30 Days of Brené Brown — Day 6: #vulnerability #TMS #courage #Sarno #suffering #innovation

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Discipline Found: How Yoga Looks Like a Workout, but Actually is a Game Changer

Work in progress…

Views from the Podium

Have you ever been in line at the post office or grocery store and had the person behind you freaking out, making faces, shifting their weight from one foot to the other, and muttering under their breath at the time that it was taking for each person’s needs to be met?  Or have you sat next to someone at the movies or a lecture and noticed that they could not for the life of them sit still, crossing and then re-crossing their legs, grabbing for a piece of gum, and shifting from hip to hip?  Or maybe you have a friend that even if you tell them to meet you half an hour earlier than needed for lunch or for a long walk, is still predictably late?

Do you know what all of these people have in common?  No yoga.  No meditation.  No discipline.  Every time I encounter one of…

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What to Do When You’ve Got a Case of the Yoga Blahs…

Views from the Podium

Yesterday, after teaching a 5:30am and a not exactly stress free weekend, I stuck around the studio, as I normally do on Mondays to take the next class at 8:30am.  I usually find myself with about a half hour to burn in between classes in which I work on my back bends, hip openers, and a few other postures, but for some reason I was sick of yoga.  It happens every once in awhile.  You simply cannot face one more Half Moon Pose and can’t imagine doing one more Locust.  So, instead I sat down with a book and indulged myself in the author’s language and storytelling and waited for class to start.

I still didn’t feeling like taking class, but I did anyway.  I really don’t have a choice.  After a couple of days without yoga I’m not only cranky, mean, snarky, and anxious, my hip also hurts like…

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In Defense of Bikram Yoga

Yes, yes, yes!!!

Views from the Podium

Some people will love this post and some people will absolutely hate it.  Some people will only read the first couple of paragraphs and then click on to the next thing, claiming I am awesome, or that I suck, or that I have no idea what I’m talking about.  That’s okay.  I write this blog for you, but I also write this blog for me.

Lately I’ve been thinking that maybe I am simply stuck in my old ways.  I fell in love with Bikram Yoga over 10 years ago and am still one of the practice’s biggest fans.  I have tried other types of yoga.  I do practice other types of yoga when I get the chance, but Bikram Yoga is still one of my favorite things in life.

Over the past couple of years, I’ve watched as the community of Bikram Yogis has shifted and evolved.  There was…

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When Grace is not so Amazing

Grace + Truth

Well Bono’s words about Karma and Grace have proved to be a bit popular – so far over 170,000+ people have shared it on facebook.  But what is it about Bono’s words that so connected with people?

The power of grace

Some of it relates to the interest in what celebrities say.  Some of it is due the arresting combination of raw language and passionate conviction. But a key part is the subject matter itself: because the grace is at the heart of Christianity and Bono’s words captured something visceral and urgent about its relevance and power.

Ethical problems

And yet…doesn’t grace present ethical problems?  Isn’t Karma a lot more fair: you get what you deserve. Doesn’t all this talk of grace give people a free licence to do whatever they want?  If people are simply forgiven by unearned grace, how do we make sense of the Bible’s consistent message about loving your…

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Devon, Balcombe and Greenbelt: a fracking good summer – by Hannah Martin

Grace + Truth

I have just had a great summer.

From a youth camp in Devon, to the anti-fracking protest camp at Balcombe and then onto the Greenbelt festival I participated in three very different communities.  It wasn’t a relaxing holiday, more the body-aching-wood-smoke-smelling-when-will-I-see-hot-water-again kind.

But I think I was hoping to be uncomfortable.  I wanted to be in that place where I am moved, where the fire in my blood about the state of the world is roused and my sense awakened.  It is so easy to lose that in day to day life.  Even when we wake to a job we really believe in, it’s easy to feel disconnected, to pay more attention to the ache of tiredness, than the pang of injustice.

It was not your usual summer holiday.  And this is what I learnt…

 Community is eating together

Lee Abbey is a Christian community in Devon which hosts…

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Me, My Selfie and I – by Hannah Martin

Grace + Truth

In the last couple of weeks the #NoMakeupSelfie has gone viral. Thousands of women have taken pictures of themselves without any makeup and posted them on Facebook, then nominating their friends to do the same.

The craze quickly became an incredibly successful fundraising campaign as people also donated to Cancer Research, raising to date over £8 million.

Relationship with make-up

The whole thing has made me reflect on my own relationship with makeup.

There was a time a few years ago when I pretty much stopped wearing it altogether.  I was feeling particularly healthy at the time, following a military style fitness regime. I was loving the feeling that I could run from a wild boar and jump over a fence if I needed to.  I felt strong and my body felt strong too – Hunger Games strong.

So I stopped wearing makeup for a while but I remember my mum…

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