Benefits of Yoga - Improve Health & Wellbeing

Practising or Teaching Yoga? Ahimsa Must Prevail; Do No Harm…

By Nikki Shilling | 20 November 2017

One of my longterm students asked me last night in class why we hadn’t practised shoulder stands for a long time. I think of these things often, but for a few years now, my philosophy in a group class has been to teach something reasonably dynamic and doable that the most amount of people in…

What is the Best Way to Plank?

By Nikki Shilling | 8 November 2017

What’s the best way to plank? I think it’s important to realise that there are no rights or wrongs, but what is important is what FEELS better and what offers the most amount of benefit for the least amount of effort and stress….

Do Chakras Really Exist?

By Nikki Shilling | 28 October 2017

Do chakras exist and what does it mean to “balance” , “open” or “activate” them? Let’s face it, it’s unlikely the chakras exist the way they are depicted in most images but if we can suspend our disbelief for one moment, we could accept that many ancient cultures were incredibly sage. It appears they managed to work out…

What is the Surprising Difference Between Yoga & Meditation?

By Nikki Shilling | 6 October 2017

…for many years, I practised the physical part of my yoga as if I was training for Olympic gold! At the end of the class, like lots of others, I would gratefully flop down into Savasana for a rest, often with twitchy muscles because I had completely over-stimulated my nervous system.

How Breathing Affects Our Weight….

By Nikki Shilling | 27 September 2017

Strangely – or not! – as someone who is quite small, I am often asked what I eat. The answer is, pretty much whatever I want! But what do I want to eat? Yesterday I wrote a post about how the majority of health stuff will come back to the breathing. I wrote: “…Our diet…

How does our posture affect breathing?

By Nikki Shilling | 27 September 2017

How we breathe affects EVERY SINGLE ASPECT of our health so it’s incredibly important that we see this as a firm foundation on which to build on. Of course everything is cyclical so just as the way we happen to be breathing (hyper-ventilating for example due to intense exercise or sickness) can change the composition…

What is the Difference Between Stretching and Lengthening Muscles?

By Nikki Shilling | 7 September 2017

Does your body often feel tight and stiff? What’s is the difference between stretching muscles and lengthening muscles do you think? One thing you may not realise is that when you feel a sensation of stretching, actually that’s just your nervous system sensing danger and shortening the muscle. It’s a total stress response so all…

What Causes Stiffness & Physical Tension in Our Body?

By Nikki Shilling | 27 August 2017

What causes physical tension in our body and what kind of chain reaction can occur? Obviously these things are cyclical just like the chicken and egg, but to offer a few examples, physical tension may be caused by unnatural posture such as sitting for extended periods, or tasks that require constant micro-movements. It’s also the…

Bottom Line: Being Mindful of Small Business

By Nikki Shilling | 15 August 2017

What is the real difference between “big” business and small business aside from financial turnover? I am no Business graduate but I have run my own small business for more than 10 years now and as I see it, small businesses are usually started by people who are either passionate about their product or actually…

How to Boost your Immune System (Reproductive System, Digestive System….et al)

By Nikki Shilling | 8 August 2017

We often talk about “boosting” our immune system, but what does that mean? Sure, diet is important, but sometimes, if there is other stuff going on in your life, then diet may not make any difference to how we feel. So why is that? The answer comes back to those two expressions that describe activity…

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