News — The Peaceful Wild

I come to the Peaceful Wild every morning for my home practice.

It is part of my morning routine.

I get out of bed, scrape my tongue, drink a glass of warm water, feed my bunnies, prepare hot water and chyawanprash, put some music and mantra on, and go to the Peaceful Wild. There I tune into my body and spend about 20 minutes just moving in whatever way feels good that day. I then sit 10 minutes in stillness, practicing pranayama and meditation. It is such a grounding way to greet each day.

Over the last month or so, it has been an absolute joy to be in this space and watch the light slowly return after months of Arctic darkness. It is such a special space to start every day and a beautiful spot to witness the flow of Earth’s rotating change.

I have also been very lucky to be able to share this space with classes of both new beginners and intermediate students. Exploring new things and feeling the heat building from all our bodies moving together is also a wonderful way to be in the Peaceful Wild.

For the last few weeks though, and for the next weeks to come, I have also been teaching a yoga class at KRAFT Sports Centre at UiT the Arctic University. This is a totally different space. Much bigger. Very many more students. All facing an entire wall of mirrors. Teaching yoga and meditation in that space has been an interesting and enjoyable experience. So many different bodies to guide through the movement. So many different lives to be brought down into Savasana. All while facing a full wall of mirrors.

I am loving my time in the Peaceful Wild, but teaching outside my sacred space is also offering exciting new challenges and inspiration for evolution. I really feel that I am broadening my repertoire for teaching classes, and that is fun!

The earnings from these extra classes are being donated to World Bicycle Relief. This is because it has also been so wonderful to be cycling to and from work on my electric bike lately and I wanted to share that joy of a bicycle with others.

Namaste

I have just returned home from a 3 week trip to Antarctic with 77 other female scientists interested in saving this beautiful planet. It was an incredible experience with the Homeward Bound program, which is powerfully transformative leadership course for women in science to help them influence environmental policy and create positive change.

While on the ship, I was lucky enough not only to participate in the program but also to teach this group of brilliant scientists yoga and meditation. Yoga & meditation gave us some much needed grounding to balance out the rigours of the journey but these were among some of the most difficult and most enjoyable classes I have ever taught!

The space on the ship was limited so people were tucked in and around fixed seating. This left no space to move between anyone and meant that people could not see me demonstrating anything on the floor. The ship, and therefore the floor, was also regularly rocking and rolling with the southern ocean meaning we almost never had steady ground beneath our feet. Almost no one had a mat and there was a constant background noise of conversations from around the bar. And yet, where else in the world can you teach and encourage your students to send their warrior gazes out to the icebergs or tuck them into savasana as you watch whale tails dive into the depths beneath them.

It was a truly magical experience and I recently wrote a blog for the program about how we are going to face the challenges of now returning to everyday life.

You can read it here: https://homewardboundprojects.com.au/2018/03/13/finally-homeward-bound-teamhb-correspondent-fern-wickson/

Returning home to the beautiful place that is Peaceful Wild makes my life much easier though and I feel blessed to be able to leave Antarctica and yet still return home to the ice and the snow.