How it felt to teach my first yoga class

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I recently started teaching yoga once a week to my colleagues. I’m lucky to have a group of such willing and supportive Guinea pigs to practice on and help me get more comfortable with this whole teaching thing.

And of course they’re lucky to have a chance to do some yoga for free, in the office straight after work – quite a few have never tried yoga before, or have only been to one or two classes, so it’s great to offer them a safe space to try it out.Continue reading “How it felt to teach my first yoga class”

Following my own meandering path

2016-04-24 17.51.57 I spent last weekend at a three-day training course at Yogacampus, learning how to teach yoga for stress and burn-out. It was delivered by Charlotte Watts and Leah Barnett who are both wonderful, insightful teachers, weaving yoga philosophy with emerging scientific research into yoga and stress-related illness. I am still processing all the learning and will write more about this in future posts; in the meantime here are some reflections from the course about my journey towards teaching.Continue reading “Following my own meandering path”

Hips don’t lie

2016-03-27 12.58.19This is going to sound a little ‘out there’ to the sceptics among you. But for those of you who have done much yoga you will probably have heard that we tend to carry negative emotions in our hips. So in a class with lots of hip-opening work your teacher may have mentioned that you could start to feel emotional. I have heard this a lot but I had never experienced an emotional release through the physical practice of yoga. Until Monday. Continue reading “Hips don’t lie”

Why is it so hard to do what’s good for us?

2016-03-21 12.15.37Confession time. As I write this, I’m going through a phase where I have only managed to get myself on my mat at home once a week. This is a hard thing to admit as a yoga teacher in training…especially since I put forward some pretty sound top tips for getting on your mat just a few months ago!Continue reading “Why is it so hard to do what’s good for us?”

Turn up the heat without saluting the sun: 4 alternatives to sun salutations

2016-03-01 19.18.40Don’t get me wrong, I love sun salutations – the flow, the full-body stretch, the generation of heat and energy. They can make a great yoga practice by themselves as well as serving as a go-to sequence to wake the body up in preparation for a longer practice.

But sun salutations are not the only option. Continue reading “Turn up the heat without saluting the sun: 4 alternatives to sun salutations”

Gratitude

2016-02-11 17.47.12Something shifted for me at this month’s yoga teacher training. At the end of the weekend I was exhausted as usual, but also a bit elated. I woke up the next day feeling awake, strong, and present, with an understanding of what I needed to do to restore my energy and absorb all the learning I’d been doing. I also felt a deep sense of gratitude for my healthy body and for this opportunity to learn so much from my teachers and fellow students. Here are some of the things that got me there.Continue reading “Gratitude”

4 reasons to be excited about anatomy

2016-01-31 18.56.59I’ve done a bit of moaning about anatomy lately as I struggled through my homework outlining all the bones, joints, and muscles in the shoulder and pelvic girdles (and trust me, there are a lot of them!). It’s like learning a whole new language. But the main thing I’m learning is how amazing our bodies are. Here are my top 4 reasons to be excited about anatomy. Continue reading “4 reasons to be excited about anatomy”

The beauty of going back to basics

2016-01-17 16.50.09I’m in that stage in my yoga teacher training where I’m realising how little I actually know – that uncomfortable stage of the learning curve called ‘conscious incompetence’. But going back to basics can be both challenging and beautiful.Continue reading “The beauty of going back to basics”

2015 – A year of balance

2015-12-23 23.06.29At the beginning of this year, inspired by Sahaj Kohli, I chose the theme of balance for the year ahead. The idea of choosing a theme rather than making resolutions really appealed to me. Specific resolutions are, lets face it, almost always broken and usually focus on depriving ourselves of something. Setting a theme felt more like a vision for how I’d like my year to be. A theme also leaves space for the year to unfold and, as it does, to uncover different ways for that vision to be realised – in the form of things you may not have come up with on the 1st of January.Continue reading “2015 – A year of balance”