by admin | Nov 3, 2012 | Uncategorized
What is creativity? It’s intuitive, sometimes illogical. The creative space is that space entered where I’m not sure where it will go. It’s open, with possibilities. A flow that I move into inspired by a knowing, some kind of faith that the direction I’m moving in is where I need to go to find something out. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, the author of “Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience” describes the outcomes of some wide ranging research he undertook to discover what makes people happy. He found that people felt most elevated while they were in what he refers to as a state of flow. A state of being immersed in a ‘rewarding pursuit’, the pursuit being challenging, but not too challenging so it causes stress. Rather, it encourages focus and that internal space we enter when we’re focused. That creative space. He also talks about how this state is one that is often missed out on in our society. He puts forward the idea that we move through our day out of touch with a sense of what’s really happening in our bodies and with our emotions. We bounce between two extremes – feeling anxious and pressured by obligations during the workday and then feeling passive and bored in moments of leisure. He proposes we challenge this way of existing. I am a passionate knitter. I love wool – the texture and the colours. It inspires me. The smell reminds of a sheep, an animal, it breathes and provides warmth. When I knit I just like to knit, without a pattern. For me that’s all I want from knitting. To...
by admin | Oct 28, 2012 | Uncategorized
We rely so much on our vision to direct us in life. Because vision is so dominant in all that we do, the other senses of sound, touch and smell fall to the wayside, meaning we miss out on a lot that goes unnoticed while our vision dominates. A great way to alter our perception and heighten our less utilised senses is to simply DO THINGS DIFFERENTLY. I used to take myself off to the park of an afternoon now and then. I’d choose a wide-open space, put my headphones on and turn my music up, close my eyes and run as fast as I could without opening them. It was thrilling, scary, and the purpose was to challenge my perception of things. At the time I was suffering from some fairly dark days in my life and this was a part of moving me through my depression to reach a point of feeling invigorated and momentarily alive. Sure, it wasn’t until I addressed the real reasons behind my depression that things shifted more permanently, but it certainly helped me until I found a way to do that. I have explored this idea of shifting consciousness via the senses quite a bit in my life. As a facilitator of Creative Arts Therapy workshops, I use multi-modal methods of self-enquiry; this might include movement, sound, voice, writing or visual art. I found for myself, and often for the people I have worked with since using this method, that the most effective modality is the one most unfamiliar to the user. The reason for this is simply that they are using...
by admin | Oct 18, 2012 | Uncategorized
You’ve likely heard of the word karma and know it is used when referencing something that appears to be either good or bad coming across your path. Perhaps you’ve heard that those with ‘good karma’ have an easier life and those with ‘bad karma’ suffer more. The saying “I must have done something awful in a past life” when referencing a tough situation is common. I’d like to suggest that our understanding of karma shift to a more day to day focus. Understanding karma can influence the way our lives play out. There are plenty of opportunities right now to attend to your karmas. What are Karmas? Karmas are those things that cross our path that cause a reaction. Instead of acting, we react. Our reactions are drawn from a whole history of experiences. An experience you had as a child, teenager or adult in the past can influence your REaction to an experience you have today. This REaction is the karma. Karmas are learning opportunities that come along, via experience. Karmas are the keys to liberating ourselves from pain. Go karmas! By observing our karmas (our reactions) to particular experiences, we can consciously shift from living in the past into the present moment, avoiding re-experiencing yesterday’s pain/lessons AGAIN. So instead of wanting them to go away, be grateful for the lessons, and be committed to learning and moving on. How to observe your karmas and move on: In each moment, check in on how you feel. When that person who pushes your buttons approaches you at work and you get that ‘oh no, here we go, I know what’s coming…’ feeling,...
by admin | Oct 4, 2012 | Uncategorized
There’s a Green smoothie phenomena being adopted all over the world. A green smoothie is a combination of dark green leafy vegetables and whatever else you like (fruit, nuts, seeds, honey, etc) all blended into a filling, hydrating smoothie. Now that the weather is warming up and porridge is not so appealing, I suggest you get into the green smoothie for breakfast. I first started with them when I did a detox that involved giving up my muesli and tea for a smoothie and was surprised at how energising and super cell-replenishing, blood-purifying, immune system supporting and generally overall-nourishing it feels! Now I love them and like to have them daily. Blending fruits and vegetables together breaks down the cells of plants and improves digestibility, maximizing their delivery to your body. Dark green leafy vegetables are, calorie for calorie, probably the most concentrated source of nutrition of any food. An excellent source of many vitamins A, B, C, K and folate, as well as minerals such as iron and calcium. Dark leafy’s are also a great source of fibre. As a yoga teacher, I’m out and about during odd hours of the day and some evenings and my meal times can be a bit sporadic. By starting with the greens, I find comfort in knowing I’ve had a good serve of vitamins and minerals first thing. So if my day gets away from me and my diet isn’t quite as fresh or vitamin packed as I could have it, at least I’ve nourished myself well first thing in the morning. Particularly suited to a green smoothie include: Kale, silverbeet,...
by admin | Sep 28, 2012 | Uncategorized
This week in our yoga we worked on a set to relax and release fears. We did this by using postures and movement that work specifically on the liver, spleen and kidneys. These organs are affected by and connected to the emotions of anger, fear and worry. With that in mind, I want to highlight how important it is to care for the organs in the body to support us to feel more balanced in our experience of emotions, such as anger, fear and worry. The body reflects the emotions and the emotions are reflected in our bodies. As an integrated mind/body system, the emotions we experience can have either a helpful or a stressful effect on our organs. There’s plenty of good energy that comes from feeling the emotion of love. We feel energised and like life flows more smoothly. We feel less affected when things don’t seem to go our way. The emotion of love can create a sense of wellbeing and acceptance that things are ok. But what about the emotions of fear, anger and worry? Feeling angry or fearful or worried at times is part of being human and is a worthy expression of our good self. Any emotion, expressed consciously and with awareness, has a positive effect on our wellbeing. It’s part of life for us to feel emotion, the trick is to let the emotion flow through, be felt and acknowledged and then move out of the system. It’s not the emotion that causes the body system to become imbalanced, rather, if we get stuck in that emotion, this can erode the physical...
by admin | Sep 20, 2012 | Uncategorized
In yoga, there is a strong focus on the breath. We practise breath control techniques (breath of fire, segmented breath, breath suspension) to shift our internal experience. The breath reflects our state of mind. If the breath is shallow and fast you will notice life reflecting that same experience, you may feel stressed or anxious. Adjusting the breath from shallow and fast to full and deep can transform our mental, physical and emotional state from one of feeling anxious and stressed to one of feeling more centred and relaxed. Even if you don’t consider the circumstances you are in at the time to be controlled and relaxed, the breath can trick the body and mind into feeling this way. Life can then begin to reflect that back to you, through the flow of breath. At the same time in our yoga practice, we learn to allow the breath to dictate movement. When we practice yoga we move with the breath, the inhale and the exhale. The breath comes before the movement and the movement reflects the breath. The breath reflects how we are feeling, whether we feel energised or more inward and nurturing. This can impact the speed of our practice and how deeply we extend into the postures. There is no right or wrong, only that moment and how your breath reflects your individual state in that moment. Noticing and respecting that is your yoga practice. To flow with the breath is to flow with life. The breath is a great detoxifier. We breathe oxygen and fresh air in and then out. We also breathe pollutants in and...
