Like a Victorian Novel. A lot of people think yoga only “works” if you do a lot of it. Long classes. Daily practice. Retreats. Challenges. The kind of commitment that requires a colour coded diary and a level of discipline most of us don’t have. But maybe yoga is more like reading a long novel……
The Flat Cap: The Costume of Spirituality in Modern Wellness In the north of England, the flat cap wasn’t originally fashion. It was practical. It kept rain off men working long days outdoors. Men grafting in factories, fields and shipyards. Men hunting because they needed food on the table, not because it was a leisurely…
There comes a point in many yoga journeys when we find the studio. The teacher whose classes just make sense. The room that feels like home. The familiar faces. The mat in the same corner. The Tuesday evening ritual that quietly becomes non-negotiable. It becomes the place to be. There’s nothing wrong with that. Community…
The Thing Isn’t The Thing Kurt Vonnegut, the novelist known for finding profound truths in ordinary moments, once told a story about going out to buy a single envelope. His wife suggested he buy a hundred and keep them in a cupboard. It would be more efficient. More sensible , yes, but efficiency wasn’t really…
January Tells Lies, Yoga Wears Truth Goggles In yoga philosophy, the “grooves” or recurring patterns of thought, behaviour and emotional imprints in the mind are called samskaras. These can be good, bad, old or new. Helpful or not, they undeniably make that part of the brain stronger and that’s visible on scans. Think of them…
Vairagya (pronounced vai-RAHG-yah) is often translated as non-attachment but that can sound a bit cold or distant. In yoga it’s actually much more tender than that. Vairagya is the practice of letting go without hardening, of releasing your grip while keeping your heart open. It’s not about pushing feelings away or pretending you don’t care,…
Uncertainty is the technology of possibility. What a great sentence. Could doubt really be a place of discovery? The idea that NOT knowing is a super power to harness, not to fear or avoid. Uncertainty can show up as finances, the future or even simple daily events such as what we should eat or what…
The Farmer & The Field A simple yoga teaching from The Bhagavad Gītā. In the Bhagavad Gītā, the body is described as a field. The Sanskrit word is kṣetra (k-sheh-truh) , ‘the field’. Then equally as important, there is the one who knows the field, kṣetrajña (k-sheh-truh-gyah) , ‘the knower of the field’. To make…
Chidakāśa: The Kind of Space We All Need Yoga philosophy is full of beautiful concepts that sometimes feel like they belong more in a candle lit cave rather than everyday life. Chidakāśa is one of them. It translates roughly to “the space of consciousness,” but before you switch off stay with me because this idea…
Group Classes: The Meeting Point of Movement and Philosophy The online yoga space loves a dichotomy. Scroll long enough and you’ll notice the tension: on one end, group classes are dismissed as exclusionary or superficial, and on the other, there’s the idea that realyoga is found only in stillness, study or pure philosophy. I’ve seen…