News & Updates
Festive Wishes……….Stillness
In music, it is the quiet moments, the pauses that give structure and beauty to the sound. I like to structure my day around silent meditation breaks and in those breaks I remember to be as TS Eliot suggests, " at the still point of the...
Beat the Heat – Sitali Breath
It’s hot out there! Practice Sitali breath to cool you down. Deep in the Himalayas, ancient sages observed and imitated the world around them in the noble attempt to master body, breath, and mind. They noticed the curve of a bird’s lower...
A Sensory Moon Meditation for Emotional Healing…..
“If you’re the moon, it’s not the sun that affirms your light: it’s the darkness that makes you shine.” 1. You can sit, stand, or lie down on the earth for this meditation. Begin by relaxing your body and taking a few deep breaths. 2....
By The Light Of The Moon – Chandra Namaskar / Moon Salutations……..
Most yoga students are familiar with the Sun Salutation, but what about its lesser-known counterpart, the Moon Salutation? Known as Chandra Namaskar in Sanskrit, the Moon Salutation has a cooling, relaxing effect on the body and mind....
Align with Your Sign: Combining Yoga and Astrology for Deeper Wellness………
The connection between our bodies and the universe around us has long been acknowledged in ancient wisdom traditions. Both yoga and astrology are tools that help us tune into the cycles of life, explore the depths of our inner selves, and...
Amazing Space……..
Moving from the stability of earth, through the flow of water, the passion of fire, and lightness of air, we reach the element that makes everything else possible: ether or ‘space’. Ether is both nothing and everything at the same time....
Creating Space in the Body…..
Our minds and bodies are interconnected, and the condition of one affects the condition of the other. This is why meditation is such a powerful tool for healing the body, as powerful as physical therapies. When our minds are cluttered...
Happy Diwali….
“Diwali is a reminder of our inner light. When your mind is calm, your heart is open and you will feel that light, you will feel that love.” Sri Swami Vishwananda. The YTF wishes all our Hindu members a Diwali filled with peace, health...
Returning To The Body……
"Go within. Use the inner body as a starting point for going deeper and taking your attention away from where it is usually lodged, in the thinking mind.” – Eckhart Tolle How do we re-learn to be fully inside our body… to be...
Lightness of Being….
“When an asana (pose) is done correctly, the body movements are smooth, and there is lighhtness in the body and freedom in the mind. When an asana is felt as being heavy, it is wrong. You must try to impart a feeling of lightness...
Yoga and the Koshas – The Layers of Being……
Just as salt dissolved in water becomes one with it, so the union of Self and Mind is called samādhi. When the breath becomes exhausted, and mind becomes still, they merge into union called samādhi. This equality, this oneness of the...
Your Whole Being…..
" You are a multidimensional creature. Your awareness manifests on many different planes. Yoga introduces you to yourself and trains you to live fully and gracefully at every level of your being. From the Hatha postures that strengthen...
Baddha Konasana – Bound Angle Pose…..
Are you looking to improve your flexibility, strengthen your hips, and find a sense of inner calm? Look no further than Baddha Konasana, also known as the Bound Angle Pose or Butterfly Pose. This iconic yoga posture is not only physically...
Yoga: The Freedom to Be Whole…….
As humans we all experience various forms of suffering. While caught in the midst of our universal patterns of suffering we have a tendency to get stuck in states of mind that decrease our ability to process what is happening. If, however...
Freedom In The Physical Body……
“Freedom in the physical body is more important than material wealth. To feel or be fragile in your bones and joints is to live inside a shaky home. For some, tripping over in the garden would have dire consequences. For others, it can...
What is Therapeutic Yoga?…….
In a world bustling with stress and constant movement, finding solace and balance is essential for our overall well-being. Therapeutic yoga offers a gentle yet powerful practice that embraces yoga’s basis in mindfulness and presence to...
4 Keys to Relieving Back Pain with Therapeutic Yoga…….
If you are a chronic back pain sufferer, you are not alone! It’s a leading cause of disability worldwide. The good news is that in most cases therapeutic yoga can help decrease pain and protect your back from further injury. In general,...
Unfurling the Spine……
Our spinal health is at the core of wellbeing, and it is vital to maintain daily movement through all the vertebrae if we are wanting to maintain a pain free back. Spinal Rolls are an effective yet easy practice to achieve this and are...
A Healthy Spine: Strength Through Curves……
One of the most interesting structures in nature is the human spinal column. When the spine is aligned, the unremitting force of gravity flows easily through it. If the spinal curves are habitually disturbed, gravity becomes the enemy. As...
The Unfolding Of Life…..
"Wrapped within young leaves: the sound of water.” ~ Soseki Wrapped within young leaves is the sound of water that will nourish them once they have opened. It’s already there prompting them to unfold and grow. To believe that this is...
Shakti Mudra – Gesture of Feminine Power……
Shakti mudra, known as the gesture of power, is a powerful mudra that symbolizes the divine feminine energy, creativity, and inner strength. This mudra is particularly beneficial for calming the mind, enhancing emotional stability, and...
Goddess Pose (Utkata Konasana)
The Goddess Pose is a powerful yoga pose to promote grounding and strengthening of lower body parts. It is a hip-opening pose that will ignite a fire within that area. While it builds your hip, legs, and glutes muscles, it is also a great...
Shiva and Shakti: The Divine Energies Within Us All…….
According to Shaivism, one of the major branches of yogic philosophy, there is a divine masculine energy that takes the form of the Hindu god, Shiva, and a divine feminine energy that takes the form of the goddess, Shakti. Both Shiva and...
Yin and Yang…..
Patterns define our lives. Look around you right now; look carefully and you will notice the patterns surrounding you. Look up; you will see things that are high. Look down; you will see things that are low. Listen; you will hear things...
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Peace within…
"Yoga believes in transforming the individual before transforming the world.Whatever change you want to happen outside should happen within. If you walk in peace and express that peace in your very life, others will see you and learn...
A feeling of separateness..
"Like the wave can never be separate from the ocean. Individual soul can never be separate from the Divine. Yoga brings us to this realization." - H.H Sri Sri Ravishankarji
This moment…
" Yoga begins right where I am, not where I was yesterday or where I long to be" - Linda Sparrowe
Just passing through…
We are all visitors to this time, this place. We are just passing through. Our purpose here is to observe, to learn, to grow, to love..... and then we return home. - Australian Aboriginal Proverb
Patience….
"I want to beg of you much as I can to be patient toward all that's unsolved in your heart, and learn to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms, or like books that are written in a very foreign tongue. Do not seek the answers,...
Flow with Life….
"Our intention is to affirm this life, not to bring order out of chaos, nor to suggest improvements in creation, but simply to wake up to the very life we’re living, which is so excellent once one gets one’s mind and desires out of its...
Self Saucing Lemon Winter Pudding
The perfect ending to a hearty meal during the cold weather we are currently experiencing Ingredients 1 1/2 cups (225g) self-raising flour 1/2 cup (45g) desiccated coconut 1/2 cup (100g) caster sugar 1 tablespoon finely grated lemon rind...
Simplicity…..
" When this twentieth century of ours became obsessed with a passion for mere size, what was lost sight of was the ancient wisdom that the emotions have their own standards of judgment and their own sense of scale. In the emotional world...
Happiness…
“Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.” —Mahatma Gandhi
Hold to Your Center……
Know complexity but hold to simplicity. Know sound but hold to silence. Know action but hold to stillness. Know knowledge but hold to innocence. Know the manifestations but hold to the mystery. ~ Lao Tzu
Karma…
"Nothing exists in the way it appears, it is all up to our karma "- Padmasambhava
The Journey Within….
"You have no need to travel anywhere. Journey within yourself, enter a mine of rubies and bathe in the splendor of your own Light” - Rumi
Chakra Garden of Jewels….
"Don’t go outside your house to search for jewels. Don’t even bother with that excursion, my friend.There are jewels inside yourself. Precious, profound and ready to be discovered.These jewels are just like flowers. Some are taking root....
Moon Dance
My beloved Divine Mother, Dance with me under the soft moon, Shining in the wide open fields far Beyond the toil and trouble of my busy mind. - Surren Pillay
Upside-Down Vegan Toffee Apple Cake
" Nothing restores a semblance of balance to ones life better than a cup of tea and a slice of cake" - Anon Ingredients: 25g vegan margarine plus extra for greasing 3 dessert apples (Golden Delicious) 195g muscovado sugar 180g plain flour...
From Imbalance to Balance…
It is a cosmic principle that we either live in imbalance or act to create balance. Though we may be comfortable in imbalance (which we often perceive as balance), we cannot grow in such a state. It is through shining light on that which...
The Wisdom Of Trees….
For me, trees have always been the most penetrating preachers. I revere them when they live in tribes and families, in forests and groves. And even more I revere them when they stand alone. They are like lonely persons. Not like hermits...
The Law of Balance…
"The universe is like an ocean in perfect equilibrium. A wave cannot rise in one place, without creating a hollow elsewhere. The sum total of the energy of the universe remains identical from one end to the other. If you take from one...
Plant your garden…
The good life is lived best by those with gardens — a truth that was already a gnarled old vine in ancient Rome, but a sturdy one that still bears fruit. I don’t mean one must garden qua garden… I mean rather the moral equivalent of a...
Growth..
Raise your words, not your voice. It is rain that grows flowers, not thunder. - Rumi
Hope..
" Hope is a beautiful thing. It gives us peace and strength, and keeps us going when all seems lost. As long as we have hope, we have direction, the energy to move and the map to move by." Julie Donner Anderson
Relax…
"Don't seek, don't search, don't ask, don't knock, don't demand - relax. If you relax, it comes. If you relax it is there. If you relax, you start vibrating with it. " - Osho
Trust…
"Teach me how to trust my heart, my mind, my inner knowing, the senses of my body, the blessings of my spirit. Teach me to trust these things so that I may enter my sacred space and love beyond my fear, and thus walk in balance with the...
Inner Peace…
"Yoga allows you to find an inner peace that is not ruffled and riled by the endless stresses and struggles of life." B.K.S Iyengar
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Sivananda World Peace Foundation and The Yoga Teachers Fellowship of Southern Africa Celebrate The International Day Of Yoga…..
In Praise Of Tumeric ….
While turmeric is mostly praised for its anti-cancer properties, yogis have their own reasons for loving this special root. Here are five reasons why you'll love this special spice, too! Detoxifies One of turmeric’s most amazing actions...
We Practice In The Light That Which We Wish To Remember In The Dark……
Very few humans, if any, escape suffering in their lives. And whilst this is not something to dwell on, it is comforting to know there are ways to help us when darkness descends, in whatever form that may be – physical, mental, emotional...
Move Into The Light……26 Yoga Classes with Susan Sloan
Join Susan Sloan at Studio Kairos in Dunkel West, Johannesburg every Monday afternoon and Saturday morning starting on the 08th May 2023 for 26 classes of Hatha Yoga. You will over this period receive gentle coaching to feel the...
When Spirit Calls: 500 Hr ISHTA and vinyasa Yoga Teacher Training with Sandton Yoga Lounge 09th May 2023 – 04th May 2024
The Sandton Yoga Lounge is offering a 500-hour teacher training course that is unlike any other currently on offer in South Africa. We provide a course that is extremely comprehensive in all aspects, deeply spiritual and which provides...
The Radiance of Your Spirit……
Ang Sang Wahe Guru, “Spirit is within every cell and fiber of my being.” The word Spirit is often described in yoga as the Breath of Life. The Holy Spirit, the breath, is what sustains, fills, strengthens and protects us. So a strong...
Meeting Yourself…….
When you are so graced, there is a refraining from the habit of distraction and a turning inside. Instead of being reactive to what is arising in the play, you turn inside to feel into the internal response. It is always old, it is always...
The Roots of Suffering: Sprouted from the Mind, Healed by the Heart
Our thoughts have power and our minds are like windows through which we see and interpret the world. Cleaning these windows until they are clear is what we aim to do in Yoga. We do this so that we can see things as they really are and...
Why Practice Yoga……
Is yoga meant only to remove structural disorders and emotional stresses and strains, or has yoga something more to offer? In the beginning all of us are motivated to get rid of physical or emotional problems. When we get relief from...
Evolve Or Remain…..
"You are being presented with a choice: evolve or remain. If you choose to remain you will be presented with the same challenges, the same routine, the same storms, the same situations, until you learn from them, until you love yourself...
What is Yoga?……
Yoga is a way to restore our lost wholeness, our integrity as complete human beings, by unifying the personality around a center that is silent, unbounded, spacious, and joyful. The techniques of yoga are methods of purifying the nervous...
May all Beings……
"May all beings be peaceful. May all beings be happy. May all beings be safe. May all beings awaken to their true nature. May all beings be free."- Metta Prayer Wishing you peace and love in abundance over the festive season going...
A Gentle Reminder About Why You Are Utterly Exhausted …..
No one I know began this year on a full tank. Given the vicious onslaught of the previous two years (let’s just call it what it was) most of us dragged ourselves across the finish line of 2021… frazzled, spent, running on aged adrenaline...
Make Your Mornings With Ayurveda’s Lemon Ginger Detox Tea….
A morning detox drink made with fresh lemon, raw honey, ginger and sometimes other spices (like turmeric or cinnamon) helps keep the digestive system in order, clear accumulated toxins and rev up appetite. It is beneficial for priming the...
Your Yoga Teacher is Not Your Therapist……
So many of us turn to yoga to help navigate stress, anxiety, depression, and more. But you’re doing yourself a disservice if you rely on your teacher as a mental health counsellor. When you practice yoga, you may feel an emotional release...
Our Bodies and Trauma…..
Because traumatized people often have trouble sensing what is going on in their bodies, they lack a nuanced response to frustration. They either react to stress by becoming “spaced out” or with excessive anger. Whatever their response,...
Teaching Yoga For Depression……
When physicians use the word “depression,” they don’t mean feeling disappointed or blue, or grieving a loss—normal moods that everyone experiences from time to time. Clinical depression is a persistently sad, hopeless, and sometimes...
Mantra Chanting As A Tool To Help Anxiety…..
Mantras are sacred words or phrases with a specific meaning and vibrational power. They come from an ancient tradition of using sacred sounds to shine light on aspects of ourselves and of life that we wish to heal, transform, manifest or...
Yoga and Sound Mental Health…..
One of the hallmarks of the practice of yoga is its ability to combine conscious body movements, intentional breath, and awareness of sensations, thoughts, and emotions. The various techniques utilized in each one of these segments of the...
Within You….
" What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us" - Ralph Waldo Emerson
Spring Meditation….
" Again, the season of Spring has come and a spring - Source rises under everything, a moon sliding from the shadows.” - Rumi Take a comfortable seat and bring your awareness to your breath. Take smooth, even breaths in and out through...
How to Hold Space for Yourself…….
“You can search throughout the entire universe for someone who is more deserving of your love and affection than you are yourself, and that person is not to be found anywhere. You, yourself, as much as anybody in the universe, deserve...
Self Acceptance……
It is said that if life hands you something of value like lemons, you should then create what is possible from that given value, like by making lemonade. You can’t go and make orange juice if you are handed lemons. Your ability to make...
Svadhyaya – “Self Study”……
“Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power.” - Lao Tzu The term Svadhyaya literally means ‘one’s own reading’ or ‘self-study’.The word itself is made up...