I didn't skip yoga just because I had a cold. I found three YouTube videos for doing yoga, and I found they all made me feel better:

1. Fiona Kaczmarczyk
   
2. Yoga With Adriene
   
3. Brett Larkin Yoga
   

For future reference.

A few months ago I went with Beulah to a concert that was entirely one man playing many Tibetan Singing Bowls. He gets them himself from Tibet, where he stays with the people who make them. He could make water spray out of the bowl just with the vibration of the sound.

I have a Tibetan Singing Bowl that I treasure greatly; it was a gift from gamergrrl ( Read more... )

The Bhagavad Gita tells us that “yoga is to be performed with nishcayena (steadfast determination) and without mental reservations, worries, fears or doubts.” Determination is the firm resolve to achieve a desired end. When we stick with a plan to achieve our goals and intentions, no matter how many obstacles arise, it strengthens our tapas (will ( Read more... )

I did yoga this morning, which is of course a good thing, but not unusual.

What is unusual, though, is that I did the Adho Mukha Svanasana - the Downward Facing Dog. A pose I haven't done in two years. I thought I'd never be able to do it again, since the elbow replacement, but hey. I was wrong. I did it. It wasn't even difficult, though it was ( Read more... )

An oddly satisfying couple of days. I signed up for more French classes, even though I really don't have the money, but it might help me find or keep a job, and I love it ( Read more... )

20-Minute Retreats by Rachel Harris. I liked the way this book is set up. Lots of good quotes. Every chapter is about a trait - Faith, Forgiveness, Intuition - and each chapter contains exercises... no, 'exercises' isn't a good word for it - contains meditations on fostering that trait. And each chapter has questions pointing out why a person ( Read more... )

I went to a noontime yoga class at Adishesha Yoga Zone today. It was superb. I was most impressed with the teacher, Basia Going, and plan to go back for another class on Thursday. I emerged from the class feeling both relaxed and energized - which is exactly how I should feel. And it's a sign that my back is much better ( Read more... )

I woke up this morning feeling great - the aches and pains of the last few days had gone away. So I happily jumped out of bed - and was felled by a spasm of lower back pain. Sitting - or standing, once I was sitting - was excruciating. Last time this happened (in the spring, and it was my upper back then) it took me several weeks to recover ( Read more... )

Today was the first day of a two-day solo retreat. Did it go as I expected? No, though my expectations were fluid. Was it successful? Definitely ( Read more... )

This afternoon Beulah and I went into the Singing Pebbles bookstore, which specializes in yoga, New Age, health and diet books, and sells crystals and chant music on the side. We like to drop in there before we go to dinner at the Green Door, our favourite local vegetarian restaurant. Usually one of us buys books. Today it was me. I should have a ( Read more... )