotus,...
Experiment & Experience
Experience and Experiment have the same root Experiment: Purpose of testing something unknown. Experience: Yoga speaks of experience (pratyaksa) as one of the 4 ways of knowing, and the most important one. Play is the way children and adults...
Resting into the earth … really resting that is …
Recently I attended a workshop in Melbourne exploring the Scaravelli approach to yoga. It inspired practicing with wonder and curiosity, feeling the postures as a resting into the earth ... really resting ... really, really resting into the support...
Fluidity
With fires here in the south of Tasmania, and floods in the north, water has been on the minds of many of us ... and Wednesday's Foundations of Yoga course became a celebration of water as the rain finally fell.Water is universal.Water connects us...
When you change the way you look at things …. the things you look at change
I had an epic adventure, running the Alpine Challenge in Victoria. I did the shortest of the 4 distances, 35km (there was a 60km, a 100km, and 160km). The run for me was easier and more joyous than I had expected it would be and on reflection, part...