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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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Donna: Posted on Thursday, November 25, 2010 2:38 PM
‘Of the eight limbs of yoga, the first limb isyama, the ethical disciplines. These transcend creed, country, age and time. The areahimsa(non-violence),satya(truth),asteya(non-stealing),bramacharya(continence) andaparigraha(non-covetousness). These commandments are the rules of morality for society, which if not obeyed bring about chaos as a result of the evils of greed, desire and attachment. [...] By the observance ofaparigraha, the yogi makes his life as simple as possible and trains his mind not to feel the loss or the lack of anything. |
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Donna: Posted on Sunday, November 21, 2010 2:35 PM
Am currently totally blissing out in the after-vibes of an amazing alignment of events this weekend. I have been feeling a bit jangly this week in the lead up to this evening's full moon (and it will also be a “blue moon”, being the third of four full moons in the same season). And I know I'm not alone in this! So I have dedicated a little more time this week to attending yoga classes myself as well as teaching. My teacherRuthalways says that it's important to take time out as a teacher and enjoy the introversion that being a student allows, so that has been a lovely treat this week. |
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