Journal Entries

Chasing Hearts

By  Vanessa Webb | 

We can spend years chasing after it instead of Being it, completely unaware that this is what we’re doing.  When at last we hear that first flicker of our heart’s desire, we can become so overjoyed, that we begin to chase after it in the same vein that we chased life before this new awareness.  We don’t even know we’re chasing it because we didn’t know we were chasing life to begin with…


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Done

By  Vanessa Webb | 

He was lying on the busy sidewalk, along the wall of a shop which stood across the street from the main market in Mapusa, India. He was on his side, using his arm as a pillow…an old man, paper thin, legs covered in flies which where nestling into the open wounds on his legs. I slowed to one of those lucid stops when you see a Being whose heart shattering situation stands right in front of you...


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For the Spirit of Courage

By  Vanessa Webb | 

Once imprisoned, Joan of Arc is said to have felt shattered within herself, that she had backed down on what she knew most deeply. That she hadn’t carried through on what only she could hear. After all of her bravery, her courage and her might, in the end, she felt she had betrayed her most sacred knowing...


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Purifying Speech

By  Vanessa Webb | 

Years ago I read the timeless book “The Four Agreements” by Don Miguel Ruiz. Those of you who have read it will know that the First Agreement is: "Be Impeccable with your Word” - which we'll often try to do in prayer and mantra, otherwise it seems a mostly forgotten practice...


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Are We Benefiting From Savasana?

By  Vanessa Webb | 

I tuned into a program the other day…the characters in the show had decided to experience the outdoors for the weekend at a lodge retreat.  While fishing, they caught bundles of fish, only to find out from the owner of the lodge later on...


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"If You Want to Change the World, Love a Man"--written by Lauren Wilce

By  Vanessa Webb | 

When I came across Lauren’s poem I was taken into another world.  But it’s a world that is more true. The poem is so deeply honouring of a woman’s heart, and the innate desire women carry to be emotionally generous.  And it is so honouring of the sensitivity of men:

If you want to change the world, love a man; really love him
Choose the one whose soul calls to yours clearly; who sees you; who is brave enough to be afraid...


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Our Own Mat

By  Vanessa Webb | 

 

If we assume that our Asana practice is reflective of our walk through life, then our Asana practice can be seen as an opportunity to really grasp the understanding that ultimately, we are finding our way through life on our own.


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A YOGINI'S JOURNEY TOWARD A TRUE MASTER: Marion Mugs McConnell

By  Vanessa Webb | 

"May life go to immortal life, and the body go to ashes. OM. O my soul, remember past strivings, remember! O my soul, remember past strivings, remember!”

In her book, Letters from the Yoga Masters, Marion includes this prayer from the Isha Upanishad, which reminds us that “the yoga Masters claim that if you are drawn to yoga in this life, it is likely that the seeds of knowledge were planted in a past life”. These excerpts are from the first three chapters of Marion’s book...


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THE POWER OF YOGA NIDRA TO CHANGE YOUR LIFE

By  Vanessa Webb | 

To seriously embark on a practice of Yoga Nidra, be sure to gather those skills of stillness and of focus, and of observation.  Polish them up the way you would a tarnished, old genie lantern…and dive in to your Nidra practice…all-in…nothing ventured, nothing gained…and when you feel ready to reach, reach far and reach true, because really, there is everything there for you.


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THE FLIP SIDE OF TAPAS (Self-discipline, the 3rd of the Niyamas)

By  Vanessa Webb | 

There is so much real freedom, personal power, and confidence that is developed in the practice of Tapas.Generally speaking, most of us have an aversion to self-discipline…in the West in particular. We see this continually demonstrated in coffee shops everywhere as two year olds run directionless, screaming madly, in a flushed-cheek sweat, parents bending down to face level, asking “hey buddy, where do you want to sit?”….


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