Readers, remember when I planted carrots and pumpkins?

And tomatoes and eggplants?

Well, look how much they’ve grown!

Who knew I had green fingers (although credit where credit’s due, it’s Himself who waters them every day)!

We all talk a lot about yoga “off the mat”, but what do we mean by it?

Well, to me it’s about finding that feeling of calm inside, that feeling of return that you get in yoga class, and taking it home with you.  It’s about living the best life you can in spite of (or maybe because of?) the circumstances the universe throws at you.  It’s about smiling in the face of adversity, and remembering to change every “f*** you” into a “bless you”!

Just for fun, here are 10 ways of living your yoga off the mat, even if it’s only for a passing moment every day.

1.  Watch your breath, notice when it speeds up or gets ragged and slow it down, smooth it out.

2.  Roll your shoulders up and back, open your chest.

3.  Watch your posture, draw the navel into the spine, lengthen the tailbone and stand tall.

4.  Laugh a lot.

5.  Open your heart.  When you’re stuck in traffic, or in the world’s slowest moving supermarket queue, and you feel yourself getting angry repeat the mantra “my heart is open”, you’ll calm down pretty quickly, I promise.

6.  Stroke a passing cat.

7. Reflect regularly without instrospection.

8.  Wear glitter and sprinkle fairy dust wherever you go.  Sounds trivial but I genuinely believe that looking good on the outside makes us feel good on the inside and therefore more able to live a mindful, compassionate life.

9.  Look after yourself.  Make sure you sleep enough, eat well, drink gallons of water and that there is always enough of you to go around.

10.  Let go.  Sometimes you can’t control everything.  I’ve learned this the hard way time and time again.  Sometimes you just have to stop holding on and let the universe do it’s job.  Trust in it.

How do you live your yoga off your mat?

Have beautiful weekends dear readers!

Aargghh!  It’s been one of those weeks.  Again.  I have been under the weather (nauseous, achey, sore throat) for over a week now, Mr Park the cable chewer has developed a limp which comes and goes (is he putting it on for attention because he is hot and cranky?) and we have an ant nest under the conservatory and ants are eating away at the walls.  The ants must be killed apparently.  But I cannot partake in such barbaric practices without breaking the laws of ahimsa can I? Or does stopping my house from falling down count as a a reason to allow ants to die?  I don’t know.  I hear black pepper makes them leave home so I’m giving that a whirl first.  As for the cat’s limp, well we’ll see….

So I’m wracking my brains for things I love.  But as usual they turn out to be right in front of my nose.

*  Cambridge in the summer.  There is something very special about that.

*  Finally working out how to use the library’s online reserve and renew function.  It is totally counter-intuitive but I’ve got it now.  I need to stop spending so much on books.

*  Tranquilista – the most inspiring book of 2010.  Stat.  I am also waiting in happy anticipation for my first TranquiliT order.  If you haven’t checked out Kimberly’s beautiful bamboo clothing then really you should!

*  Water with a sprig of fresh mint or a slice of lemon.  Or both.  It’s the simple things.

*  Being pretty much where I need to be right now.  And trying to accept that without pushing, without forcing, without gripping.  I love that I’m slightly better at this than I used to be.

Et tu readers?

PS – Himself has taken some beautiful pictures of the gruesome twosome if you’re interested here.