Getting the Best out of Online Yoga Classes
Lots of people are attending Online Yoga classes these days. The pandemic means that we can’t get together in person as much as we would like. I used to have…
Finding Your Calm Space: Yoga Nidra and Deep Rest
Yoga Nidra is a beautiful and effortless way to enter a state of profound rest. It is a wonderful way to find your calm space. Anxious, tired and stressed people…
Finding Your Calm Space: The Examen and Daily Reflection
Daily reflection on our choices and responses is a lovely way to discover inner calm. The Examen is a time-honoured approach to personal reflection and growth. During lockdown we spent…
Finding Your Calm Space: Making Time for Calm
Making time for calm is always a challenge. Calm rarely happens by chance. We all lead busy lives, juggling many responsibilities. Calm and self-care are often the first casualties. We…
Finding Your Calm Space: Sacred Space for Calm
Creating a sacred space can help you build calm into your daily life. We are material beings, and our physical surroundings have a big impact on how we feel and…
Finding Your Calm Space: Mantra Meditation
Mantra mediation is an ancient and beautiful way to calm the mind. I am a big fan of Kundalini Yoga. This beautiful practice involves lots of mantra repetition and chanting,…
Finding Your Calm Space: Loving Kindness and Relationships
Living in a state of loving kindness towards others is crucial to our calm and wellbeing. I am always humbled when I hear about people who forgive in the face…
Finding Your Calm Space: Gratitude
Gratitude is powerful. Multiple research studies demonstrate that practising gratitude is one of the best ways to be calmer, happier and more successful[i]. When my seven children were younger I…
Finding Your Calm Space: Haiku, Poetry and Meditation
‘No one travels Along this way but I This autumn evening.’ - Matsuo Basho, 1644-1694 Haiku is a Japanese poetic form closely tied to meditation. Classic haiku are works…
Finding Your Calm Space: Create and Craft for Calm
Create and craft your calm space with crochet, colour or macrame. There are so many soothing and accessible ways to access your natural creativity. I always enjoy working on my…
Finding Your Calm Space: Daily Journaling
Daily journaling can help bring calm, focus and direction into your life. During the recent lockdown I began every day by writing three longhand pages in my journal. This was…
Finding Your Calm Space: Baking Bread for Calm
Baking bread is a soothing and calming process for all the senses. At the end you have something delicious to share and eat. It’s a great way to care for…
Finding Your Calm Space: Sounds and Silence
Sounds and silence are everywhere, inside and out. Our bodies and the natural world exist in constant vibration. We can tune in on some of these vibrations in the form…
Finding Your Calm Space: Getting Close to Nature
Getting close to nature is good for our mental and physical health[i]. There are so many ways we can find calm and happiness by getting involved with the natural world…
Finding Your Calm Space: Meditating on the Natural World
Meditating on the natural world around us is a wonderful way to settle and calm the mind. I like to sit in a quiet corner of my garden to meditate…
Finding Your Calm Space: Walking Outdoors
Walking outdoors is a simple and accessible way to find calm. Walking has been my lifeline during the Coronavirus lockdown. In the early weeks of fear and tension, I escaped…
Finding Your Calm Space: Chanting and Singing
Chanting and singing are natural human ways of regulating our emotions. Singing, breathing and building community all belong together. The loss of shared singing and chanting is one of the…
Finding Your Calm Space: Ocean Breathing
Ocean breathing is a beautiful way to feel calm and relaxed. The Sound of Waves on a Beach I love the sound of waves on a beach. The gentle breath…
Finding Your Calm Space: Alternate Nostril Breathing
Alternate nostril breathing is a calming and balancing practice. Breathing through one nostril at a time is something we do naturally without realising. Students often arrive at a Yoga class…
Finding Your Calm Space: Belly Breathing
Belly breathing is calming, relaxing and good for your health. In yesterday’s blog I talked about becoming aware of the breath without trying to change it. Today we will focus…
Finding Your Calm Space: Breath Awareness is a Superpower
Breath awareness is a superpower. Humans have an exceptionally subtle ability to control and think about our own breathing. This goes alongside our highly developed speech skills[i]. By focusing on…
Finding Your Calm Space: Cool Water and Calm
Cool water and calm are best friends. We are mostly made of water. Water constitutes around sixty per cent of our bodies[i]. We count aquatic mammals like seals and whales…
Finding Your Calm Space: Calming Essential Oils
Calming essential oils are powerful. The remarkable properties of lavender, frankincense and many other distilled plant oils can hugely impact your mood and wellbeing. One day I burned my hand…
Finding Your Calm Space: Turning Yourself Upside Down
Turning yourself upside down is surprisingly calming. Any mention of handstands or headstands at a Yoga class used to make my stomach clench with worry. Like most people, I generally…
Finding Your Calm Space: Secure and Loving Touch
Touch is our first sense. At just eight weeks from conception, a human foetus develops the sense of touch, beginning with the face, lips and nose. By twelve weeks the…
Finding Your Calm Space: Food, Stress and Calm
I recently blu-tacked a note to the kitchen wall as a reminder for my family. It read, “If Mum is getting stressed, encourage her to eat some muesli”. I have…
Finding Your Calm Space: Restorative Yoga and Effortless Rest
Restorative Yoga involves a lot of lying down. It can look as if you are doing nothing. And that is actually the point. When I first started going to Restorative…
Finding Your Calm Space: Walking Barefoot on the Earth
Walking barefoot connects us to the calming security of the earth. Whether you think of this as a spiritual grounding or simply a physical pleasure, the soles of our feet…
Finding Your Calm Space: Paying Attention to Your Body
Paying attention to your body is one of the most important things you can do for yourself. Primary School Drama When I was aged nine or so, a slightly hippieish…
Finding Your Calm Space, Day Three: Recognising When You Need Calm
Recognising when you need calm is the first step to building calm into your life. I have to keep learning this the hard way. As a busy person, I…
Finding Your Calm Space, Day Two: Calming Your Nervous System
Calming your Nervous System When I was training to be a midwife, a health visitor, a yoga teacher and a reflexologist, one topic kept coming up over and over again:…
Finding Your Calm Space, Day One: I Am Not a Very Calm Person
I am not a very calm person - that’s why I need calm When I told my husband that I was planning to write a book in 31 blogs about…
Fertility Yoga: The Difference between Surrender and Letting Go
I did a Fertility Yoga Teacher Training course yesterday. It was halfway through the day before I realised why I needed it. Then the tears came. This is a difficult…
How I feel about teaching online Yoga classes
Teaching my Yoga Classes online is bittersweet. It makes me feel happy and sad all at the same time. I never planned or expected to teach online Yoga classes I…
Coronavirus, grief and hope. Seeing the white egret …
I think I have passed through all the classic stages of grief in the last few weeks, as Coronavirus has tightened its grip on all of our lives. To begin…
Coronavirus and Fear: Who Controls your Life?
It’s so easy to be controlled by fear. I know – I’ve been there. With all the recent talk of scary viruses, panic buying, and cities on lockdown, I have…
Seven Worries About Birth – and Lots of Ways to Prepare for a Positive Birth!
Is there such a thing as a positive birth? Birth is a huge experience in a woman’s life, and it’s normal to have some worries beforehand. But with the right…
The Ice Class: coping with Labour and Birth
How much will the birthing process hurt? Is labour really painful, and if so, how much? Will I be able to cope? In my Pregnancy Yoga and Birth Preparation classes, I encourage women to amass a rich collection of coping strategies for birth. I stress that birth – and especially a first birth – can take many hours, and so lots of different tools may prove useful. A warm bath or pool may be great for a few hours, but later chanting, dancing or massage might work better. One of my favourite birth preparation activities is handling ice cubes. This is a safe way playfully to experiment with strong physical sensations
Vision Board
My Vision Board for 2020
Yesterday I made my third Vision Board. The first one was instrumental in my decision to change my life and become a Yoga teacher. Last year I focused on lots…
Tub full of ice water
Om and Hof – Wim Hof, Yoga, Birth and Ice Baths
Yoga and mastery over the elements When I first heard about Wim Hof, he reminded me of the ancient Yogis of India. They were famed for their impossible feats –…
Small candle shining in darkness
Peace on Earth? Lighting a candle in the darkness …
Peace on Earth? – lighting a candle in the darkness Christmas is supposed to be a season of Peace on Earth. Are you feeling it right now? A divided nation…
Reflexology in Billericay, Essex
Reflexology for Menopause Symptoms: Can it help?
Hot flushes, night sweats, sleep problems, mood swings, weight gain, reduced sex drive …. The symptoms of menopause and perimenopause go on and on! Millions of women struggle with troublesome…
A desert journey
Two Days in the Desert – My Silent Retreat
I had often thought about doing a silent retreat, but the opportunity had never quite been there. Then an organised retreat came up at a convenient location, and I had…
Asthma and Reflexology – a holistic approach
Asthma and Reflexology – a holistic approach Asthma is a common condition affecting over five million people in the UK – that includes one in twelve adults (Asthma UK, 2019). Asthma…
How Baby Massage helped me
I have such happy memories of sharing baby massage with my youngest daughter, Martha. It was a time of calm in the middle of a storm. An oasis of love…
Top 5 Nutrients for Breastfeeding Mamas
Guest Post by Anastasia den Blanken Author: Anastasia den Blanken, BBA (hons), MIB, Dip.HC, Dip.NA, mANP https://anastasiadenblanken.com/ Introduction Postpartum period, or as it has been also called “fourth trimester”, is…
Five Best Yoga Poses for Restful Sleep
Guest Post by Jade Langton If you are having trouble falling asleep, you can try some yoga poses. In this article, let’s learn about some of these poses. We’ve put…
Guest Blog: Stress Reduction for Fitness and Health
By Guest Blogger, Ellen Orton Description: Truthfully, everyone faces challenging situations in life. That’s why it’s crucial to find stress reduction tactics that work for you. Did you know…
The Importance of Practising Yoga for Mental Health
Guest Blog by Rebecca Shinn Can Practicing Yoga Improve Your Mental Health? Description: Practicing yoga has many known benefits for mental health, including helping to manage mental illness symptoms. Regular…
Guest Blog: Indoor and Outdoor Exercise to keep you and your Family Active
Guest blogger Anya Willis shares some ideas about staying active during a pandemic. The pandemic has put a damper on many families’ fitness and wellness pursuits. This means many people…
Guest Blog: Getting a Massage During the Covid 19 Pandemic
Guest blogger Sheila Johnson shares her thoughts about Getting a Massage During the COVID-19 Pandemic In July 2020, the US Census Bureau and the National Center for Health Statistics conducted…
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