 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. Cultivating a state of steady, non-disturbance, reducing agitation, tension, pain and struggle. Less aching in our lower backs helps us discover more ease and peace in our minds. From a place of greater peace and clarity, we are better positioned to meet conflict, challenge, and to solve problems and engage in relationships. Ultimately this leads to better outcomes for everyone. Quiet warriors in a turbulent world. Embodying a calm demeanor with yourself, your body, your family, friends, neighbours, colleagues who will in turn become more regulated and calm and so the effect is amplified. A worthwhile pursuit. Here is a link to the chant sheet for 'Sarva santi'. Sarva Santi Chant Sheet > At first if will be hard to read. Feel free to print it out and bring it along to class and start to follow the words as you learn the sounds and rhythms of Sanskrit.
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 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: Step one When you first encounter a new posture, your body and awareness has to organise itself and figure it out, get engaged in exploring it, and find out how to do it, how it feels and how it effects you. That is an essential first step with the journey of yoga. Doing it, and feeling the benefits. Brilliant! But there's more if you care to explore ... Beyond this there is a depth to each posture than can remain untapped until we gain enough familiarity in what we are doing to allow more to happen and we get space to become curious in the many layers of yoga. Step two - familiarity Aspects of postures can start to come to the forefront more readily once we have experience taking them and know how to adapt them to suit us well. Our body has learned how to accomodate the challenges and find more stability in encountering them postively. In step 1, we are encountering the obvious challenges of 'doing the pose'. These challenges can become more subtle and more powerful with practice. Step three - beyond Beyond physical stability in the pose, we can start to noticing postural habits, perhaps blind spots come to the forefront as we discover how to let go or engage more effectively with our bodies. Placing the breath in the body in different ways, e.g. upper chest, or lower belly breathing, slowing the exhale, perhaps creating the ujjayi sound to accompany the physical challenge, there are lots of choices to create wonderful physical, energetic and psychological effects. Placing the attention to more subtle aspects and becoming more focused. Allowing our patterns to surface, and perhaps uncovering blind spots in our mental patterns that can come to the fore. Noticing emotional connections and levels of awareness that are beyond the everyday that allow a subtle yet powerful transformation of mental and physical patterns. You might not even notice it happening, but a year on you can look back and notice, wow, that is different. These layers and depths to our yoga continue to unfold as we become more grounded and established in what we are doing. And we invite the delight of postures and breath into us from top to toe. This of course requires regularity of practice to develop this. 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. It doesn't matter how you get your dose, it could be 15 minutes every day! I know, I've been going on and on about how little and often at home is a great way to do yoga. My short-practices library was designed with this in mind as I know it is so valuable. Turns out science agrees. 3 things to help Get support achieving your 109 minutes of yoga each week: 1) MEMBERSHIPS are back Open to new members for 2 weeks only until Nov 2025 I've re-opened the membership program for just a couple of weeks to help more people commit to a weekly yoga class at a lower cost. It includes 4 classes per month with me, PLUS the home yoga short-practice library. It is the most cost effective to help you have flexibility to choose your class time, or get a recording instead, and if you want additional classes, you get £3 off each additional class you attend in the month. In-Studio or Online only options are available. Note this membership is only for classes with me. I'm opening the scheme for 2 weeks to new members so if you are interested, now is your opportunity. I keep the number of members limited to ensure we can all take our classes every week so once full I'll close it to new members again until next year. Find out more > 2) November 30th 2025, Sunday Afternoon of Yoga Refine your postures and yoga breathing in this 3-hour workshop with me. It will include gentle, detailed yoga postures and breathwork along with options to add challenge when you are ready, time for discussion and questions and exploration of the best way for you to work with the Autumn poses that we are focusing on. Jump-start or refresh your yoga, plus it includes home practice suggestions. Suitable for everyone. 1:30pm - 4:30pm. Limited spaces available. Book here > 3) Short practices online libary A collection of over 75 recordings from 5-35 minutes. There are lots of 10-20 minute ones to help you stay moving and get in your 109 minutes. Autumn discounts now on the library, or it is included free in the class membership. Find out more >  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. It reminds you how powerful and accommodating yoga can be, even in less than ideal circumstances. Once you have a few tools under your belt to get the most from your yoga, it is the most valuable thing I think I have ever learned and it serves me in all of life's situations. Deep dive into re-setting your yoga From time to time re-align yourself with how valuable your yoga can be. Join in a workshop or get a 121 session for a more exploratory session so that you can explore ways to get more out of each visit to your mat. It is easy to drift and fall into all sorts of habits, and to 'go through the motions' when we show up to yoga. Let's spend time resetting and refining and learning to anchor our time spent in yoga more fully. Join me for my upcoming Sunday afternoon workshop to get into the details of some key Autumn postures and breathwork that will establish us with a more stable, solid foundation and understanding and refresh our regular yoga practise. Sunday November 30th 2025, 1:30 - 4:30pm   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 Show up to your mat regularly Remaining constant with daily or weekly yoga is our best way to enjoy the bumps of life. Each week we are invited to show up physically on the mat and work through the knots and tensions that we accumulate in our bodies, we improve our postural alignment and find space and ease that leaves us feeling more vital and pain-free. Discover your inner sea of tranquility We learn to steady our breath and reconnect to the inner well of calm and tranquility that gets lost underneath the noise of our daily lives. It's there, I promise, but only you can discover that for yourself. Regularly connecting to ourselves in this different way keeps us confident that it is there, that we aren't making this stuff up. Yoga works, and helps us find it when we need to. We become aware of the pushing and struggling in our body, breath and mind that challenges us and tires us out. And we come closer to the moments of grace and stillness where there is just an open, spacious ease that deeply restores and resets us. Enjoy the bumpy roads When you arrive on your mat, you know you have some space in your day to reset your physical body, to rebalance and clear out your mind from all the clutter that can lead to overwhelm if not tended too. Invite the breath to reach deeply to every forgotten cell in the body and revitalise us from our core. And from here, we can drive on the bumpiest roads and enjoy the view. This Autumn change is our starkest reminder that even after months of sunshine and dry weather, it all changes again. I hope this inspires you to embrace the changes that are coming up and keep yourself ready to meet the ones that you don't like with good grace. As always, booking is online and the website  This is the time of year to start as you mean to go on. An opportunity for a fresh approach.
Set-up an Autumn routine that is going to serve you as well as possible. It won't happen by accident. Spend 10 minutes today seeing what you need in your life to nourish you to ensure you have a wonderful Autumn and show up in your life in the way you want to. Look at your habits Whether we need to look at our eating and drinking habits, social life, work, or yoga practice and health patterns - we all need to actively schedule in the things that will support us so that we can hold steady when busy-ness and challenges inevitably come along. Nourishment We need to nourish ourselves so that the demands of life aren't greater than what we have to offer. What nourishes you? It could be a wide range of things. Of course regular yoga, spending time with people that you enjoy, listening to music, hobbies that are fun or spark another aspect or yourself, nourishing foods and much needed rest and relaxation. Schedule them in This is a busy time of year so make sure you schedule in what you need, otherwise it will fall to the wayside and before you know it your life has been taken over. Get to your yoga practice at least every week, re-start your home practice try this starting point > to connect every day to the nourishing aspects yoga. Use your calendar (get a calendar!). And don't negotiate with yourself when it is time to do it. Just show up because you know it will nourish you at a deeper level in a way that only yoga can.  When life is busy and the summer activities eat up our time, its important to stay attuned to our inner world. To remain connected to the essence of what yoga means for us and to continue to reconnect to ourselves in a deeper way.
Tuning in to our neglected parts Arriving on our mat, tuning in to our breath, our feet, our spine, are all part of the process. When we first arrive we may feel all over the place, agitated, stiff, relieved that we can stop for a moment. The body, energy and nervous system take time to settle and quieten, the postures allow us to explore the neglected outer reaches of our limbs and trunk, to move and unblock us, to ease and balance us and feel more energised. And our mind expands internally rather than externally. We connect to the body and breath in a more attentive and attuned way, allowing it to be felt and experienced in a more subtle and inviting way. Feeling from the inside out. Enjoy your moments now, rather than videos later By prioritising time and attention in this more subtle way, you are remembering to slow down and attend to the important but often overlooked stuff. Learn to stay grounded, connected and rooted so that you can remember to enjoy your days moment-by-moment, rather than rushing through making memories and videos to enjoy later. "As trees move with the wind, your mind moves with your breath"
BKS Iyengar Let's breathe How many times have you found yourself holding your breath when you didn't mean to? When we are tense, concentrating or upset, it is super common to hold our breath. When we do this, we put our nervous system into a state of alert ready to respond to something unknown, create physical tensions and add to the turbulence in our minds. It is a very common habit and pattern in day to day life, and in our yoga practice, and one well worth working on to improve. Shifting this pattern can be a revelation. To discover a new, healthier, more spacious breathing and body patterns where we feel more relaxed, we have more vitality and energy, and we even sleep and digest better. Flowing breath in our postures and breathwork are key aspects to improving our physical and mental wellbeing. Plus the meditative focusing layer on the breath during practice can help calm the turbulence in the mind. All yoga teachers teach this differently, with more or less emphasis on breathing. Find what helps you and enjoy discovering a fuller, more spacious relaxed, strong and stable body, breath and mind.  It feels like so much is changing at the moment.
My kids are entering new stages of their lives, there is the usual flux of summer schedules with holidays and plans, alongside some class changes and new equipment coming to the studio In the midst of change, I love my morning routine that keeps me constant and on the front foot each day. What's your morning routine? Perhaps a shower, tea, check emails, breakfast, clean teeth, walk the dog. Morning routines I know many of you have also integrated yoga into your morning routine (which makes my heart sing). And I know before that I have likened developing the habit of doing a short daily yoga practice to cleaning your teeth. My aim here was to help you see it as an essential and non-negotiable start to your day. Even when your on holiday, you still clean your teeth right? It's the most gorgeous bit But that doesn't do justice to just how gorgeous it feels to do yoga each morning. It is actually nothing like cleaning teeth. I can't say I love cleaning my teeth, it is fine, it does a job, it tastes quite nice, and feels good after. But the actual act of doing it is a bit of downtime where I think about other stuff. I don't stand their loving every moment and marvelling at how lucky I am (perhaps I should!). It's nothing like cleaning your teeth My yoga isn't anything like that. The hardest part is stepping on to the mat. The rest is easy. From the first moment of arriving on my mat, I get to stop, connect to my inner landscape, fully experience that first inhale and lift of my arms above my head, and come into a wonderful flow with myself. The fluid breath starts to hum and expand me, the moving and stretching awakens everything from head to toe, the twists ease movement into my spine and hips, and the vibrant downward facing dog gets the breath going deeper and fuller and then the sublime lying twists... where I get to stay there and allow the pose to work its magic and the breath to be felt at an energetic level in every fibre of my being. By the end I feel energised and wonderfully spacious and light, open and fresh and ready for everything the day has in store for me. But the process to get there was way more enjoyable and fun than cleaning my teeth! It becomes pure joy If you haven't discovered the joy of a morning yoga routine yet, I would highly recommend trying it every day for a week and waking yourself up properly (not just rolling out of bed and getting on with the day). Give yourself a chance to build the habit, and stick with it while you get used to it. Don't give up if you forget or find it hard. Play the long game and keep having a go. Keep it super simple. Perhaps pick your three favourite poses and do each one for a couple of minutes, slowly and dynamically with your breath, feeling each pose and exploring each breath fully. Or use my free 12 minute video as a starting guide to get you going: Free Morning Yoga Video >  Yoga is a balancing act of...
physicality (with kindness & ease) effort (without strain) ease & openess (with focus and stability) relaxation (without dullness) slowing (without stagnating) pace (without rushing) familiarity (without automation) attention (without hypervigilance) space (with focus) creativity (with boundaries and intention) flow (with precision) challenge (without grasping) intention (without rigidity) focus (without strain or judgement) joy (without desire) reward (with humility) gratitude (without bypassing) honesty (with compassion) gentleness (with vitality) acceptance (with perseverence) consistency (with flexibility) revelation (without delusion) serenity (with honesty) ... what are you juggling to feel balanced? In our life we are constantly fine tuning and balancing. Adjusting having too much or too little of something, or we're doing the wrong things. We are honing in on that sweet spot. Yoga offers us the opportunity to explore, refine and deepen our wellbeing and establish ourselves in the sweet spot of our lives, no matter what the world is hurling our way. Make it to your mat this week > Enjoy 🌞  By far the most common reason to do yoga in our recent survey responses, was for mental calm and clarity.
This was reported more often than any of the physical benefits (which of course are undeniable, as are all the other benefits that yoga can bring). Fitness and spiritual exploration and connection were also very popular reasons to come to a yoga class. Yoga is an all rounder, which is why it has stood the test of time. The fruits of our practice include physical, mental and spiritual aspects integrated into a beautiful sense of wholeness and vibrant serenity. The Mental Benefits are HUGE When we feel better mentally, then our mood is better, we enjoy life more, we show up in our relationships with our family, friends and at work better, and we are healthier in all aspects. Our diet is better, our sleep improves, we take better care of our self and everyone benefits. Improving our mental state is life changing. We experience everything through a more positive perspective. We get less caught up in the negative spirals and the over-thinking. We learn how to reset ourselves and get quicker at overcoming upsets and frustrations. Mental clarity and calm can be cultivated in only a short space of time once you know a few techniques to get you there, and you all you need to do it show up and do them. And brilliantly, the effects of yoga are reliable and accumulative. It works. A single class feels amazing and the after-glow mentally lasts way beyond the class. A regular weekly class builds up and accumulates over time. Your nervous system anticipates it so that the effects are present just because you anticipate your class, before you even get there. And the benefits last longer and are easier to bring to mind throughout the week. A daily practice of even just 10 minutes compounds this connection and calm even further. Cultivating a state of mind that becomes more integrated and reliable in daily life. A yoga retreat allows you to deepen your experience, take it to a new level and inspire how you practice when back in everyday life. Everything and everyone, including you, will benefit as a result.  How the hell did you do that?
There is a fun posture this term that has foxed a few people. It doesn't look like much. Some people can just do it. Others have a go and realise they have no idea how to do it, find it impossible, look perplexed and then try again. Welcome to the joy of yoga. It requires you to show up and playfully and curiously explore body, breath and mind and see what we discover along the way. The more open we are, the more rewarding it will be. Put the expectation and the judgement aside My top tip is to leave the judgement and expectation off the mat, and step into your practice with an open, curious, beginners mind. Enjoying the full physical embodiment needed to figure out a new body position, all the while being supported by conscious breath. Don't worry if you find it hard. Just this attitude of simply having a go, no matter the fruit of the effort, takes practice. Step beyond your comfort zone Postures like this can take us beyond our comfortable practice. We want both in our yoga, comfortable ease and also challenge, in equal measure. We want the comfortable, nourishing movements and breath to support and sustain us, ground us and rebalance where needed. But also invite along stimulating and curious aspects, revitalising our inner adventurer and challenging our pre-conceptions and habits. You can't think your way there You can't think your way into this. You need to become more aware and present of all the forces at play physically, mentally and emotionally, while embracing the challenge at all levels. Surprise yourself Keep trying new things - it is a valuable art that shouldn't be lost. And remember to look on the bright side - it doesn't matter if you manage it or not. If you can just do it physically, then the focus needs to shift to what your breath is doing. There is plenty to develop here which may be exactly what you need. Ask me if your not sure what I mean - the transformative power of breath could revolutionise your practice. And if you find it hard, there will be the reward of simply keeping on showing up and having a go and going beyond what you thought you could do. Let's do something that will surprise you.  This past weekend was our wonderful yoga retreat. We arrived with bright sunshine and were welcomed with heaps of elegance and charm and a fabulous country house and garden, and were greeted with freshly baked cake adorned with rose petals from the garden. Inspired by tortoises We stepped into the slow pace of life and enjoyed the roaming tortoises in the huge walled vegetable garden living their best life. There were fields of buttercups up the lane, sheep grazing down the lane, and very relaxed owners who indulged us with homemade cakes, fabulous vegetarian food, homemade apple juice and ice cream, all served on antique crockery.  Their slow-paced lifestyle and attitude was such a gift in helping us all to land and wind down. It was well deserved We were beautifully spoiled which was delightful and well deserved. We all had our own reasons for coming. Some of us needed some downtime from stress, some in need of space and time, healing, deep rest, others sought comtemplative time, to address aches and pains, or to have an experience of yoga that is beyond what we normally have time and space for.  Find your rhythm The yoga room was sunny and warm with character-filled paintings overseeing our practice and the gently ticking clock keeping rhythm for us. A rhythm that we all benefitted from tuning into and aligning with as we stepped out of the busy demands of our everyday lives.  Deeper dive into yoga experience We explored wonderful yoga practice. Morning yoga to energise and set us up for the day, evening meditations, and afternoon restorative sessions. Plus a workshop on Saturday where everyone came with their own curiosity, questions and we took a deep dive into new areas of yoga that were waiting to be discovered. Did you even know that tweaking 'how' we breath can have such a profound effect what we get from a yoga practice? Space for everyone Some took a lie down in the field of buttercups during a country walk, a swing on a tyre, a swim in the river, and there was lots of lounging around on the lawns or on the veranda with a good book.  Here are a few wonderful comments from the weekend: "Lovely environment and food, felt cared for and comfortable and so peaceful. Gorgeous." "The house and room are beautiful. Food delicious!" "Truly lovely and special." "Great to be able to explore things I've wondered about for years." "I feel inspired to learn more and carry on the journey." "Everything was offered gently ... and I tried different things I thought I couldn't do" "My back stopped hurting on day 1 and my cushion was no longer needed!" "10/10" I run yoga retreats regularly so please do join me on the next one as it is such a wonderful, valuable and fruitful way to spend a weekend.  I have one jumper drawer and it's full. If I get another jumper, it simply won't fit in unless I cram it down. Every time I get a new jumper, I have to get rid of an old one. It is a fair exchange so that I don't overflow into other spaces.
Ever heard of Marie Kondo? She has recently inspired the art of letting go of things that you don't love anymore so that you have space for things that you do. She applies this philosophy to your home, to decluttering and getting rid of the things that you don't use or love. This philosophy applies to how you spend your time as well. It's life-maths Whenever your trying to fit in something new that you want to do, and that you know will serve you well and be good for you, and that you will love - then something else has got to go. Avoid cramming, rushing and squeezing things in. It's life-maths. We have a finite amount of time. We can't just cram more and more in. With every addition there has to be a subtraction. What are you willing to give up, so that you can make space for something better. Make time. Make space. For your Yoga. Keep it simple. Show up. Let go of something less important. I have yet to meet someone who regretted making the time to get on their mat and make themselves feel great. Enjoy.  When I started out with yoga I was in my late 20s with an exciting career and crazy-busy life. I was having fun and there was opportunity and potential all around. However, I was also going through a divorce, working long hours and knew that stress was my default mode.
I thought I was pretty healthy and fit (ish), ate a 'not awful' diet, and seemed to be getting away with what I was demanding of my body and mind. So what's the problem? Why change? A few clues started to show themselves that this wasn't sustainable. Crashing flu and colds every now and again, irritable moods, and a feeling of dissatisfaction even though things seemed to be going well. Do your yoga A friend suggested yoga to me. So I bought a VHS cassette and went home and did it. 20 minutes, short and pretty easy. And it was an absolute revelation. It felt great. I felt great, and more than that, I felt grounded and more vital. I was able to land for a moment in the midst of the whirlwind of my life, and look around and see more clearly what was going on. I already had a movement practice of morning stretches that I had kept up since my dance training. And I had begun a meditation practice to help with stress and the underlying feeling of dissatisfaction. Yoga simply and perfectly bought the two together. I did it every day. I would get up early to fit it in. The 20 minute video became so familiar that I could do it on my own when I was travelling and know more or less what to do. And it kept bringing me back to my centre, to the ground beneath me, and a place of solidity in the midst of a busy, crazy life. What brings you back to your centre, everyday? Everyone needs something to bring them back to their centre. What is it for you? And if you haven't found this yet, then what are you waiting for? Life gets better, right away. You enjoy everything more, immediately. You are more able to ride the highs and lows and aches and pains of life with more grace and less frustration. And you connect to what is truly important to you. Live from your centre Living from a place of feeling grounded in your centre instead of being buffetted around by life is well worth making the time for. And has never felt more needed in this rather chaotic world we live in.  The sounds of that day are still vivid. And for months afterwards I couldn't hear anything even close to them without being transported right back to a frightening experience I once went through. It is over 20 years ago now, and while my reaction is much more neutral than it was, I can still feel it.
Many more sounds have wonderful and positive associations, and some are utterly delightful. Certain music, bird song, beloved voices, laughter, the sizzling of delicious food. Sound can be jarring, soothing, rhythmic, regulating, informative, stimulating, annoying, inflaming, desirable or undesirable... or absent. There is always something to hear when you tune in. Sometimes we might notice the silence. The gaps between the sounds. We've worked with sound as a theme this term. The sounds of our breathing, the environment, our bodies, the chiming of the singing bowl. Sound can help us stay very present and connected to the immediacy of the moment, and at the same time, enable us to be aware of our relationship to it. We can find clues to our state of mind, to our mood or the level of relaxation or agitation of our nervous system. Sounds can also help us notice the silence that is always around us that we overlook as we travel through our day. Pockets of quiet, here and there, constantly coming and going. Noticing the silence is just as valuable as noticing the sounds. Noticing the gaps between sounds, the gaps between our thoughts. We overlook the silence and gravitate towards the noise. We fill the gaps with more sound in case it feels uncomfortable. But being aware of these silent moments can be a useful practice, and can help us find a more grounded space within. Beneath our reactivity and before being taken over by our thoughts and memories, there remains an ever-present, quiet stillness that we can get connected to. The practices of yoga help with this. We might glimpse it from time to time at first. Feel a sense of ease and openness, a quietening of reactions and mental noise, getting used to quiet moments, even though at first they are outside of our comfort zone. The art of yoga is to keep re-connecting to your own, internal quiet space. At first in a controlled environment, like our lovely quiet yoga studio. But eventually we can connect to this quiet space, no matter what sounds are arising and no matter where we are. Cultivate your own stable, quiet harbour deep within, even when life gets noisy.  After class recently, I've had a couple of conversations about the quality of sleep after yoga.
Usually sleep is great and notably improved after taking yoga practice, even if the session was earlier in the day. If you are taking yoga once or twice a week, then those are often the best sleeps of the week. And if you practice daily, then the general trajectory of sleep is hugely improved. But one student noted that their sleep hadn't been as good as usual after yoga and we dug a little deeper. We talked through her practice and there were two suggestions that she took on board, and I'm happy to say that her sleep is back on track. If ever you aren't sleeping really well after your evening yoga, consider these tweaks to help improve things: Posture choice 1) Reduce the amount of downward facing dog or staying down in forward bends after 7pm. This isn't a rule, but these are quite a stimulating poses which when you are getting into the wind-down part of the evening can be helpful to reduce. So if your sleep is struggling use a more gentle, flowing visit to the poses rather than staying and holding the pose. Or even going half way in rather than the full pose can be better. Experiment and see what you can tolerate and what is helpful. More is not always better. Breathing 2) Notice if you are holding your breath during yoga We are aiming to free up our breath and improve how well it flows in harmony with our body. There are often patterns that I observe in students breathing and posture, where things are a little stuck, or there is a tension pattern observable in the chest or in the depth of the breath. The ocean breathing (Ujjayi) is great at helping us discover and improve these patterns. The smooth sound, or lack thereof, can be a great reference point to help us understand and improve our breathing habits. Holding the breath, particularly after the inhale, is contraindicated if you are struggling with sleep or anxiety and observing that they are showing up in your practice is the first step to improvements. It takes a little practice to get the hang of but it is well worth prioritising. The research There's heaps of research that shows us that sleep is a primary pillar of health and wellbeing, and there are lots of resources and supports out there to help clean up your sleep patterns and help optimise sleep. Try this one for starters if you are interested: https://www.hubermanlab.com/newsletter/toolkit-for-sleep Other suggestions If you know you are going to be on a limited supply of sleep for a while, perhaps as a new parent or for lifestyle reasons, then the skills of yoga are invaluable. 1) Avoid overthinking about the quality or quantity of your sleep. Cultivate being more accepting that this is how life is right now and resolve to make the best of what you have, rather than dwelling on what you don't have. Check your attitude towards it and resolve to not let things you can't control take up too much of your headspace. 2) Take a lying relaxation or yoga nidra practice which can be deeply restorative if you find your sleep windows are too sporadic. YogaSpace members: use the short-practices in the library Remember that in the short-practice video library there are gentle practices from only a few minutes and also a couple of yoga nidra videos to help guide you and support you with this. Yoga is great for your sleep It will be notably improved if you are practicing regularly. However if that isn't the case, then these suggestions or a chat with me can help understand areas to tweak your practice to be more helpful.  Have you noticed the paradox in yoga practice?
A) Be present On the one hand, we are invited to be fully present. To pay full and vibrant attention to every aspect of the moment that we are in. Notice and experience each breath as it happens, the sensations in the body, the feeling of each posture, the placement of the feet, the thoughts going on around all of this. Not thinking ahead to where we are going. This helps us feel more alive in the rest of our day as we stay grounded in what is actually happening, rather than leaping ahead to all the other things coming our way. B) Improve and change On the other hand, we are working on ourselves. Hoping and aiming to make improvements and changes. Improve our posture, our breath, our focus, our tense and tight areas and feel stronger, healthier, more mobile and less achy, more alert and energised, to feel calm and steady, grounded and serene. We are doing both Simultaneously we are being in this moment, and becoming something more. We are improving and developing for future health and wellbeing. Plus we are full immersing ourselves in the moment as it unfolds. And cultivating our awareness to all of this. There is no contradition Yoga invites us to be fully immersed in the practice. To let go of the goals and aims for a moment and realise the potential of the place that you discover you are already in. The practices also do the future work that you are hoping to achieve. The postures, the breath, the flow, the ease and stretch are there to serve you. You simply enter into your yoga, do the exercises and techniques sensibly, and watch it all unfold. It isn't as effortful as it sounds. Sometimes less is more - allow the posture to do the work, let go of struggling or pushing and just be in it fully. You just need to show up The effort may well be showing up in the first place. That much you do have to do. A bit like spring time, where we find ourselves now. A magical unfolding of buds, flowers, lambs and all things gorgeous. You can't rush it. You show up to it and be in it and reap the rewards of its beauty and potential. (The above photo is from last year's retreat in Somerset. A gorgeous toddler staggering happily after a cute pet lamb in fabulous countryside followed by a fluffy puppy. Seriously, you can't make this stuff up.)  When I first bought my puppy home, in the car journey she was distraught and anxious. She was in a cardboard box and jumping up, whining, sniffing around, and very agitated. Then all of a sudden, she collapsed in a heap and didn't move.
Oh no! Is she still breathing? I checked and looked, and it turns out she had exhausted herself and fallen into instant sleep. No pre-amble, no sniffing around, no time for landing comfortably, no settling into just the right spot. She stopped exactly where she was and stayed there for about half an hour. In hindsight, it's funny. At the time I thought we'd lost her. Savasana Savasana, the lying rest pose in yoga, rather unromantically translates from Sanskrit into 'corpse' posture. A cessation of movement. A resting from all effort. A stopping of 'doing'. Pausing into an awareness of simply 'being'. Over time we learn to be fully present in an otherwise resting body, and then notice all that remains when you land there. Tune in Perhaps you can tune into subtle sensations of your heartbeat, your breath, and the open presence and aliveness that we can sense more deeply when we are still. It is often a hard posture to get the hang of and a stark contrast to the rest of our lives. It isn't sleep. It isn't Yoga Nidra which is another practice again, even though from the outside they look similar. Pause & be curious It is a pause from being busy and fidgeting, from being lost in thought, from reacting to impulses to adjust our hair or our clothing. We are letting our nervous systems relax and rest, along with our limbs, and our tensions. Be curious next time you are invited to Savasana about what it translates into for you. It is nothing like what my puppy did. That was a scarily abrupt. But on the other end of the spectrum, sometimes the process to get ready for the pose takes longer than the pose itself. Donning socks, jumpers, blankets, having a drink, adjusting hair, getting 'nested'. How much comfort is enough? A level of comfort is helpful for the body to relax. And sometimes if we are feeling anxious or agitated, these preparations are as close as we get. They are important ways to sooth and care for ourselves, and allow us to feel able to approach the pose. This is all part of the process of our yoga which over time, if our practice is working for us, get easier. If it is a 10 minute Savasana then more comfort can be helpful. But lying in mild discomfort can bear its own fruit too. A curious openness to how reactive often are. And how deliciously freeing it can feel when we discover that we can let go of all of that. We can even start to get comfortable with being uncomfortable, which is one of the many gifts yoga can offer us. Build tolerance & patience Savasana is one of those precious poses that we gradually get used to, and build up our tolerance to. We can't rush this process. But we could sleep through it. Be patient and curious along the way.  Most common reason to skip yoga
Jobs, family, clubs, caring responsibilities, life admin, and then recovering from it all. By far the most common reason not to make it to your yoga practice is that you're too busy. When the survey results came in (thanks for replying!) this was by far the most common reason for not getting to your mat. Being busy won't change I know friends who have retired only to say that they don't know how they managed to find time to fit in a job. If we have any free time, we fill it with something. There is always so much to do and we enjoy being busy and don't like to say no to things. How many times in the last year have you been too busy to clean your teeth? To take a shower? Put petrol in your car? Name / insert any important self-care thing in here ___________ Looking after body and mind, and regularly connecting to yourself in a meaningful way (which is essential to connect well with others) is in the same important category as all the other things you think of as important. It is essential maintenance, not a luxury. However it might be the first thing to stop when we feel squeezed unless it is prioritised. Even 10 minutes, when pushed for time, is well worth showing up for. And if you are anything like me, then you probably lost at least 10 minutes to your phone today. Let's prioritise the important stuff. 3 top tips 1) Schedule it in Book important things (like yoga) into your week, in advance, and commit. Term bookings and memberships help you show up even when your feeling squeezed. 2) Have a buddy Tell someone you plan to do it, then ask them to follow up with you, or even better, do it with a friend while you build the habit. Keep yourself accountable. 3) Realise that... this is it There is no time in the future when you will have more time. Realise that it is now. Say no to less important things and do what will actually make a difference. Everyone is busy, hopefully with mostly good things. Let's prioritise our self care of body and mind, and nurture a deeper connection with ourselves. Everything and everyone, including you, will benefit as a result. Try a little home practice (use these free yoga videos) if getting to the studio doesn't work for you at the moment. And enjoy. |
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