in praise of slowness

Highly recommend taking a look/listen to Carl Honore on the subject of slowness. His book, and this TED talk, describes The Slow Philosophy, a cultural revolution against the notion that faster is always better. The Slow philosophy is not about doing everything at a snail’s pace. It’s about seeking to do everything at the right speed. Savoring the hours and minutes rather than just counting them. Doing everything as well as possible, instead of as fast as possible. It’s about quality over quantity in everything from work to food to parenting.

“Spending more time with friends and family costs nothing. Nor does walking, cooking, meditating, making love, reading or eating dinner at the table instead of in front of the television. Simply resisting the urge to hurry is free.”

― Carl Honoré, In Praise of Slowness: Challenging the Cult of Speed

Gokhale Head Cushion

If you have nothing suitable to play and practice the art of head carrying with may I suggest this head cushion from Esther Gokhale...

 Here is the website has to say...

"Of all the techniques Esther has experimented with, her favorite way to help people with upper body posture is placing a small amount of weight on the head. This is our oldest and most primal way of carrying objects and it evokes all the neck and back stabilizing muscles semi-automatically. Most students find the cushion helpful to:

• Find their natural axis of the spine,
• Strengthen the deep cervical (longus colli) muscles
• Remind them to keep their head’s up!"

I concur!

No Guts, No Heart, No Glory

I went to see No Guts, No Heart, No Glory by Common Wealth Theater at The South Bank Centre last night (it's on as part of the Women of the World Festival) and I HIGHLY recommend going to see it.

It is a site-specific performance (originally staged in a boxing gym in Bradford) based on interviews with Muslim Female Boxers and collaboration with the five actors in the piece. Although the performance represents a young Muslim female experience, I think it's content will resonate with anyone who has ever been young, has a body, fears, frustrations and dreams (i.e. all of us).
From a movement perspective it was just pure joy to watch, especially the mesmerising steps of boxer Saira Tabasum, and it was beautiful to see the mapping of these young girls thoughts matched with such a riot of movement...body and mind united.


No Guts, No Heart, No Glory from Common Wealth on Vimeo.

Recommended Read: A Guide to Better Movement

I'm currently working my way through A Guide to Better Movement by Todd Hargrove, and even though I'm not done yet I highly recommend it! Todd presents recent work in neuroscience, and his extensive background in a variety of sports and movement practices, to guide an understanding of the psychological and physiological whys behind movement patterns and habits. Once your brain has finished digesting there are lots of practical puzzles and 'exercises' to try out for yourself, which I have personally found very usesfull when teaching my students how to map basic movement patterns. 

If you want to know more then check out Todd's Better Movement Blog (which the book consolidates) and have a listen to this interview over at Liberated Bodies. 

Happy learning!

Recommended Read: Swimming Studies

I picked up Leanne Shapton's Swimming Studies purely because I liked the cover (and the collection of swimming costumes inside) shallow, I know, but it turned out to be a lucky pick.

As I have mentioned before I've been swimming since I was a tiny, one of the only things my parents were adamant me and my brothers stuck with, and Shapton’s vivid description of a moment during a swim practice brought me back to my own child hood experience: the soupy chorine-thick smell, the familiar feeling of sweating while in water, and the refreshing wave of winter cold hitting me as I made a flip turn at the far end of the pool. In evocatively describing things familiar and unknown, Swimming Studies brings the solitary activity of swimming into everyday life.  It isn’t a sports book, more of a place for athlete and artist to coexist. Right up my street and something i'll be dipping back into i'm sure!

I would read it if I were you...

Recommended Read: You are not so smart

Currently reading this by David McRaney and it's very smart. I recommend you read it too!

Yoga Tune Up

Recently added these lil balls to my foam roller routine and they are brilliant!
The foam roller is like watching the TV in black an white, the balls are like colour!!

Yoga Tune Up balls

Recommended read

The Gift. A must read!

Recipe: Hot Toddy

Hot Toddy from Felicity Cloake 

For each toddy
60ml water
3 cloves
Cinnamon stick
1cm piece of ginger, peeled and sliced
1 strip of lemon peel
60ml whisky
2tsp honey
1-2 tsp lemon juice
Grating of nutmeg
1. Put the water in a small pan along with the spices and peel over a low heat. Bring to a gentle simmer. Meanwhile rinse a heatproof glass with hot water and dry.

2. Pour the whisky into your warmed glass, then pour over hot water and spices. Stir in the honey and lemon juice and taste for sweetness. Top with a little nutmeg, and breathe in deeply.

For a little history, notes on toddy perfection and justifications of this old classics medicinal qualities click here!

(Image from wallflowergirl and its a rum one not whisky, I just liked the picture. Click here for that recipe)

Recipe: Strawberry Ice-cream

Strawberry Ice Cream
From Hannah at Immer Wachsen

2 cans coconut milk
6 ounces frozen strawberries OR 1 ½ cups fresh strawberries
1/3 cup raw honey

Using only the fat* from the canned coconut milk, blend all ingredients. Now there are several ways to freeze the ice cream base, and there are several ways to process the ice cream.

Freezing and processing options:
-Freeze ice cream base in ice cube trays. Once frozen process in a food processor until creamy.
-Freeze ice cream base in ice cube trays. One frozen press through a Champion Juicer.
-Pour ice cream base into a bowl and stir occasionally as it freezes. Eat as soon as it reaches a thick consistently.
-Pour ice cream base into a large shallow dish (like a casserole dish). Once frozen scrape the solid mass with a fork until soft enough to serve.
-Freeze ice cream base in popsicle molds.
-Use an ice cream maker.

*Canned coconut milk will separate into fat and water. Do not shake the can and you will be able to remove the fat from the can while leaving the water at the bottom. You will need 2 cups of coconut milk fat for this recipe.

For Original recipe, more detail and FAQs visit www.immerwachsen.com (the site is full of beautiful photos and many interesting takes on classic recipes) 

Recommendation

This massage oil from Aesop smells gorgeous! Really lovely massaged into skin fresh out of the shower/bath/hotspring/ocean...

 Breathless hydrating body treatment

Recommended Read

“In the Bible Belt, where I grew up, people looked to scripture for guidance. I tried, but Leviticus damns deformities: the book warns against allowing the deformed to blight the priesthood, listing among the deformed those who have ‘a crooked back.’ Modern translations made the prohibition even clearer by rendering that with the specificity of “he who has scoliosis,” so I turned to other texts.”

Rebecca Buckwalter-Poza on turning to literature after being diagnosed with scoliosis.
via theparisreview

!

I have all of these skills. I am proud of that fact.
Whilst we are on the subject of ice cream if you are ever in London then treat yourself to the  mascarpone & Fig ice cream (with chocolate if you really know how to live) from gelateria3bis on Park Street, Borough Market. One of the best things I have ever put in my mouth....

(badges via blua)

Dancing Dreams

In 2008, world famous dancer and choreographer Pina Bausch selected 40 teenagers who had never heard of her to be part of the dance performance 'A Place to Make Contact' (Kontakthof). They spent the next ten months falling in love with dance and discovering the work of Pina Bausch. 
Pina died in 2009. This film is a testimony to her revolutionary work and the impact she had on the contemporary dance movement. 

I watched this last night and I highly recommend it! By far one of the most life-affirming things i've seen in a while. It made me cry. It's stunning.

Mind and Movement

Go and see this exhibition at The Welcome collection!

Wayne McGregor is well known for his physically testing choreography and ground-breaking collaborations across dance, film, music, visual art, technology and science and this exhibition offers a glimpse into the process behind his work.

It beautifully shows ways in which mind and movement interact in each and every one of us. Inspiring.

Recommended Read

Splittings

1.
My body opens over San Francisco like the day –
light raining down each pore crying the change of light
I am not with her  
I have been waking off and on
all night to that pain  
not simply absence but
the presence of the past
destructive to living here and now     
Yet if I could instruct myself,
if we could learn to learn from pain
even as it grasps us     
if the mind, the mind that lives
in this body could refuse to let itself be crushed in that grasp
it would loosen     
Pain would have to stand off from me and listen    
its dark breath still on me
but the mind could begin to speak to pain
and pain would have to answer:
We are older now
we have met before     these are my hands before your eyes
my figure blotting out      
all that is not mine
I am the pain of division      
creator of divisions
it is I who blot your lover from you
and not the time-zones or the miles
It is not separation calls me forth      
but I who am separation      
And remember
I have no existence      apart from you

2.
I believe I am choosing something now
not to suffer uselessly yet still to feel
Does the infant memorize the body of the mother
and create her in absence?    
or simply cry
primordial loneliness?     
does the bed of the stream
once diverted      mourning       remember the wetness?
But we, we live so much in these
configurations of the past    
I choose to separate her from my past we have not shared
I choose not to suffer uselessly
to detect primordial pain as it stalks toward me
flashing its bleak torch in my eyes blotting out
her particular being the details of her love
I will not be divided from her or from myself
by myths of separation
while her mind and body in Manhattan are more with me
than the smell of eucalyptus coolly burning on these hills

3.
The world tells me I am its creature
I am raked by eyes brushed by hands
I want to crawl into her for refuge     lay my head
in the space     between her breast and shoulder
abnegating power for love
as women have done or hiding
from power in her love like a man
I refuse these givens     
the splitting between love and action   
I am choosing
not to suffer uselessly      
and not to use her 
I choose to love this time      
for once
with all my intelligence.

Read this collection because the words will haunt you. This book is stunning.

Recommended Listen

Mo Kolours EP1  is sick!!! Gets better with every listen. Stretch soundtrack of choice right now...

Tiny Beautiful Things

Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar  Cheryl Strayed
This is a group of letters from Strayed's advice column. She writes with compassion, honesty, wisdom, humor and guts! It is such a great read, i recommend it!

A chair for yoga

The Iyengar yoga chair is one of my favorite class props, but it can be a little daunting to get to grips with. If you are interested in getting one to aid your home practice then I recommend the book 'A Chair For Yoga' to help you on your way.

This is a really practical guide and will teach you everything you need to know about using a chair to improve your practice, whatever your level.

The author uses simple, accurate language and focuses on the specific benefits of using the chair for some familiar postures. There are some nice tips for beginners, in terms of teaching how to relax and soften into the poses, and also shows you how to extend your range and duration if your level is more advanced.

Here's a little youtube guide if you need some more convincing...i love the cat spine vest the lady is wearing!

Top image of BKS Iyengar from here

Recommended Read

If you desire expert advice and information about London's wellbeing hotspots then the lovely Sally Lovett of Stretching The City has just released a book with Vespertine Press. I highly recommend taking a peek!

"It's a beautifully designed, hand-bag sized guide to London's healthiest and holistic places - including vegetarian, raw & vegan eateries, the very best yoga and meditation centres and fun places to work up a sweat. All the places featured in the book are drop-in with no hefty membership fees and each review is accompanied with stunning photography. There's also a 'Words of Wellbeing' section at the back which includes contributions from leading London experts in nutrition, fitness, yoga, meditation and holistic therapies."

You can see more and buy the book here: www.wellbeing-london.com and for more tips follow on twitter here: @Wellbeing_LDN