 Life is soooooooo busy at the moment. The boxes around me as I pack up my house are looming, the monolithic kitchen cupboard remains full of stuff, and every time I open it and look up, I feel scared and close the door again and walk away.
Today is the day to empty it. But you'll notice I'm writing this instead 😉 Leaving my home of 20 years is exciting, sad, emotional, scary, fun, all at once. We wear our tension
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 How long can you look at this before glancing away?
Perhaps a few seconds? Blink whenever you like, but don't let the eyes wander. Notice if they do. Hold your gaze steady, then follow your breathing. This is a wonderful gateway technique helping you step aside from your busy mind and into a more attentive and present state. Apply this during your yoga postures and your whole practice will become transformed, more absorbing and more refreshing physically, mentally and emotionally. Find it impossible? You aren't alone.  And 3 ways to get better
We get plenty right in our yoga. Any practice that you show up for is a good one. If you take time out from the day, move and breathe and reconnect to your internal awareness, then it is always more than worthwhile. Ignore your harsh inner critic and give yourself some credit for showing up to your mat. Even if you just lay down and take conscious breaths and rest, that counts. The top 3 mistakes I see with people taking yoga practice, is perhaps obvious. But here goes  I'm planning a house move that means that, if it happens, I commute to the studio rather than amble down Gloucester Road.
In the daytime, it seems like a great idea - fun, exciting and I'm motivated to make it happen and make it work (if the house-buying gods align). In the evenings I tend towards doubting that it is a good idea at all and that I should just keep things as they are, sit in front of the TV and eat crisps. I've learned to ignore thoughts after 7pm that seem like new and worrying ideas. I remind myself that it's too late to evaluate anything constructively, and promise that I'll think about it in the morning when I've got more energy. Invariably, I wake up excited about the idea again and full of energy to do it.  Is yoga a quick fix?
The smorgasbord of health and wellbeing opportunities is vast. The gadgets and short cuts, the pills and supplements, the quick fixes and promises that feel amazing for a while, then fade into the shadow of the next great discovery. The choice and invitation to shop around is tempting. Yoga stands the test of time Yoga has developed over thousands of years as a roadmap using the tools of posture, breath, attention and meditation to help you live well and find contentment, serenity, and health. Yoga has great depth and applicability to modern life.  Until...?
I love the 'never stop pushing' slogan. It sums up an approach to life that is all around us. The poster of it caught my eye this morning in a shop on Gloucester Road. It is a common method to think you are getting the most out of life when you are busy and doing more, pushing harder, and it reflects an inherent dissatisfaction with what we currently have. If we get busy enough, if we do enough things, if we dig deeper and keep going until we get to the end of the week and collapse in a heap, did we win? What is the prize?  Breathing is curious
We do it all day every day without thinking. Sometimes we might think about it when it doesn't feel right, when we have a chest infection, or are in an unpleasant environment where the air isn't fresh. Harness your breathing in yoga In yoga, breathwork is one of the primary tools. There are a variety of ways it can be used to amplify the natural effects of breathing creating noticable effects on body, mind, energy and balance. You can try emphasising inhaling or exhaling, pausing after inhaling to stimulate your energy and vitality, you can add a gentle wait after exhaling to calm yourself and settle overactive systems and mental states. However overdo it and the opposite is true, so skilled guidance and practice is important.  One of my wonderful, long-standing students began running during lockdown and it has become a regular, daily routine. She loves it and is convinced that the regular yoga that she does helps her stay injury free.
Running is better with yoga Running is simply brilliant if you can do it. It gets you outside, promotes lots of physical benefits, boosts feel good hormones and clears your head. Accompanying it with regular yoga helps you remain injury free,  Last year was the trickiest yet. It was challenging, unpredictable, chaotic and emotional. On the days when events were heightened, I have never been more grateful for small acts of kindness. A smile in the street, and a warm conversation at the shop went a long way to helping my day feel better.
Kindness & yoga go a long way Kindness isn't enough but it goes a long, long way. Thankfully, I have yoga as my mainstay, which helps me start each day with a fresh outlook, a more relaxed body and nervous system to be able to cope as well as I can as challenges unfold. Remember knee slides?  It's been years since I was a smoker.
I really enjoyed it, but realised it wouldn't be easy to stop. Alan Carrs book, Quit Smoking offered an important stepping stone. The reframe it offers is that at first it feels like you are giving up something, that you are sacrificing your beloved cigarette and all that that comes with. But he turns it around. He invited me to see that rather giving something up, I was gaining freedom from something. I would be free from the need to have a cigarette in my hand, I would enjoy better health, fresher clothes and breath, and save money. The same net gain applies to the technique offered in this week's classes. It is a tiny yet powerful tweak to your practice that you can bring in at any time. It starts with just two breaths  I went to an EPIC 3D movie last weekend and had a blast. It was loud, the seat vibrated, the screen was huge and absorbing and the story was fun, sad, exciting, dramatic.
It was almost completely absorbing (not quite, the 3D glasses were really heavy!). I sort of disappeared and got caught up in the story and had a great time. Disconnection from ourselves Disconnection from ourselves happens more when we are engaging in lots of busy, external activities. Work, looking after family and friends, engaging in entertainment (3D movies!) that take us out of ourselves. Arguably, modern life is more disconnected ever. Our lives are more and more mediated by screens and our entertainment is more passive, less sociable and less physical.  Why being good isn't the point
Someone mentioned to me this week that they used to be better at yoga than they are now. Do you ever think that you aren't very good at yoga? Notice self-judgement Perhaps we have judged our performance in a pose, or noticed that we weren't doing a pose for as long as someone next to us or that we should be better than we are. That we didn't sweat much or that we didn't try hard enough. The real measure These aren't the measures of being good at yoga.  Yesterday as I was cycling to the studio, a motorist wound down his window and said my bike light wasn't working. I was confused. My light was sitting on the front of my bike blinking brightly, my back light was doing the same. I carried on none the wiser, heckled for not being lit up enough amongst the array of lights on Gloucester Road. I can only think that with the other 10,000 lights on the street he didn't see them. They got lost in the noise.
The sensory stimulation is at its highest at this time of year (Christmas). Filled with optimism and hoping for joy, we are bombarded with jingly music and bright blinking lights. It is wonderful, and overwhelming. Try this mini-pause Taking regular breaks from it all is never more important than now. It is a wonderful time to take 5 minutes, dim the lights, light a candle and withdraw from the noise. Set up Turn off your phone, tell folks in your house your busy for 5 minutes, close the door to you bedroom  There is always a way to work with yoga postures, improve our breathing, and develop strength, stability, focus and calm. Sometimes it needs modified postures to access all the benefits. The challenges can still be found for engagement and progression, with the right support to help. Join Clara in January on Wednesdays at 1:30pm for a modified class to support those who have mobility issues, want a more gentle practice, or are recovering from illness. Everyone is welcome, young and old, experienced and beginners. Feel free to get in touch for more information. Look forward to seeing you there. From Jan 7th, 2026 1:30pm - 2:30pm Wednesdays   When we step on our yoga mat, we usually have multiple aims. Maintaining health We know we need to maintain our back health so that it isn't tweaky, or our knees need constant love (mine do). We might know that we need to unwind tension or relax our tight shoulders. We probably know that our nervous system is highly charged and could do with a reset, or that our energy is dissipated and needs refreshing. But at the same time as taking care of our bodies and minds, we are simultaneously stepping into a closer relationship with the present moment.  Why in modern-day Bristol would we want to recite a mantra that is thousands of years old in an ancient and rarely spoken language?
Recently we have been learning the 'Sarva santhi' mantra. It is beautiful, ancient and in Sanskrit, the oldest language in existence. With precise rules around pronounciation, letter differentiation, pause, and rhythm the traditional repetition has lasted through the ages. Reciting it links us into a tradition of invoking peace into minds and hearts so that we can embody and encourage it. The chant asks for peace at all levels of existence, internally within ourselves and externally in the environment around us. Easing back ache increases peace In our yoga practice, we could view what what we are doing as strengthening internal peace in our bodies, our breath and our minds.  Postures are amazing for helping us gain whole body strength, mobility and stability - physically, mentally, emotionally and beyond.
We can do the postures in a technical way, follow the instructions, and we will get lots of wonderful benefits. So why refine beyond this? What does that even mean? Going further Further doesn't mean more extreme or complicated movements or harder postures. That can miss opportunities for a different kind of depth. See if these steps seem familiar to you: We know it makes us feel better to get up and move. When we do yoga or exercise our mood shifts and we feel lighter and more energised. Even if dragging ourselves to do it is difficult, it is always worth it.
Science agrees! A recent research article in the journal of Depression and Anxiety shows how yoga is one of the top 3 modes, more than running or cycling, for improving depression. 109 minutes weekly dose It even says 109 minutes is the 'dose' needed each week. That equals a weekly class + 3x 16 minute home sessions. Or 2 weekly classes.  My dog was poorly last night and I'm soooo tired today.
Every 2 hours I had to get off the sofa bed downstairs and head into the garden to accompany my sorry looking pooch. No-one had fun. But my yoga practise this morning wasn't up for negotiation. I still stepped gently on to my mat. It was less demanding physically, responsive to what I encountered as I moved, fully present to the experience of a very different feeling body and mind. And it was completely refreshing and reviving, freeing up the achey-sofa-bed-back, and setting me up for the day. Refresh your attitude Taking yoga when you are injured, tired, or with a different frame of mind can give you a wonderfully new experience from the usual.  Stress makes life feel exciting, fun, exhilarating and provides opportunity for growth and challenge. Change is part of the fabric of our days. But change often doesn't go the way we would like it to. We have to face adversity, disappointment, frustration and loss.
"Yoga doesn't prevent stress ... but it strengthens our inner resources and enables us to develop a sort of cushion, an increased ability to withstand stress. It's like having a good shock absorber when driving a car on a bumpy road." TKV Desikachar |
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The Courtyard Princes Place, Bishopston Just off Gloucester Road Bristol BS7 8NP |
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