What does it look like to say yes to life in the very week your father has died?
I recorded this conversation with Bex Tyrer (she/her) at the Bali Spirit Festival in Ubud, exactly one week after her father passed away at the age of 98.
I wasn't sure we were going to do it. We'd been planning this interview for a while, but when I heard about her dad, I thought we'd postpone.
It wasn't until the morning of the recording that Bex said yes, and what unfolded was an incredibly intimate and honest conversation.
Bex is a yoga teacher and facilitator at the Yoga Barn in Ubud, where she's been a resident teacher since 2008. She holds an MPhil from Oxford University, has taught yoga in Bali's largest prison, in refugee camps in Palestine and in women's refuges in Kathmandu, and brings a rare combination of intellectual depth and embodied wisdom to everything she does.
In this episode, we talked about what it's like to grieve a parent you've been saying goodbye to for a decade. About compartmentalisation, and the patterns we carry from childhood loss. About sitting beside someone you love as they slowly leave, and how music and eye contact can reach through when words can't.
Bex shared the story of her father's extraordinary life, from working-class Scotland to the Australian outback to a care home nearly a century later, and the inheritance he left her that had nothing to do with material wealth.
We also talked about death itself. The myth of Eos and the grasshopper. Reincarnation, synchronicity and signs. And how we can hold the closeness of death in order to allow for more life.
This is a tender one.
In this episode, we explore:
Bex's father and his remarkable life, from 1920s Scotland to Australia as a £10 pom
Losing a parent at age 11, and the patterns of compartmentalisation that followed
Not being greedy with your grief and what it means to share grief as an offering rather than keeping it private
The myth of Eos and the grasshopper
What yoga, mindfulness and embodiment practices offered Bex through the grieving process
What might happen after we die
The parallels between the end of life and the beginning
The "dance of life" exercise
Choosing life in the face of loss, the inhale as a yes to life and the exhale as giving life back
This podcast is for general informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional advice or training. Please consult a qualified healthcare professional for personalised guidance, or come and join one of our programs at the Yoga Psychology Institute for professional training. While we are grateful for our guests and sponsors, any statements, claims or endorsements made are their own, and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the Yoga Psychology Institute.
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