Being human

If there is one phrase I loathe about the moment, other than ‘social dancing’ and ‘stay safe’, is ‘catch it, bin it, kill it’.

I was saddened to see that the primary school that Elijah usually attends, but is not attending at the moment (and thank goodness he isn’t, seeing what going back to school now entails, not the teachers fault by the way, public health gone mad it seems) will reinforce the ‘catch it, bin it, kill it’ message regularly. I suspect they have been instructed to do so by public health.

But is this really a phrase we want reinforced in our children. Yes it might be related to the virus, but isn’t it indicative of where we have strayed as a humanity, where we feel we have to be killing all the time. Look where that’s gotten the US with their emphasis on guns and the killing culture - ‘but I need it for self defence’. What are we so scared of all the time, that we have to kill, a fly, a mouse, a virus? What’s the difference, really, because it’s all life.

We have learned to live with flies yet they can harm us, infect us with malaria, transfer their eggs to the food we might eat, just be a really annoying nuisance, and yet does that give us a right to kill them? A mouse in our house, it happened to us just before lockdown and there we were not sure to do, initially there was the notion that we might set traps, but that seemed just too cruel, so E caught them as humanly as he could and released into the back of the garden, set free, no killing necessary, and no longer a nuisance to us either.

‘Humanly’ means with human feeling or kindness. I ask myself how humanly we are currently living. I ranted yesterday and thought that might clear it a little, but today the same old stuff just comes up again. We need to move on from this old paradigm of always thinking that something is harming or hurting us, and rather than trying to find a way to live humanly with whatever it is, we have to eradicate it, get rid of it, exterminate it.

Public Health need to really think about the messages they are conveying to the wider public. Those in power, need to really think about the wider implications of the decisions they are making, and the reason they are making them, and is it from a place of fear or from a place of love, are these humane decisions. And we the general public, we do have our own power, we can make a stand, we can opt out, we can find another way, if there are enough of us who question these decisions being made. We do not need to follow like sheep, asleep.

My Mum was always keen that I was never a sheep. She has lived to regret that decision many times over as he has watched me drop further away from what others are doing. Where once I was frustrated about her attitude because I wanted to wear the same dress as the other girls in my class at primary school, but was not allowed to do so, because she didn’t want me being a sheep, I am grateful to her now for this.

To have your own mind is not necessarily easy, because there is a responsibility, and there is of course still a fear of getting it very wrong, and yet there is such freedom because the choices are your own, not someone else’s, not because you have been told ‘this is the way’ and you have blindly followed, but because you are conscious of the reason that you are doing what you are doing. And you are more than happy to admit when you don’t know and that you might have got it wrong.

I truly feel we need to change the story now. Let it go. Of the victimhood and the harm done, of the way that we have killed aspects of ourselves, and bring those aspects back to life again, reclaim the power that we might have been giving away our whole lifetimes, because we never questioned, we never hesitated, we never thought, hmm, but is there another way, can we live more harmoniously, more humanly, within ourselves, within our own true nature, our own flesh and bones, and the nature of the wider world in which we feel ourselves at home, with the divine, with heart and with soul.

I am reminded of this poem from Hafiz:

“Once a man came to me and spoke for hours about 'His great visions of God,' he felt he was having.

He asked me for confirmation, saying 'Are these wondrous dreams true?'

I replied, 'How many goats do you have?'

He looked surprised and said, 'I am speaking of sublime visions and you ask about goats?'

And I spoke again, saying, 'Yes brother -- how many do you have?'

'Well, Hafiz, I have sixty two.'

'And how many wives?' 

Again he looked surprised, then said, 'Four.'

'How many rose bushes in your garden? How many children? Are your parents still alive? Do you feed the birds in winter?'

And to all he answered.

Then I said, 'You asked me if I thought your visions were true. I would say that they were if they made you become more human, more kind to every creature and plant that you know.'"

Love Emma x

Even after all this time...

Well I have to say that I have grown increasingly weary and frustrated by lockdown and the general reaction to Covid.

I retreated last week as my cycle waned, and the dark moon did indeed bring with it a dark night of the soul, which continued on and on, allowing me to truly feel into all the rage and anger and grief that it brought with it. This wasn’t even mine necessarily, and it’s the first time I have truly felt this through my own cycle, old old wounds, from life times ago, and it wasn’t just mine, but the collective too. We women especially are right in the thick of it.

There was an old feeling of powerlessness that always underlaid my bouts of depression and there was even older feelings of powerlessness that were from times gone by that I don’t even consciously remember, yet there are memories, and this Scaravelli-yoga, or maybe the TM, I don’t know, maybe it’s just the time, but there is a whole other portal that has been opened. Jeez.

Ordinarily, if I read something like this, I’d be like ‘whatever’, but I couldn’t ignore it. It’s there and it’s very real. Power. Powerlessness, and something, something about the Goddess trying to poke through. I’m pretty sure you’re probably feeling it too if you’re reading this. And if not, and you think me mad, then you’re probably right about that too.

Because I have been feeling as if I may be going mad, simply because my mind just doesn’t seem to function the way that other people’s minds do. Simply because I just do not get it. I can’t understand it. My mind is blown by the fact the UK Government is pumping an additional £84m into this Covid vaccine. We’ve still not managed to vaccinate against the common cold, we still have flu, we still even have polio and how many years have we been vaccinating against that now, let alone meningitis, and all these others diseases that still exist, that we still haven’t managed to overcome, that we live with.

Nowhere do I hear any talk about the immune system, and I keep wondering why we aren’t putting more money into health education, teaching about the immune system and how we might promote its functioning. It’s like we’ve forgotten that we even have one, that within us is the capacity to protect against illness, and this amazing body that can heal. The only time people generally talk about the immune system is when it isn’t functioning properly, and we have heard a lot about this recently.

It doesn’t help I suppose that people pay it such little attention and will allow things to be injected or ingested in their body that aggravate it, let alone all the negative thinking and the external pollutants that we subject ourselves too, some by choice and some not, and all the while the trees get cut down, we lose more of nature and her medicine and her ability to help us heal, not only through her medicinal qualities but just by being in her - the chemicals that she gives to us, the good chemicals, not the bad ones that are sprayed on our food through mass farming and that we ingest into our bodies, on top of all the stuff that has already been injected into us and all that stress…

And on I go. The rage was in full swing about this and all other sorts of injustices. The people dying through loneliness and poverty, those unable to obtain diagnoses for cancers and other diseases and ailments because the whole world has stood still by a virus. A virus! The world is full of viruses. There are always going to be viruses. But now. Now we have a war on the virus. A war! Why do governments always need to declare wars?! Why do we always need to be fighting something? Why can’t we just live in blinking harmony with one another, each other, with viruses for goodness sake?!

Then there’s the bubbles! Ah, if I hear much more about bubbles then I think I will truly lose my mind. Only a few months ago, public transport was encouraged, now we shouldn’t go on it. We are trying to move away from plastic, yet now I don’t suppose anyone cares too much what material is used for PPE, or how it is disposed of, as long as it protects them from the virus. It’s all so confusing. As for the children. I read that in Denmark, children back at school are being asked to wash their hands so much that they are now getting eczema and skin complaints.

Then there’s the social distancing of children in schools. And here I’m curious about the products used to deep clean the schools each week, the same schools that our children will be shut into, to avoid Covid. And this when there are currently 4 known cases on an Island with a population of approximately 60k. Yes I know, I know that Covid is very infectious and can kill, but come on, look at the collateral damage, there are so many people suffering in so many ways that we cannot even begin to imagine or put statistics to it.

The mental health alone? I don’t know that I’ve talked to many people recently (online or social distancing may I add) who haven’t alluded to the fact they have had enough that mentally they are just about holding it together, and that’s mainly because they are drinking wine as a form of self-medication. How is it possible to maintain a full time job and educate your children? And this with the relentless shopping, oh my goodness, there’s no joy in this world anymore, even shopping has become a laborious process of queues and trying to socially distance, which is so tricky in a shopping environment.

But it is more than all that. It is about feeling powerless to live the life that I would choose to live. This is where the rage came from last week. We always get to choose the thoughts we think. But we don’t always get to choose what we can do with the time that we have available to us. Normally we do, but lockdown has thrown that out the window too. Someone else has been deciding what we can and can’t do with our time, and when they live from a different perspective to your own, then it is tough to just go with the flow, because you are not able to live aligned to your own deep values.

And yes of course, there’s this spiritual lessons of living with uncertainty, of being present, of quite literally just going with the flow of things, but, but, well she doesn’t much like that. Her power is taken away, just like it was taken away eons ago, there is still a very raw wound. A very real wound. I know that I am not the only woman feeling it now too.

So I raged and I despaired and I moaned a lot to E, and I tended to my plants and I got out into nature as much as I could, because nature is our healer and our centerer, and I felt much better once the dark night, or nights in this case, had come to pass, and I could see more clearly that it doesn't matter what I think, or what I say, only that I live my life with integrity and in harmony with the world around me, and with my family and with viruses. That the rest of the world with all its craziness will carry anon. And I send Reiki to that and those too.

The Goddess is calling. She’s moving deep from the land into the root and up through the pelvis and into the solar plexus, awaiting her transformation. She is transformation! We are being reminded, of that which is important (and it isn’t what we have been told or ‘sold’ - it certainly isn’t the best bikini-clad yoga body, anymore than it is the 6 figure salary, for example). It’s there for us to discover, if we are listening and it is really rather delightful in its simplicity.

But still I’m feel that my mind is broke, because so many are still asleep. This is what pains me the most. Even after all this time…

Even 
After 
All this time
The Sun never says to the Earth,

"You owe me."

Look
What happens
With a love like that,
It lights the whole sky.”

― Hafi

Even after all this time…we’re still looking in all the wrong places and missing what is right under our noses.

With love

Emma x

Switching off and switching in - Facebook and mobile phones

I have been thinking for a long while now, about coming off social media and not using my mobile phone.

I did attempt to leave Facebook last year, but people kept telling me how foolish I was for doing so, because that’s not what you do if you are running a small business. I kept arguing that I’m not running a small business, so what does it matter - I’m lucky as I am able to do what I love and share this with others, and earn a living from it too. To me this isn’t a small business, it’s living my dharma and being of service. 

I have grown increasingly weary over the years of receiving invites to join ‘small business’ groups, ‘conscious collective’ groups, ‘star seed’ groups, ‘entrepreneurial’ groups and the such like on Facebook. I’m not a fan of groups or of labelling, because this just creates greater separation and it also runs the risk of us putting ourselves on pedestals as if we are somehow better than others. It also limits us and I absolutely do not want to be limited or put in a box.

Yet still, despite knowing all this, I stayed on Facebook, partly because I questioned whether I might have gotten it wrong, and so I suppose there was some fear of somehow losing out on what others were telling me I was gaining. It didn’t help that I contacted Hays House, a holistic publishing company, to submit a manuscript, only to be told that they will only accept work from writers who have a certain number of social media and email followers. 

This saddened me - that the publication of manuscripts is dependent on the author having a certain number of followers, not on the merit of the written content itself. It’s as if the author’s ability to social network has now become more important than what they are actually offering or sharing, which seems in contrast to being in service to something greater than ourselves, a channel then, creating in unison with the sacred, at least for holistic manuscripts.

So with a heavy heart I continued using Facebook to keep the option open in terms of book publishing in the future, and I tried to play it’s game; apparently the more you post, the more your posts will appear in newsfeeds, and the more people might know what you are offering and respond with a ‘like’ or a comment. But all the while this made me feel uneasy and inauthentic because I didn’t want to be posting for the sake of posting, plus I didn’t want to be spending my spare time online for the sake of it either. 

Furthermore, I didn’t feel comfortable feeding into a platform that doesn’t necessarily bring out the best in people or support their health and wellbeing. Not only does it provide the possibility for conflict if people don’t agree with you, but you can unconsciously lose hours of your life scrolling through your newsfeed if you’re not careful – it absorbs time and energy! My concerns about this have been proven to a certain extent by Covid-19 and lockdown.

In the earlier days, the fear and anxiety and judgments circulating on Facebook were immense and it took some effort not to get caught up in it. And I did to a certain extent, offering a plethora of free yoga classes through Facebook, as if I alone could somehow ease the negativity and support those who were clearly suffering. However, I was then spending hours on Facebook, and certainly not feeling better for it. 

Fortunately my yoga teacher, Louise, pulled me up on this, not only reminding me not to ‘prostitute’ myself, but to consider any underlying motivations. I genuinely wanted to help people, but I did question whether I somehow needed to be seen to be helping people too. It was this latter point that fascinated me, that reinforced how conniving our ego can be, that even with clear intention, we can still sometimes lose ourselves along the way, and Facebook provides a fantastic platform for this too.

So I have considered that perhaps part of the reason I have stayed on Facebook might be ego. The need to be known, liked, followed. And perhaps this is the reason that I find Facebook increasingly uncomfortable, because I know that it is a trap. It might make us feel that it is essential, that it allows people to find out what it is we are offering the world – for example yoga and Reiki – but I know that people will find us regardless.

Those who contact me for yoga through Facebook rarely make it to a class and those who contact for Reiki, book and then pull out nearer the time. I have noticed common behaviour patterns with it. Furthermore, I haven’t met a single one of my yoga teacher’s on Facebook. Instead I have met them through word of mouth or because we happened to be in the same place at the same time; the divine. 

And yet admittedly, living on Guernsey, in a small community, Facebook can be helpful at raising awareness of events and it can help you to stay in touch with those you don’t see regularly, and share interesting articles etc, so it is not always about being liked or known. This I have considered too and lately this is my motivation for using Facebook, I love to share my blogs, for example and any poignant quotes or new moon readings. But beyond that, I can’t be sure that there is any benefit, I could be wrong however!

There’s more awareness gained recently - lockdown has been a gift for many reasons, but especially because it has enabled me to experience a new way of living, a much slower, nature based and child orientated one, that my soul has craved for some time, and that the moon has been trying to orientate me towards. I have known on a deep level, but I just couldn’t figure it out in my small mind how I might make the changes that needed to be made. The universe has made the changes for me, for all of us collectively. 

It’s not been easy necessarily, there has been a death of sorts; I experienced a significant letting go at the end of the last moon cycle, as the old way of being, that I was holding onto so tightly in my solar plexus, finally let go. I knew it was coming because at the beginning of lockdown I had a very vivid dream of dying, one of my students being the gatekeeper, it was surreal and yet necessary, and all the yoga I have studied with Louise this last month has supported this process with its emphasis on letting go and ‘preparing for a good death’, as she says!

I have a feeling that the world generally is going through a period of death. Some are literally dying and passing onto the other world, two of my friends have lost their mums, for example. And some have been dying while in this world, as parts drop away that are no longer needed, and new lives begin, with different priorities, different intentions, different ambitions and different energies.

I am enjoying all that the ‘new’ has ushered in, the planting of vegetables and the medicinal seeds from Fi, the time spent on Saints Beach, where I was rewarded this morning with my first marble, opportunities for sun rise and sun set, of running in the lanes and noticing the hedgerows, the cliffs in all their beauty and my boys, my beautiful boys, watching them moment to moment, growing and maturing, learning and deepening their interest in the world around them, off the screens and out in nature.

I have also enjoyed Diana Beresford-Kroeger entering my life. Diana is an Irish botanist, medical biochemist and author, who is also the keeper of ancient Celtic wisdom, so she straddles many worlds and weaves them together beautifully. I have learned a lot from Diana these last few weeks in watching her documentary, reading one of her books and her many interviews, and my life has been enriched for it. I am inspired by her ability to speak her truth and live from that place too, with a deep knowing of self. 

She has inspired in me a need to plant and to be in nature, to bathe in the trees, and to speak more of my truth out in the world. She has also given me permission to honour the deep calling, the one that tells me that I don’t want to spend too much of my time on Facebook, and the other one that has questioned whether I want to continue using a mobile telephone, and thus unintentionally supporting the installation of the dreaded 5G.

 The last few weeks I thought I had run out of mobile data so I was no longer able to use my mobile phone outside of the house. As it happens I had just accidentally and unknowingly turned it off – or it was the work of the divine – and yet what a wonderful lesson I learned. It was refreshing not to be distracted by my phone when out with the children, or to feel that I was beholden to anyone messaging or calling. 

Diana has definitely brought with her a call for action; to actually take action, not just talk about it, or think about it. I don’t want to be part of this life lived on the internet, disconnected from nature and distracted from my children and denying my own inner truth and wisdom. I am grateful to the online yoga classes during lockdown, but I shan’t miss it once we are able to connect in person again, for it is not the same, and you cannot put a price on the benefit of real touch. 

The world needs more real touch. Touching the earth, touching trees, touching plants, touching those we love, touching lives in ways that we cannot even imagine when our heads are down staring at screens, blinkered to all that is happening around us, numbing out, distracted and unnecessarily busying ourselves, trying to be someone, living and yet not truly living. It’s that kind of living that makes us sick; that makes this planet sick. 

Lance Schuler, who taught me how to teach yoga, reminded me recently that for those who wish to be taken seriously while protesting against 5G, they must abandon their phones, just as you would not take an animal justice advocate seriously while wearing fur. Valid point. His words written about 5G are shared below*. He also asked us at this time to re-examine everything we have learned and to reject anything that assaults our souls. 

I have been examining what I have learned and I have become increasingly aware of that which assaults my soul. I am aware that the way that the world has been going is not necessarily the way that my soul wants me to go and it is not a world that I want my children growing up in. That sometimes we have to align with a different way, and that while this may take courage, it becomes the only option available to us, because life lived out of alignment, will negatively impact on our health and wellbeing and further deplete mother earth in the process.

It is for this reason that I’m going to give it a try. I’m going to put my money where my mouth is, so to speak, and see what life is like lived off social media and my mobile telephone. Just for a month. So from Beltain, on Friday 1 May, I shall switch off and switch in, and see where I’m at, and what I’ve learned by the beginning of June, and whether I’ll be switching the mobile phone and Facebook on again. Here begins the experiment! 

I’ll continue blogging and teaching and sending newsletters by the way. 

Love Emma x

*As there is increasing awareness that the 5G roll-out is a possible player of our current situation we invite all of you who can, especially in the West, who have mobile phones to consider the opportunity this situation lends to us and ‘lay them down to rest’.
We feel that one of the most immediate threats that comes to life, and loss of our freedoms comes from the use of this device.
5G is an escalating virus taking the radio assault to a new level on our planet; using much higher frequencies, much greater band-width and much greater power levels. This will eventually be escalated from short range to ‘planet wide’ and from an indirect to direct assault on the ionosphere when literally tens of thousands of 5G satellites go into operation over the next few years.
With evidence of these non–native micro waves greatest effects on the worldwide starvation and death of species and the more dangerous effects of the most innocent bystanders our GRANDCHILDREN, where these waves have a much more harmful and devastating effect.
With more than 5 billion people now holding open sources of microwave radiation in their hands, Mother Earth is burning, yet no fire fighters are coming…
For most people considering this proposal may seem like an impossibility, but that is because they do not remember that only 25 years ago almost no one had a mobile phone. 
Were we more human then? Are mobile phones dehumanising our physical and spiritual connections to our existence? 
For those who wish to be taken seriously while protesting against 5G, they must abandon their phones, just as one would not take the animal justice advocates seriously while wearing fur coats.
If we all discontinue their use we can return to a more EVEN playing field for those who choose not to use them, and with that new opportunities and freedoms will return so that we can all function and operate more equally, non-discriminately, and less destructively. (Lance Schuler).

The climate and separation urghhhhhhhhhhh!

Hi, I can’t believe how much the climate debate is creating so much fear and separation. Suddenly you’re a really bad person if you take a flight at the moment, especially if you’re a Guernsey deputy going for a day trip to discuss climate change! It would be funny if it wasn't so crazy!

The world is crazy at the moment though. Usually I’m all up for craziness, but this is a dark craziness, and as much as I like to stay positive and trust that the light follows the dark, I wonder how much darker we have to get first (but maybe this is all OK as it’ll bring in a while heap of light, let’s hope so).

It just seems so crazy to be judging each other for our actions in this moment when it’s actions of old that have created our current reality, and really, we are all as much to blame as each other, if we’re going to play this blame game. We each continue to contribute in some way or form to the planet being in the state it is in, whether it’s been about our choices for travel, for food, for clothes or the thoughts we think and the words that come out of our mouth.

All that is happening, as a result of the mass fear and hysteria, stirred up by the media as usual, is to create greater separation. The planet does not need separation. Humanity does not need separation. I’m sitting here listening to Coldplay’s latest album (which is genius btw, I applaud them for their recognition of the oneness that is so needed and so lacking at the moment in these confusing and chaotic times) and these lyrics catch me…

“What in the world are we going to do?
Look at what everybody's going through
What kind of world do you want it to be?
Am I the future or the history?

'Cause everyone hurts, everyone cries
Everyone tells each other all kinds of lies
Everyone falls, everybody dreams and doubts
Got to keep dancing when the lights go out

How in the world I am going to see?
You as my brother, not my enemy”

I suspect we’ve all had those moments, those glimpses, whether the birth of a child or the death of a loved one, when time stands still, life tis timeless and all that exists is love and an overwhelming sense oneness. Just the briefest of glimpses into the very heart of the universe, where nothing else matters and there is an overwhelming sense of everything being OK, the ultimate surrender to all that is, and then as soon as it happens, it’s over and the clock ticks and here we are again, in the 3-D world full of fear and limitation.

But we know this, deep down, we know this. What I loved so much about Coldplay’s recent album is the fact they shared this most beautiful Persian poem, that I read on the internet was written by Saadi Shirazi (but don’t quote me on that!) and here it is (if I can get it to upload…) 

We knew all this so long ago and look at us now, where has progress taken us…pretty far away from the Divine and the heart that’s for sure.

Even in the ‘heart’ holistic world, I see separation and judgement as people argue over crazy things like whether green tea is good for you, and the impact of eating a plant-based diet versus a meat one. let alone whether this form of yoga is better for you than that one. Who cares! The trouble is the holistic world has become big business and where there’s business there’s competition and there’s generally a fairly big amount of ego too.

I always think of David Attenborough and his life lesson he gave which went something along the lines of while they should live the way they wanted, the trick was “just don’t waste”.

That does it for me. Slightly challenging with a 3-year old who loves to waste everything, soap, shampoo, cleaner, whatever it is and he can get his hands on - he even cut through the cord of our blinds the other day too, so they now don’t work, wasted, but you know, we do our best! We’re not perfect, but no one is, that’s the thing that’s so crazy about this whole climatic change shaming thing.

There’s another element to David’s perspective that struck me. It was something I was taught by one of my mentor’s – live your truth and don’t worry what everyone else is doing…if green tea makes you feel good drink it, if not, don’t, who cares what anyone else thinks on the matter, we’re all different and we all have our own different experiences and perspectives.

So there we go. Aside from wanting to share how marvellous I think Coldplay’s new album is (I have track 3 on repeat,), I just wanted to vent a little about how crazy we have become to judge each other on our climatic short comings (and holistic offerings) to share the love. Love, love, love, love, love. We should shower ourselves in rose quartz. Oh yes, I did! Rose quartz, love, love, Rose quartz, and a sprinkling of Reiki. Let’s create a new craziness that is based on a whole heap of love. From me to you. Love xxx

Leo New Moon and Lammas ranting!

It’s the new moon in Leo today, and Lammas, the Pagan festival celebrating the first fruits of the Harvest (traditionally this is the time for break-making and corn-dollies).  

I’m hopeful that the turning of the wheel will bring smoother days ahead, and the new moon cycle will support this!

The last eclipse cycle was potent, and I am still going through the releasing of the old to make way for the new. Not only is my physical body doing a lot of releasing – I’ve had a relentless cough for the last week, as I cough out the rubbish that stops me from fully speaking my truth - but mentally there’s been the letting go of outdated concepts too. 

I was lucky to attend a workshop with the inspiring Stewart Gilchrist over the weekend as we considered how we can apply the yoga yamasa and niyamas from Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras (philosophical framework) from 2,000 years ago to life today. 

This was truly enlightening, not only in how we might make these ancient scriptures and teaching more relevant to our modern day living (or excuse for living) but in listening to Stewart speak his truth, which was also fairly much my truth, but I don’t have his courage to always talk so openly, for fear…for fear of being ridiculed, or challenged, or made to feel that I need to get a grip on reality (because this reality is serving us so well isn’t it?!).

This last moon cycle has fairly much been about the heart and throat chakras for me, and as I am part of the collective, and collectively we go through things, even if we sometimes think it is just us going through it all on our little own, then it’s highly likely that your throat and heart chakras have been making themselves known to you too. 

New people have been entering my life and others have been dropping away. What once was aligned is no longer and so there has been (and continues to be) some shifting to accommodate this change. You just know sometimes, don’t you, that things have to change, but making the change is often the tricky bit, as it demands courage. The Leo new moon will give us that courage, so those changes can be made with more conviction this month. 

Where does this leave us? I’d like to try and stay positive and say that once the debris has settled from the eclipses then we’ll be in a much better place as a civilisation and humanity, but with recent political events, I’m not sure we’re through the other side just yet. 

The question remains, will we ever be? We’ve got to hope so haven’t we, but still we’re buying into the illusion. Yoga is a case in point. While I enjoy visiting city studios because of the energy they imbue, I am also tickled and slightly irritated by the commercialisation of yoga and the fact it doesn’t reflect the underlying philosophy.

I pad £3.80 for a small cup of chai! That’s stealing in my opinion! Let alone being charged £17 for a drop-in class (admittedly there are deals that can be had) when you know the teacher is being paid a pittance per hourly rate. It’s not only that, it’s the branding that drives me mad, that yoga has to look a certain way now, Lululemon and Spiritual Gangster are the epitome of this! 

Admittedly, back in the day, long before yoga, I was a surfer and branding meant something to me then. It was really important that I accrue as many t-shirts as I could with the Billabong or Rip Curl logo. It made me feel like I was a proper surfer. Or something like that. As surfing grew in popularity, my interest in it waned. Or at least my interest in the commercialism of it waned.

 It got to a point where I loved surfing for surfing, not for the clothing that came with it. I suppose what I recognised was that I was only ever trying to buy into an illusion. If I wore those branded Rip Curl clothes then I may look the part and be good at surfing, and maybe attract myself a lovely surfer boyfriend in the process. It was a story I played out in my head.

As it happened I was OK at surfing in the end, coming second in the University Nationals my first year at Uni, and I did have a surfing boyfriend for a while, but by then I’d grown weary of the branding and the commercialism of surfing, because I had recognised that none of it was real. What was real was being out in the water, and catching waves, and the feeling that came from this. 

Maybe because of my surfing experience, or maybe because I discovered yoga before it became trendy, and had learned from my surfing experience, I have never bought into the commercialism of yoga. I have a mat. What more do I need? I certainly don’t need clothes that have been designed for yoga and cost an absolute fortune. 

Just like I don’t need a named eye pillow promoting someone’s business (the give-away is in the ‘business’. “Yoga is a spiritual practice”, I want to cry out to anyone who will listen! What right does anyone have to try to ‘own’ it in any way). For some reason the branded eye pillow especially tickles me, it’s like you just can’t escape it, even in Savasana! 

So where was I going with this? See throat chakra has been affected somewhat recently, I’ve started ranting again!

I suppose my point is, that if we buy into the illusion of it all as yoga practitioners (who, in theory are meant to be addressing the five kleshas, the five obstacles, the first of which is ignorance) then there really is no hope. I mean obviously there is always hope, but really, we need to be discerning. This is so important.

Of course this is relevant to all of life, not just the commercialisation of yoga. Discerning what is true for us, not what some marketer has fed us (…often an illusion to sell us a product and make someone money).

So I think this brings me back to my point, if I even had a point, as I feel like I may have just need to rant and get that all off my chest, the bit about the commercialisation of yoga and selling out…ah yes, buying into the illusion.

Let’s stop buying into it! Let’s stop buying what we don’t need for a start. Maybe we need to start saying no more frequently too, Just say no! No more wars. No more trees being cut down for developers gain. No more children being separated from their parents at the US/Mexican border. No more refugees dying as they try to escape to Europe. No more politicians messing with our children’s education. No more wasting food. No more turning our backs on the homeless and people needing help. No more turning a blind eye. No more putting our heads in the sand. No more cruelty to others, animals, humans, plants. No more buying into the commercialisation of yoga (no branded eye-pillows, please!).

Let’s see where the new moon energy lands. If there’s one thing for sure, this new moon is definitely bringing out the roar of the Leo lion!

Happy New Moon and Happy Lammas.

xx