Like A Prayer Yoga

I have hurt my right knee. My ability to live peacefully and in a calm and reasonable state is completely compromised when I have a physical injury. Everything becomes doom and gloom. I lose all perspective, rationality, intuition, faith, lightness. All the beliefs I have […]

It’s sort of awful when you realise you alone are responsible for your life. I know it sounds positive and empowering and what we all want but wouldn’t it also be nice if we could shirk our responsibility and blame someone –anyone – else when […]

The last few weeks I have found that I haven’t been able to write. I have tried sitting at my computer and not too much will come out. I’m trying now but I’m not really sure I’ll send this out. I have lost some confidence […]

I’ve been searching for a job for the past little while and interviewing with one company for the past few weeks. And the idea that I could soon be back in the 9-5 (or 6 or 7) rat race, is becoming more and more real. […]

Astrology has been a hot topic in my household lately, with constellation-covered books passed around and birth charts examined. A key idea in astrology is that in everyone’s birth chart, i.e. everyone’s life, there are paradoxes and contradiction. That there are opposing traits, inclinations or […]

It is easier for me to write this when I have something that I am frustrated about or when I am angry or when I feel low or despairing. I like to go deep into those heavier feelings and take them apart to understand them […]

Sorry this is a day late. I wasn’t sure if I would write anything this week, but something is niggling and I don’t know if it’s because I’m a creature of habit, and I don’t want to break this one, or if I really have […]

Last Saturday, the 1st of September marked three years since I arrived in New York. I had just been on an Aeroflot flight or two for the past 16 or so hours, making my way from Tel Aviv through Moscow to JFK. After spending three […]

I’m feeling a little bit irresponsible right now. Instead of writing this, I spent most of the day going to the beach here in New York. Even though I went yesterday, I wanted to go again today because my friends were going and the threat […]

I am going round and round in circles in my head, not sure of what or how much I want to write this week. The truth is that I haven’t been feeling great. But I don’t want to end it there. I want to be […]

This Saturday at 9am I am starting a new class at Like a Prayer Yoga focused on our cores. To be honest, I don’t exactly know what this will involve yet, but I have an intention (and excitement) behind it. For me, I have always thought of my core as […]

My favourite movie when I was growing up was the Wizard of Oz. I am actually reluctant to watch it now because I’m scared it wont be as good as it used to be or I won’t love it as much and I want to […]

Plants need a lot of attention and care and patience. I love bringing new plants into the studio but it can take me a while to understand them and to learn how to look after them properly. Their needs can vary wildly. I have two […]

This is the 13th new word document I have started today to write this piece. For some reason it is just not happening. I don’t feel particularly clear at all. I’m not sure if it’s the incoming eclipse, maybe the humidity in New York diluting […]

After trying online dating for the past 3 or so weeks I have been a bit disturbed to find that it is really common for men in their descriptions to write they are looking for women who are easy going or laid back. I gotta […]

My enter key on my keyboard has been broken for about a year now. It makes it pretty impossible to use paragraphs and simple commands become much more complicated. Of course at first, I took it personally and tried to think about what it meant: […]

Anger is such a great emotion. Don’t you love it when you are angry about something and there is no question about it? The clarity, the power, the grunt. It’s like nothing else. I love a good old rant. Maybe it’s a Capricorn thing to complain, (a […]

The other day I spoke to someone who is on a recovery path after some health issues and he was telling me that he is experiencing pain in his fingers as his nerves regenerate. It made me think about how often it is the case […]

Some weeks I know exactly what I want to write and I have all these ideas buzzing around in my head. Other weeks it’s like there’s tumbleweed aimlessly floating around up there.  And that seems to be the case today. I try every week to write about something […]

I was struck by something I read this week in a story written by my Aunty. In the piece, a little girl is chosen to go on a quest and, while traveling through these magical places, she does all these brave acts. What really resonated […]

About six years ago I was living with my friend Claire and we were really into Rumi poetry. We would read the poems at night while massaging each other’s hands. It was pretty sweet. My favourite Rumi poem was: Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and […]

I’m writing this from an airplane on its way from New York to Barbados. Flights, especially by yourself, always feel so reflective. And often for me with that reflection, comes sadness. Maybe the break from the normal tasks that make up your life, allows for […]

Lately I have been worrying about time. You know that feeling or sense that you are constantly behind the eight ball and you can’t catch up? Maybe it’s connected to the fear of missing out on something and a worry and regret about past decisions. […]

For the past week or so I have not been feeling good. Everything feels awful. And despite running, swimming, meditating, doing yoga even having a drink with a friend, I can’t seem to shake it off. Life can feel so incredibly heavy sometimes. And what are you […]

How aware are you of your energy and when you’re experiencing someone else’s? We can hold other people’s energies in our field, often without knowing it. There are probably people who you have felt and held their energy your whole life. And it can get […]

We have a central line of energy that runs right through our bodies, connecting us to the earth and to what’s above. Sometimes when I feel people’s energies this line can feel off course. Sometimes it feels like it’s slanting too forward or too back or sometimes […]

At the risk of being wafty, this week I seem to have more questions than anything else. But bear with me because maybe we’ll figure it out together. I’ve been thinking about resistance and how we use it and why it comes up. How it […]

There is so much focus these days on being self aware and being actualised and completely present all the time. And of course it’s what we all want but it’s hard. It’s a big commitment to live authentically and be authentic with yourself even when […]

Self love takes practice. It’s not something that can happen over night but something that seems to develop and strengthen over time. It’s not something that you can convince or tell yourself you feel, it feels far more subtle than that. It’s not something that […]

Committing to decisions and choices and people and work and places can be scary. There is this fear that once you have chosen something you can’t choose again or you are limiting yourself and closing yourself off to all these other options out there. And […]

“No worries” is something we say in Australia in any and every context. You can’t make it to dinner, no worries. You are going to be late for work, no worries. Your arm just got bitten off by a great white, no worries. Its ubiquitousness […]

For the last week and a half I’ve been trying to commit back to a regular meditation practice and have been sitting every night for 15 or so minutes clearing out space in my head. Some nights it’s felt easy and relieving while others it’s […]

We are in the midst of yet another dark moon before the new moon in Pisces (on Saturday morning in New York). And the next few days where the moon is at its darkest, it’s normal to feel more emotional or heavier. Maybe it’s when […]

New York is such a harrowing place sometimes. I have a very intense love hate relationship with this city. At the moment, with winter stretching on and on, it’s frankly hard not to feel sick of it. Yes I know it’s magical and cosmopolitan and […]

My friend and I used to write letters to the moon. At the time of the new moon we would write asking for what we wanted to invite into our lives. When it was full, we asked the moon to take things away. We stuck […]

I am trying to work out how best to guide the meditation class this Sunday. It’s different from yoga. There are more opportunities for distraction in yoga with all the poses and shapes we make with our bodies. It’s much more about doing: stretching, pushing, opening, lengthening. And […]

I spent a lot of time searching for my purpose and place in the world. I tried being a lawyer, I tried volunteering at an animal welfare organisation, I tried ancient and modern history, I tried working in government, I tried formal logic, I tried […]

Feeling lonely is sort of weird in this day and age. You can make contact with friends or family, wherever they are, pretty much instantly. If you live in a city, or commute to one, a lot of the time you are in constant close […]

Someone sweet said something seriously profound to me the other day. Its brilliance is in its simplicity: You do you. Often we feel like we have to be someone else, to hide who we really are. That we are going to be judged, for showing the real […]

If this grumpy cat can teach us anything, I think it’s that we can’t be perfect all the time. We can’t always do the right thing. We can’t always be selfless and we can’t handle every situation perfectly. We can’t always come from a higher […]

How well do you know yourself? How clear are you on what you need? What do you think of yourself, really, truly, deeply? How aware are you of your strengths? How aware are you of your perceived weaknesses. Do you or will you stand up […]

How often do you let yourself dream? I’m not necessarily talking about while you’re sleeping but maybe that is when it predominantly happens. Dreaming about what you want, dreaming about your future? Dreaming and generally being dreamy. How often do you allow your imagination to […]

This is the first Like a Prayer Yoga weekly email for 2018. I wish I could start the year on a positive note. Ideally I would write about hopes, dreams and wishes for the future year. But it’s cold here. The weather experts are actually calling what we are currently experiencing a […]

Yesterday marked a year since Like a prayer yoga began. I can clearly remember this time last year and all of the ideas, plans, dreams and hopes and ok a lot of fears too. Some of the things I thought would happen did and some didn’t. (Gwyneth, we’re still waiting on […]

Why is it so hard to believe in ourselves? To believe that who we are, as we are, is ok, is enough, is legitimate. That we inherently have all that we need to be and do the things we want. That our past is not […]

Relationships, whether they are between lovers, friends or family; are hard. Let’s face it. There is so much that can be misconstrued, misunderstood. We have an idea that if a relationship is meant to be then it’s meant to be easy or light or fun all […]

With Lilith moving into Capricorn (my sign) I have been thinking about my inner bitch.  Who she is, what she likes, who she could offend. I gotta tell you, it feels liberating. Not being nice to people out of obligation. Telling people where they can […]

So I am single. There I said it. It feels like revealing this could be sufficient cause to get me burned on the stake. Scary. But despite the awkwardness and embarrassment this might be conjuring for both of us, I shall continue. The second part to the […]

Anxiety is awful. I think we can all agree on that. That panicked feeling in your chest, the inability to breathe, to slow down, to stop your mind from racing to stop your body from shaking. Sometimes it’s about something you are aware of, sometimes […]

Give yourself a break, today, right now. Stop giving yourself such a hard time. Seriously. For not knowing everything, for being exactly as you are, where you are, in your life. For whatever you’re struggling with. Can you let go of your need to be […]

Some people find feelings really yuck. We have a lot of ideas and judgements about our negative feelings. Feelings seem to slow you down and waste your time. Why be angry? Why be frustrated? Just let it go – surely it’s just a problem you […]

With what has been happening in the media these last few days I’ve been thinking a lot about power – how it is used and sadly abused. The idea of power or being powerful can have a bad rap. We have seen how someone’s power […]

In the BBC miniseries Bridsehead Revisited (which is amazing) the main character Charles describes himself as being “All at sea”. It’s a phrase that really defines that feeling of being lost, anchorless, scared, unsure of what to do, unsure of who you are. Even though […]

Wherever you are, right now, feel the ground underneath your feet. Feel that energy just underneath your feet. Imagine the ground beneath you is in the middle of a forest (or jungle). Imagine your feet touching soil or grass or earthy mud. Feel that energy […]

Maybe I should call this piece finding my voice, it’s been hard to find, let me tell you. Or maybe it was always there but I just have to keep getting out of its way. I spent years feeling bad about myself for what my […]

Once again we find ourselves coming into the mysterious dark moon period before the new moon on Wednesday 20th September. The time leading up to the new moon can feel more tiring, more emotional and is a great opportunity to hermit out, let go of everything […]

Sometimes it can be hard to understand what this whole thing (i.e. life) is all about. Things happen and we find ourselves in situations where stuff doesn’t make any sense. We strive to find our purpose, our meaning, our reason for being here. We yearn […]

For about a week now I have had johnny cash’s song in my head. Although instead of the correct lyrics, over and over I have been repeating to myself, “I hear the change a-comin, it’s rollin round the bend…’ Not only is it a bit […]

What is your intention? It’s a question I often ask myself. With everything from the mundane – what to eat – to the grandiose – what do I want to do with my life – having a clear intention sets the stage for a positive […]

We have made it to the dark moon phase of this eclipse month. The next few days leading up to the new moon solar eclipse could be the most intense and is definitely a time for letting go, slowing down and nurturing rather than pushing […]

We’re right in the middle of the lunar and solar eclipses that are marking the month of August. Eclipses happen at least 4 times a year at the time of the full and new moons, making these already significant lunar events feel even more intense. […]

When we feel pain, tightness or tiredness in our bodies it can be really easy to get angry at ourselves. We can feel pathetic, useless and angry. We become furious at our bodies for not working properly and angry at our incapacity. You can feel […]

It’s easy for us to think we need constant improvement. We should expand our mind in this or that way, we should stay on top of current affairs, we should have better bodies, better attitudes, better relationships. We should constantly be improving, increasing our abilities, […]

A common theme that has been coming up in classes is the balance between softness and hardness and balancing that strong, supportive earth energy with the light bright energy above us. Thinking about a yoga pose like triangle pose, your feet are firmly planted on the ground, leg muscles […]

I – with the help of a very kind friend – recently updated the likeaprayeryoga.com website. Included on the website are each of these weekly emails, the weekly prayer. At first I was a bit nervous to title these pieces a prayer –any mention of religious words like prayer or God, or images of crosses can get a […]

The idea of giving up or to stop striving or trying to make things happen seems like an anathema in this uber-positive, must-do-my-mantra-every-morning age. Whether it be to do with our career, relationships even our health and fitness; if we are constantly trying to make things happen […]

Whether you believe it or not, you are an energetic being. You, like everybody around you, have your own energy and it is uniquely, perfectly yours. Your energy existed before your physical body was created and your energy will continue to exist once your body no longer […]

It’s a new moon NYC time at 22.31 tomorrow night. New moons bring fresh energy but the period leading up to it (what astro peeps call the dark moon) can be tiring, draining and feel quite low energy.  Conserve your energy in these periods, let go of […]