We make it easy to relax

By Frank Jesse Over 1700 years ago, the ancient Indian sage, Patanjali, listed the obstacles or impediments to developing a regular yoga practice in the yoga sutras, sutra 1.28: "disease, inertia, doubt, heedlessness, laziness, indiscipline of the senses, erroneous views, lack of perseverance and backsliding." Not much has changed. For a beginner student, and even some more experienced students, s...

Tiger Lily took up residence in November 2016 with her mother, who was blind. Blindness in kangaroos can be caused by a virus that is spread by small midges and has been associated with intermittent episodes of deaths of large numbers of animals.Tiger Lily's mummy, (who I called Chocolate Lily because the day she arrived I found the first indigenous Chocolate Lily in my garden ) was an annual visi...

As a group of poses, backbends seem to stir strong emotions. Some people absolutely love them. For others, a class focusing on backbends triggers fear and uncertainty. With preparation and guidance, backbends are uplifting and energising. They give us back the energy we put into them, leaving us feeling invigorated and happy. " ….. emotionally there is no chance for a person who does backbends to ...

Women often report pelvic floor problems after childbirth. But men have a pelvic floor too (of course) and sometimes it needs special attention in yoga.   My friend John, a regular guest at Griffins Hill, was diagnosed with prostate cancer shortly after his Easter holidays a year or two ago. John's a private person, but he kindly agreed for me to write about his experience so he could help ot...

Like most people, I became a yoga teacher because I love the practice. I love its impact on my physical and mental health and the way it benefits my students. I still love that. However, I have become more and more aware of the need to include care of the environment in the way we manage our retreat here at Griffins Hill. We have always done that, but it feels more urgent than ever before. And all...

A question that regularly comes up in class regards where to position the shoulder blades when the arms are raised over the head. Students are often unclear what to do with their shoulder blades and mistakenly believe that they should pull them down to free up the neck. As a teacher, I observe that the common instruction to pull the shoulder blades down is not making sense to many yoga students be...

We all have our favourite yoga poses, don't we? But how many of us make a favourite of a particularly challenging posture, one that makes us feel uncomfortable, uncertain and, well, not very good at yoga?Making friends with the postures that are difficult for us to do is an integral part of yoga because it delivers us straight to the heart of the real purpose of yoga: awareness or mindfulness. Whe...

“My patients are my best teachers,” says Greta. “I’m less interested in using medicine to put a Band-Aid over a symptom, and far more interested in the impacts of nutrition and lifestyle on our physical and mental health.”Long hours as the local Coleraine-Casterton general medical practitioner for the past 16 years led to Greta’s own health crisis eight years ago. She quickly realised she was beco...

Yoga can be deceptively strenuous, hard work but the proven benefits are worth it. Yoga uses the resistance of your own body weight to develop balance, flexibility and strength. Many poses and sequences raise the heart rate, including popular standing poses such as the warrior sequences. “I really enjoy feeling strong. And I love getting on the mat when I go through emotional times,” Dr Fraser exp...

Second, Frank is offering a fabulous teacher training program. We've had a terrific first intake of outstanding students and are currently taking expressions of interest for a second intake. Click here to find out more.  And, last but not least, we are planning professional development retreats for accredited Iyengar Yoga teachers to reinvigorate their personal practice and share teaching (an...