YOGA BLOG

Bring focus and clarity I had a fantastic time teaching my workshop on balance, last weekend. It proved to be a very popular and effective session, with great feedback, which is always welcome! Preparing my lesson plan really got me thinking about what an amazing tool yoga is for keeping us in balance as we negotiate this very busy modern world. In the workshop we talked about physical balance – what muscles we use, how our eyes, ears and central nervous system are involved.

My Nan at 90 As many of you know, I recently lost my Nan. She was 93, had lived a good life and this was the first time she’d been in hospital, so there was much to celebrate, but it did still hurt. Thank you to everyone who sent me good wishes. I’ve spoken many times about how Dru Yoga is always there for me, and this experience was no different. I always like to share what I learn, so here are some ways that my yoga practice have helped me deal with grief and the busy-ness

In the last of my festive posts, and just in case you overindulge during the festive period, I‘m going to explore how Dru Yoga can help you bring your body back into balance, and how it can help you to support your organs of elimination ie. the liver, kidneys, bowels and skin. Your pancreas might also need some extra TLC too. Side stretches help the organs of elimination One of the liver’s main functions is cleansing, and at this time of year we often give it a little extra w

I think we can all agree that food plays a big part in winter festivities! Not all of it being a festival for your digestive system though, so in the third of my Christmas themed blogs, I thought we would explore some ways to support your hard working digestive system. Soothe an upset tummy with crocodile I’m going to start with just a couple of the many Ayurvedic dietary recommendations, which I certainly find very helpful. If you are eating fruit, eat it alone or leave it a

In the second of my festive posts, I’m going to look at a few ways to support our Support digestion and the immune system immune systems. How many times have you found yourself full of cold or with a tummy upset when you were looking forward to a break? This is a common phenomena when we finally unwind after a busy period, but there are simple steps we can take to fight those winter bugs. Let’s start with a few Ayurvedic lifestyle tweaks to help you stay healthy through the w

We’ve entered that most busy time of the year – the run up to Christmas. I love the Hilary practising her Warrior posture festive period but find the build up can be a little overwhelming. In the run up to Christmas, I thought it would be nice to post a blog each week on the theme of keeping your equilibrium – tips and reminders for us all, so that we can make the most of what should be merry and joyful season, and it will all tie in with the yoga we will be teaching in our c

This is one of my favourite times of year, I like the colours and the cool, crisp, still  energy of autumn (when it’s not raining!). I think it’s also a great time of year for new beginnings, when we head back to school or work after our summer holidays. I always loved the clean, neat pages of my exercise books on the first day of the new school term, and even now I love my new registers, cleared out class files and brand new lesson plans as our courses return 🙂 In previous

I’ve recently been away, and one of my favourite things to do on holiday is attend Being taught is a real treat for me, and I’ve had some great experiences over the years. Yes, I have an established daily practice, which I am able to tailor to my needs, but sometimes it’s just nice not to have to think about what to practice, to let someone else make the decisions and tell me what to do. Best of all, if I’ve chosen the right class, I also get guided through a relaxation. I’ve

Continuing with our brief exploration of Ayurveda, in this post I’d like to focus on my favourite bit – yoga for the doshas. In previous blogs we’ve discussed each of the doshas, how they effect us and how we can keep them in balance. Hopefully you are starting to build a picture of your constitution. We can also use our yoga to keep our doshic constitution in harmony. Working with yoga and the doshas is a huge subject. In upcoming blogs I’m going to be discussing the element

I hope you’ve managed to dream a bit about 2017, and you’ve got some idea of how you’d like the new year to shape up. In this post I’m going to look at some ways to boost your energy so that you’ve got all you need to let your dreams unfold. The Archer from EBR3 “Awakening the heart” It’s great writing down your goals and wishes, display them somewhere that you will see daily, so that you keep reminding yourself what your inner self asked for. This in itself is a great way to

In the last of my festive posts, and just in case you overindulge during the festive period, I ‘m going to explore how Dru Yoga can help you bring your body back into balance, and how it can help you to support your organs of elimination ie. the liver, kidneys, bowels and skin. Your pancreas might also need some extra TLC too. Side stretches help the organs of elimination One of the liver’s main functions is cleansing, and at this time of year we often give it a little extra

I think we can all agree that food plays a big part in winter festivities! Not all of it being a festival for your digestive system though, so in the third of my Christmas themed blogs, I thought we would explore some ways to support your hard working digestive system. Soothe an upset tummy with crocodile I’m going to start with just a couple of the many Ayurvedic dietary recommendations, which I certainly find very helpful. If you are eating fruit, eat it alone or leave it a

Strong back bend In the second of my festive posts, I’m going to look at a few ways to support our immune systems. How many times have you found yourself full of cold or with a tummy upset when you were looking forward to a break? This is a common phenomena when we finally unwind after a busy period, but there are simple steps we can take to fight those winter bugs. Let’s start with a few Ayurvedic lifestyle tweaks to help you stay healthy through the winter. Make sure you ge

In the run up to Christmas, I thought it would be nice to post a blog each week on the theme of Preparing for Warrior keeping your equilibrium at this busy time of year. If you are dreaming of a stress free Christmas, you can make that your reality with our simple yet effective tips, and it will all tie in with the yoga we will be teaching in our classes. In this first post I thought we might explore ways to stay calm and peaceful. Winter is time when our bodies naturally wan

The joy of stillness Did you notice the beautiful full moon last night? If I’ve got my astronomy correct that was the biggest full moon of the year. It’s also an auspicious time in yogic tradition, known as Guru Purnima, a time to honour and thank all our teachers who have brought us to this point in life, a theme I’d like to explore a little in this blog. Throughout our lives we encounter teachers, those who take us a bit further along the path. Some of them are obvious (oft

Take time to connect with your heart, to think about what you really want Apologies for the delay since my last blog, I’ve had a lot of distractions – theme for a future blog I think! Here we are though, back experiencing our 5 layers of our being. We have now reached our 4th layer, the thought layer (vijnanamaya kosha). It is interesting to note that in this model of our human experience the thought, also sometimes known as the intellectual layer is the closest to our true n

Last time I introduced the yogic concept of the layers of our being. We started with the physical layer. I’m hoping that since my last blog you have been observing your physical body when you’ve been practicing yoga – how you move, where is it feeling stiff or clunky, what bits move freely and comfortably, where do you need to stretch or strengthen – and generally getting to know yourself, then using this knowledge to help your self. In this article I’d like to explore the ne

In my last blog I talked about the practice of physical yoga. I mentioned that according to yoga philosophy we have different layers of our being, of which the physical layer is just one. I thought it might be interesting to explore these a little bit further and see how these layers affect us and how we work with them in our yoga practice. There are five layers, or koshas, of being. These are also known as the layers of human experience, and all day every day we are moving b

We are rising now to the Brow centre, Ajna, the 6th chakra in our exploration. All about having a clear purpose in life, ajna rests in the space between the eyebrows. Visualise here a deep, rich indigo, imagine it flowing across your forehead, soothing the brow and settling the thoughts. Although this chakra is connected with the mind and the intellect, knowledge and understanding, it’s also about that which we cannot readily understand or know. It’s that feeling you sometime

We’ve moved up now, in our exploration of the chakras, to our 3rd chakra, the fire centre, Manipura. This chakra is linked to our solar plexus, which can be a little misleading when it comes to it’s position. Our physical solar plexus can be found where the rib cage arches up. I know that other complementary therapies class this is as the fire centre, but, according to ancient yoga wisdom this is the position of another chakra altogether. In yoga the fire centre is to be foun