Yoga Love – An interview with Loveday Why

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chatting with Loveday has been one of the highlights of this interview series. I’m passionate about healing with food and using natural remedies to treat illness and Loveday embraces this. This girl is an inspiration, her writing soothes the soul and her recipes are nourishing, healing and strike the perfect balance between nutritious and delicious. Dive in and read all she has to share about her Yoga Practice.

 

 

 

Tell us a little about yourself

Hi, I’m Loveday. I live in Dunedin, New Zealand, with my husband and baby daughter. I work part time with women as a spiritual and nutritional wellness coach and help my husband run his native reforestation and gardening business. I’m also studying for a PhD in contemporary poetics. I strongly believe the mind body spirit connection that results in true health must also include a deep relationship with the earth and our own creative life force.

 

Everyone who has ended up on a yoga mat raising their arms in their first sun salutation has a story of what led them there. What’s yours?

Yoga sort of crept up on me. I started with a few hatha classes about 15 years ago and did lots of stretching to support my dancing. Then suddenly I was practicing at home whenever I could, sweating it out in the bikram studio and, since 2006, have found deep rewards in meditation.

 

What keeps you returning to your yoga mat?

A feeling of stiffness pervades me if I haven’t done yoga for a while. Not just physical, either, more a sort of stuck feeling in my outlook. Getting the energy flowing round my body clears my mind and lightens my heart.

 

How has your yoga practice filtered through to your everyday life?

Breath work has had the greatest impact on my daily life in terms of re-centring regularly and becoming more aware of my chakric system and energetic body.

 

What is your favorite yoga pose, breathing practice or mantra?

Tree pose for grounding and opening the sacrum and heart. And I love the rolling Nichiren Buddhist chant: ‘nam myoho renge kyo.’

 

What advice do you have for those just starting out on their yoga journey?

Breathe, relax, do what makes you happy. Be aware of alignment but not of achieving a full or deep version of an asana straight away or even ever. Go slow and smile from your heart.

 

How has your yoga practice evolved over time?

Since having Sol it is definitely about restorative and gently strengthening yoga styles, like yin and simply lying in savasana on my Shakti mat. It often only happens once a week or for a very short time so I’m looking forward to getting back into a more full practice as and when I can.

 

What are you loving right now?

That avocados are finally only 99 cents at the supermarket! My chakra meditation, Sarah Jane Barnett’s poetry collection called Work, open mouth bird kisses from my babe and family Sundays by the river at our new place.

 

How do you nurture yourself?

Sleep is a premium commodity as a new mother, as you know! So I’ve been loving the yoga nidra guided meditations available on youtube. Apparently 1 hour of yoga nidra is the equivalent to 3 hours of deep sleep. I’m forever indebted to the friend who told me that!

 

What wisdom has your yoga practice revealed to you that you’d like to share with us?

Oh, wow! I don’t know if I could pick just one. That you are so much more than your mind tells you you are? That we are all physically, energetically one entity? Or maybe a recent almost throwaway comment that really stuck with me during a yin class a few months ago: ‘letting go is not the same as giving up.’ Ahhhh, that was delicious to sink into.

PS There’s a short blog post I wrote on this here.

 

 

Bio

Loveday shares healthy recipes and simple shifts into creative heart-led living at wild-and-good. She’d love to see you there! x

You can connect with Loveday over on Facebook and Instagram.