I recently travelled to beautiful Uma Paro in Bhutan to write a story for Australian Yoga Journal. I was there to do a five-night “Yoga, Culture and Camp Retreat” hosted by Uma Paro’s resident yoga teacher, Marie Baker. On top of five hours of amazing yoga, Pranayama and meditation every day, I also had the opportunity to visit monasteries built in the 17th Century, be blessed by monks in a long life puja (blessing), have lunch at a local farmer’s house and do a two-day trek to the famous cliffhanging monastery, Tiger’s Nest (pictured).

Directors of the Family Yoga School in Japan – Ishii and Hisae sensei – will be hosting workshops in Sydney and Brisbane in January 2009. Developed over 30 years, Ishii and Hisae’s techniques focus on the asana from the Oki-do tradition combining self-massage, breathing techniques and corrective exercises and their unique philosophy on yoga and life.

Creating a personal ‘sacred’ space is an integral part of establishing an effective meditation practice. Most children inherently claim some space in their world and make it their own. Whether it is their bedroom, a cubby-house or under a bush, it belongs to them. It’s where they go when they want to think and make sense of life. As adults, most of have lost the ability to find a physical or emotional space to regroup. But if you are looking to support your meditation practice, reclaiming your space is essential.

British philosopher, historian, mathematician and Nobel Prize winner, Bertrand Russell, once said that an essential part of being happy is not having all the things you want. So what is happiness? What do we really want? And how do we get it? The relentless quest for happiness has plagued us mere mortals since the dawn of time and is at the core of philosophical, psychological, spiritual and even scientific questioning. In recent years there has been an explosion of books, studies, academic research, conferences, workshops and even stickpins about the art of happiness.