Warrior of Love Post-script (AKA It’s OK to be Face Down in the Dirt…)

Although the last piece of journal writing that I shared felt like a truth that wanted to emerge, it’s been niggling me somewhat. I didn’t quite tell the whole story. I’m always trying to integrate my ‘spiritual’ seeking, questing, oh-so-virtuous side with my earthy, flawed human side. Both are beautiful, both are equally worthy of

Earth Medicine

To follow on from my last entry, which documents my recent experience of depression, I wanted to share my ongoing journey towards subsequent recovery. I must caveat this entry by saying I am no authority on how to recover from depression, I can only share my personal experience with heartfelt honesty. Every story is unique

Confessions of a Depressed Yoga Teacher

I’ve just taught another successful yoga class. Happy customers file out the door, thanking me as they go. I smile the loving, benevolent smile of a safe pair of hands, someone highly experienced in the field of personal well-being. Then my own hand reaches into my bag for my car keys. But instead it finds

Home really is where the heart is

The question of ‘where or what is home?’ seems to be a huge theme for me at the moment. In a way, it has been with me my whole life as I have frequently felt plagued by a strange homesickness even whilst sitting in my own home, felt as a visceral nausea in my body

Converging worlds

I attended the summer conference of the Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management (CIEEM) the other day, the topic of which was ‘Health and Wellbeing in the Workplace’. To be honest, I didn’t really pay much attention to the topic when I booked on, my main motive being accruing some much-needed CPD hours, to

Creature teachers

Today is International Day for Biological Diversity. As such, today I choose to write my own ode to our beautiful planet and the gloriously diverse life that she sustains. Without her we wouldn’t be here. She is our mother-ship! She is the mother that loves us unconditionally and keeps on giving to us, no matter

Sometimes Less is More

I’m just back from an idyllic week of teaching my summer retreat in sunny Spain. As always, I was reminded that this is something that I really enjoy doing, perhaps above all else. I love watching the journey that everyone goes on, myself included, as we all slowly release the binding ties and prescribed masks

Detoxifying the mind

NB This article appeared in a newsletter to my yoga students earlier this year but at the time I didn’t dare to unleash it on the internet. But, today, I realised quite how pertinent it is to the topic of saucha, which I have just blogged about, and so again I man up and speak

Vipassana – the magic of silence

I’ve recently re-entered the speaking world after having spent ten days sitting in silent meditation with around one hundred other people at the Dhamma Mahi vipassana meditation centre near Paris. Literally, all I did each day was sit on the floor and meditate from 4:30am until 9pm, with only a few short breaks for eating,