The Meaning of the Naṭarāja / Shiva Statue

The word Zen gets thrown around a lot in yoga, but the word doesn't actually mean what we think it does. It's very similar to the word yoga. Or Joga, as my mum pronounces it. An old subcontinent way of saying it. So a better way to put it, rather than saying we have the meaning of Zen wrong, is that there are two types of Zen. As there is yoga. There is the old meaning of the word and a new meaning. And neither is right or wrong. Words often evolve with time. Many moons a

I've had a few comments about something I said in my last blog, when I wrote that "you can't be a Buddha in the world of Trumps." 😵‍💫

The art of teacher training isn't to give you all the answers. It's to show you enough of the way that eventually you trust yourself to work the rest out, because just like Arlo 🦕, at some point you have to experience getting a little lost before you discover that you actually know how to find your own way home. And I'll be there if and when you need me.

Laura, Zaccy and I were watching Disney's The Good Dinosaur 🦕 the other day. It's a little bit like The Lion King 🦁, I suppose. It's the story of Arlo 🦕, this really gentle and frightened little dinosaur who gets swept miles away from everything he knows and spends the rest of the film trying to find his way home 🗻.

When articulating this to my oracle Laura, it felt like a RELEVATION. Like a weight off my shoulders or a veil lifted from my eyes. It's a peace inside that we don't even know we need, which is why I think it feels so emotional.

I personally don't see yoga as the absence of mind. To me it's the absence of a constant war with it.

First up, when people say “square your hips”, it's not actually the hips. The movement occurs at the hip joints, but it is the pelvis that actually moves. Just to be clear.

Even if you are not quite where you want to be yet, take a moment to recognise how far you have come because sometimes progress is not about completing the whole class 🐌, it is about knowing when to pause and still having the courage to come back.