Pretty Dress

Liberty paired up with French company Target to create a flowery collection of fashion and home décor at accessible prices - extremely unusual for Liberty. I couldn't resist the magenta sun dress with ruffles on the left. 

  
And this is a sweet top I tried on... and put back...for no reason other than financial. They are all lovely pieces.

Leggings 4 Yoga

A light post on yoga fashion. I found these leggings from American Apparel, and they are great for my practice. So tight and stretchy to give you freedom of bending and so shiny to facilitate arduous twists and contortions. Their high waist means you can go into inversions without worrying of fleshing out your belly. And in some circumstances (think of one in particular!), they are more practical than unitards... Oh, and I love this colour: cobalt!

Springclean Contemplations

We are all part of the evolutionary process. To contribute to evolution, we need to allow transformation by avoiding stagnation and calcification in our body and  emotional sphere. Spring is the time flowers start blossoming and animals come out of lethargy. In the same way, our body asks us to get rid of the winter storage and detox to gain new energies and grow.
 
How? Yoga is one of the many technologies we have at our disposal to facilitate this process. Each of us will choose their preferred tool for transformation. Here some recommendations drawn from my experience at Time to Renew + Spring Clean with Jeff Phenix.   

~ Revisit your diet and, if possible, follow a detox regime. Explore the possibility to cut out for a few days some ingredients from your diet and see how you feel. Your unhealthy cravings might cease.
~ Practice relaxation and healing practices to purify the digestive and reproductive organs {restorative yoga and yoga nidra}.~ Clean, cleanse, de-clutter your body, house and emotions - give away the things no longer serve you (there is always someone who wishes what we no longer want), write down three things you want to get rid of in your life and three things you want to blossom, and then burn the paper.
~ Create tapas (heat) to detox {energetic hatha yoga practice}.~ Twist your body ~ twists massage and oxygenate your internal organs. With a twist you create a compression, when you release it, a flood of blood irrigates that area. 

~ Breathing techniques help calm the mind and increase the core strength at a deep level. When you slow your breath, you slow your brain and become happier. Some yoga breathing techniques are bhastrika, kalabati (breath of fire), agni sama (purification of inner fire) and nauli/uddiyana bandha. In Iyengar students are not allowed to practice pranayama until they are very advanced in the asana practice as prana (life force) can upset the nervous system. So, be gentle and mindful. These techniques did give a forceful stir to the stagnant energy in my belly area associated with digestion and reproduction. ~ Chant a healing mantra to let go the mind, get absorbed and dissolve  your self into the sound. This is a great way of connecting to the universe.

*Om Tryambakam Yajamahe Sugandhim Pusti Vardhanam Urvarukamiva Bandhanan Mrityor Mukshiya Mamritat*

*Om. We worship and adore you, O three-eyed one, O Shiva. You are sweet gladness, the fragrance of life, who nourishes us, restores our health, and causes us to thrive. As, in due time, the stem of the cucumber weakens, and the gourd is freed from the vine, so free us from attachment and death, and do not withhold immortality.*

This mantra is said to have the power to remove all sufferings, ward off all evils, remove diseases and bestow the aspirant with health and energy. And it is said that when this mantra is it chanted with great devotion and serious contemplation it is said that the knowledge of this birth and death cycle is revealed to the aspirant. And thus it helps in overcoming the fear of death.

Yoga takes you outside your comfort zone. Try to explore your edges without pushing. Always apply discernment and moderation.

HAPPY SPRING!

Photo credit

Cuff Me Up

I can't get over the beauty of Satya Jewelry and their advertising campaign... Sexy, sumptuous, sophisticated, symbolic, stylish... You mention it. And those cuffs!

On the Subject of Desire

Photo by Nan Goldin

What is the nature of seeking? It is wanting to feel good. Good feelings are pleasures. Becoming aware of how this mechanism works can help create a shift in consciousness that will make your relationship to pleasure more realistic as you become aware of the potential consequences on you, the environment and the world.

Desire can encompass diverse needs, from sensual or aesthetic experiences to more cerebral satisfactions. The feelings can be increased or diminished by thinking about them, but they quickly fade into memory. This is the reason why we seek more and greater pleasures. Desire is endless. And even if realised, the desire might not bring the expected enjoyment. We are pretty bad at predicting what will make us feel good.

But desire fosters change and prevents stasis. It is an essential drive of evolution. Dissatisfaction fuels pleasure seeking. So desire can bring the motivation for change and the pleasure of anticipation.

The problem with desire is not that you desire, but what you desire and how desire can be manipulated.

Although it is healthy to prefer pleasure to pain, the latter plays also an important role. Life is change, and one changes either by growing or by becoming more rigid. Real growth involves periods of confusion, discomfort, pain and even suffering before a new direction evolves.

In seeking, you seek the known: experiences we remember, have heard about or imagine as pleasurable. You can only seek the repetition of the old. However, there is the potential for sorrow in repeating familiar pleasures as in seeking the known and dwelling on a past feeling you remove yourself from the potential that the living moment holds for you, and you end up feeling inadequate as you are unable to engage with life in the moment, which is where joy, communion, love and creativity lie.

Beliefs bring you security and certainty. Every time I cling to beliefs that make me feel superior, I negate life as I cut myself off from any real connection that you and I might have.

Desire of be desire-less is but another desire.  Letting go of unrealisable desires can make you feel better and can be useful to free yourself from old programming. The risk is removing yourself from the creative momentum of life. 

It a constant conflict: if I try to get out of it, the trying itself puts me back in. So what to do? In the moment you become aware on how this whole process works, you could try to step out of the conditioned habits that pleasure and desire can generate and come into contact with their nature and see this as part of  how you mechanically work, without judging it in yourself... The simple act of self-awareness will trigger a new movement, and perhaps a shift...

The Passionate Mind: Expanding Personal and Social Awareness by Joel Kramer and Diana Alstad

A Radiant Wedding

I am here with an impromptu post as I have just learnt that Victor & Angela got married! What a marvellous news! I studied a workshop with them last year and they inspired me so much that I decided to apply for the teaching training. Since then there is no class I take without applying Angela's non-teaching: feel the connection with the earth and the centre of the earth and listen to the inner movements and shift happening at a deep level. She is such a cool yogini and woman. It is exactly how I would like to look and be at her age. I think she is so organically beautiful and radiant. He is also very charismatic and charming. It is with him that I did handstand for the first time in my life. I hope to have the pleasure to study with them again, ideally in their Greek retreat. Here a few photos in all their splendour.

Jump Suit

I am still alive and full of energies. I have deepened my yoga practice,but left behind everything else, including study and blog. I feel I am going through a transformation which is enjoyable but also confusing. I am trying to liberate myself from many structures. Since McQueen's death my interest for fashion has diminished. I am not saying that the two occurrences are necessarily linked, but perhaps it is my way of mourning. I usually look at fashion to recreate a mood, a different dimension of existence, a new possibility. Well, in this period of my life I feel like throwing myself into the possibilities life has to offer rather than staying on one side and watching, writing or fantasising about them.

Anyway, I popped here to share a quick fashion finding. It was quick as I saw, liked and bought it. It is nothing to wow but it encompasses everything I like in a little dress: it is actually a jumpsuit, in a wonderful colour (jade), comfy and versatile. The print may look *busy* but I love its retro feel and would be perfect with yellow gold accessories. Believe it or not it's the first item I buy from Anthropologie UK and got it in sales. 

This romper is designed by Leifsdottir. Check their website to admire the rest of the collection. Very sweet.