Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Yoga Reads!

I am currently working my way through some fictitious and autobiographical yoga books. I will mention each of them in my blogs posts.

The one I am reading now and which I can so see a lot of myself in is called 'Downward Dog, Upward Frog' by Meryl Davids Landau. I haven't finished the book yet but the piece I just read resonated with me so I thought I would blog about it!

In it, the main character Lorna, is at a spiritual gathering of women friends.  They do an exercise in which they look at the meaning of everyones names.    For instance, one of the characters is called 'Aliza' which means 'joyous one'.  Everytime somebody would speak to her or call her name, after doing this exercise, she would now associate it with being joyous and feel that actual emotion. Or at least remind herself to be joyful. The point of the exercise is to see if we can find inspiration from our names and if we can use that information to uplift ourselves, to help us reach for our highest self.

It got me looking up my own name. According to my research the name derives from Latin and French and can mean light, illustrious and clear. This made me laugh because for a lot of my life I have neither been light nor clear about anything.  I have not been light or clear in body or in mind!  On many occasions I have been unable to see the light or indeed to recognise my inner light.  I have struggled with weight issues and depression for much of my life, and I am still a work in progress.

 However, if I am to use my name to my advantage, I will now remember when someone addresses me that I want to be light and bright and clear. I want to be a guiding light in my own life and the life of my son and others.

I think it's a great exercise, using our names to uplift ourselves and help us along on our spiritual journey.  What does your name mean and how will you use it to raise your own vibrations?


Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Yoga - A Gem For Women

Yoga, A Gem for Women.  So says Geeta Iyengar, the sixty something eldest daughter of the famous BKS Iyengar, founder of Iyengar yoga.  I found this lovely interview over at the Yoga For Life Facebook page and thought I would share:

http://www.yogaspace.com.au/resources/pdf/writing_research/finding_the_feminine.pdf