Timelapse Park Play

Finding time for myself without having my children in tow doesn't happen very often but having small children doesn't mean you need to to neglect your yoga practice, in fact incorporating yoga play with your children into your practice is both fun and rewarding for all of you.

Baby Wearing Yoga

In those moments when your baby just wants to be held close baby wearing is a great tool to help you continue you to do the things you need to- including yoga!

Arm Balances

I had an amazing intensive yoga session with Meghan Currie today. I'm inspired, happy and super exhausted but it's still fun to come home and play with some arm balances with my little ones.

Inspiration!

Yoga has helped me to break free from the fear of failure, it's helped me to get up when I fall down and laugh at my mistakes.

India's Forest Fairy Dress

India made herself a lovely dress this afternoon. She used a singlet that we had previously dyed with plant material for the top of the dress and added a skirt to it. I had a few doilies in my sewing stash which India was very excited about being able to use.
I helped with the pinning just to get her started but she did all the sewing herself with a little extra guidance with sewing the doilies on.
I think it turned out beautifully, I'm very proud of her sewing and design skills.

Prenatal Yoga

Here's a few yoga pics from Autumn 2013 when I was pregnant with Mio. Yoga has brought so much to my life.

Salted Caramel Balls

Caramel is my favorite sweet treat, here's a quick recipe I threw together. Enjoy!

10 medjool dates

1/3 cup tahini

1/2 cup lucuma powder

a pinch of salt to taste

1-2 Tbsp filtered water

Remove seeds from the dates and process all ingredients in a food processor. The mixture should come together easily when rolled into a ball without being sticky. Makes about 20 1-inch balls.

A Day in the Life of a Yogi Mama

Your yoga practice will certainly change with children in your life. With a different routine and many more demands on your time it can be hard to find the time for a solid yoga practice but that doesn't mean you need to give up your practice entirely. Family life provides the perfect opportunity for you to take yoga off the mat and into your daily life. Here's a diary to show you the how, what, when and where of  yoga in my life so that you can see that not only is it possible to include yoga in your life, it's fun and rewarding too.


6am- Mio wakes for some milk, usually she goes back to sleep but not today. I stay in bed for a few more minutes while she plays but then give up on the idea of more sleep and I get up to take Mio to the potty and start my day. After using the bathroom, I do some tongue scraping, wash my face and moisturise from top to toe with my homemade infused body oil. Using these Ayurvedic cleansing practices is how I start every day, I find that tongue scraping wakes me up and clears my head, and using body oil keeps my high Vata constitution in check.
After dressing Mio we head downstairs to the kitchen to grab a big glass of warm water with apple cider vinegar. This hydrates my organs and kick starts my digestion. I drink half of it and head upstairs after Mio tells me all she wants to eat is probiotic powder (hmmm).

6:30am- I set up my yoga mat in the bedroom and practice a few rounds of sun salutations while Mio plays. The flow is interrupted by Mio climbing underneath me so we practice downward dog together and giggle at each other while I peek through her legs. Mio disappears again to play and I practice a few gentle twists and forward bends to finish warming up. Mio is back to climb on me again as I lie down on the mat and we play see-saw for a few moments. Off again to play, Mio talks to (or should I say- screams at) the traffic through the closed bedroom window (lucky Dave and India sleep through anything!). While practicing a headstand Mio insists I drink from the empty kombucha bottle I left in the bedroom last night- lucky I have enough balance in my headstand to play this game while I'm upside down- Mio thinks it's fantastic. I practice a few challenging transitions before resting in a butterfly forward bend while Mio babbles emphatically and shows me her book.

7am- I sit down to do some work on the computer and breastfeed Mio again while I drink the rest of my apple cider vinegar water.

8am- Time for breakfast. Put some toast on and do a few handstands in the kitchen. Put a load of nappies on and hang out some sheets that have been in the machine since yesterday morning. Potter around the kitchen while eating toast with Mio. India comes downstairs at 8:30am and I make some buckwheat pancakes for her and Mio. While cutting vegetables for my carrot, beetroot, ginger and apple juice I stand in tree pose. I make my juice and a cup of mumma tea and do a few things around the kitchen. Breakfast didn't happen while sitting down today which doesn't follow the guidelines of Ayurveda but unfortunately we can't be perfect all the time.

9am- Back upstairs with my tea to get dressed. I manage to get half dressed before Mio gets grumpy and tired from her early waking. After putting her to sleep I practice some more inversions and some backbends with the yoga strap before I finish getting dressed.

I do some cooking and make Dave a coffee while he makes phone calls. I remember to breathe deep and be mindful through India's challenging behavior.

10:30am- Mio wakes, she goes to the potty and I finish making food. We eat outside in the sunshine and I watch the girls play hide and seek.

11:15am- I do some arm and shoulder stretches and have some down time sitting in half lotus while I crochet.

12pm- Handstands at the train station while we wait. Lunch in the city at the Hare Krisna's restaurant, then off to the park for some yoga and much needed barefoot grass play. Home by 4:30pm and the last of the day is filled with end of day play, dinner and the bedtime routine. I squeeze in some computer time and a few seated yoga poses on the bed before I put Mio to sleep.

8pm- I enjoy some crocheting on the roof as the sun sets, and then some computer time and hanging with Dave for the rest of the evening.

Yoga Play

Yoga play with my children is a big part of my yoga practice, we go to the park regularly to explore, ground and connect through yoga and it's always a lot of fun! Here's a few pictures from a recent park play in Fitzroy Gardens.

Overcoming Fear in Deep Back Bends

I recently made the resolve to work on my back bends and focus on moving more deeply into them. For me there has always been an element of fear when it comes to back bends and although this is very common when practicing back bends I'm not entirely sure why I experience such a block. I've been making the effort to looked deeply into the way I feel as I move into a back bend and notice where I'm feeling stuck. I've discovered that even when moving into a back bend I physically resist it by looking towards the ground and trying to round my shoulders to protect my heart centre. This evening when I took to the mat with my yoga strap I focused on letting go and opening my chest and already being blessed with the gift of flexibility I discovered that all I needed was that gently letting go of fear and opening up in order for me to touch my dread bun with my toes in Eka Pada Rajakapotasana (King Pigeon Pose). I still have much learning to do and releasing a life time of stored fears and deep emotions but the power that yoga has given me to help me look inward and conquer my fears is truly amazing.

Earth and Art Yoga

With Mio getting older and becoming more of a toddler every day I'm thinking again about getting back into part time work. I've been posting regular pictures to my Facebook page Earth and Art Yoga and I'm planning to write some more articles and tutorials for prenatal, postnatal, children and teens yoga. In the mean time here's one of my favorite pictures of India meditating, it really captures the complete peace and calm she's feeling.

Crocheted Spring Cardigan

After not making any clothes for what seems like ages little Mio finally needed a cardigan to wear in the early mornings and evenings. I wanted something loose to wear over dresses and tops, and something that I could make quickly.
I crochet a very basic cardigan based on rectangles from some bamboo/cotton in my stash and finished it off with a lovely handmade wooden button. For such a simple design it looks quite sweet and pretty and is exactly what Mio needed.

Infused Oil

I'm a firm believer in if you can't eat something then you shouldn't be putting it on your skin, so rather than wasting my money and health on expensive creams and lotions, after my evening shower I cover myself in virgin coconut oil. Following Ayurveda I have found that slathering my body in oil helps to keep my vata in check and it has the added bonus of making me smell delicious and feeding my skin with lots of nutrients.

I tend to go through a lot of coconut oil and I'm always raiding the pantry to fill up my little amber jar, this time though I wanted to have a play with infused oil to boost the nutrients and healing properties of my moisturiser and to make the ritual of self massage after my shower just that little bit more special.

Having a reasonably well stocked herb supply I grabbed what I had on hand and set up a double boiler. I chose calendula for its healing properties, it is particularly good for promoting wound healing and reducing inflammation. It is used to treat and heal a number of skin conditions including eczema, nappy rash and sunburn, and provides some antiseptic properties. I also chose horsetail for its high silica content which benefits the skin and aids in the absorption of calcium. Horsetail is a diuretic which helps to relieve fluid retention and is also recommended for anemia.
I guessed the amount of herb to oil ratio making sure the herbs were well covered in the melted coconut oil and then I left it for 30 minutes or so to slowly infuse over a gentle heat.

After the herbs had finished infusing I strained them through some cheesecloth and added some clove, lavender and grapefruit oils to the infused coconut oil and left it to set over night.

As an added special treat I took the herbs in the cheese cloth and bound them to make a giant tea bag and put them in a foot bath. Dave and I soaked our feet together whilst we relived the early 2000s and watched Angel.

Playing with Pattern Drafting

I managed to steal an afternoon to work on my pattern drafting and experiment with my exciting new drafting tool- the french curve.

I used a scrap of fabric left from making a baby sling and some stretch fabric that I've been rather nervous to use because I'm still getting my head around working with stretch fabric on the sewing machine.

I still have some tweaking to do but it didn't turn out too badly.