Griffins Hill Retreat yoga and food blog

By Kath Walters Three years ago, sheep farmer Colin Agar started coming to yoga classes. The family has owned a property near Penshurst, about 30 kms from Dunkeld, for 150 years, which Colin runs with his two brothers, his daughter, his niece and her husband Colin was starting to feel the tough, physical work of sheep farming more and more.   The Agar’s run between 15,000 and 18,000 head of sheep. “The work fluctuates through the year from heavy to very light,” Colin says. “The heavy work is during the shearing, crutching and lamb “marking” times. By end of the day, you feel like you have been hit by a semi-trailer.” He felt so stiff and sore in the mornings, he was struggling to get dressed. “When you were 30 you didn’t notice the work,” he says. “But I was feeling stiff and my joints were starting to ache. I couldn’t...

Song of the Soul, by Shankaracharya

I am neither ego nor reason, I am neither mind nor thought,
I cannot be heard nor cast into words, nor by smell nor sight ever
caught:
In light and wind I am not found, nor yet in earth and sky -
Consciousness and joy incarnate, Bliss of the Blissful am I.

I have no name, I have no life, I breathe no vital air,
No elements have molded me, no bodily sheath is my lair:
I have no speech, no hands and feet, nor means of evolution -
Consciousness and joy am I, and Bliss in dissolution.

By Frank Jesse

A lot of people tell me they dislike pranayama (breathing) and restorative classes. They’d rather be doing active classes full of dynamic poses. But there are a lot of benefits to not doing, and just being. We do so much in our busy lives! I’m not quite sure why people want their yoga classes to be always actively challenging as well. Of course, when we are doing poses actively, it can be easier to focus and to still the mind, which is the primary purpose of yoga.

0 0 1 501 2859 Griffins Hill Retreat 23 6 3354 14.0 Normal 0 false false false EN-IN JA X-NONE During her home yoga practice, a Warrnambool woman made an observation that turned out to be life-saving. By Kath Walters Senior Iyengar Yoga teacher, Frank Jesse, would never claim that yoga is a cure for serious diseases, but in the case of one of his clients, his yoga teachings did help save her life. Jesse is a very precise teacher, as Carol McInerney discovered when she began attending his classes in 2011. McInerny has a recurring neck problem, and her physiotherapist, Karen Wild, had often suggested that she join in Jesse’s yoga classes, held in Warrnambool each week. But McInerney, a mother of three adult sons and grandmother to 10 children, struggled to find the time. After a family tragedy, McInerney agreed that her physio was right.  In a class that included both...