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3 Secrets for a Living a Calm Life
Picture a calm and smiling you, floating through your day, not a care in the world … There’s your ever-thoughtful partner. Here come your perfect kids – checking to see if you need a hand. And there are your work colleagues, those smooth operators who deftly lift weight from your shoulders. Down you sit to…
Read MoreHow I Got my Yoga Classes Live Online with Zoom
With the outbreak of Covid-19, Yoga teachers are learning fast how to get our classes live online. Amid the anxiety and the very real threat of this disease, there has never felt like a more important time to connect with our Yoga communities and to share our calm- and health-promoting practices. And, with many people having…
Read MoreWhy self-care belongs at the top of your to-do list
Amid the never-ending demands of our busy lives, it’s so very easy to end up always putting our own self-care at the bottom of our to-do list. We feel like we just don’t have the time and hope we’ll somehow get away with it. And when our energy plunges, our stress levels surge and our inner world rebels…
Read MoreI’m a Proud 1966 Fire Horse Woman
My Chinese zodiac sign is a Horse. More specifically, I’m a Fire Horse, being born in 1966 (the 5 Elements cycle through the 12 zodiac signs, so each pairing comes up once every 60 years). The Fire Horse is not a popular symbol to be born under in Asia. That is something of an understatement.…
Read MoreForget New Year Resolutions – Create a Positive Vision
If you are busy lining up all the things you are determined to give up this New Year, stop now! New Year resolutions frequently focus in a self-esteem shrinking way on wanting to be less xxx (replace xxx with the relevant self-flagellating word(s) eg lazy, stressed, unfit, anxious, fat, worthless, disorganised, in pain etc). By…
Read MoreMy Italian house is Ready for Guests and Yogis
Last September, I posted here that we had started the process of transforming our old home into a venue for holiday rentals and Yoga retreats in Italy. We were back out in Umbria over the Easter break to continue that process. When we arrived, it seemed quite impossible that we could get everything done in time!…
Read MoreHappy Chinese New Year of the Dog
Happy Chinese New Year of the Dog! Xīn Nián Kuài Lè 新年快乐! Or Happy New Year! On February 16th, we said goodbye to the Chinese Year of the Rooster and hello to the Year of Dog. In China, the Lunar New Year – which falls at the January-February new moon – is a big deal.…
Read MoreSensation: gateway to your fertile depths
I would like to share the wise and nourishing words of a fellow teacher of the healing arts of MogaDao, Kim Robinson. Kim teaches MogaDao Yoga classes, Qigong classes and Sacred Daoist Sexuality classes at the MogaDao Institute’s studio or ‘guan’ in Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA. Below is an excerpt from a recent lecture,”The Art…
Read MoreCambridge Festival of Ideas: Daosim
My old Cambridge University department – where I studied Chinese many moons ago – is hosting a talk on Daoism as part of this year’s Festival of Ideas. It’s at 3-4pm, Saturday, November 1 at the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, Sidgwick Avenue, CB3 9DA. It is free and you do not need to…
Read MoreTaiwan – land of Qigong and Bubble Tea
I spent the whole of this summer with my family in Taiwan. My husband and I lived for 10 years in China in the 1990s and I spent several months in Taiwan before that as part of my Chinese studies. So this trip was partly a walk down memory lane, as well as a chance…
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