Being Human Got You Baffled? We’ve Got You!

Since I last wrote I clocked over a very significant milestone.

Whilst life-expectancy gets longer, in a wild world of human violence, natural disasters, misadventure, disease and the outright unexpected, turning 50 still feels like an incredible fluke.

It meant more to me than I knew it would, it stirred things more deeply than I saw coming. Reflections around where I’ve been, what I’ve done and what I’ve achieved. Whilst the spiritual student in me sees these things as the superficial earthly musings that they are, the earthly part of me was plagued with a sense of lack. Of not contributing to the full extent of my capabilities, of not being entirely where my ego felt I should be.  

I felt rage, injustice and deep realisation. Things that I had refused to allow to take me down in my past, rising to the surface as untreated wounds. Acknowledgement that where I had refused to be a victim, were actually circumstances where I was the victim and there was a very clear perpetrator and that my idea of empowerment, was also denial.  

So 50 has taught me already that it’s okay (and important) to stop down and say ‘this happened to me, it did hurt deeply, I have an open scar there and I need to tend to it.’ This is freedom for the future and whether you want the process or not, perimenopause has a special way of making it unavoidable.

Turning 50 also taught me what I want from my relationships – 50 is a big deal, especially when you’ve lived like a maniac and survived to share lessons learned. I want to make a big deal out of my friend’s wonderful milestones and I want to laugh and cry with them through my own. I was gifted the most phenomenal celebration surrounded by the most loving humans in the world who helped me to feel valuable. Yes, even after all these years in yoga, external value from the people I adore is still something I cherish. It serves as a way of showing me when I’m on course with and for the people that matter.

Shane and I are looking down the barrel this year of the most serious role we’ve undertaken outside of parenting and grandparenting – teaching others to become teachers. Holding true to what we’ve learned at the source, holding steadfast to not allowing our own interpretations to mutate the wisdom that changes lives as it is.

Jyoti Yoga by The Prana Project. This is our Yoga Teacher Training program. It is born from our studies of the Yoga Sutra, it is our teacher’s voices on our shoulders, it is our decades of practice in action. It feels significant that we enter this both at 50 years on this planet. Many seasons weathered, confidence and humility learned on a lifelong spinning wheel.

The greatest gift you can give yourself is understanding your own mind and to understand more broadly the human mind, so you can distinguish what is fundamentally human and what is distinctly you.

This 2025, we are ready to show up for your learning in this more deeply than we ever have. Through the Zenthai Therapist Training, the Yoga Teacher Training, the return of The POW of Peri program and our brand new podcast – How Human, launched last Thursday.

But also not just in these designed ways, more importantly how we show up when we see you at the shops, park our cars, walk along the beach, catch waves, pass you on the street – whether we know you or not. How we show our vulnerabilities to help you feel okay about yours. How we show our strengths to inspire you to embrace your own.

To the deep feelers out there, to those striving for kindness, you are our heroes and we thank you for being you.