Health Matters
Life in Flow; The Freedom of Allowing
Changing your Mind, Changes Everything… What we think of as our “mind” exists in every single cell of our body. At its essence, Yoga literally means there is no separation. Everything is one. Not so crazy when you consider our physical bodies are made up of stardust. The idea of non-separateness can challenge our ego-driven […]
Continue Reading
What is the difference between Mindfulness, Meditation and Yoga?
Above image taken by Oonagh Treble. I’m posing for a photo while in Pigeon Pose on a SUP at Shoal Bay . It was a beautiful morning; we laughed lots and had loads of fun, but at that moment, I was just posing on a paddleboard. Let’s not call it Yoga…! Somebody asked me a question the other […]
Continue Reading
Why Optimal Breathing is LESS Breathing…
Contrary to what you might think, deep, excessive breathing, particularly through the mouth (hyperventilation) is dodgy because it brings in way more oxygen than the body can actually use. This excess oxygen doesn’t end up in your cells. What over-breathing does do though is constrict the blood vessels, block circulation, increase heart rate and BPR […]
Continue Reading
Why You Should Activate Your Nuts!
What does it mean to activate your nuts? Yes…yes….titter… of course I wrote it that way just to get your attention! Today I made some almond butter with almonds that I had activated, I don’t usually bother, but, at the risk of sounding like Paleo Pete, it can be a useful thing to do on […]
Continue Reading
Stop Looking….Voila!
From time to time, when life has thrown a few lemons and/or things just don’t feel quite right within us, what do many of us do? We head off on a kind of pilgrimage. We need to “find” answers. We try this thing, that thing, another thing. We put our trust in people who don’t […]
Continue Reading
How can what we practise on our mat, prepare us for what may happen in our life?
Here’s one of my favourite poses, Parvrtta Janu Sirsasana (Twisting Head to Knee Pose), an easier version of which we are doing in our sequence this term. It’s a beautiful side stretch which, among other things, tones and nourishes the kidneys. The way we come into it in class means there is the option of […]
Continue Reading
Why is Range of Movement & Flexibility So Important?
A few years ago, I remember a friend saying, “Why do I need to be flexible anyway?”. There are many, many reasons. Firstly, flexibility and mobility enables us to maintain good health by encouraging blood flow and circulation – there is limited blood flow into tense, tight muscles.
Continue Reading
Why Yoga Teachers Should Adopt a “Best Practise” Model.
At the end of the 90s, I worked at Dorling Kindersley publishing and we were working on edits for the Australian market of the big, hard cover book by BKS Iyengar. I was asked for some input and added my yoga school at the back. The Australian Iyengees were very cross once the book came out because that school wasn’t specifically “Iyengar, so for future editions, it was changed. But was Iyengar that rigid? it’s probably fair to say that he just described his yoga as “yoga”.
Continue Reading
How to Relieve a Niggly Lower Back & Hips…
ack pain and/or hip stiffness or vice versa is the new normal and obviously there are many ingredients, not least the humble chair! If you feel stiff and niggly in your spine at the end of the day when you are in your 30s and have a desk job, imagine what this will feel like 30 years later….
Continue Reading
To Squeeze and Tense, or Not to Squeeze and Tense?
That is the question…🤔! I am talking about muscles of course, and this is my perspective, based on my own yoga practise, years of exercise, study and experience. I grew up in this modern world – a world where women (especially, but now it’s men too), have been informed they need to have a flat, […]
Continue Reading