Yoga Nidra + a giveaway!

Tags

Annandale Yoga, Anxiety, deep relaxations, Depression, free stuff, give away, guided meditation, Meditation, reducing stress, rest, self-love, Sevadevi, Sevapuri, Stress, Swami Satyananda, Yoga, yoga geek, yoga nidra

You guys! Have you ever heard of, or practiced Yoga Nidra before?

If not, then you’re totally missing out.

Yoga..wha? Is what most people say when they hear of Yoga Nidra for the first time. So don’t be embarrassed, you’re far from alone.

The fact is, Yoga Nidra is one of the bestest, most good for you things you can do with your eyes shut while remaining awake. I can’t think of *too* many other things you can say that about, right? 😉

Anyway, let me tell you more about it…

First of all I have to say – I LOVE Yoga Nidra! As much as I love big warm hugs and snuggling under a blankie. Maybe more.

I mean, this stuff is a top shelf relaxation technique, people. It’s also an act of self-love that you can do for yourself every day and it will yield results. That’s a promise.

So what is it again, I hear you ask?

Okay. Yoga Nidra is a guided meditation you do while lying down and its considered to be more rejuvenative than sleep! OR if you’re having trouble sleeping then it will either help you get to sleep (which is okay, too) or provide you with a wakeful-yet-restive alternative to feeling miserable about your insomnia.

Yoga Nidra is also excellent for reducing stress, depression, anxiety and generally making you feel better about life.

I wrote a little about Swami Satyananda – the founder of Yoga Nidra – a couple of years back when he passed away.

If you’re a yoga geek then I also recommend reading his book on the topic, too.

About the give-away

It was via the happy accident of blogging and tweeting about hummus, that I first came to know of the lovely Sevapuri and his wife Sevadevi.

We don’t talk a great deal, but we’ve met in person a couple of times and Sevapuri is always around on Twitter, where we regularly exchange messages.

Both Sevapuri and Sevadevi are lovely souls and personally I’m jealous of all the kirtan they have going on in Sydney!

Anyway, Sevapuri and Sevadevi now run Annandale Yoga, and the first I was aware of Sevadevi’s Yoga Nidra recording was a direct message on Twitter offering me a copy. Because that’s just the kind of people that they are.

Of course being beautiful and generous souls, not one but THREE copies arrived in my letterbox. I gave one to my neighbour (the wonderful person who made me food when I was really sick last year – she really needs some chill time right now)… and I thought I’d give the copy away here.

Just to keep paying forward the generosity and the love!

I’ve trialled Sevadevi’s CD of course. It contains a short and a long Yoga Nidra practice (23 and 32 minutes respectively), as well as a beautiful Heart Meditation that you can do in a pinch, anytime/anywhere.

Its all about creating a bit of space and calmness in your life…

As a bonus: Sevadevi has a gorgeous velvety voice that you’ll never get tired of listening to.

This is a quality Yoga Nidra and meditation CD, and YOU could be the lucky winner of a copy!

Be in it to win it!

It’s very simple. Anyone can enter, anywhere in the world.

To enter: Leave a comment below sharing your favourite thing to do to unwind and/or re-connect with the world when you’re feeling crappy.

Bonus entry: Share this give-away on Twitter or Facebook and let me know you’ve done so in the comments below.

The mission being to raise awareness of Yoga Nidra and get more people curious to give it a try!

Entries close: Friday 15th June

Lots of love to y’all.

~Svasti xxx

Give-away winner!!

Tags

give away, yogAttitude cards

I know, I know… it’s been AGES. I’ve been slack. I’ve been busy. I’ve been… well, not attached to my computer so much.

Anyway, I finally drew the winner for my give-away tonight. So exciting!

I got a little carried away and made a very dodgy video to show you the drawing. Just to keep things legit and all.

To add to the fun, you also get to hear my voice as well as observe my rather unprofessional iPhone video camera skills. Even though I now own an actual video camera, I haven’t had time to learn to use it yet. So the iPhone video it was.

Final bonus: there’s a special guest star cameo from Miss Cleo the Cat.

Without further ado…

(Note: the still showing is a bit of a red herring!)

Hooray and CONGRATS!!

Wanna know who won? Well, you have to watch the video to find out! 😉

I’ll be in touch with the winner to get a postal address soon. I really, really hope you enjoy Nadine’s yogAttitude cards. They’re so much fun.

~Svasti

Half a millennium of blogging + a give-away

Tags

500 posts, give away, Half a century, Healing, milestones, yogAttitude cards

The post you’re eyeballing RIGHT NOW is my 500^th

Whoah! That’s a lot of words. My wee blog has now been around for over three years and my post rate has varied considerably, depending on what’s going on with my life.

Every time I write a post, WordPress tells me what number it is. Given my current stop-start posting rate, #500 has been coquettishly just out of reach for a little while now. The flirt!

That’s probably because 2011 has been absolutely full to the brim with health challenges, as well as seemingly endless physical/emotional healing and all kinds of personal insights. Stuff that’s mostly been way too hard to write about. However as always, I try to share what I can.

Sometimes it’s hard though, even for Ms-Heart-On-Her-Sleeve-Svasti.

A few of my readers say things like: Wow you’re so brave in what you share.

Hmmm, really? You should see the stuff that DOESN’T make it to the blog! There’s been a lot of that lately.

But here I am. Yikes!

When I think about where I was when I first started blogging… well, you can track my progress if you care to venture into the archives.

To put it bluntly, I was a mess. But a mess with a purpose! I can’t tell you how amazed I am by the difference between how I was back then – a PTSD basket case – and now.

Blogging has been absolutely integral to my healing process. Which means that you all out there have been, too.

Here’s just a (very) short summary of the stuff I’ve achieved and/or learned along the way:

• I’m not dead! I didn’t kill myself although there were a few times where it was kind of a close shave. I know now that I actually WANT to live!
• I didn’t become a drug addict or an alcoholic. I reckon living with crazy amounts of physical or emotional pain can easily do that to a person. If I didn’t have yoga, writing and therapies (of all kinds), it could’ve happened to me.
• I freakin’ KICKED my PTSD and depression in the ass. Repeatedly. I’ll never forget the first time I thought I was all healed, only to discover that was just wave one and I was actually standing in the ocean…
• There’s been more ups and downs in this journey than I could’ve imagined. I don’t for one minute think it’s over yet, but it IS a different journey now. I’m way more healed and whole than I ever could’ve imagined. Which blows my mind.
• Pain is not compartmentalised and neither is healing. So, you can’t just heal from one incident in your past – if you open that bag of worms, you’re probably gonna be dealing with all kinds of things. Even stuff you could’ve sworn you were over already…
• Facing down your demons, and being pain-stakingly honest about them all (with yourself) is totally worth it.

To celebrate, I present my first ever give-away!!

In my 499^th post, I reviewed my friend Nadine’s yogAttitude cards.

Did you read the review? Frack, I really LOVE what she’s done there!

For one super-lucky person, I have 1x set of yogAttitude cards + workbook to give away. Whoohoo!

It’s my way of saying thanks for reading and being a part of my bloggy world. 😉

This give-away is open to everyone, no matter where you are. As long as the postal address is somewhere on planet earth, okay?

To throw your hat in the ring, simply leave a comment below.

Optional: In your comment, tell me about a milestone in your own life that’s totally taken you by surprise. As in…

Wowzers, how did I EVER manage to do THAT?!
I AMAZE MYSELF WITH MY AWESOMENESS!!

It could be about some kind of healing, an inner-realisation, overcoming a fear or phobia, learning a new language, climbing Mount Everest, going sky-diving – whatever!

Just something that makes your toes curl in glee when you think about it, if you know what I mean.

Entries close on Friday 30^th September 2011. So hop to it, lovely people!!

~ Svasti

xxx

***EDIT: Yeah I know… I blame the brain fog. I originally titled this post “Half a century of blogging…”, but I’m sure you all knew what I meant!!***

A lil extra in my stocking

Tags

caffeine mala, competition, give away, Headstand, mala, malas, Mantra, Om Namah Shivaya, Tiny Devotions, w00t w00t, Y is for Yogini

Holy Shiva! Can I hear a w00t w00t??

Somehow this very lucky yogini is the winner of Y is for Yogini’s mala give-away.

Check. It. Out!

Stunning, isn’t it? For those who aren’t aware, the beads are rudraksha seeds (they grow on a tree like that!) and this is a very traditional seed to use for a mala. They are specifically associated with Shiva, the head honcho dude of the Hindu pantheon. And the two stones at the end are coffee jasper poppy jasper – which I don’t know much about, but it all sounds good!

It’s made by Tiny Devotions – they create marvellous works of beauty over there!! I’m so excited about this I could jump into a headstand right here at work!

Thank you YIFY and TD, I’m super-thrilled. You can be sure it’ll be highly treasured, and get lots of wear and mantra repetition (can I hear an Om Namah Shivaya anyone?). And I’ll let you know when it arrives. 😀

~Svasti