Meditation is the practice of mastering our minds – taming their tendency to wander wildly and learning to reengage, bringing our awareness back to the present moment. When we meditate, we stop projecting into the future or playing the past over in our minds like a broken record. Instead, we settle into our skin, finding our centre within and through this, a sense of equanimity enabling us to better deal with the fluctuations and impermanence of life. Instead of being about the destination, meditation is very much about the journey and our sensory experience of it. When we are released from the shackles of the mind and simply allow ourselves to ‘be’ we can find clarity, lightness and a deeper sense of connection to life and to those around us. We feel more alive, more focused and more complete.

The asanas or postures in yoga were originally designed to prepare the physical body for meditation, so the combination is a naturally synergistic one. For this reason, we at Byron Yoga Centre have decided to hold a yoga and meditation retreat, starting February 19. Run by our resident philosopher and dedicated meditator with over twenty years experience, Stephan Kalhert, the retreat is designed to help those new to meditation as well as those who are experienced practitioners, but would like to deepen their practice and enhance their understanding of its philosophy and history. Held at our stunning Tallows Beach location, this is the perfect opportunity to get back in touch with yourself and learn the tools to gain clarity, calm and concentration in body, mind and spirit. Its going to be a beautiful and profound experience and we look forward to share it with you.

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~ Yoga teaches us to cure what need not be endured and endure what cannot be cured. ~ B.K.S. Iyengar

It is not a surprise that more people turn to yoga in times of crisis. When we are depleted, emotionally, physically and mentally the need to take care of our well being becomes more important than ever.

The recent floods across NSW and QLD have resulted in multiple deaths and thousands of people losing their homes and livelihoods. The devastation caused is unquantifiable and the impact on people’s emotional health and capacity to function is huge.

This is an undeniable fact and practicing yoga at a time like this may seem trivial. However, it is precisely during times of great distress that we need all the support we can get.

Yoga can provide a refuge of calm from whatever chaos is occurring in our lives. It provides the space for us to check back in and, when we are suffering and stressed, gives the body and soul the chance to relax and rejuvenate.

It also teaches us to live moment by moment and breath by breath. This attentiveness to the present moment is vital if we are to make lucid decisions, cope with difficult situations and is particularly important when the thought of the future is overwhelming and only adds to our already heightened sense of anxiety.

By surrendering to what is and accepting that we cannot change what has happened, we can only deal with what is in front of us right now, we are no longer paralyzed by our attempts to control the uncontrollable.

Through yoga, we can learn to be present, finding our centre and stillness amongst the changeability of life. In this way we can alleviate our suffering. This is the practice of yoga.

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If you have an intrepid spirit, a desire to reconnect with nature and tune back in to body, mind and spirit, then the combination of yoga and surfing may be your perfect match.

These complimentary traditions are both forms of meditation in motion. They encourage us to connect back to the present moment, to our surroundings and to ourselves. All the while developing our energy, endurance, flexibility and body awareness.

When we integrate yoga and surfing, a synergy takes place. At once, the surfer becomes more agile, has a deeper understanding of his body and breath and is less prone to injury, while the yogi gains strength, endurance and enhances his connection to his surroundings.

The beauty of both yoga and surfing is that they are far more than just forms of exercise. When we become completely present and completely peaceful, an alchemy of self, spirit and surrounding takes place. There is the opportunity to see that we are part of something greater than ourselves. In yoga, there is the union of our individual selves with our greater selves, or Atma. In surfing there is the harmony and synchronicity of our body with nature. When combining the two, we are taking a holistic approach towards yoking body, mind and spirit.

This is why, in conjunction with the highly experienced boys from Mojo Surf, we’ve designed a seven day retreat for beginners through to advanced yogis and surfers alike to explore these parallel traditions in a safe and fun environment.

Our surf/yoga retreat, starting January 15, is located at the unspoiled Tallows beach. There will be daily yoga and surf lessons, pranyama, beautiful, fresh food and plenty of time to relax and explore the surrounding areas. If you’re up for a bit of adventure, some time to chill out in paradise and tap back into yourself, then jump on board – it’s going to be sensational.

Check out the website for more details: www.byronyoga.com

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Have you ever known anyone faced with a life threatening illness? Have you or someone you know been confronted with an unexpected and potentially life threatening situation where everything normal went ‘into a spin’? How did you, or they react? Perhaps questions of the real meaning of life arose. It won’t come as too great a surprise to know yoga and retreat play important roles helping us adjust to major life challenges such as those posed by changes such as these.

At any given time, the chances are that someone you know is going through something of  a crisis. We receive a phone call (an email just seems too impersonal and distant) alerting us to their situation. It could be a call for a chat or a call to action. Their news might be urgent, asking us to travel a distance and give up work and even the needs of our immediate family to be by their side.

Sometimes just having someone to talk to, or someone who is not only trusted but also compassionate and considerate is needed. What might we tell them to do? If they are open to the gift of yoga, what would we recommend they do to manage their moment of crisis?

Few of us may boast the necessary qualifications to offer sound professional advice to others, such as close friends, in their time and hour of need. What we, as yoga teachers and practitioners is a form of guidance and the encouragement to draw upon the practice of yoga to help them ‘get through’.

Yoga therapy teachers offer a pathway to dealing with the stress and adjustment imposed by changing life circumstances, such as that of unexpected health issues where major changes are required in lifestyle and behaviour. Teachers in yoga therapy are experienced in dealing with ailments and illness from a wholistic yogic perspective.

Their gift of knowledge can be as simple as advice on gentle postures that assist with post operative recovery following medical treatment, or it might be guidance on meditative practice to help a student prepare for essential medical procedure involving interventionist trauma, such as complex surgery and medication.

One aspect of growing older is the growing likelihood that we, or someone close to us, will face even more serious life (and death) situations with age. When mortality suddenly becomes an ‘issue’, individuals usually begin to reassess how their life has been lived so far. What can also occur is an assessment and reordering of lifestyle so as to recover and restore the quality of life to which we’ve been accustomed. How reassuring to know yoga can not only assist the body recuperate after, say, surgery, but also help us keep focus on a path to inner stillness of the mind.

When someone you know is facing a challenge brought on by a sudden health crisis, either through accident or age, share your gift of yoga with them. If that someone is you, draw upon the strength and clarity of yoga’s healing power to keep the mind still and focus as you take important and essential steps on the path to recovery.

The support of friends and family can never be replaced or undervalued in any crisis. How much we choose to do for ourselves when the inevitable stress of life arises is up to us. Remember what yoga can do to help us manage.

Use yoga’s gift to engage with the body to guide us towards recovery using the yoga therapy approach. Yoga’s level of strength, support and nourishment is limitless once we adopt it’s wholistic approach encompassing respect and nurture embodied in teacher training.

Breathe in the beauty of yoga. But be careful to not over commit our body to recovery which can lead to disappointment and frustration. The guiding hand of yoga therapy and retreat is one approach at our disposal where the benefits are boundless!

What we might refer to as crisis, even at life’s end, can be managed with the love and support of others, appropriate medical advice and a yogic approach to healing and acceptance. Let’s offer that advice and support to others in their moment of need, by engaging in the teaching of yoga therapy through Byron Yoga Centre’s yoga therapy teacher training course. The course is a great opportunity to immerse ourselves in the knowledge and awareness of wonderful experienced teachers who have a deep understanding of healing and health appropriate for yogic mind and body management. Take the plunge and revel in the blessings offered by such an opportunity.

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If you’re a keen observer of daily events, it would be hard not to rate the recent turmoil affecting air travelers in northern Europe right up there with the major stories of the year. Who would have thought an active volcano in remote Iceland could bring the world’s aviation industry to it’s knees (or should that read ‘ground’) while nature took it’s course, throwing the travel plans of thousands of people into chaos? Is there a link between erupting volcanoes and yoga?

The recent travel chaos caused by the eruption of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano has been described as the greatest disruption to air traffic since the Second World War. The travel arrangements of thousands of people through some of the world’s busiest airports across northern Europe and the UK simply came to a halt. Airlines were unable to fly for fear of a combination of engine malfunction and aircraft damage, with the industry unable to predict how long travel would be affected due to intense plumes of ash in the sky. What a reminder of our vulnerability and susceptibility to unforeseen climatic events!

We are all aware there’s ultimately a cost of human endeavour impacting on the environment. To think such an occurrence as an exploding volcano would play havoc with modern day transportation to such a stunning extent is intriguing to say the least. Turmoil such as this happens in part because of the unexpected. We are never able to predict with certainty when things will go wrong. Yoga offers the practitioner a path to managing and accepting disruption and imbalance from unexpected change. Yoga allows us to embrace rather than escape from these moments of ‘mini turmoil’.  

Yoga delivers a sense of calm and inner stillness by connecting our mind, body and spirit. Just think how your mind is still and focused after an hour or two on the mat! Yoga practice and yoga retreat offer a path to inner peace and peace of mind and body is as close as a regular practice. 

Yoga offers a doorway into inner stillness to bring life into balance. Yoga also offers strength and direction to deal with events which threaten balance and harmony. Yogis know we needn’t endure inner turmoil even when our outer world descends into chaos and confusion.

One way to bring inner stillness is to engage in a yoga retreat and enjoy a week long program of yoga, rest, meditation and cleansing diet which can do wonders towards achieving balance and harmony. This is particularly relevant when the stress of daily routine begins to take a toll on our general state of wellbeing.

We have no control over nature. What really matters is how we meet the demands of changing external circumstances. Yoga practice helps keep ourselves in balance with our physical and emotional environments especially when our outer world is in turmoil. The inner stillness that comes through yoga is a powerful and accessible path to stability and harmony.

We sympathise with the tens of thousands of air passengers stranded in the recent crisis. The likelihood is that such an event will soon forgotten, to be replaced with a new set of challenging circumstances. Let us remember as life presents such challenges, not to fight change but accept what is. Let us meet challenge and change with love and surrender and use our practice of yoga to restore and maintain inner peace and stillness.

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Like you, I like to live a life which shows my passion about the environment. Like you, I recycle paper and glass waste at home. I try and buy locally produced food and goods from my neighbourhood greengrocer or weekly market, rather than those shipped half way round the world at the town’s corporate supermarket. When I visit an ATM I select view on screen rather than print a receipt. I try and cycle whenever I can. I even tear off the plastic window from bills envelopes (I’m told it’s the Virgo in me) when disposing off mail. And I practice yoga because of a sense of stillness and harmony a regular practice offers me. So when people more learned than me urge we tread lightly on the planet, I want to follow their lead because it sits comfortably with those values. Why then is there such a fuss over whether our response to climate change is right?

Recently, there’s been a spate of stories casting a cloud of doubt over what to do in response to climate change. Is the globe really warming? After all, parts of Europe and North America have just experienced one of their coldest winters on record. Some scientists with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change are now being discredited because statistics on melting Himalayan glaciers have been off the mark. Climate skeptics are on world tours while sections of the mainstream media are accused of falling short of rigorous scrutiny of the best available facts.

What we’re told and what we believe is dividing public opinion. Some think it’s a case of what you want to believe while others are happy with what science is able to tell us. Sound familiar? Have you ever felt a test of faith when it comes to understanding or accepting something you know little about? Some times there are no answers for why things are the way they are. Yoga practice and yoga retreats serve to instil a sense of inner calm to help us deal with the frenetic pace of life. The experience can help bring life into balance by taking a step back for contemplation. They also serve to bring clarity to understanding those things in life which require belief and trust alone.

When I hear of the dissenters of climate change theory, I try to empathize in case they have a point. Then I get stuck. But does it matter if I don’t fully understand? Is it really such a bad idea to try and take lighter footsteps for the good of the planet?

The easy thing to do would be to pretend the science is a fiction and we have nothing to worry about. Perhaps it IS a part of the planet’s natural cycle and that world governments and most of the science community are over-reacting. Then I remind myself that few things in life are free (or easy), and that I’ve inherited the world left my by my ancestors. Remaining true to my yoga practice is sometimes a challenge, but I know time on the mat leaves me feeling nurtured and still, just as I like my life to be. I enter a place of calm particularly with morning practice, which stays with me as I undergo my daily routine. I undertake yoga retreats to further my understanding and acceptance of the blessing offered by my yoga. When I’m compelled to engage with others in business or pleasure, I hope they acknowledge and appreciate the sense of stillness and harmony my practice brings to me. I want others to share in those gifts. If I can live more in harmony with the environment by minimizing my impact on it, then it seems I’m showing and sharing the benefits of my yoga in the world at large too.

A yoga practice helps develop that sense of harmony which science is urging us to honour. Does it matter if the extent of the challenge is uncertain? If much of the world’s most respected scientific opinion asks us to conserve, recycle, reuse and offset where we can, why not simply ‘do it’? Doesn’t such a path reflect what we as yogis aspire towards? If the truth is hard to bear, can we afford to close our eyes and leave it to others to act on our collective behalf?

To me, the aims of action on climate change sit comfortably with my desire to live a life of balance and harmony. That’s why I practice yoga. Denying this opportunity to restore balance is like giving up on the blessing of our yoga practice. We’re being shown the opportunity to take a new approach to interacting with our natural environment. As yogis, we already understand and respect the value in such an approach in our daily life. Isn’t this chance to change the way we interact with nature worth trying, regardless of the science and the skeptics who choose to question such a path?

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I am now in Tiruvannamalai  a town in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu famous for its holy mountain Arunachala, a place of pilgrimage, and the Ashram of the great Sage Ramana Maharshi. I’m with Christine (Byron Yoga Centre Retreats manager) and Stephan (Byron Yoga Centre Meditation and Philosophy Teacher).

We’re attending daily lectures about Vedanta with a Vedic teacher and small group of keen students from different countries, all drawn to the sacred culture of India.  I’ve also been teaching two yoga classes each day at the Arunachala Yoga Centre.

One of my students there is the headmistress of a school in a village nearby. Her vision was to create a learning environment where children from all backgrounds, faiths and parts of the world can learn and play together.

She invited me to teach yoga to the children. I was up for the challenge and after some dogs, birds, frogs, snakes and lion postures, of course all accompanied by their animal sound, it was the first time I introduced meditation to a group of 5 to 10 year old students.

I started with brahmani breath, which is the bumble bee breath, and combined this with a mudra (hand gesture), just for one minute and finished with the chant of om, it’s very easy here in India, spiritual life is so natural for young and old.

During the resting pose savasana we went on a guided meditation, riding on a magic carpet. I was concerned that some of the kids wouldn’t manage to stay still, but it was no problem. I instructed them to breathe in all kind thoughts and imagine breathing in a golden light, then to breathe out all unkind thoughts, everything they don’t like and imagine that it all leaves the body with a black color. The experience seemed well received – the teachers participated and liked it as well!

To all of you yogis and yoginis Om shanti from Tiruvannamalai

I hope to meet you on retreat in Byron Bay when we return in January.

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It’s December and there’s high tension in the air. It’s not just the ever bubbling and changing political landscape which has dominated recent time here in Australia. Rather, it’s that feeling of extra demands on our time and yet not enough time to spend on our own as we otherwise might like to. It’s a time when it becomes a little more challenging to maintain our regular personal practice of yoga, meditation and healthy diet. No wonder we need a holiday to get over the holiday! It’s also timely we review our commitment to our yoga practice with a view to a fresh start to the New Year on retreat. It’s our yoga practice which is increasingly important at this time, helping us cope with the added pressure and expectation the season can bring to bear.

Christmas is a truly wonderful time of year. For many, it’s an occasion to reunite with family and other loved ones often from afar for a few hours or days of catch up and sharing. It’s a time of feasting too, with often more get togethers and official functions than one can possibly attend, squeezed into a few short days or weeks. It’s an opportunity to express our love for one another with the giving of gifts, and it’s a time to relax and bend the routine which so dominates much of our waking hours for most of the year.

We know also that Christmas is a time of sadness, loneliness and despair for some within our community. It’s an emotional time, as anyone who’s been alone at Christmas can testify. It seems the heightened sense of expectation exacerbated by a Western culture of excessive consumerism has a lot to answer for!

Our yoga practice helps guide us at this time of year. With much feasting going on, it’s good to know yoga can offer choice when it comes to a diet that’s balanced and nurturing. It’s summer in Australia so it’s the season of pitta. As ayurvedic teacher Jacinta McEwen writes in the it’s the time to enjoy cooling foods with plenty of fresh green leafy vegetables and seasonal fruit taken raw or as a cold liquid refreshment. In a warm climate, it’s the time to avoid hot spicy additives such as chilli and garlic in our Christmas cooking. Ensure you get sufficient detox time as well which means ‘look after your liver’! It’s likely even the most ardent teetotaller will be tempted towards a celebratory glass of champagne so have a look at how to avoid unpleasant and unfamiliar headaches, or worse.

We’re approaching a new year (and decade) and an opportunity to re-affirm steps to take towards a more yogic lifestyle. While our yoga practice can sometimes diminish during December, we have a wonderful opportunity to regain and realign soon after. One of my most memorable times has been spent chanting and meditating the hours towards midnight new year. It not only sat well with my desire to ‘get away from it all’, I enjoyed the comfort and company of like minded individuals in a supported environment enhanced by a beautiful natural setting and the most delicious ayurvedic food. We have a wonderful opportunity to do the same this season with Byron Yoga Centre’s January retreat program or similar, wherever we may be. Spending the early days of the New Year in such a place presents a chance to re-focus and re-align through meditation, contemplation, and a renewed dedication to regular yoga practice. It’s an opportunity to engage in added spiritual inquiry, wholesome balanced food and steady rest as well. If we’re able, such retreats will take us to a place of natural beauty as well, where the physical environment further enhances our steady steps towards a peaceful New Year.

It’s fun to celebrate at this time of year. But try to do so in such a way that you don’t compromise balance in mind, body and spirit. Such an approach helps curb the added stress and expectation Christmas can sometimes bring to bear.

Let’s also try to reach out to those less fortunate or alone. You might consider helping in a local soup kitchen or a homeless shelter or choosing cards and gifts from charities or aid organisations which assist the disadvantaged. Then spoil yourself with the spiritual nourishment of a new year retreat. Indulge in the grace of our teachers and others and begin the new year with a sense of renewed strength and focus. What a wonderful gift to ourselves!

Wishing you the happiness and joy of the season.

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The teaching staff at Byron Yoga regularly attend other courses and workshops to continue their learning and share this new experience with their students.

Gitam Garden, who looks after course enrollments at the Byron Yoga Centre, recently completed the ten day intensive teacher training program and now teaches regular classes. Gitam shares her recent experience with Donna Farhi, a teacher of great renown.

Recently I had the great good fortune to attend a Donna Farhi yoga workshop on spinal integration in Adelaide.

I have to admit to a certain nervousness about participation, I have heard stories about Donna’s manner. The friend who had introduced me to her work and previously attended a workshop, described Donna as a person who did not suffer fools, and would give them ‘that look!’ I resolved not to open my mouth for the entire five days!

Right from the first two hour introductory session, I was captured by Donna’s presence. Her physical form is tiny, but her energetic presence is everywhere, and her light and graceful way of moving on the earth was a joy to behold. I asked a good many questions, and never once saw ‘that look’. In fact I felt only friendship and loving energy from her, and a deep, deep passion in the exploration of movement of the body.

Its hard to put the experience into words now, I can only say that I learned so many little things about being in my body and connecting to the earth. Since the workshop I have begun to assimilate them into my practice, and slowly into my teaching style.

There were about 30 participants at the workshop, mostly from the Adelaide area, although I met a lovely woman who had come from Perth, and one from Lismore, and I saw yet another arrive back at the Gold Coast on the same plane as me.

An added bonus for me was that my daughter Sita lives in Adelaide, and I stayed with her and got to spend the evenings being mum, an opportunity that doesn’t come so often these days.

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