Archives for 2017

Treasures of slow living

Look what I found in my local butcher shop at Treendale!

Fresh walnuts from Treendale

Fresh local South West walnuts which take me back to my childhood in the South East of South Australia where the most amazing walnut tree was to be found on our farm.

I enjoyed a constant supply of fresh walnuts and the company of the amazing tree from which they came. A huge tree that provided shade on hot days a place to escape to as I remember climbing up into it to pause and ponder or read undisturbed!

A painting of the farmhouse I grew up in.

Thinking back, I enjoyed a lot of slow living as a young girl, growing up on a farm in South Australia and surrounded by natural beauty. Children don’t think about going slow, they just peer at things and observe the detail of the world around them. Part of slow living is rediscovering the beauty that children see in the world by taking time to notice and observe the things around me. It’s about slowing down the adult mind and letting the inner child be free.

Beetroot Hummus

Since I’m getting active about the blog and sharing quotes, I figured it was also a good place to share recipes from events that have been requested! Some of you may remember the deliciously vivid beetroot hummus served at Dru Soul Spa. (Incidentally, it’s coming up again this weekend – don’t miss out!) Here it is!

Beetroot Hummus

If you’re interested in the upcoming Soul Spa, head over to High Aspirations to sign up.

And if you want more tasty recipes, ideas about slow living and yoga insights sent straight to your inbox, subscribe to the blog…

Off the beaten track and off the mat

Yoga anytime, anywhere. Here is Di, from our Friday morning class, in the most amazing camel pose while on her trip across the desert. I love this photo and it got me thinking how great it would be if others who leave the class to go on holidays could send in their photo of “yoga on holidays – anytime, anywhere “.

Last term our focus was on building resilience as we worked each week with the camel. We warmed up with those lovely spiral movements to open up the chest and shoulder areas, working our way through the various stages of the camel. Many of you have shared that you enjoyed the journey into this beautiful heart opening asana. It certainly served me well during my introduction to walking the Bibbulmun Track when Nic and I did our two day walk.

This term from autumn to winter we have focused on building on some pranayama with the pigeon breath, deepening our breath and slowing down to work with strengthening practices to carry us through the cooler months. We started with the triangle poses moving onto the warriors that lead us into the lovely Inner Fire Sequence. We’ll refine this sequence this week as we come to the end of term two.

Remember the importance of setting your foundation, the base of your triangle or warrior, reflecting each stage of the way as you move mindfully in and out of your movements, allowing time for your body, mind and heart to reflect back to you messages that are important to hear. Allow time in a pose for your body to find the seat of that pose and for you to feel into it. There is no hurry to reach any particular point, it’s all about the journey.

Watch this space for my weekly posts including the quote of the week, which many of you have asked for.

Lessons from ‘slow living’: The Three Keys

Pesto made with basil from my garden

This year – 2017 – I declared as my year of “slow living”. I announced that I was going to focus on having 52 weeks of being more connected with and enjoying the things I love:

Family time
Garden time
Time in nature
Time for creative pursuits

I shared this intention publicly with many people and the reaction was how on earth was I going to do that with all I had on? Valid point, considering I am studying yoga therapy as well as natural medicine with Quantum University, plus working part time and running my business. The year started at a rapid pace and I began to wonder if I had made a rash claim. How was it going to play out?

What I have discovered falls into three gifts:

Commitment:

Making my intention public kept it alive and prompted me to be creative in how I was going to make this happen. It added an accountability factor – I couldn’t sweep this under the carpet.
I’ve realised that slow living doesn’t mean not achieving or not doing things; it’s not about doing nothing. I am still committed to working and studying and running a business, but I am also committed to not allowing work and study to be my life.

Presence:

Slow living is about noticing the good things and being more present to what is already showing up in my life. The sunsets, the smiling child I pass in the street, the view from my bedroom window over the estuary and so much more. It doesn’t take more time out of my day to appreciate these things. I simply have to pay attention to what is happening right now.
It is about an increased awareness of my energy and where I am sending it.
It is about making choices as to who I spend time with, where I do it and what I do with my time.

Gratitude:

Slow living is about knowing what I value in life and noticing when I am in alignment with what I say I stand for – walking the talk so to speak. It is about really stopping when I notice these moments of alignment and taking the time to feel them in my heart and letting the feeling of gratitude grow.
The more I do this, the more aligned I am becoming with loving my life and realising that it is already happening right here, right now, in this moment.

Commitment, presence and gratitude all come from within me, from my daily life as it is. I don’t need to get anything or learn anything new to do this. Conscious living is about committing to catching these moments as they spontaneously arise, letting the stream of thinking subside and being fully present, savouring the goodness and aliveness in each moment, more and more of the time. This is what allows me to go deeper into that part of me that isn’t defined by roles, materialism or expectations of others.

I encourage you to make a commitment: begin to alternate between a state of constant thinking, which is usually about the past or the future, and a state of noticing your breathing, looking around and giving yourself permission to be in the moment – that place before the thoughts start. That’s the place of a greater intelligence and spaciousness. That’s the place where you can’t help but feel grateful.

This alignment – commitment, presence, gratitude – is where you will awaken your consciousness.

“Unhappiness is created whenever you are out of alignment with the present moment.” Eckhart Tolle

Slow Living

Slow Living – this is my motto for this year.

Since choosing to explore this theme it is amazing what I have found. There are actually magazines on the subject and I love them.

Check these out: These are our vege pods and they work amazingly.

As part of my intention to practice slow living I am growing herbs, tomatoes, spinach, lettuce and kale.

So far so good as these keep out most of the bugs which I have found to be a problem trying to grow in the open ground.

So there you are my first post for a while but expect more as I share with you my year of slow living.