Merry Christmas and a happy New Year

Refresh Yoga Synergy link

Just a quick post to refresh the link to Yoga Synergy that wasn't working:) Technology is fun but I don't always get it right. Try again.

Yoga Synergy

Brighten your day with a little bindi star mandala.

Go on do something creative!  

Joy to you, Margot

December and summer is here! Thougths on a year of Yoga Synergy study.

The first sunflower to open this summer. Photo by Margot

Have a great summer and open up like a flower.

Message to myself: relax - stop trying so hard and let things simply be. Lighten up and shake of those spring winds of agitation. Move slowly, think less, bend less and tense less. Simple ideas I discovered I had forgotten. I learnt a lot more than just those important ideas studying with Yoga Synergy . I completed their program Yoga Fundamentals at the start of the year and it all came flooding back as the warm weather filled by joints and limbs with movement.
The Yoga Fundamentals was very organic with lots of doing and the sequence we studied made me feel like I was making shapes rather than working through a set sequence. Not one for doing the same routine over and over again but became hooked. When I first started my own yoga practice I did think that was what you did and did it for years. Same Iyengar sequence (from the class I was attending) every day, only problem it became like an exercise program instead of a practice. Yoga me thinks not and certainly not much minding of the mind going on more a checklist approach. Oh for moving on!  Of course, after finishing the course I am back to doing different things with each practice as believe each day is different and to truly honour my body I need to listen to the songs in the cells and then do something suitable. I do still some days move through the sequence as I can do less and think less; the sequence is also part of my cellular song memory. The course certainly helps anyone of any level in yoga practice in a safer way and really encourages being at the level appropriate for you today - here and now.

I am just about to complete the Anatomy and Physiology of Yoga as I veer around the corner to Christmas. Can I do it? Done and passed both exams, finished my discussion posts yes all 12 and now just the assignment. A bit like being back at school except studying a subject you absolutely adore surely makes a huge difference. The Anatomy and physiology was much more technical and let's face it more advanced. Again, I learnt a lot and found out about mudras I had heard of but had never had explained.

 I guess this is just me thinking out loud about what has been and  to plan what I could do depending on health, and wealth.  

Om shanti,

Margot

October 2013 Yoga Retreat

Retreat Thoughts

Thank you to everyone who came along the second annual Spring to Life Yoga Retreat from Oct 25th to 27th. A great response with 18 retreat participants and a couple of the volunteers at the retreat centre joining in.

There has been discussions about running another retreat in March so stay tuned and perhaps more exciting one of my Bairnsdale students is keen to run a yoga retreat in Bali and I have been invited to teach yoga.I will still run the retreat in October as the weather and timing work well for people.

A couple of comments from the feedback forms just to get a sense of how people felt about the experience. I was happy to note that the comments were overwhelmingly positive, however, there is always room for tinkering and making improvements. In general, the nature walk that was new this year proved a great hit and gave everyone a chance to either go on a walk and enjoy the spectacular natural surroundings in the mountains or simply relax under a tree with a cup of tea.

It was hard to choose which comments to put up thank you everyone for your kind and thoughtful feedback.

"Margot's gentle, restorative, meditative yoga and her nurturing nature. Marc's calm, practical support. Great timetable- not rushed and adaptable."

"I learned a lot more about the versatility of Yoga. It's not just a stretching technique. Margot has gone through many more aspects step by step."

"The flow of activities seemed effortless. Margot's positivity and caring and funny approach"

"I feel healthier, happier, stronger and wiser than I did before I got here. I have a new mantra. You are here. You are now. This is living."

"Food is amazing. Accommodation is good." "Really loved the bush camping option."

The yoga practice room in the Golden House at SIBA. That is me waiting for people to return from the nature walk to Tullock Ard.

  I have abstained from putting photos of participants up on my blog as a popular reason for coming on the retreat (feedback forms) was to have time out.

Also some ideas to improve everyone's retreat experience that came up in written comments, about in the closing circle and by reflection are as follows: 

A gong will be rung ten minutes before each session.

A group photo to be taken on Saturday after lunch when everyone is there.

Try to have longer breaks between food e.g start earlier perhaps 6.30 for asana practice; eat dinner later shorter evening session.

Several people would have liked extra yoga sessions however, it is important to remember that you don't practice yoga on a full stomach. Good idea to wait at least 2- 3 hours after a light meal.

A challenge workshop e.g. inversions, splits 

I thought introduce some yin or longer held pose sequences rather than 2 restorative sessions.

The main dining hall at SIBA.

A poem and thoughts on yin yoga practice

Gratitude

Why I like yin yoga?
Much of life is taken up being busy, rushing from here to there like a bee from flower to flower. Of course, some of us consciously take time to slow down. My sankalpha a couple of years ago was slow down, breathe, and it did work for a while before I got caught up in the whirl of life. There are so many beautiful, amazing and awesome as well as painful, horrible activities and sensory experiences to draw us away from stillness that exquisite peace within. I teach an active or dynamic style of yoga in my evening classes, what the modern yoga world is calling 'yang' though I try to encourage myself and my students to use the breath to mind the mind and make the class a meditation. There is always a set of slow inward focused poses towards the end of class. I guess a mixture of active or 'yang' and quiet or 'yin'. 

The experience of just doing a still or 'yin' yoga practice is truly an opportunity to be with whatever comes up whether that is physical, emotional or mental tension, discomfort, as well as spaciousness, and expansiveness. For a quiet practice is not just about focusing on the more challenging sensations - there is joy, compassion and love nestled in the heart and other places in the mind and body. Worthwhile seeking them out and dissolving the tension into these spaces. A soft, quiet practice where I am just being allows me to sit with the discomfort in a way that is reflective of life. It comes and it goes. As does joy although love and compassion stay. Everything is impermanent - transitory. The exquisite stillness of just being lets me come to terms with this knowledge: everything is change, everything is in flux, everything is free. That is not to say that a similar experience occurs in moving practice after all I am only practicing nothing needs to be anything - just be, just feel, just let go. Om shanti

A yin yoga pose Upavistha Konasana

 A yang style yoga pose: Bakasana (I need to lift my head...always room to move)

 Effortless effort

 Let go and fly in crow pose Photo by Marc Perri

How Everything Adores Being Alive

What
 if you were 
    a beetle,
      and a soft wind

and a certain allowance of time
   had summoned you
     out of your wrappings,
        and there you were,

so many legs
   hardening,      
     maybe even
        more than one pair of eyes

and the whole world
  in front of you?
    And what if you had wings 
       and flew

into the garden,
    then fell
       into the up-lipped 
          face

of a white flower 
     and what if you had 
          a sort of mouth,
             a lip

to place close
  to the skim 
      of honey
         that kept offering itself - 

what would you think then
     of the world
         as, night and day,
             you were kept there -

oh happy prisoner -
    sighing, humming, 
       roaming,
           that deep cup?

Mary Oliver
From the collection: Why I wake early
Beacon Press, Boston 2004