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Donna: Posted on Thursday, March 29, 2012 4:56 PM
 The fourth of our energy centres (chakras), 'anahata', resides in the centre of the chest, the energetic heart centre, the centre of our thoracic space. With lungs taking up so much of this physical region, it's unsurprising that the element associated with Anahata is air. Anahata governs the heart, the lungs and our ability to open ourselves to love.
Something that yoga has revealed to me very powerfully is the link between the physical and the emotional - when we open the body, stretching previously stiff and tense areas, we can find that rushes of emotion are released. |
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Donna Gerrard: Posted on Wednesday, March 28, 2012 2:20 PM
Over the last couple of years, I've been in love with the vinyasa process where you look to a peak pose and design a flow of postures that open the body scientifically to take you towards that destination. Every element of the flow is informed by the previous element, everything is connected, the practice is a wave and the individual asanas are like droplets of water within the process of the wave. But I have just been re-inspired byRuth White (with whom I did my original teacher training) and |
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Donna: Posted on Wednesday, October 19, 2011 12:25 PM
At the end of September 2011, beautiful yoga teacher friend, Beth Croft, and myself led a yoga retreat at the wonderful Molino del Rey retreat centre in the mountains of Andalucia in Southern Spain. 'Molino' is Spanish for mill, and Molino del Rey is built around 2 ancient water mills on the side of a valley. The millstreams continue to flow in and around the beautiful building - alongside the steps down the mountainside from the bedrooms down to the yoga studio, behind little niches for meditation, and even under the yoga studio itself. |
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Donna: Posted on Thursday, October 13, 2011 12:39 PM
Autumn greetings and blessings, beautiful friends! Summer was busy and wonderful! I spent 5 days in June with my teacher Shiva Rea in London, and we were so lucky to have a live music accompaniment by Ann Malone and Tom Simenauer, two wonderful musicians. Shiva's teaching in London kicked off with a workshop to support her Yoga Energy Activism project, encouraging the yoga community (and the world!) to make more conscious choices about our toxic energy use.  I have started to use more and more beeswax candles to light my yoga classes. |
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Donna: Posted on Friday, June 10, 2011 11:48 PM
I have a whole bunch ofsankalpahs(resolutions) right now. The keen-eyed will notice that I have added Facebook and Twitter feeds to my Home page. (What do you think? Let me know if you think it works.) I am eventually getting my head round Twitter and have resolved to tweet once a day. There's usually a piece of news about class updates or a lovely quote to share. I've also resolved to blog more regularly. Weekly would be good but monthly is probably more achievable! I don't need to commit to use Facebook more, I chat on that a lot, which probably says something about my 5th chakra (throat, voice, speech). |
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Donna: Posted on Friday, May 06, 2011 8:34 PM
I've been feeling the need to blog about the chakras since I mentioned them in my post aboutsankalpahs(resolutions). So here is the beginning of what will be a few posts exploring the subject.  In the ancient science of tantra, the human body is viewed as the most perfect instrument for the expression of consciousness. This perfection is realised through the development of the energy centres, or chakras. These energetic centres of the body are located and have energy associated with them as follows: |
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Donna: Posted on Thursday, February 17, 2011 1:07 PM
 Thanks to the lovely yogis and yoginis who joined me on 12th February for my yoga day - after a morning yoga practice and a shared lunch, we got out for a beautiful Spring walk in the Sussex countryside, and in the afternoon explored inversions a little deeper than a single yoga class allows. The weather was really kind to us, and during the meditative part of the walk we spotted and followed a pair of young deer who kept peering back at us. Thanks to everyone who attended (and to the weather! |
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Donna: Posted on Monday, January 31, 2011 12:20 AM
Happy 2011! A little late I know, but this is my first blog post of 2011. The year started amazingly for me, in beautiful Costa Rica with my beautiful teacher, Shiva. In the days leading up to New Year's Eve, the teacher trainers had been giving some thought to what worked well for us in 2010, and (working up through the chakras), at the level of energy associated with each chakra (more on this later), where we feltblocked, and what were oursankalpahsor resolutions associated with each of these areas of energy in our life. |
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Donna: Posted on Monday, December 13, 2010 10:33 AM
I'm such a lover of Christmas carols. Two of my special favourites are 'Angels from the realms of glory', and, one we used to sing at school but I have rarely heard elsewhere, 'Three Kings from Persian lands afar'. This latter one has a beautiful descant that the upper school used to sing while the lower school sang the lower part. It was such a special tradition in a very special time of year. (Nonsuch old girls, do you remember? Did you love it too?) Three kings from Persian lands afar To Jordan follow the pointing star |
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Donna: Posted on Thursday, December 02, 2010 10:30 AM
Wow, we really are given everything we need. Earlier this week, I looked at my diary and wondered how on earth I was physically going to achieve everything that was in my diary for this week. And then down came the snow, laying beautiful white swathes across both the local countryside, and, as roads became impassable and travel difficult and dangerous, my diary too! So I am taking the opportunity to BREATHE. And to enjoy the beauty of the white countryside. I particularly love the extreme stillness that the snow brings. |
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