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Svasti: A Journey From Assault To Wholeness

~ Recovery from PTSD & depression + yoga, silliness & poetry…

Svasti: A Journey From Assault To Wholeness

Tag Archives: Linda Sama

Yoga Crones are rockin’ mo-fo inspiration

31 Tuesday May 2011

Posted by Svasti in Learnings, Yoga

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Cora Wen, Genmaicha, Kali, Linda Sama, Magazine of Yoga, Yoga, Yoga Crones, yoga teaching

This post is a little shout out for two of my favourite yoginis in the Twitterdom/blogosphere, both of whom I hope to meet and study with IRL (in real life) at some point…

That’s right, Imma talkin’ ‘bout the take-no-prisoners, expansive and interesting Linda Sama and Cora Wen.

Both these lovely ladies identify as Yoga Crones – a sisterhood I’ll hopefully get to join one day. I see them as celebrating womanhood in a way that isn’t about having perfect hair and nails, but instead, knowing who they are and inhabiting themselves fully – body and mind.

The other cool thing about these bust-an-asana chicas is that The Magazine of Yoga has done interviews with them both – it’s one of the handful of online yoga magazines/journals I like reading. They are both fierce and fabulous, and not afraid to speak their truth!

Here’s a little more about these Yoga Crones…

Linda Sama

Linda and I have been blog buddies for a while, and we came *this close* to meeting in person only recently. Unfortunately the Bali retreat Linda was planning fell through. Bummer, that. Never mind – it’ll happen!

Also, Linda and I are Ladies of Kali – not a choice you get to make (kinda hard to explain that!), but having a Kali patroness membership card makes you one helluva interesting/fiery/madcap person to know!

Linda recently stopped blogging as much as she used to but with a little encouragement, she’ll hopefully get back in the game sooner rather than later.

I LOVE Linda.

Links: check out Linda’s blog, and read part 1 and part 2 of her Mag of Yoga interviews.

Linda’s interview talks about her Vinyasa Krama/KYM style of teaching, and how this involves slower but repetitive movements. This “different” style of yoga offers another experience of yoga that isn’t just about mastering arm balances and getting your asana kicked. Which works for me.

Cora Wen

I also LOVE Cora Wen. On my other Twitter account, Cora and I have recently been sharing our love for tea – especially green tea. She even shared her favourite brand of Genmaicha and HELLO, they have a store in my city! I’m endlessly grateful, even if I’m now a total Genmaicha addict. Oh well. 😉

The sharing of information about tea – that’s the kind of generosity and love you get from interacting with Cora, even if it’s only virtual and she couldn’t pick you out of a line up.

Cora is an avid Twitter user, sharing all kinds of yogic wisdom on the wire. I think she does it just because she enjoys sharing.

Links: Cora’s website, and part 1 and part 2 of her Mag of Yoga interviews.

I adore everything Cora has to say in her interview because as a woman it’s all very relatable. She’s clearly very present within her body, and makes no apologies for not having the typical uber-thin “yoga body” popularised in the media! As a yoga teacher, she’s instructional, inspirational and generous with her knowledge. I especially loved part two of the interview, where Cora describes her journey as a yogi from a type-A hardcore practitioner to something softer and far more encompassing.

Cora also describes how her teaching style has evolved and this is excellent for someone like me.

How reading these Yoga Crones helps me as a yogi and a teacher

A few weeks ago, the class I taught was just two people. Usually it’s busy-busy and perhaps the Easter break put a spanner in the works, who knows?

This never bothers me – I’m happy teaching to one or twenty people. And as it happened, I found myself having to break down something that I’ve always considered to be very simple – the full yogic breath.

Since I always encourage questions, I was happy when my of my students commented that it “feels weird” doing lower abdominal breathing. I wondered how many other people I’ve guided through this practice that have felt the same way: lower abdominal breathing is hard if you’re not accustomed to it.

So the class took a bit of a side-step as we spoke about one of the lesser known goals of yoga – to learn to sense your own body and energy. To develop sensitivity. We’re so used to using our bodies in certain ways only, and to gain sensitivity we need to practice. It’s that simple.

But then, it’s not so simple after all because developing that ability, via using your hands to help you sense what your body is doing – can lead to a greater capacity for awareness of physical and energetic sensation. And this is where yoga really begins to take off.

So we talked about that for a while and workshopped the breathing actions before moving on.

To me, that’s a class I’m glad to have taught. Like Cora, I see teaching yoga as an honour and a privilege. Like Linda, I’m not afraid to slow my classes down.

Sometimes I still can’t believe that it’s me up there, teaching people. And I know I’m so very lucky because for every class I teach, I am the student, too.

Anyway, I guess the point of this love-in is to direct you to Linda and Cora’s Mag of Yoga interviews and to point out how grateful I am to have connected with these awesome Yoga Crones via the interwebs.

To paraphrase Linda (quoting someone else, I think): if you don’t pass on the teachings, then you’re no better than a thief. And these ladies are Queens of Sharing. *hat tip* to you both!

~Svasti

-37.814251 144.963169

Trying a few things on #reverb10

19 Sunday Dec 2010

Posted by Svasti in Life, Writing prompts, Yoga

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Bali, birthday girl, birthday wish, Dancing, Edith Piaf, Jake Gyllenhaal, Kali girls, Linda Sama, lounge room boogie, try, yoga retreat, yoga-curious, yoga-loving, zumba


Try. What do you want to try next year? Is there something you wanted to try in 2010? What happened when you did / didn’t go for it?
~December 18 prompt

Hmmm, in 2010 I wanted to bring more dancing back into my life and really, I’ve just not made time for that. Other than the odd lounge-room boogie, that is! Basically, yoga has consumed my down-time this year, not that I’m complaining!

But dance is definitely on the cards for 2011.

In fact, I’ve got a series of ten zumba classes paid for and I plan to start them in early January. I know zumba is one of the latest “crazes” and usually that’s enough of a reason for me to NOT try something. But heck, ten lessons for a bargain price of $37 was good enough for me. I’ll let you know how that goes!

Also, there’s something else I want to try and it’s a bit of a birthday wish of mine (and TODAY is my birthday – it’s also the birthday of Edith Piaf, Jake Mc-Hottie-Gyllenhaal and at least four other people I know in my own life).

I really REALLY want to try to meet up with my very good blog friend Linda-Sama!

We’ve been buddies now for well over a year. Probably longer actually, but I am terrible at keeping count of such things. We’re both straight-talkin’, no BS Kali girls and neither of us are afraid to call a spade a spade. There’s lots of kindred spirit between us and I just know we’d hit it off in person!

Linda is (*fingers crossed*) running a yoga retreat in Bali in May 2011 – and I really wanna go! But there’s a catch: in order for the retreat to go ahead, Linda needs a minimum of six people signed up.

I am one, but the only one so far! And for Linda and I to meet in person this coming year, I need five more wonderful yoga-loving (or even yoga-curious) people to sign on.

Note: It’s not just that I’m excited about meeting Linda, I’m VERY excited about doing some yoga with her too! If you haven’t read her blog before, then you should. She has lots of wonderful things to say about yoga, and from reading her posts, I can tell she’s my kind of yoga teacher with a capital Y and T…

My birthday wish…

So if you wouldn’t mind helping a birthday girl out, my wish is for you to share the news of Linda’s retreat far and wide. Share it with as many people as you can. Heck, sign up yourself if you’re so inclined coz it’d be awesome to meet more than one of my blog buddies at the same time.

We could have a party, yay!! And it would be in Bali, double yay!!

Please: spread the word and make a yogadork happy! 😀

And here’s one way you could help – please download the image below, post it to your blog/website and link the image to Linda’s retreat page. It’d be a whole lotta awesome if you did!

~Svasti

-37.814251 144.963169

Yoga Adventure in Africa

09 Wednesday Sep 2009

Posted by Svasti in Yoga

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Africa, Arusha, Linda Sama, Tanzania, Yoga, Yoga Adventure in Africa, yoga retreat Africa 2010, yoga workshop, yoga workshop February 2010

Do you like yoga? Yeah?

What about travel? Of course you do!!

Got some time in February 2010 to travel to Africa and do yoga? Yes??

Well then, you should really sign up for Linda Sama’s Yoga Adventure in Africa!!

Man, if I could afford it, I’d sooo be there. And who knows, maybe things will change (as they often do) and whaddyaknow… I’ll be Africa-bound.

That would be so cool!

This is Linda...

Anyways… even if you can’t go, how about doing Linda a favour and spreading the word to your yoga community? Someone’s gotta stop her nightmare from manifesting.

This is part of my campaign against such an outcome. So, go! Spread the word! Here’s a few ways you could participate in the word-of-mouth campaign:

  • Write a blog post (kinda like this one, just maybe use different words!)
  • If you’re on Twitter, tweet a link for Linda’s Yoga Adventure in Africa
  • Post a link on your wall in Facebook
  • Offer to interview Linda on your blog about this event
  • Download Linda’s ad, print it out and take copies to your yoga school

And if you can afford the time/money, go book yourself a spot. Like, now!

Not only will you be doing yourself a favour, but you’ll be helping others as well ($108 from each participant’s fees will be donated to the Seva Foundation)!!

~Svasti

Linda Sama's Yoga Adventure in Africa

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