 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. 
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 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.  I was in a park recently and these wonderful people dressed as sugar cubes were making their way down the path smiling and being rather exuberant as they went. Almost everyone they encountered broke into a smile. They were people in silly outfits having fun, disarming everyone with relentless joy and enthusiasm.
I think there is research backing this up, but even faking a smile helps you feel better. Sharing a smile with random strangers in the street helps you feel happier. The world needs a little more joy at the moment and it starts with each of us. The news can seem bleak, the weather grim, the trees are a little bare etc. But that doesn't mean there isn't an abundant amount of joy to be found. It perhaps isn't as obvious and we might be out of the habit of looking. Don't get stuck thinking everything is awful. It really isn't, even if on the surface it might appear that way. Okay, we don't have to go as far as dressing up as sugarcubes (I think they were being paid, promoting a sugar free drink or something), but start with smiling every opportunity you get. Fake it till you make it. Wave to the next person who stops at the zebra crossing for you. Wish the cashier in the supermarket a lovely rest of day. It seems trite, but it is infectious and we all need to be reminded that it starts with us. Make someone elses day. It feels good! Of course yoga helps with this. Consider it part of your daily practice. It helps us catch the downward trajectory of negative thoughts and reframe them. Note if you are feeling disappointed or frustrated with your practice and remind yourself to let go of the analysis and judgement. Pay closer attention to the sheer fact and wonder that you are breathing and moving today. There is joy to be found in each breath and remembering to recognise that is something worth practicing.  All yoga is good... to a point.
Take the analogy of cooking. McDonalds is food. It has good energy, has great texture and flavour (subjective - but many would agree and $millions has been spent on developing it in labs), it fills you up when you are hungry, and has protein and carbs to keep you going. And you don't even have to know how to cook! Home cooking is better food. It has good energy, fills you when you are hungry, tastes delicious, but you take more responsibility for what you put in it. You are more discerning about your intake of the 'other stuff' (fat, salt, sugar, low quality ingredients). It is more nutritious and will serve your longer term health 1,000% more. It has better balance that includes fresh vegetables and micronutrients. It avoids the stuff your allergic too, and gives you more of what you actually need. It adapts each week and each month depending on the season or the stage of health or stage of life. But you have to learn how to do it. When we first start yoga, we work on the assumption that what we desire is what we should have. We find the Youtube videos we enjoy, or the class that makes use feel great. This is almost everyone's starting point. We simply wouldn't carry on if it didn't feel good. It is a great place to start. The larger class can be fun, exhilarating and challenging - enjoy the great vibe and energy of the room. The cons are that the practice might not be quite right for you, and over time, this can be a red-herring in our yoga. After a while, especially as we age and our bodies and minds need a more thoughtful and careful approach, we learn to listen to how we are reacting to our practice. How is it serving us? Are our aches and pains improving? Is our sleep better? Is our mood improving or are we getting frustrated? Are we becoming more patient and kind with ourselves and those around us? Some of these markers are subtle, but incredibly important. If any of these are off, then an adjustment to the way we are practicing is almost certainly necessary. This is where your relationship with an experienced teacher can help guide you to a more nuanced and balanced practice. Enjoy your practice and reflect on how well it is serving you so that your time spent in yoga can be even more fruitful.  Celebrate our teachers
We have some wonderful teachers at YogaSpace including some of the most experienced in Bristol. Marian has been running her Thursday classes since 1998, which is the same year that I started practicing yoga. Something must be going right for us to get the award for BEST YOGA CENTRE IN BRISTOL, 2024. Experience really counts in a yoga teacher. Especially if you find yourself in an older body, or have an old injury that needs extra care and attention. Almost all our teachers are 50+ and have been at this for at least a decade so know what we are doing and can ensure it is ideally tailored to those participating. 'Yoga with Adriene' is great if you are also in your 30s, young and fit etc., otherwise you might find yourself pursuing a practice suitable for someone younger. She says and does a lot of great stuff, but... having an appreciation for bodies and minds that have some wear and tear, a collection of injuries or issues, are flat-out in their busy lives, or are perhaps post-menopausal, really does matter when it comes to teaching a movement-based practice. Alongside our brilliant skill and experience, it is also why we keep our classes pretty small. One studio just up the road from us squeezes in 35 students in each class. 35!! I hope no-one needs an adaptation or any bespoke attention as it simply isn't possible to see what everyone is doing in a group that size. Of course almost all practice is better than none. YouTube videos for folks in their 30s is fun, squeezing into a hot room with lots of others is an exhilarating buzz. Or if you want tried and tested experience for grounded, well-balanced yoga that will leave you feeling great and support you in a tailored way, then you are in good hands with us.  Busy at the moment? There may be extra social gatherings and more demands on our time and things to get done. There are sights, sounds and smells that are stimulating and seasonal and that we would miss if we didn't have them (remember that the next time Jingle Bells is coming at you). Much of this can be enjoyable, some perhaps stressful, but life can certainly seem extra busy and we may feel like we are being swept along. Taking time for more grounding yoga practices and creating pockets of space for moments of stillness can be a huge support to help us stay present enough to enjoy what the time of year has to offer. I'm particularly noting this year's season as I've just lost a friend to a long illness. Sadly this was her last Autumn. As heart-breaking as this is for those who knew and loved her, it reminds us how precious these moments are. This experience of life, as it is right now, is actually it. We don't know what will come next. And while this doesn't mean we shouldn't plan for, and usher in a better future, we should also recognise that this moment right now is our life to experience fully. Yoga helps us settle in to our bodies more fully and comfortably. We realign ourselves back to our centre, and re-find our natural posture and balance. We settle agitation and stress in the body, ease our stiffnesses and aches, reduce turbulence in our minds. Whole body movements and breaths practiced regularly bring us into a steadier and more stable version of ourselves able to more fully notice and embrace the joy of the season.  With the colder evenings now set in for the winter, perhaps heading out to the studio, or getting on to your mat at home feels harder? Some of you have (or want) a regular home practice, some of you only practice in a group class, and some of you do both. In an ideal world we would do both, but home yoga and group yoga are both great in their own right. Our initial challenge is doing something! The main aim is to regularly and consistently move, breathe well, and become more embodied and subtly aware of yourself and life. Our bodies love to move, and when given time and space to practice, respond in incredible ways. The next challenge is doing what is right for you. What will bring you what you need in the most effective way. Group yoga is very different from home yoga, and both have brilliant benefits, advantages and disadvantages. And they are a wonderful complement to each other - in an ideal world, we would do both. GROUP YOGA More challenging. Typically more challenging, not necessarily physically, taking you into new territory in a guided way to discover aspects of your body, breath and awareness that you might not delve in to by yourself. It usually isn't as frequent as home yoga, so that extra challenge has time to integrate over the days until your next class. Teacher guidance. It offers more guidance from a teacher. Habits that you wouldn't notice on your own can be highlighted and explored. A teacher will be able to provide experience in how to overcome obstacles, issues and offer new insights physically and beyond. The process of finding an optimum practice that works for you and your unique body and situation can be achieved more quickly and avoid more of the pitfalls along the way. Motivating. It can be great to bookmark that time in your calendar, and help keep you motivated and accountable so that your practice actually happens. This requires its own commitment to showing up. Prebook your classes or term so that it is given priority in your life. And the friendly faces each week help keep it fun and enjoyable. HOME YOGA Personal to you. Home practice is typically more frequent, often shorter, more gentle and more personal and intimate with yourself. Once you know what your doing, there are less external reference points to guide you. Its just you with your body, breath and mind. The practice can gradually become more internal, and perhaps more subtle. Shorter time more often. If you are taking an hour long, class-like practice every day, chances are this is more than you need to do, so only do that if you know you are being careful, and have lots of spare time or have built this up over a while. It is incredible what a shorter practice, taken daily, with repetition and a well-focused mind-set can add to your life. Start small. I've been guiding home practice in 1:1 sessions for over 15 years and initially, I would suggest that 10-20 minutes is plenty if your goal is long-term. Spend a month doing a shorter practice, getting to your mat daily and consistently, and then only once the habit is established and solid, then consider adding in a little more, step-by-step, until it feels optimal, enjoyable, and fits in to your life. It doesn't have to 'look' impressive for it to be brilliantly effective. 30-day challenge. If your interested in jump-starting your own home yoga practice, your invited to join my free 30-day challenge to help you on your way. Go to the Free Yoga Resources page and start from there. 6-months from now you'll be so glad you did!  Our yoga practice is often forward looking - we practice to gain something. Perhaps we are seeking more flexibility, a less achy back, an unscrambled mind, a stronger and calmer end to our week. The idea of seeking something from yoga is universal, especially when you are getting started. We all take up the practice for a reason, and yoga in its brilliance, is often a good solution. It does all of those things, and much more. However we don't have to always seek something from our practice and their is a curious paradox here. Not seeking or expecting a reward from what we do is a different stance from how we approach most of the rest of our lives. Instead, we can move and breath for the joy of it, for the habit of it, we let go of the expectations and hopes, and simply see what arises. This step-change in our practice can be a revelation. It can provide a gentleness towards ourselves. We might discover how to listen inwards more fully. And perhaps opening towards what is there now, not what we are trying to create or get. And it allows us to discover space and be more receptive to what arises. Instead of pushing or demanding something of a posture, or of our breath or focus, invite a gentler approach. Bring an openness to a movement or to the breath, back away from pushing, struggling or trying too hard. And within that find receptivity. Pushing against anything will meet resistance. Sometimes it is appropriate to address this resistance. But it is also wonderful to let go of the pushing. Allow a pose to unfold for us instead of 'creating' it with effort. Allow the body to be more receptive to a stretch because it feels safer when not being pushed. Allow the nervous system to calm down. There is research demonstrating that if you take a stretch at only 30% of the maximum, so hardly anything really, that it is far more effective at gaining mobility than taking the stretch at 70% or higher. Receptivity and repetition do the job better than pushing, and allow us a spacious and relaxed body and mind along the way. Next time you take to your mat, instead of expecting or pushing, try giving thanks for what you already have, what is already there, and open gently into what arises without expecting anything more. It offers a beautiful pause in life which I would highly recommend.  Getting to your yoga mat doesn't get easier when it rains, but the brilliant rewards are always worth it, so what will help? The weather, the dark evenings, the wind, and the cosy sofa all work to keep us home. Getting to your mat can feel hard. But it doesn't need to if you simply plan ahead and commit to it in advance. Thinking about whether to do your practice or not is a slippery slope. Our thoughts are tricky, easily derailed, and unreliable for doing what is best for us. Not getting to your mat can be tempting when the weather is bad. And without the commitment in advance, it won't get any easier. Take your decision to practice once, in advance, when your feeling pro-active. It is soooo much easier than deciding each day or week whether or not to turn up.  I love getting to the end of a term of classes and inviting people to see if the physical work or breathwork feels different than when they started a few weeks previously. We have been getting into the deeper work that familiarity in your practice allows. Perhaps the half pigeon pose isn't as intense after doing it for a few weeks, not because you aren't doing it as fully, but because the body has changed and is less restricted in the hips than it was before.
Yoga really does work. Brilliant! I had a lovely email from someone from class yesterday and I would love to share it with you (it's anonymous of course, but thanks so much for sending me your story of how yoga is helping you!!). "I walked into the office this morning and my boss took a deep breath to speak. (Clara note: her boss is VERY difficult to work for) Instantly a little voice in my head said “You’ve got this. You did yoga last night!” Isn’t that incredible! I stood tall and answered politely! So yoga is working for me! Looking forward to our next session!" Yoga practice helps our bodies change for the better, and helps our nervous system to become more resilient to stress and strain. We become more open and available to meeting antagonism with friendliness, holding our ground with amity rather than anxiety. Our minds become more open, relaxed, spacious, and we can let go of negative patterns and embrace a more positive way of being in the world. All that from a weekly class. I love it!  I was away for a wonderful weekend of yoga last week and feel replenished in my personal practice. I rediscovered more spaciousness, forgotten techniques, and re-ignited some subtle changes that are translating into a more transformative daily practice for me. Some aspects of practice come to the forefront with a teacher observing how you are in your yoga and guiding you from what they notice. We all slip into being on auto-pilot sometimes. We assume we know what we are doing (and we might, more or less), we assume we know how to 'do' the pose or the breath, and forget to let the body and breath lead the way, and be listened to, and responded to in new ways each time we arrive in our practice. As is so common in the rest of our life, we lead from our heads, and 'will' ourselves into the poses and techniques - which is great, but not as fruitful. Once you are established in a regular practice, this is one of the pitfalls that can arise. Practicing at home is wonderful, I'm a huge advocate of it - but face to face contact with a teacher to help observe, prompt and redirect you can be so helpful in rekindling how transformative our practice can be. Trying new ways of doing familiar things can be completely refreshing.  Imagine feeling more confident in yourself, more peaceful at work and at home, more stable in body and mind. Easeful in your movements, in your attitude, and in your body and breath. Quick fixes are no longer required because you feel good more often than not and your sleep and health improves.
Yoga helps you with all of this. It requires a little input from you, a commitment to regular practice, but it offers so much more than it requires. There is never a great time to squeeze it in. Few of us find time hanging around, empty time where we go "right then, I've got time for some yoga now." Time isn't found to do yoga, you have to make time, by putting it aside in advance, committing to getting to your mat, scheduling it in to your diary. Literally leave your mat out so you'd have to fall over it or step past it to miss your practice. Book in advance and you'll get to your practice and start to cultivate all of the wonderful benefits that it delivers, and much more besides. What yoga has offered me has changed over the years with the demands of health and lifestyle. Yoga supported me with stress relief during my single life of career and partying in my 20s, to being a busy mum with teenage boys and family and work demands, and everything in between.  My body has changed, my energy levels have changed, the time I've had available for yoga has changed, but I've never given it up, as it gives back so much more than I give to it. Amongst all this change in my life, my practice has remained consistent. The postures and breathwork don't change that much, a posture or technique here and there to address specific needs. There are things I'll keep doing as long as I am able, because they work so well for me, keeping me as healthy as possible, stable, with a clearer, more grounded perspective on what's important in life. What changes the most is how I do my practice. I might take the postures slower - increasing the physical intensity with an extended breath, making more demands on my body by lingering in the hard bits. Or I might use a mantra to accompany the movements, and ease back physically to enable spaciousness to arise in the face of feeling overwhelmed. Occassionally I'll just do lying poses, some breathwork and savasana if I'm feeling poorly. My framework was set by my teacher, Paul Harvey, and remains pretty stable. I have a set practice that works, and offers a reference point for how I am. It took consistency and an experienced teacher to get me to that point, and my job is to keep showing up on my mat. The rewards of consistent practice are lifelong, and riding the rollercoaster of life becomes a lot more fun along the way. Here's to another year with yoga by my side |
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