If you’ve never tried choosing a theme for your year instead of making resolutions, I can highly recommend it. I’ve been doing this for several years now. I love how:
a) it sets a general positive intention (rather than resolutions which are often about restricting something or punishing ourselves in some way); and
b) it can shape your year in unexpected ways (rather than resolutions which you often either succeed or fail to keep).Continue reading “2019: Trust in action”
In my one-to-one work there are two themes that keep coming up. One is about acceptance – tuning in to what we need and where we’re at on a given day and being ok with that. And the other is about the discipline needed to get on the mat, to keep bringing attention back to the breath and to keep our racing thoughts in check.Continue reading “Find the balance: acceptance and discipline in your yoga practice”
What first comes to mind when you think about your body?
For most people I’d take a guess that those thoughts are less than positive. Am I right? Continue reading “You’ve got a perfect body (though sometimes you forget)”
How do you feel about resolutions? I like to choose a theme on New Years Day instead, to guide me through and shape the year ahead.
I find this tradition so much more fulfilling and positive and the typical New Years resolutions that often stem from a sense of not being good enough.Continue reading “2018: This too shall pass”
You’d be forgiven for thinking that yoga is all about making you happy, being positive, and looking on the bright side (well, either that or having a workout, but that’s a topic for another time). You might even find yourself thinking you must be doing it wrong if you’re still getting stressed/anxious/sad/angry etc.
But here’s the thing. Yoga is about becoming present and at ease with your deepest truest self. And that includes ALL the emotions, thoughts and feelings swirling round your mind and body at any given time.Continue reading “Will yoga make me happy?”
We often try to cultivate a “beginner’s mind” in yoga. Approaching your practice anew each time helps you become fully present and encourages a deepening of your experience as you notice subtle shifts and sensations. This is the opposite of going through the motions of familiar poses to “get to the end” or thinking “I know this…and I know what’s coming next”.Continue reading “Finding your ‘beginner’s mind’”
Having a baby has made me much more conscious of how important it is to be present, so you may notice this theme in my recent posts.
Here’s a really simple way to bring yourself into the present moment, ease stressful or anxious thoughts, and enjoy the beauty that can always be found around you. Continue reading “Mindful Summer walk”
Start a home yoga practice and prevent back pain by moving your spine in all directions.
Students often ask me for tips about how to start practising yoga at home. There are all sorts of ways to approach a home practice but one thing I suggest is to think about moving your spine in five different directions. This is also a great way to prevent and alleviate back pain. So what are these five movements and why are they important?
Continue reading “5 Movements of the Spine”
We’ve all experienced that familiar feeling of anxiety rising up, although what tends to trigger it will differ for each of us. Yoga, meditation, and mindfulness give us valuable tools to overcome anxiety, by overriding the accompanying stress-related “fight or flight” response.
Here are my favourite strategies to cope with anxiety. Continue reading “How to find calm when anxiety strikes”
Over the last three years, on New Year’s Day, I have chosen a theme or a ‘sankalpa’ (an intention formed by the heart and mind) for the coming year. In 2017, my theme was ‘clarity’.
I have come to love this tradition and find it so much more valuable than making resolutions. For anyone who is new to this, the idea is to pick a word or theme that you would like to shape your year – something you feel drawn to, or something you want to be more conscious of. It feels very different from making resolutions which, so often, are restrictions or unrealistic demands we place on ourselves, driven by the sense of not being good enough as we are.Continue reading “2017: A Year of Clarity”
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