In the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, ahimsa is the first yama. Yama is the first of 8 limbs that constitute yoga and is seen as the foundation, gateway or threshold to the practice and the state of yoga. Yama has five to ten aspects depending on which text we look at, here I’m going to […]
I sometimes encounter the idea that a great spiritual teacher has no politics. In the yoga world at least, I have been exposed to the assumption that if a teacher is public about their political opinions, if they show overt indignation or even just strong emotion in response to political issues, they are somehow “not […]
Yoga runs through human history like a river meandering through changing landscapes. Shaping and shaped by the curves of human bodies and societies, yoga is always in continuous variation. The yoga I teach today is very different from the practice i was given by my teachers who in turn radically tweaked and transformed what they […]
Birgitte: Velkommen i studiet Monkey Mind Monkey Mind: Tak. Det er faktisk første gang jeg sådan bliver interviewet. B: Virkelig? MM: Ja! Jeg forstår det heller ikke. For det meste siger folk jeg skal tie stille. B: Hvordan det? MM: Altså du ved sådan: ”Schhh jeg mediterer”. Eller: ”Hold nu kæft, jeg prøver at sove”. […]
To most of us, yoga is about being awake, mindful and aware. However, a certain measure of mindlessness seems to be vital as a form of counter pose in modern yoga, one we often resist going into. What function does the unawakened have in yoga? Blog post for Supersoul yoga on the overlooked practice of […]
På disse kurser lærer du at mærke kroppen mere tydeligt og lade yogastillingerne folde sig ud derfra. Flowet foregår i langsomme bølger, der forløser og regulerer bindevævet (fascia) og inviterer til balance i nervesystemet. En typisk klasse kombinerer simple sekvenser, hvor du flyder mellem to eller flere yogastillinger med mere spontane flows, der udforsker kroppens […]
A post written for Super Soul Yoga
If you have practiced yoga more than once, you may already have experienced what we could call its cyclical aspect. You return to a pose, to a breath, to a sensation knowing you have been here before, yet this time it feels slightly different.
If […]
(Blog for Yogavivo om yogaens egentlig ikke ret indviklede veje).
Yoga er fuld af mærkelige modsætninger. For eksempel: Det ene øjeblik står man krøllet sammen og sveder i en eller anden underlig stilling, som føles, som den vildeste udfordring, og overvejer om man nogensinde bliver god til det her. Det næste øjeblik får man […]
Most professional musicians practice scales and arpeggios throughout their career. Scales allow the artist to become one with the instrument. In that way, music can express itself freely and passionately without fingers struggling to find the keys. This is not unlike yoga posture practice. Here the instrument is your body. A yoga teacher will take […]
“The difference between an enlightened being and one who is not enlightened is that the one who is not enlightened thinks there is a Difference” (Some great zen master)
Before we put 2015´s endless stream of bad news behind us and start fresh, allow me to share something that happened […]
There are times where our life just flows and we take the corners as if we are on rails. No friction or bumps in the road. And there are times where we get out of a bed with a heavy heart and drag our feet through the day. I think it’s safe to say that […]
Er yoga selvcentreret? Er det selvoptaget at meditere? En kær veninde skrev for nylig at hendes venner oplever det som selvcentreret at dyrke yoga og meditere. Og på en workshop med Genpo Roshi tidligere på måneden kom spørgsmålet op igen: Hvordan kan vi sidde her og meditere når folk ligger og dør i gummibåde to […]
Q: where do you place the needle on ”yoga as a spiritual practice” versus ”yoga as a body shaper” scale.
B: Yoga is for me is unity. Therefore, it’s hard for me to place that needle anywhere. I see no opposition between spirituality and embodiment. There is nothing about your body that is not […]
For rigtig mange af os bliver yoga en uopnåelig drøm om at få tid til at komme i et yogacenter flere gange om ugen. Drømmen lever især her efter sommerferien når vi gerne vil “i gang igen”. Og hvis du har en karriere, en kæreste, et barn eller nogle venner du også gerne vil passe […]
“I had no other way, always presupposing that I couldn´t chose freedom”
(Franz Kafka)
Every now and then, we modern yogis need someone to mess with our heads. Franz Kafka is a man for that job. His short story “Report to an academy” makes beautiful use of our monkey theme to reflect on […]
Vi ved det godt. Når det er lidt for længe siden vi har kigget vores elskede i øjnene, når vi savner vores børn selv om de sidder lige foran os i indkøbsvognen, når vi igen går hjem fra en fest fuld af samtaler uden samvær, når der mangler noget: Intimitet. Den livsnødvendige melodi der lægger […]
When you find the toothpaste in the refrigerator. When you lie awake at 5AM. When the meditation bell rings and you realize you just spent 30 minutes grocery shopping. When your mind goes round and round in circles to the rhythm of whatever rimes with anxiety. Say hello to monkey mind.
Migrating from Buddhist teachings, […]
Yoga is no longer the exclusive privilege of solitary cave men. Today´s yogis work for money, have relationships and live busy lives. This can spark the apparent dilemma between “my yoga practice” and “dealing with stuff”. You can hear it when we modern yogis talk about practice as that other thing we need to counter […]
“To be one is always to become with many” (Donna Haraway).
Body
There is no way to be sure. But I read in a book the other day that human genomes can be found in only about 10 percent of the cells that make up my body. The other 90 percent are filled with […]
Exotic as it was to teach retreats around Europe for 3 months it feels quite lovely come back home. Looking at the kids going off to school this morning I caught myself thinking that things will go back to normal now.
The mind is a funny one.
Back to normal? As if that […]
Kærligheden gror som græs. Videre ud end kernefamiliens glatte stammer skyder dens tynde rodnet i alle retninger. Kærligheden er en ustoppelig mangfoldighed. En knoldet, strittende, ubrydelig livskraft. Åndedræt for åndedræt, år efter år overgror kærligheden en endeløs række af relationelle landskaber. Kærligheden er vild, utrættelig. Når først stiklingerne får fat, bliver alle skel levende. Gradvist […]
A story about my first meeting with a spiritual teacher: A Tibetan Lama who handed me an axe instead of teaching me how to meditate. That was actually a much better idea than i was prepared to admit at the time.
Published by Rebelle Society. read in oiginal…
This is it
“Whatever […]
What does yoga postures, acupuncture, mindfulness and pizza have in common? At the Copenhagen Business School, scholars and managers met to discuss the role of Mindfulness Meditation in high performing organizations. Revisitng my former role as an academic scholar i presented a historical reflexion of the corporate mindfulness boom.
See the video of the lecture […]
I yogakredse giver ordet ”Dynamic” ofte associationer til yogaklasser hvor man sveder sig igennem et flow af ret “vilde” yogastillinger i takt med en fælles åndedrætsrytme. Dynamic Yoga føles helt anderledes ubesværet og ligner ikke helt de andre flow-baserede yogaformer. Siden denne undervisningsmetode blev udviklet i de tidlige 1990ére er der kommet et væld […]
My latest for rebelle Society. Yoga in india was once a dangerous and subversive practice spitting in the face of power. What happened?
http://www.rebellesociety.com/2013/06/30/the-rebellious-heart-of-yoga/
Wild yogis.
To us modern westerners, the image of yoga posture practice is one of beauty, peace and good health. Yoga looks neat. A little too neat according too some. […]
Essay published by Elephant Yoga. Original post here
Yoga makes some big and audacious promises.
According to The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, Yoga is a practice that will stop the chatter of your mind*. I don’t know about your mind but knowing my own I’d say that’s a pretty tall order! Never the less, […]
Helene Krenchel var til Dynamic Yoga workshop og spurgte efterfølgende hvad jeg tænkte om “No pain no gain” i yoga. Den snak blev til denne lille artikel om forskellen på en nærende yogapraksis og et selvskabt endorfin-kick.
Øget (krops)bevidsthed – Dynamic Yoga
“Jeg tilhører gruppen af yoga freaks, der synes, at asanas skal gøre […]
A blog post for the creatively maladjusted Rebelle Society. Postulating bodly that yoga is not about controlling your self or the world around you but rather to reveal the absence of any boundary between them.
http://www.rebellesociety.com/2012/10/18/beyondtheboundary/
full text below:
By Birgitte Gorm Hansen. “You can not always control what goes on outside. But […]
