Slow living in Kapaa

Aloha!

I’m writing from the verandah of our cottage in Kapaa on the island of Kauai, one of the Hawaiian islands. Kauai is known as the ‘garden island’ for its lushness and beautiful flowers.

It is slow living at its best as Nic and I enjoy almost a week here. We start our day wandering out into the four acre property we have to ourselves for morning yoga and meditation: blissful peace in tropical paradise.

I’ve made this ten minute video to share our holiday paradise with you for this week’s blog. As you’ll see we are blessed to be able to wander outside and gather fresh bananas, guavas and passion fruit whilst taking in the sound of the river running, the views of the mountains and the lush surroundings of plant life.

As time is irrelevant for us right now we’ve been spending a minimum of an hour, sometimes ninety minutes, enjoying our personal yoga and meditation practice each morning. In case you’re wondering what my practice looks like, here it is:

• I always start with activating by shaking, twisting, gentle figure eight movements then stretching top to toe.
• EBR 1 has been my favorite but sometimes I’ll do EBR 2.
• Then I do the prana kriyas, which you’ll know if you’ve done my meditation courses or been on retreat with me. These are so potent and ensure you are taking good care of yourself on many levels.
• I follow the prana kriyas with Surya Namaskara, salutations to the sun. I love this sequence which uses specific breathing and mantra and sets me up for the day! (Come on my Spring retreat if you’d like to learn it.)
• I finish with meditation where I do some spinal breathing, then go into my heart, connect to gratitude and let that take me into meditation paradise.

How’s your personal practice going? Remember you don’t need ninety minutes. Ten minutes twice a day will see you on track and on purpose.

Commitment: commit to showing up for your practice

Presence: be fully present and in the moment; connect to your breath

Gratitude: go into your heart and feel gratitude

It’s never too late to start – start now!

Namaste

Sarah