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
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...
You get to choose!
Pratyabhijna hrdayam: The sutra from the philosophical school emphasizing recognition of the heart … 20 sutras, the first 9 speak about the universal and in sutra 10 Carlos Pomeda says is a pivotal point where we understand that we are creating our...
rethinking pain
Last weekend, along with 250 others from various modalities working with health, I attended a 3 day training in Explain Pain with NOIgroup with Lorimer Moseley, David Butler and Peter O'Sullivan, learning about recent understandings about pain,...
courageous contribution
Hanuman is a symbol for integrity, contribution, strength of heart and devotion to something beyond himself. Through literally taking the leap he came to know himself as more than he thought he was (he found out that he was the son of the...
We are Inter-becoming
We are a continual process of exchange with our environment. I have been reflecting on a statement from a.youtube clip I watched over the break from a 2016 presentation by Tom Chi, inventor and co-founder of Google X “We are a continuous flame...
Rest!
The week of the spring equinox, one of the two equinoxes in the year where length of daylight and length of night are balanced. It is a tipping point, a pause, as we move into the time of year that is dominated by light. This week we honoured the...