Is yoga an easy route to mindfulness?
Mindfulness seems to be a buzzword at the moment. The internet is awash with information on mindfulness and hardly a week goes by without a newspaper or magazine article on its benefits. I am bemused by the way it is often presented as a quick fix, cure-all technique. My own experienc
January 28, 2016
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How to give the best hugs
Did you know that there’s an art to hugging? Some people have the ‘hugging art’ naturally. Everyone can learn skills to hug better. My first tip is that aiming to give a hug is a much more successful approach than aiming to receive one. ‘Success’ will ari
How to find support from the core for a healthy spine
‘Build core strength’, ‘tone your abs’, or as my son would say ‘get a God Bod’! These exhortations are usually aimed at strengthening the superficial abdominal muscles – the ‘six pack’. A common way to achieve these objectiv
August 18, 2014
Living in the moment
Fear and how it can negate our ability to live in the present moment, was the theme of my quote for classes last week. The reading came from a book on Fear by Thich Nhat Hanh: ‘When we are not fully present, we are not really living. We’re not really there, either for our loved
March 24, 2014
Beginning Yoga – why newbies need specialist classes
Many years ago, when I began teaching yoga, my classes included a mixture of people new to yoga, along with more experienced yogis. I found it a difficult balancing act to simultaneously ensure that beginners were safe, and experienced yogis were challenged enough to remain interested
How to do Trikonasana – the fluid way
Back in 1991, I had my first experience of Body-Mind Centering® on the beautiful Greek island of Skyros. ‘Sense millions of cells in your body….. expanding and condensing in a breathing rhythm all of their own’, said our teacher, Jens Johannsen. Then we basked in the
Touch is a touchy subject
The English Language has many metaphors for behaviour and feeling using skin and touch. ‘Thick-skinned’ folk lack sensitivity or ‘tact’. Tact – from the Latin ‘tactus’ meaning touch – is to delicately touch another. If someone ‘get
Rehab
No, I’m not secretly recovering from an alcohol or drug addiction. A while back I wrote a blog about getting injured and the challenges that posed. My re-habilitation/path to recovery has been slow but illuminating. I’ve learned that on the whole, allopathic doctors have
‘Transitions’ (getting from A to B and staying calm)
In my work as a yoga teacher and movement therapist, I’ve noticed that considerable stress for some individuals arises in their ‘transitions’. By transitions, I mean how they go from one place to another, one task to the next. It was as if they wanted to ‘apparate’ themselves &
January 22, 2012
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My Manic Week
One of the first things I say to a new group of Beginners is that through practising yoga we’re aiming to increase our resilience to life’s ups and downs, especially the stuff that’s out of our control. Last Wednesday my Beginners had a graphic example of their Yoga
September 28, 2011
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