Santulan yoga

01/11/2025

01/11/2025

“The attributes of a perfected body are beauty, grace, strength and adamantine hardness.”
- Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra, III:46, translated by Alistair Shearer

My seventy-one-year-old sister who is an avid hiker, tells me she feels stronger and fitter than she has ever been in her entire life. It’s a phrase I’m hearing more frequently from aging yogis who are incorporating other practices off the mat. This is also how I feel, having taken up my own swimming routine combined with walking and an emphasis in my yoga practice on gentle strengthening, stabilizing and balancing. I’m convinced that biological fitness can belie chronological age. Like my friend John who often shares a lane with me at the local pool as he does his two-kilometer thrice-weekly swim. He is still walking beautifully; upright and elegant. He’s 77 and sharp as a tack and in better shape than many people half his age.

You’d be forgiven for thinking that an emphasis on cardiovascular health doesn’t tie with traditional yoga practice. But you may be surprised to know that In Ayurveda (the sister science to Yoga), there has long been a distinction between vyayama or “exercise that gives energy” and that exercise that strengthens the cardio-vascular system and builds muscle mass, maintains healthy bones, and improves blood flow. Cardio-vascular exercise increases capillarization, bringing life-giving oxygen and nutrients to internal organs and other tissues. Heart health can also benefit the body in surprising ways, including lowering the risk of cancer and dementia. Conversely, damage to peripheral blood flow can affect how fast you walk, your grip strength and even contribute to vision loss.

Exercise that comes under the category of vyayama are yoga practices that give energy but do not use up a lot of chips. Slow movement practiced calmly, gently and methodically with an emphasis on diaphragmatic breathing is considered vyayama, like Sun Salutations. Breathing practices, and just about all yoga postures (asana) if practiced with an emphasis on improving blood circulation to the internal organs can be considered vyayama. Restorative Yoga as well as meditation and Yoga Nidra, build prana or energy. They are all forms of vyayama.

And while yoga practice can be strengthening and improve coordination and balance, it’s not necessarily as effective for building cardiovascular health as walking briskly or biking for 45 minutes without stopping. Increasingly I hear of yogis taking to the Pickleball court or to the gym to balance their practice. This is wise, especially if you prefer your time on the yoga mat to be more contemplative.

I’ve always found the 46th Sutra in the fourth book of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras fascinating: there’s no mention of supreme flexibility. Strength, firmness and “glowing from within like a diamond” are the descriptors of physical vitality. If practiced with mindfulness, all exercise can be an extension of a yoga practice.

How do you stay strong and fit, on or off your yoga mat?

31/10/2025

Kia ora all,
This month's donation goes to Orange sky.
Orange Sky supports people experiencing homelessness or hardship with access to free laundry and shower services, and the opportunity for regular connection.

Orange Sky services are open to all, regardless of circumstance and at no cost. We spend many hours ​having kōrero with our community and many ​friends tell us that homelessness is not just ​about their living situation but also the ​absence of human connection and a ​sense of belonging. Since the very first Orange Sky shift our service has remained an open, nonjudgmental and respectful environment to anyone experiencing hardship.

To find out more click here :https://orangesky.org.nz/

Sincerely
--
Claire McIntosh Phillips
R.M.T, C.Y.T

24/10/2025

Kia ora all,
In this month's class we will explore santosha- acceptance of imperfections. A critical eye serves us well in some environments, but is exhausting and counterproductive to spend so much time on relentless improvement. Santosha reminds us to look at ourselves and find peace and acceptance.

view this class on youtube here :
https://youtu.be/pFGGNzP153A

Sincerely
--
Claire McIntosh Phillips
R.M.T, C.Y.T

21/10/2025

30/09/2025

Kia ora all,
This month's donation goes to Womens refuge.

Women’s Refuge advocates help across a wide spectrum, ranging from help accessing healthcare and counselling, support with MSD and budgeting advice, obtaining a protection order and legal assistance, finding a place to live, helping to fund activities for tamariki and establishing relationships with schools and teachers, even meeting basic needs like food, clothing, and much more.

https://womensrefuge.org.nz/

Sincerely--
Claire McIntosh Phillips
R.M.T, C.Y.T

Looking to Get Away? So are the victims of family violence. You can help them escape by gifting a safe night.

28/09/2025

Kia ora all,
Now that I'm on the mend and that I have clearance from my surgeon to start some light work I can start back teaching.

☆ Monday 6pm - 7.30pm
☆Tuesday 6pm - 7.30pm
* Friday 8.30am - 9.30am
☆ Sunday 10am -11am ( Rugby clubroom )

Sincerely
--
Claire McIntosh Phillips
R.M.T, C.Y.T

20/09/2025

18/09/2025

Kia ora all,
This months online class is exploring the spring equinox.

As the days' balance shifts from dark to light and the growing season begins, what seeds would you like to plant and see develop over the next few months?
Set an intention around nurturing this vision, and let it inform your practice.

Check it out here on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/XXG0JyH-Pyk

Sincerely
Claire
Santulan yoga

15/09/2025

Karma Yoga and Bhakti Yoga are usually grouped together, because Karma Yoga really is serving others as a way of serving God. You serve others as a way of putting flowers at the feet of God, honoring God, and so doing your ‘seva,’ or service, becomes a technique of doing this.

So doing your ‘seva’, your service, can work in a devotional sense, where you are consciously considering your action as an offering, saying, “This is my Karma Yoga, I am doing this now as service to you, as an offering to God, and it’s work on myself.”

Or, I can do it from a meditative point of view called “meditation in action;” discussed in Trungpa Rinpoche’s book Meditation In Action. In this instance, when I am washing a pot, I don’t wash the pot as an offering to God, I just come into the process of washing the pot until I’m fully in the moment, and I quiet my mind into washing the pot until there is just “washing of the pot-ness,” and that is also Karma Yoga.

Once you are starting to awaken, you look around for practices to purify and help awaken. Most people see meditation as this practice. It’s a clear and simple yoga, and you say, “Well, while I do yoga, I do my meditation, and then I go to work, or then I live life, or then I’m gonna do good or something like that.”

Karma Yoga is taking all of the “good or something” that you are going to do after your meditation, and making it into an offering and practice for awakening.

So it’s a perspective, an attitude of offering and seeing how the actions you are performing are much more than the actions themselves.

- Ram Dass

12/09/2025

Week six post op

Week six

Yah! This week I got the good news that I can start putting weight on my leg and start walking.

Day one was very odd. My leg didn't feel like it was mine and there were some strange sensations in my foot, kind of like numbness during pins and needles. Also because of the weakness in my leg from not using much for 6 weeks it had the reaction of bending too much / giving way . ( It’s very odd to be learning how to walk at my age.)

Day two was better. I was getting more of a normal stride with the use of both my crutches still at this stage, very slow walking, but as close to normal as I can manage right now.

Day three I can now get a good heel - toe motion of normal walking gait.
I caught up with my physio and more exercises now that I can put weight on my leg.
Now I will be concentrating on strengthening the muscles and getting a better range of motion with bending my knee past 90 degrees. There is still a lot of restriction due to scar tissue and swelling inside the knee plus the tightness of my new ACL ligament.

Day four I have graduated to using just one crutch now and I am walking fairly normally.
Going down to one crutch means I can now carry objects ! something I've been looking forward to for a long time. I've spent quite a bit of the day walking around doing various household chores which is also nice for me.

One unexpecting thing ive noticed is that even though ive been hopping around on crutches for 6 weeks, for some reason now that I am walking I feel taller. Working in the kitchen made sense as previously I had been sitting and scooting around on my office chair. My wrists and shoulders are definitely thankful for getting a break.

Soon I will be able to start some light work.

Sincerely
Claire McIntosh-Phillips
R.M.T, C.Y.T