 Do you collapse in a heap at the end of the day?
Do any of these sound right: 1) If our yoga feels hard, then we must be getting more benefit. 2) If it feels easy, then it can't be 'doing' anything. 3) If we invest more in something, it has to pay us back with what we want. More effort = better results. Let's think again. There is a false belief that if we do something that is hard, or do more of it, it will give us better results. Of course this can't be true. If eat chocolate, it might feel good at first. If I keep on eating lots and lots of chocolate, my mood won't continue to feel better and better and better. I will get to a point where my body will grumble and I'll feel horrible. The amount of time and effort we put into something needs to be just right, and the way to tell is often subtle. We are used to listening to our heads, not our bodies or more subtle sensations or energetic cues. Our willpower often determines our level of effort. We override everything else. We do the hard stuff, enjoy the buzz, and carry on. Even though we may be increasing our stress levels, not noticing that we have become accustomed to struggling through our days and collapsing in a heap at the end. Yoga practice can become that quieter place where things become easier to listen to. We learn to attend to the subtle cues in the body, in the breath and in how grounded we feel. We start to notice that we are rushing, or pushing into a pose, or struggling to breathe well instead of inviting a full unfolding of ease and stability in each pose, and in each breath. Of course, at first this may feel elusive or even impossible but once established in your practice, sensitivity increases. Yoga helps us move and breathe better, to become more aware of ourselves, our habits, our blind spots and helps us work with ourselves in a much more skillful way. We learn to listen with openness, care and attention. And listening in this way is definitely a skill worth cultivating. Ultimately it can help unfold a new dimension of relationship to ourselves, and to those around us. And help us avoid the need to collapse in a heap at the end of each day. ___
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 One of my students said she feels the same after her yoga class as she does when she gets back from holiday.
The summer vibe after a holiday is a good place to reside, even when we are back in the swing of day-to-day life. Of course there are responsibilities and challenges to meet when the holiday is over, but we can rekindle our summer mindset which helps us live with more ease and joy. We're not glossing over the trials we encounter or pretending that everything is okay. We.re not turning our backs on it all which we might do when on holiday. The chaos and worries in our external lives are very real and need to be met with our clearest head and our best heart. The reset back to this is where our yoga practice comes front and centre. Grounding back into our bodies, noticing how out of balance we are. Moving back towards a more harmonious relationship with ourselves. None of this is hard to do, but you need to make time to do it - regularly. Showing up and committing to your movement, breath and meditation practices has never been more necessary. Slowing down and paying more attention to the postural habits we've built up. Re-training the aches and pains for greater ease and freedom. Building a better foundation of support physically, mentally and emotionally. Re-discovering that beneath all the tensions and stresses there is a consistent and quiet foundation that is all too easy to lose sight of. Here are 3 great ways to help keep that summer feel-good vibe: 1) Spend time outside in the daylight, even if its raining. It all counts and is even more important as the days shorten and get gloomier. 2) Get to your class or re-ignite your regular home practice - or even better, both. 3) Keep up some of the good habits you picked up this summer. Spend time relaxing, reading, exercising, gardening, whatever it is you enjoy in the summer. Make time for it. Even when life is hard on the outside, our relationship to all of what is going on is up to us. How we show up and respond is more within our power than we may at first realise. Yoga helps us ride the waves instead of getting churned up in the breakers. You can always find summer on the inside. It doesn't go anywhere, we just need ways to reconnect to it.  In the delightful way that teenagers sometimes can, my son is being uncooperative and a touch moody.
On a good day, I see him as asserting his independence and my role is trying to help him gain skills in how he does this a little more gracefully. It is all part of growing up and sometimes, it can get a little ugly. We are going on holiday in a week and it is looking a little rocky. It might not be the hoped for restorative time where we can recharge. But expectations need to be put aside, it is part of the ups and downs of life. It has definitely been stressful with all the curveballs that get thrown into our family life. This level of stress is manageable and I know life gets a lot worse than this. It is a nice problem to have really - we are lucky to have energetic kids and go on holidays. Thankfully I have my stress busters that help me through this turbulence. They help me respond as well as possible and avoid getting too caught in the stressful whirlwind. 1) Movement This includes yoga of course, plus gentle jogging with very loud music, walking the dog and sometimes even going for a swim. It all works. Exercise is a tried and tested for many people, and never fails. No-one ever went to a yoga class and came out feeling more stressed. Movement shifts the energy, it rebalances hormones in the body, it helps discharge overwhelming feelings and creates much-needed head space so we can address what is causing the stress as skillfully as possible. It is my first go-to method. 2) A break or change of scene Even if it is getting out for a coffee. A change of scene, a change of surroundings, and friendly people. It gives you perspective, clears the air, and reminds you that not everyone is hostile. Of course a retreat from it all (which holidays should be but often aren't) is great. It helps re-establish a more balanced view on everything that is going on and come back to base. My upcoming September day-retreat is just what some of you may need - I know need it. See more below. 3) Breathwork This isn't a first-aid, immediate kind of fix. It is a practice taken over time which builds resilience and balance with our energy and emotions. I have a daily breath practice. I take my yoga postures with slow, measured breaths making the calming 'ocean' sound, and then I sit for a few minutes at the end and take a pranayama (breathwork) practice. It is subtle; it feels like I could skip it and it wouldn't matter on any given day. But the accumulative effect over the weeks is profound. It makes a huge difference to how I show up and how well I cope. Yes, it does have an immediate effect, I feel more spacious and refreshed right away, but this also builds over time. It is sort of like taking a shower for your brain and nervous system, cleaning out the built up gunk that stress tends to leave us with and restores my sense of clarity. And the subtlety of it helps me connect to something far quieter and quite essential. We'll be doing some of this in the day-retreat if you want to learn more about it. My fourth one is coffee - but that really goes under taking a break :-) ___ | Upcoming retreats | Right here in Bristol with Clara for a lovely day of gentle yoga 15th September 2024 Or our weekend retreat for next year will be announced soon too. Find out more >  We've just finished another term of classes and start on a new journey next week. While each class stands on its own merits, the accumulative journey holds so much potential.
At the start of this term of classes with me, I invited you into a few challenging poses. Our hips grumbled and the new sensations invited us to inquire into exactly what did we think we were doing!? We gently persisted and encouraged our hips and legs to carefully try again each class. They got the hang of it and listened and responded. And by the end, this week, they are stronger, more mobile, more stable, and yes, our hips are happier and healthier (and so are we). It took a few weeks for the kinks to unfold. For the familiarity in the poses to enable us to work skillfully with what our body would find helpful, and for the nervous system to allow the poses to take a more full expression once safety was established. The sequence unfolded over the weeks. The breath was able to settle and come into the foreground. Perhaps we discovered our breath potential a little more with the pyramid breathing and the rhythmic counting. As we turn towards the next term, and I put together the jigsaw of pieces that will become our focus for the next few weeks, I find it so helpful to listen to the feedback after class. The challenges, the gains, the insights that yoga has inspired for you. And to build on that. For those who enjoyed the challenge of Warrior 2 or the Half Moon balance, or the grounding of the pyramid breathing, the library has our end of term practice recording to maintain and continue this work. Do carry on if you feel it is a direction that you are benefitting from. Enjoy your yoga and look forward to more explorations next week.  Life can throw us so much stuff sometimes.
At the moment one of my kids is having a hard time. I wouldn't trade being a teenager again for anything, I've done my time, and he is doing his 100%. He is doing his teenage job of figuring himself out and facing some demons, and as his mum, I need to show up and be there for him as best I can. This is as much my yoga practice as when I step on my mat each morning. It is on me to keep calm because he can't yet. I need to tune in, to him and to me, to really listen to what is going on, so that I can keep regulated in the face of his teenage 'moments'. I need to practice patience, not over think what is happening or take any of it personally. To bounce back quickly, not be judgemental about what is going on and keep showing up moment by moment with my full presence and heart. To hold it all lightly and enjoy the moments even when they seem tough. And keep taking care of myself during the rough rides that are part of growing up. We do all of this in the microcosm of our mat practice, breath by breath, moment by moment, and we bring it with us into each day to help us show up as best we can. My mat based yoga practice is part of my self care. Nurturing myself and restoring equilibrium and balance. It is also essential maintenance for my body and mind, to ensure I'm staying as well as possible during challenging times. Not just taking care of myself, but also investing in preventing future problems emerging, physically, mentally and emotionally. It is challenging but who ever thought parenting was going to be easy? I just need to do what I can to make sure I am up for the challenge. But my yoga is also something much greater than self care and much more than essential maintenance... There are 3 ways you could view your practice: 1) Do you view yoga as 'self-care'? That thing we do when we feel stressed, stiff, immobile, in need of some nurture or emotional rebalancing. It is this, and more. 2) Do you see it as 'essential maintenance'? A bit more fundamental than self care. The oiling of the creaky bits, increasing the fluidity of whole body and mind suppleness. The clearing out of the accumulated grind and freeing the breath. The regular maintenance routine that helps us operate in the way we like to and help prevents things going awry too far. Yoga is this and more. 3) Do you see yoga as a way to connect to something more fundamental than either of these? Yoga can bring us to a place where nothing needs fixing, maintaining, or improving. Where we are able to let go of the need to change anything. Improving tight hamstrings wouldn't make any difference to how whole and connected you feel to yourself and others and how a sense of joy and contentment isn't improved by touching your toes or achieving your most focused practice state. The aches don't matter when the peace you are seeking is found. And it can continue to be found, felt and enjoyed throughout the moments of the day once you know what your looking for and the best route there - even in the face of a meltdown. Yoga does all three of these brilliantly. It is easy to be satisfied with the first one, and the second one, they are great to do and we should do them, regularly. But the third one, a little more subtle, is where the real power and joy of yoga can be found, no matter what the level of challenge life may be throwing our way. Enjoy your yoga.  I love the feedback I get about yoga. I got this wonderful email last week about the two-week yoga challenge that launched a couple of weeks ago in the online library:
"I just wanted to say how much I’m enjoying the 2 week yoga practice. I’m aiming for daily and achieving alternate days so far! Feeling good for it. Really helpful and inspiring." Another student told me yesterday he has managed to ward of impending shoulder surgery, as his regular practice has done enough. He has been keeping up a regular practice since the January 30-day challenge and it has been well worth it! What I love about these stories, is that they have done this for themselves. They have made it to their mats, found the impetus to keep it up, and discovered that the benefits far outweigh the 10-20 minutes each day that it takes. The recordings were the seed of a starting point to get them going. The led classes at the studio help to keep up the motivation, refine the practice and bring in the reminders of how to practice that are so helpful once you are familiar with the basics. Yoga can be so simple once it gets your attention. The hard part is competing with so much noise in our lives: constant distraction and entertainment, phones, marketing and consumerism, busy lives, and false narratives that tell us that simplicity isn't as good as complexity and that everything should feel hard or it isn't 'doing' anything'. I feel fortunate to have discovered a simple and accessible approach to yoga. It's emphasis is on 'little and often' at home with inspiration via 1:1 support or through your weekly group class. The approach manages to side-step the gymnastic forms of yoga and saves you years of getting lost in perfecting the postures without looking further at what is available from moving and breathing well. With consistent practice of this simple yet powerful yoga, you'll discover the distracting noise of life and the aches and pains drop further away. Gratitude for simplicity, and the recognition of a more subtle joy comes into the foreground. The practice of yoga helps you discover this, and helps it stay around for longer until it becomes your default way of travelling through the ups and downs of life. Of course I think that everyone should do yoga. I know they won't as it is doesn't appeal to everyone (they don't know what they are missing!). But if you know about it, and you know how good it is for you, and you know how brilliant you feel when you've done it, but then you don't do it... Make sure you get to your mat this weekend.  When I stepped on my yoga mat this morning I took time to fully experience the sensations of my feet on the mat, the breath moving in and out, the settling of the mind downwards from the head into the body.
As I started the first ujjayi breath I felt it fill my whole body as the arms rose up and found space in the ribs and abdomen. It is both mundane, we breathe all day, every day, for our entire lives. And it is also incredible that this complex, harmonious, finely tuned instrument of the body can do this with the smallest encouragement. To witness it is quite incredible and delightful. There is a tension in yoga about whether you are practicing for a future outcome or bringing yourself fully into the present moment. Of course it isn't an either / or. We are doing both. This morning, my yoga practice was very much with my body, not just for my body. It felt great at the time and it serves a wider aim. It keeps me grounded in the moment, grateful for the day ahead, and also helps me cultivate good health and more often than not feel pain free. In all of my classes there is someone who isn't pain free. I have students working to improve sciatica, back pain and various injuries, and they need to work with and around pain very carefully. Pain can be debilitating and can mean sometimes living with just a modest amount of movement. The breath and the movements may have a clear purpose of improving what we are looking to change. We may be seeking recovery or improvements of body or mental state. But they also bring us into a state of open ease and awareness. We discover that although the pain and worries can feel all consuming, in that same moment there is still a view available that remains aware of all this and not caught up within it. This view is subtle, easy to overlook, but well worth cultivating. In our yoga classes there is this dance throughout each session where we are serving both aims. We are working with our bodies to move, strengthen, stabilise, ease, rebalance, and energise. And at the same time, coming closer to being present and into the fullness of the moment. The aches and pains are addressed and improved, the weaknesses gradually strengthened, the tightness starts to resolve and future ailments hopefully prevented. We might need to target a posture here and there to more fully address things. The breath is respected and nurtured, the mind is calmed. The nervous system comes back to balance. And we finish the practice feeling renewed, refreshed, revitalised and more positive. The beauty of yoga is that it serves both aims seamlessly. You just need to show up to your mat, breathe, move, and cultivate an open mind that allows you to come more fully into your self and your practice. The benefits, the goals, the improvements will follow naturally, just as night follows day. Do your yoga. It works.  What I love most about summer is how much easier it is to spend time outdoors and in nature, amongst trees, and with the earth underfoot.
Popping outside doesn't require the right footwear, layers, waterproofs and umbrellas. And outdoor yoga is a possibility. Perhaps a few simple postures in the garden. Or more seated practices - try sitting for a moment aware of your breathing, or in meditation in the garden or on a park bench. Or try walking slowly through the trees noticing the sensations of the warm breeze and the sounds of bird song. Moments like these are easily missed. But when enjoyed they bring us right back to the same place that we enjoy in our mat practice. Yoga helps us cultivate more 'presence' - more awareness of what is in our direct experience. And it helps us notice when we are getting lost in our busy thoughts again. It helps us turn more fully towards our body and breath, our sensations and our surroundings. We start to let go of tension and worry and are invited to appreciate the moments of our life that are so easily overlooked. The moment you find yourself in right now might objectively benefit from being different. Perhaps your not happy about the twingey back, the red bills, or the wayward relative. I'm certainly not rushing towards the next time my son decides to yell at me and blame me for his teenage woes. But my practice helps me hold in mind that this moment, for all its apparent flaws, is still a moment that in 20 years from now, I'll feel blessed to have experienced, would love to have again, and will probably find amusing. Yoga helps us fully appreciate the moments that make up our lives. Life doesn't need to get objectively better for it to feel immeasurably better. Yoga reminds us that the small stuff doesn't need to bother us, our mind can become calmer, the world can feel more peaceful, and we get to embody that peace and then radiate it towards everyone we encounter. Enjoy your summer. Yoga can help.  Do you want to practice yoga at home and just don't get round to it?
I talk to people every week in my classes about wanting to do a home yoga practice. It is a future aspiration and may or may not come to pass. They love how yoga makes them feel, how they rediscover a vibrancy, ease and peace within themselves that you just don't get any other way. The aches and pains reduce, the strength of body and mind improve, and it feels great (or at least, loads better than before you did your yoga). The desire to start a home practice is step 1. Let's follow it up with a few more ideas, and address a few of the top obstacles that might be stopping you. TOP OBSTACLES I don't seem to find time... 10 minutes is a great starting point and makes a HUGE difference. I know you can find 10 minutes (put your phone down). I'm injured, I'll start once I've recovered... Don't forget about the rest of you. You will have to work carefully around the injury, but it will help you recover and you'll feel much better, mentally and physically, along the way. It's been a while, but I'll come back to it when... Get started today. Or come to class to help motivate you. If you don't do it now, then when? I'm not sure what to do... Keep it simple. See below for a couple of free home videos TOP TIPS 1) Put your mat in a visible place as a reminder of your good intentions. 2) Try adding 'Home Yoga' as a meeting in your calendar, mark it as important, and set an alarm as a reminder. 3) Be modest and start with just 10 minutes. Pick 2 or 3 postures, slow down, follow your breath. You won't believe how different you feel and it only takes a moment. Enjoy and do it again tomorrow. 4) When the time comes to do your yoga, don't think about it. Literally stand up, go to your mat and begin. 5) If you skip a day, no worries. Don't skip 2 days in a row. 6) Value your yoga. Prioritise it over the busy-ness of the rest of your life. It is important and you'll be so glad you did. I'll be setting a summer challenge soon but let's start today, small steps, build a good habit that could be life-changing. You'll love that you did. ___ Read on: | Urban Retreat Day in Bristol with Clara, 15th September| Find out more > | Ideas to inspire your home yoga practice - free videos | See the latest free videos > | Book Talk with Ranju Roy, 7th July | Find out more > ___  There are only 7 teachers at YogaSpace.
Between us, we have nearly 100 years of teaching experience. We are only a small team and some of us have been teaching here for many years. I even did my teacher training here almost 2 decades ago. This amount of experience means we have a lot to draw on when we teach every person who comes to class. This matters if we want to ensure that the practice, the poses, the breathing, will be able to meet the individual where they are on that day and help them get what they need from their yoga. Yoga is as unique as you Yoga isn't one-size-fits-all. We are all unique. Our reasons for why we come to yoga, our bodies, our levels of energy, our injuries, our life experiences, our previous illnesses and stuck tensions are completely individual. And they all show up on the mat in our attitudes, body, breath, postural habits, emotions and thought patterns. The beauty of yoga is that there is always something you can do that will benefit you enormously. The art of yoga Finding the right starting point, the best way to ensure that the postures, sequences, pace, approach and techniques are suitable. This is the art of yoga and where experience will bring a richness to what you do. And where the joy of yoga can be discovered by everyone. It might be that a more gentle class is the best place to get the most from your practice. Or perhaps your own level of experience means that you are well placed to adapt the practice for yourself in any class. Sometimes 1:1 is the best place to start, ensuring that it is adapted in a very bespoke way. Yoga can be very carefully and therapeutically applied using 1:1 guidance. This is especially good when working with health issues or for home practices, where the postures and approach selected are going to help you make the most of your time on your mat. Find your yoga Any yoga is better than no yoga. It all counts and is all worth showing up for. Part of your journey with yoga is finding the right teacher who can guide you towards your most ideal practice, and help you adapt and change it when your life-situation requires it. This doesn't necessarily mean advancing you towards harder, stronger, more complex poses, which in my opinion are a red herring in what we are doing on our mats. But in helping you unlock the postures, techniques, and breath that will help you develop your version of vibrant aliveness, spacious ease in your body and mind, and ultimately more joy in every day.  My seedlings haven't sprouted. Some did, they are in the garden magically growing into little lettuces. However, I have 4 egg boxes on my window sill that are showing no signs of life. I still water them in hope. But I think I'm going to have to admit defeat. More than half of what I planted didn't sprout.
You create a wonderfully fertile environment, plant some seeds, maintain light, moist and warm conditions, and hope for the best. There is nothing more to be done. Hope for magic to happen, participate in the possibility of magic, and enjoy the pleasure of gardening along the way. We might not call it magic. We might call it luck, or lifeforce or alchemy. Whatever your term for it, we all need 'it' more than we'd like to think. Rational? We like to think we are in control. That good compost and conditions = seedlings. Well half of the seeds got that memo, the other half... Plenty in our lives, like my seedlings & non-seedlings, is frankly quite mysterious. Our rational heads like things to be logical and rational. I bet some of you are thinking up reasons why my seedlings didn't sprout, and would have good advice for me. We like to feel in control and in charge, and think that the world makes sense. 3 intelligences But our intelligence is only partly in our heads. Our bodies have their own innate intelligence. They are doing a million things right now that we don't even know about, are not controlling, and don't understand. And beyond just the functioning of our bodies, our gut has its own intelligence. We feel things in our gut, perhaps we notice a reaction or an instinct that is worth following, even though our head might rationally think otherwise. Likewise our hearts also have a profound intelligence that we all know and feel, but don't perhaps give enough space for. We weren't always like this. As a little kid, before anything else we are usually asked - are you hungry? are you tired? do you need the loo? Beyond that, we were considered pretty much fine. But as grownups we don't ask our bodies how they are, we ask our minds. Our bodies, our hearts and guts have intelligence worth listening to. Our heads can't sort out how we feel much of the time. We overthink things. In fact we might just be thirsty - take a drink and feel better. Cultivate whole body-mind connectedness Our yoga practice is one of the places where we attend to and cultivate this wholeness, this whole body-mind connectedness. We invite our attention out of our heads, and attend to the body, to the heart, to the gut, and listen. At first we might find this hard. The mind throws up much more interesting stories and problems to solve, lists to make, distractions to offer us. But with practice our focus is able to be sustained elsewhere. We start to breathe from deeper in the body, we notice subtle sensations that are often overlooked. Our movements feel fuller and more satisfying. And we nourish something that we can't quite rationalise but we know is important. Stretching and strengthening is great Our heads rationalise what we are doing, and sensibly value the stretching and strengthening. We think that the stability in our back is the reason we keep up our daily or weekly yoga practice. And of course the physical benefits and better mood are reasons enough to keep doing it. But our body knows more. It knows that we have just attended to something vital, essential, and necessary. We have reconnected to something deeper within us, that when nurtured brings us back into harmony with ourselves and those around us. It's hard to verbalise By very definition it is beyond words, because it isn't from our heads. But just because you can't write it down, don't be tempted to underestimate it. You'll know it when you touch it, and you'll miss it if you don't. It is vital and essential. Prioritise your yoga Prioritise your yoga practice, above many other things in life. Let your mind think it is because it keeps you stronger and healthier. And allow space for the possibility that it offers you much more than your mind will ever know. UPCOMING EVENTS | Late-Summer Retreat Day in Bristol with Clara| Relax, pause and revitalise your whole self right here in our beautiful Bishopston studio. Sunday 15th September 2024 10:30am - 4:00pm Find out more > | Book Talk on "Yoga as Pilgrimage" with Ranju Roy, 7th July | Book here >  Someone rang me once to ask if I could stand in and teach a 'Puppy Yoga' class. I love yoga, and I love puppies, and of course I was tempted as it just seemed so curious (and fun!). Who wouldn't want to see the hilarious antics of puppies messing around. The basic idea is that you go to a yoga class in a room with a bunch of free-roaming puppies. They lighten the mood, warm your heart, and give you a much needed fuzzy glow. Puppies do that everytime. Yoga does that every time. Mix them both and Bingo! - right? My dog was a puppy a few years ago, so as I thought through this premise, I remembered something key about puppies that wasn't as cute. They aren't toilet-trained. My puppy was 5-months old before she finally twigged. So I have fond memories of this. Not only do they 'go' a lot, they usually like to go on something. They prefer not to just do it on the plain floor, they head for something. A piece of newspaper, a puppy pad, a clump of grass - anything. And in a yoga studio, all there would be is your yoga mat. You could teach a good yoga class here with these materials. But perhaps not in the warm and fuzzy way that was expected... Yes, having fun in downward facing dog with a puppy beneath you, forgetting to breathe and laughing out loud would be great. Puppies remind you to rediscover joy - they are fully joyful and it is contagious. (Put aside the animal welfare issues for one second, hard I know, Italy has banned Puppy Yoga for exactly this reason). But the best teaching would be... how to find the true joy of yoga, the real and lasting joy in this moment, no matter what is going on around you. Puppies, no puppies, even damp patches on your mat. It's all good - as long as you don't over-think it and your mind doesn't take over with judgements and thoughts about the inevitable clean-up. This is one of yoga's most valuable teachings and most valuable practices. It is at the very beginning of the ancient text, the Yoga Sutra. It is front and centre of yoga teaching yet often overlooked. It is as simple as breathing, as obvious as opening your eyes, yet we are oblivious to the availability of present-moment joy, because we overthink, judge and rely on the contents of our experience going our way - rather than the quality of our state of mind. Changing the contents of our life, or our choice of yoga pose, isn't what makes anyone happy. Adding puppies, finally achieving the long-sought-after 'hard' posture, easing the achey hip etc.. Whatever it is you are after from your practice is worth pursuing if it keeps you showing up each day - but it isn't what will ultimately satisfy you. What will satisfy you, now and always, is worth discovering. How to find complete contentment, peace and joy in each moment as it unfolds, whether it is objectively pleasant or unpleasant. Whether it involves a puppy or a damp patch. The teachings, practice and experience of yoga offers lasting insights into this. Initially in glimpses, perhaps at the end of our practice, or during our weekend yoga retreat. These glimpses graduallly become more reliably available, and become more and more integrated into daily life. We discover increasing equanimity, patience, peace and happiness. It sounds cheesy, because its been sung about and written about through the ages. It has lasted because it is true. Lasting happiness isn't found in circumstances, or in other people or things. It is found right here, where you are, no matter what is happening. Puppy or no puppy.   This last weekend I hosted my annual yoga retreat. We were just an hour from here, deep in the Somerset countryside in a beautiful country estate. The theme of the weekend was peace. To cultivate peace in life, body and mind. Let's pause We are always so busy 'doing' our lives. Working, shopping, fixing, supporting and caring, and then recovering from the demands of it all. At the end of each day, our energy is spent, we end the day flat out, then we sleep it off, and begin all over again the next day. Create space The space created this weekend was much-needed by everyone. The sublime location in the Somerset countryside, the sessions of yoga, the wonderful food, the inspiration and energy of the birdsong and spring bursting out in all directions. The weekly class upgraded to full immersion Cast your mind back to your last yoga class. You reached the end, and felt much better than when you arrived. Then you left and carried on with the rest of your day. When your on retreat, you don't go home and carry on with the day. Instead you are are in a beautiful location, not asked to do anything, offered nurturing practices, fed well, listened to, then you get to relax again, but more deeply in a candlelit evening relaxation / meditation. Then a night of peace, the occassional owl hoot, relaxation and sleep in a comfortable bed. Woken by the abundant morning chorus, pre-breakfast yoga to energise and revitalise. Fed more wonderful food, deepening gentle practices, and a chance to discuss and explore the wider elements of yoga that we often don't find time for. A spacious glimpse This allows us to glimpse the transformative qualities that yoga helps bring to everyday life. We stay immersed in this calm, vital spaciousness all weekend, letting it seep deeply into every aspect of ourselves. The vibrancy of nature, internal and external, is revealed and rediscovered. Through making space, practicing yoga, laughing, listening, chatting, crying, sitting, lying, eating and everything in between with new and old friends. And we bring this spaciousness home with us, and so it ripples on.  We retreat from...
Day-to-day demands Usual routines Distractions Noise Work TV and phones Traffic and city-life Stress and tension Fast pace and being constantly busy Doing life We retreat into... Tranquil countryside Sanctuary Abundant birdsong, spacious vistas of the Somerset levels Nature Slowing down and breathing Yoga practices to nurture and cultivate vitality, stability and peace Spacious time Being cared for, cooked for, encouraged, listened to Community of friends Spiritual connection Ourselves, tuning in, listening Quiet Being Peace Feedback from this year's retreat: "Thank you so very much. It was perfect and as I had hoped / needed" "Such a special time" "Really inspiring weekend. Great to reset and rethink yoga." "Loved the pace and balance of practice, breathwork, time for walks. Perfect for noticing and nourishing the whole of me" Stay in touch for info on next year's retreat which I'll start planning soon.  What!? You don't have spare time every day? A free 15 minutes where nothing else needs doing so you can step on the mat and do some yoga?
I'm not sure there is such a thing as spare time. We have the time we have, and we have to decide what is going to fill it. My pattern is that my phone, my kids and my dog have moved in to the gaps that might otherwise have been taken up with other things I used to enjoy: reading, fixing stuff, playing guitar, seeing friends, going for walks. So getting my yoga practice in first thing, or booking my class or workshop ahead of time so I definitely show up, keeps it consistent and regular. I've just booked in for my October retreat weekend so no matter what happens, I've got that time preserved for me. It may feel selfish, but everyone around me benefits too. No-one does well running on overwhelm. While yoga is much more than self-care, it starts here. I'm also really looking forward to this weekend which is the retreat I'm hosting over near Radstock. A chance to completely step aside from the demands of life, into a beautiful tranquil location, trees and birds bursting with life, spacious yoga, and countryside walking - and no cooking, washing up or tv. Bliss. Looking forward to hosting everyone who is joining me and holding some much needed space for you. I rely on my yoga practice. It is a mainstay in a somewhat chaotic world with unpredictable teenagers derailing my days. My body, mind and nervous system know that my safe haven of practice will happen regularly. Which means I can operate from a state of more ease because I'm not leaving it up to chance when I get to my mat and give my body and mind what it needs. We don't get more time, but we do get to make better decisions on what we have chosen to do. Rather than mindlessly drifting towards the phone, which is the easiest, most compelling, least demanding course of action, we can choose to use our time more fruitfully. Find any remotely possible windows of opportunity, and choose to use them wisely. They are precious. Go to bed 20 minutes earlier, so that you can get up 20 minutes earlier and fit in your home practice. Check your messages or phone one less time and use that time instead for a 10 minute mini-practice. Done daily, this will give you over an hour each week of yoga, which is well worth making time for.  It's spring at the moment and the weeds are growing, fast. They are called weeds because they grow fast, and spread easily. The garden is a wild and busy place if left to itself.
Spring is a great time to take stock, to decide what we want to keep, what we want to cultivate, and what we want to minimise and have less of. If we don’t decide to pull out anything, before long we have a wonderfully wild but overgrown garden. This if of course a great metaphor for our life, and for our body-mind. We cultivate the good stuff, what we want to encourage and want more of, and discourage the rest. This takes an objective mindset and clarity, and our yoga practice helps us come to this place. We come to our mat and use our moving and breathing practices to quieten our mind, revitalise our energy, and come back to balance. And from here, with clarity, we can observe and notice our usual habits. In our practice habits might show up as postural tendencies, pushing and striving to ‘achieve’ a posture or breath length, judging ourselves harshly, observing breathing patterns, noticing recurring mental thought-loops and patterns, and so on. Then we might go to the weeds and start digging. We react to what we notice and perhaps want to change it. We look for ways to be different from how we have noticed ourselves to be. We catch ourself and try to change the course. But are we over-weeding...? There is a lot of talk about ’self improvement’ and working on things to make them better / more efficient / less problematic. Within this framing it is easy to treat our yoga practice like this. But with it we might lose sight of all that is already whole and right about ourselves. We might tend to the weeds but forget to enjoy the flowers, shrubs and trees. In part our yoga practice is about noticing the whole. Noticing the inherent harmony that is so self-evident and at the very foundation of ourselves, that it is easy to overlook. There is a beauty in every single breath that we take - no matter whether it is shallow or deep, quick or slow. There is a whole body harmony that just works without us having to do anything. We come to our mat and notice our breath, move the body to it, and can rediscover an ease and balance. When I look at my little apple tree and enjoy its blossoms, I don’t look at the gnarly bits, or the imperfections. I enjoy the beauty of the whole tree and find that the imperfections are actually what makes it this particular expression of a tree, and that it doesn’t look exactly like any other tree. Like trees, we can cultivate seeing ourselves as uniquely different from anyone else, yet already perfectly whole and beautiful. When we look at a little baby, rather than look for its imperfections, we take in the whole beautiful miracle of them, and marvel that they are possible at all. Stepping back and enjoying this inherent beauty in yourself and all around you is well worth doing (BUT strangely hard to do - which is why yoga helps us). We don’t take this stance to get better or to improve anything, but to remember that we are already bloody amazing.  Trees are the silent giants all around us, with beautiful trunks, branches, leaves, twiglets, birds perching, wind rustling. The roots are the invisible foundation, the part of the tree that is unseen, and often unconsidered. Even when you trip over a tree root when walking next to a big tree, it feels separate, not like an integral part.
Of course the roots are essential, and often overlooked. Our feet are in a similar position. They are our foundation, our support and yet they are wrapped up and perhaps neglected somewhat. The encumbrances we overlay on our feet are physical and mental. We bundle them up in socks and shoes and are surprised when don’t thrive and develop problems. We think about our feet but don't fully and vibrantly feel them and embrace them as an integral part of ourselves. They are often an after thought. And of course we can do very well without them, but if we are lucky enough to have them, then they are part of our whole. Yoga is a wonderful chance to set the feet free and invite them to do what they do best - support us unencumbered and fully integrated. I know some like to wear socks to yoga, and there are many reasons why this can be a good idea, skin conditions etc. Yet bare feet has a vibrancy to it. Feet are designed to feel texture and temperature, to spread out and connect to the ground, and to be responsive to all that they encounter. My teacher used to joke that doing yoga in socks was a bit like taking a shower with your pants on. Fine, but not quite as effective and refreshing :-) My feet were the butt of many a joke when I was a kid. They are short and wide, with toes the same length - not really optimum. But we all have what we’ve got, and we make the best of it. The orthotics I was prescribed didn’t help and were uncomfortable. The orthopaedic surgeon suggested breaking a bone or two and resetting my foot at a better angle (no thank you). But actually, the thing that made the difference in the end was barefoot yoga. Using my feet unconstrained and given them the chance to do what they were designed to do. I’m sure yoga is also why I didn’t get the predicted bunions until my 50s. And now a couple of compensatory exercises help keep my feet pain-free. We are working with Tree Pose in my classes this term which is a very feet-centred pose. It has has something to offer everyone, no matter how steady or wobbly your balance is at the moment and there are many stages to the pose to support and develop stability. Being foot-centred doesn’t mean we need to ‘do’ anything extra with the feet intentionally. Gripping or bracing the foot may even be counterproductive. Let the feet relax. Feel your feet from within, rather than thinking about them from your head down. Invite them to connect to the sensations of the ground pressing in to them, and feel them spread out rather than grip in. Enter the initial stages of the pose with a sense of curiosity, shifting our weight over, whether or not balance is available. The foot over time will figure out what to do. To wake up and do what it is designed for, without the shoes and socks. Invite rather than ‘will’ the foot to support the pose and openly notice what happens. Do you tense up? In the foot? In your neck? Are you holding your breath? All these habits that show up in our practice are often helpful to notice and explore further. It is true, practice will help our balance. Just like when we were toddlers, and it took practice to balance on two feet. If your new to balancing or find it hard or intimidating, consider yourself the toddler that will figure it out given the opportunity. Practice standing more on one foot than the other daily with bare feet and notice the change that happens. If your more experienced and enjoy the challenge of feeling rooted and extended at the same time, experiment at the different heights available in Tree Pose as they all offer different explorations. And any frustration you find in your balance is simply an optional extra that we can choose not to invite along.  It's windy out there at the moment. I can hear it on the window, and can see the close-to horizontal rain. I can also feel a surge of excitement when the weather takes a dramatic turn - which seems to happen more when wind is involved.
The British love the weather, we get a lot of it. It changes our environment so rapidly to one that is easier or harder to navigate day-by-day. I remember my kids when they were little, they seemed to get 'whipped up' into tricky behaviours when the wind was up. It used to be my least favourite kind of weather. I've always sworn off wind-surfing as it basically involves standing up with a sail in the wind, which seems like my idea of a bad day. Then someone once said 'think of the wind as blowing away the cobwebs'. Try seeing wind as being refreshing instead of hiding away from it. Try embracing it, let it blow right through you, clear you out, blow away old moods and grievances, and then enjoy the post-storm calm as a fresh start. Things are swept clean and there is a sort of purity that remains. This has helped me embrace windy and rainy weather. To enjoy it as a positive. Appreciate the sun when it's shining as the contrast is so stark. I've lived in sunny places where the weather is pretty predictable for weeks and months on end. Wall-to-wall sunshine and warmth. It is lovely, but it also gets pretty samey. The variety we enjoy offers the chance to fully savour the good stuff more when it is here. No matter what the weather is where you are, there is always an embrace to be found. The cliche that says 'the sun is always shining' is of course completely true - somewhere it is. And the practices of yoga help us reframe our relationship to clouds, which helps the sunshine stay in view. In the Yoga Sutra, an ancient text that holds some of the earliest writings on yoga and a whole lot of wisdom, there is a verse that teaches the practice of 'cultivating opposite thoughts and emotions' (Chap II.34). The turnaround. Things that are bothering you or causing disatisfaction can be reframed. It's an idea the Stoics employed too. Why practice this? Then your day, and your life, can feel a whole lot better. Try it :-) One thing you discover as you age, is that things ache more. There are more sore bits, injuries take longer to heal and niggles can frustrate our efforts to be pain free.
The body simply isn't as resilient as it was, and we need to work harder to maintain stability and mobility. We are all aging, and we can't wait for a pain-free day to do something positive to turn the tide. It takes more effort to hold our ground than it ever has before and waiting will only set us back further. I had a recent minor skin surgery (thankfully nothing to worry about). It didn't stop me practicing. I had to modify my yoga postures and work around any forward bending so that the stitches could work their magic. My sprained ankle a couple of years back when I slipped into a hole in the park didn't derail my practice. My foot went black and blue and was swollen so cross legged was off the cards, but I simply had to avoid things that hurt, and ensure that I showed up to my practice with extra care and attention. A bit like if I have a sore in my mouth, I don't stop cleaning my teeth. I just brush them more carefully, respect the sore bits, but take care of the rest of my precious teeth and gums in the meantime. If your waiting for the day that nothing aches to get to your mat . . . The Pros - there are lots! Working with an injury can be brilliantly insightful. You'll discover an easily enhanced focus as the sheer risk of not paying attention is far greater. It is easy to view injuries as bad. Granted, no-one invites them, we all want to enjoy the freedom that good health affords. But discomfort is such an amazing opportunity for self-enquiry. Instead of fighting against, and getting frustrated by, your ailments and symptoms, treat the sensations of the cold / achey hip / swollen ankle etc., as the body giving you information about what it can and can't do today. Be curious about the patterns in the mind, the way judgement and negative bias creeps in, and the potential for your intentions to be derailed by over-thinking. All patterns worth getting to know. It is tempting to let movement and meditative practices drop off the priority list in the face of discomfort, congestion, fear etc. but it can be such an interesting and valuable time to practice. It affords new insights and rewards that are very different than if you were feeling fine. And the yoga still helps, even when it is more gentle than perhaps you would choose. You always feel better, more grounded, relaxed, energised, you'll recover sooner, and it can even adjust your relationship to the ailment to become more positive. I found Covid completely fascinating. I had new sensations in my body. My smell went completely. And mentally I knew I had 'it' - the dreaded thing that was sweeping across the world. It was in me, right now. If I allowed it, it could feel a bit scarey. But also there was a level of excitement. How interesting?! That thing that everyone is talking about, I get to experience it first hand, before anyone else I know. Was I going to be okay? Who knew. A completely new experience - how curious, a new adventure. I was lucky enough to have it while on holiday and at no point did I feel so ill that I contemplated hospital. There was even something of a relief at getting it. There was no need to avoid getting it any more, at least for a few weeks after I felt bullet proof. A layer of worry that I didn't even realise I had been carrying around had vanished. That was worth discovering - that I didn't even realise I was that worried. I had discovered a lot about what 'worry' in its more subtle guise looks and feels like. Worth knowing. And from there I just had to go with what unfolded next. My yoga practice was a revelation. My postures and breath felt different. Each practice held a sense of fascination at what it was actually like to be in a body with Covid. The physical sensations, plus the stuff in my mind. The temptation of dramatic narrative and fear of what might happen next, drawing me away from what was actually my direct experience of what was happening. The vividness of experiencing my new body, within the familiar ground of my daily practice, helped deepen my practice and level of attentiveness and meditation. All brilliant insights to carry forwards. Ultimately life is often out of our hands. We like to think we are in control, we often try to be which can take so much energy. Illness and injury are times when situations are taken out of your hands in a visceral way. And this has great value and benefit. This doesn't necessarily mean showing up to class with a streaming cold, but show up to something. Show up online and take it gently, take a short video, do your own personal practice. There is always something you can do, and it is always worth the effort. The old adage life is a journey, not a destination, applies at its best here. The journey is possibly the opposite of what you would have chosen, but there is plenty to enjoy anyway, it might just take a shift of mindset. Definitely something worth practicing. Did you almost not make it to your mat this week? Did your hip ache more than usual? Or have you missed a week a couple of weeks and need to re-establish the habit?
The hardest part of a movement practice can be simply showing up, even when we don't feel like it. The challenge of the practice, the physical and mental 'progress' has its own inherent motivation - but what motivates you to show up? Initially we need to establish a baseline that feels like it is meeting our needs and goals. Finding a sense of reward that motivates us to continue showing up. We need to feel like the forward bend is getting easier or doing something good, the breath is becoming more spacious and accessible, the back is less achey, our mood feels lifted after practice. At first, we need to meet the resistance to getting on the mat head-on. Find out what the obstances are (Netflix? Instagram? Bad weather? Kids or work derailing our days? Twingey back?) and figure out how to step on to the mat even when life doesn't pause and make space for it. Showing up messy is much better than not showing up at all. We can often get a little lost in the idea of tangible progress, and overlook the more subtle aspects of yoga which are possibly even more valuable. The improved sleep, the less urging for snacks as our anxiety isn't as heightened, the increased patience with our kids, colleagues and neighbours, the inherent 'okayness' with our day. We need to acually 'do' yoga for anything to begin to improve. I used to clean my teeth because my parents told me too. Because my dentist insisted and I was scared of him. And now I do it because it just doesn't feel right to leave them uncleaned and I know I still want to have my teeth decades from now. It is a baked in part of my day that I would go to some lengths to achieve, even if I lost my toothbrush. This built in motivation and habit of practice happens in yoga practice. It takes a while to get to this stage of stability. Initially the effort is showing up and noting the motivating rewards that will keep you coming back. The sheer joy and pleasure of it will eventually shine through. It might very well become the most joyous and pleasurable habit that you ever learn to cultivate, which positively influences the very foundation of your life. To help you get to your mat, it is helpful to pre-commit to your practice. Plan ahead, schedule it in, prioritise it. It's important. Identify your obstacles and show up anyway. We need yoga more than ever. If you haven't even got 5-minutes for practice, set aside at least 10 and show up. You'll be so glad you did.  The uplifting sunshine has been soooooo welcome this week.
When the sun shines I always remind myself that the sun is of course always shining.... somewhere. Today it shines on us. While we can't rely on the weather for joy and good vibes, especially in this rather drizzly part of the world, it is so much easier, isn't it? My week has been a doozy, but I'm here at the end of it enjoying the nodding daffodils. Even with life's challenges and ups and downs, we still have access to an inner stability and steadiness. Our inner weather isn't reliant external clouds. My yoga practice, my moving, breathing and meditational practices, brings me back to this place of calm, spacious ease every day. The more I practice keeping that connection alive and vibrant, the easier it is to draw upon it in the midst of a challenging circumstance (or teenage tantrum). This is a life skill that is definitely worth cultivating. Part of the practice of yoga, is this invitation to put aside our usual operating mode - the mode of keeping busy, anticipating whats coming up, worrying about it, prepping and planning for it, and so on. And discovering that there is another place to stand. In our yoga we can discover that there is actually a space, a moment, where we can fully and completely arrive. Arrive where? Right here. Try stopping for one moment. Stop chasing the next thing, the next thought, the next sentence, the next worry that wants to fill the pause. Notice that there is no problem in this immediate moment to solve, but a quiet, calm presence that was there all along. The problem that does need solving will still be there after this pause, and you'll be able to come at it with a fresh, calm perspective and engage with it more fully. In our yoga practice, the pauses on our mat between our poses look like nothing. They look like we are waiting for the next pose. Waiting for the next instruction to guide us. The pauses might even feel boring in contrast to the busy sensibility that drives most of our day. But the ultimate reward of practice is the full arrival in each moment. And the moments can be most readily noticed in the pauses between poses, between breaths, and between thoughts. They are there, they are subtle, at first they are fleeting and feel non-existent. Yet these moments can be the most fruitful part of our endeavours. Don't worry if you haven't noticed any of this yet. At first the poses are the stuff that make sense, that fit in to our modern mind-set of doing more things to sort out the other things. And over time the unfolding of pauses will become an unlocked treasure that, like the sunshine, is always there waiting to become visible. |
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