Yoga in Cheshire Blog

Accepting change with yoga

Posted on May 3, 2013 by Tabs

What an interesting few days! It’s been almost surreal! Firstly the weather…in over 15 years of visiting the White Isle…Ibiza…I haven’t seen weather like that. Five days of cold rainy weather that kept us out of sunglasses and wrapped up in jumpers.
It was an interesting experience though. Definitely one I will learn from. We have learnt that having indoor space ‘just in case’ is a priority, even in places known for their sunny climate! We have learnt that just because a retreat isn’t what we planned doesn’t mean we won’t enjoy it! It was, in some ways, more of a bonding experience for the poor weather. We certainly enjoyed and made the best of the time…doing more yoga, enjoying time by the fire chatting, indulging in group guided meditation, and generally sharing of ourselves. Obviously sunshine would’ve been appreciated however it not being there made it a whole new experience. On the face of it sunshine would have been essential but actually without it was an altogether different and somehow more intimate experience.Time where we learnt, and we almost enjoyed the challenge of making the most of each situation. I think people inspired each other. On the last night we were discussing ways we were planning to change and to move forward…and it made me smile as I’ve yet to go on a yoga retreat that doesn’t change me in a positive way :)
So on route home, this time from a very different Ibiza. The next retreat is now fully booked with many of this retreat’s students rebooking for October and/or next May. Positive feedback in a very definite form :) In some ways this retreat has emphasised to me that even when a situation is out of your control…such as the weather…it often just needs some re adjusting to find the positive and to enjoy the experience for what it is rather than resenting what it isn’t. This time I am flying home to the UK to another situation where decisions have been made for me. In a strange way it feels that the more obstacles we face the more we appreciate what we do have! And I have a lot!
I share my world with some wonderful people. They support me and allow me to feel that from the basis of that support I can move forward in a different direction to the one I originally intended. However when one door closes it sometimes causes a draft that opens a door somewhere else!! I feel that is what is happening here.
My path has taken an unexpected but no less interesting route, and in many ways this direction has many benefits. If I look back at my life in the last year I have achieved many things. I have made myself proud and worked hard on myself and on my business. However I have also lost something. I have lost that relaxed time for me! There is always something to do, a pile of admin that needs sorting or somewhere I need to be heading off to. There is a lot less time to just relax and enjoy being me. Even my own practice has often felt fitted into convenient times rather than being able to indulge and play.
Over the last couple of months I have been torn in different directions. Each path having benefits and neither being easy. However if I take my mind back to the end of 2012 what I remember is realising I needed more time for me. However when I returned I found myself back into my habit of taking on too much and losing the quality time for me. Much as I love yoga in cheshire that passion has a tendency to take over my life. My time was often filled with day to day routine and that the small joys of pottering and playing had been pushed to one side. However this new doorway has a view that seems to include many places to pause and admire the scenery and check in with how things are. Rather than the fast flowing river of expectation and obligation that often carried me along before.

Waiting for the sun to enlighten the mind

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Pausing to enjoy my yoga

Posted on April 21, 2013 by Tabs

Tab & lisa in Ibiza

The difference in how I feel after a weekend away is noticeable from the outside! I’ve become more embodied and less in my head. We tend to move into functioning from the mind…thinking rather than feeling…in times of stress. In the last few weeks I have been making decisions about decisions! Trying to think my way though how I feel…but that doesn’t work. We need to feel into ourselves. Become intimate with who we are….after all intimacy can be seen as the phrase ‘into me see’. We need to know ourselves to function effectively in the world. To be able to listen to ourselves we need to know ourselves. How can we listen to our intuition if we don’t know how to hear ourselves.
So I’ve spent a weekend getting to know old and new friends better. One of those friends being myself! I’ve remembered why my New Years resolution was to get away for some sunshine every few weeks. We all need the escape from our lives to look back at our world and see what we are doing. The sunshine obviously helps, but the break from the normal routine is also good. As I have said before…getting to look at our world from a different viewpoint allows us to see things differently. Perception is subjective.
I have been able to truly appreciate how much I love my life in many ways. To re evaluate some of my priorities & plan to get some of the little stresses we all have tidied away or removed. I love teaching yoga, both classes and individually, and working with yoga therapy. This is my passion. However I have come into 2013 at a pace that is not feasible to sustain long term. Teaching yoga classes, doing yoga & TYM training, attending yoga workshops,doing up my house…all great but not leaving enough time to just be still. Even my daily yoga, pranayama & meditation practice…so important for keeping me happy…has often been squished into a time limited space, whereas I like to be able to just enjoy it for however long feels right. Always knowing I have somewhere else to go to or something structured in my day isn’t how I want to live my life.

Villa in Ibiza


Visiting the amazing villa in Ibiza where we are running our next yoga & wellness retreat was an inspiration too. Inspiring me to plan more yoga holidays, detox & wellness holidays, even more boot camp style weight loss & tone up holidays that give me opportunities to live the dream even more! Offering other people the opportunity to experience the magic of the island of Ibiza and the experience of feeling embodied in a body & mind that have discovered an intimacy with both each other & a connection to the universe. Being able to be the change I wish to teach others, as healthy & energised as my body & mind can be. Indulging in sunshine, rest, fantastic healthy food, yoga, meditation & the opportunity to discover ourselves & a different perception of our normal live. Something I need to ensure I both do more of and offer others more opportunities to do with me!
So some of my decisions have included plans to involve other teachers. Involving some of the wonderful people in my life more in the day to day running of the yoga studio in Cheshire. Freeing my time away from teaching a little more so I can have a life outside of my yoga studio. Allowing me the security of a trusted support network so I can relax again and enjoy the pleasures in my world. Plans to focus more on the joy of why I teach as well as what I teach.
So I am returning from a weekend away full of plans. However these plans aren’t plans to do, but plans to be. Plans to savour the rasa, the taste, of my wonderful life. Sometimes we are so busy doing, achieving, striving and anticipating we forget to just be. So I am reminding myself to be more mindful of savouring the moment. Of living in (& maybe for) today without continually having one foot in what could have been and another stepping into maybes and dreams!

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Yoga & finding stillness

Posted on April 15, 2013 by Tabs

Flying over the clouds to the White Isle…Ibiza… I am drawn to thinking about life. What matters to us. When you look down at the vastness of the clouds from above, knowing that life is waking & stirring below, things seem different.
One of the reasons I chose to get away for a weekend was admittedly for sunshine. An over long winter, after a dismal year weather wise in 2012, had left me susceptible to the offer of cheap flights & good company. Another reason though was to put some distance between myself and my world so I had the opportunity to examine things from a more external viewpoint. Just as I am able to do from the window of a plane looking down over Europe….changing the perspective changes what we know of something. Be it something physical like a landscape, having a different view from higher altitudes or in different light. Also utilising the ability to change our viewpoint can be useful in relationships. Only seeing things from one point of view may be the cause of much mis understanding and upset!
So here I am, flying off to make some time for me. Time to look at that which I love about my life, maybe see how distance from the situation changes how I feel about decisions and directions I may choose. Time to sit quietly, enjoying the stillness and space necessary to hear intuition and to be. To find the time to do less and just be more. Much as I love my world of teaching yoga in Cheshire, the business side of things involves decisions. Making decisions is often based in action. Made through thought rather than intuition. So when I am busy doing, teaching & exploring possibilities I often find the next step has been taken out of necessity, but often also without spending time in contemplating or stillness.
Stillness is so hard for many people as this is when you hear the truth. Yet the truth is necessary to be living an authentic life. The more you learn to enjoy the stillness, the more you feel the truth of what you should be doing. Also the more you find the space to know what you enjoy away from the stillness, somehow the more you can maintain the inner stillness. For me learning to explore the breath, learning to find the stillness between each breath has taught me to appreciate the stillness I can find in my life. The small slots of time where you can just stop and indulge in appreciating life. The moments of stillness where it’s almost as though you stop to listen; to yourself, to the heart beat of the universe.
Listening to the truth. The truth is often easier to see from an external viewpoint. Seeing from a quiet place, looking inward…rather than from within the midst of constantly doing. Yoga is able to clear our perception, partly by allowing us that time to still our minds. To take a time for us, away from the doing in our day to day lives. So I am hoping a couple of days living yoga, the quietness of spending time with me away from the busyness of everyday routine will help me see clearly. Will clear my mind of making decisions and allow the fluidity of what is meant to be to flow through me. Those are the right decisions. The things that are meant to be, flow, the opportunities we don’t see when we are busy. When we take that time To step back, to quieten our world, that is often when all becomes clear.
So I am hoping a weekend of sunshine, rest and opportunity for stillness will give me the clarity of perception that I need. The ability to see my decisions and know if they were made in the mind through necessity or through the authenticity of listening to the heartbeat of the universe.

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is it the season to rest, recuperate & enjoy all aspects of your yoga practice

Posted on January 4, 2013 by Tabs

Staying motivated can be hard over the holidays. There’s more temptation in terms of distractions, social activities and obviously all the food that tends to be around at this time of year. There are a couple of popular ways of dealing with this. Some people say that a break, a change from the usual routine means that you return all motivated and fresh in the new year. Other people have the opinion that getting out of the healthy habits means that it can be harder to reinstate them. That once the body has acquired a taste for less healthy choices, and especially getting into the sugar roller coaster ride of ups and lows, it can be really hard to get off the ride.
I tend toward moderation and forgiveness. A few days where we can relax previously strict routine and forgive ourselves lapses in dietary control are OK. Sometimes letting ourselves remember how pooh and heavy in both mind and body we can feel after a meal of processed food is a great motivating factor. It can remind us that the reason we eat well and make time for relaxation and movement is because we feel so much better for doing so. This also helps when people who maybe don’t understand, who don’t live such a healthy life, consider our lives one of deprivation or restriction. Then we understand that is simply because they haven’t experienced the way it makes you feel. The contrast between feeling good from the inside out or permanently using props such as sugar or caffeine to stay enthusiastic throughout the day. They maybe don’t realise that actually it is more deprivation to feel constantly tired, blurry in mind and demotivated physically. That actually to restrict ourselves physically, to not allow our bodies to move and to play, or to allow our mind to expand and to open to opportunity is actually more restrictive.
So this holiday season be kind to yourself. If there’s a few days where you gym is closed, don’t beat yourself up…just move! Don’t vegetate in front of mindless TV and munch through boxes of chocolates, instead aim for quality. Quality relaxation as well as quality mobility.
Recognising that sometimes we need some down time and that is actually good for us. So enjoy this time for what it is, an annual time to reflect and to notice. To notice that when our bodies naturally slow in the darker evenings that this is fine. That we can enjoy gentler physical exercise or a change of activity rather than pushing onward with the same routine. Also recognise that just as a rest day is important in any training regime, so is relaxation time in general. Savasana, the relaxation at the end of a yoga class, is often considered the most important part. The time when your body accepts and acknowledges the benefits of the physical practice. This is an important lesson too about the seasons, maybe the winter is our natural savasana. The time when bodies need to relax a little, get more rest and recuperation ready for the longer warmer days ahead.
So be kind to yourself this holiday. Don’t succumb to the temptation of gluttony or social pressure to eat badly. Yet also don’t put pressure upon yourself to maintain the level of physical activity that you usually do. Listen to your bodies needs and practice acceptance. Enjoying maybe a little extra food or relaxation but not going to extremes in any direction.

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Moving closer to santosha

Posted on January 4, 2013 by Tabs

Flying over the snowy hills of central USA makes me realise just how big this place is. Also how when we moan about the weather in the UK we really don’t remember how hard it can be for those parts of the world that really get extreme weather. In fact being over in the USA has allowed me to see how good we have it in many respects in the UK. Somehow being away from home as allowed me to find contentment with what I have at home.
That is the trouble with contentment though, and my search for santosha, that we sometimes need some objectivity to find it. I know that for me, I am a lot more content with where and who I am, having looked at my world from a distance. Comparisons aren’t necessarily something I would encourage in yoga practice. In the day to day practice of looking inward to find happiness and santosha, why would I suggest an external comparison. However just like your mother probably reminded you when you were a child. Appreciate what you have as there are many worse off than you.
Sometimes we need that reminder.

Driving over a bridge into more content times

Sometimes we need a distance from the decisions we need to make, so that we can be objective. When we are continually immersed in a situation it is hard to be objective.I had allowed my busy life and the constant movement from one thing to another to encourage a dissatisfaction with where I was. Not with my life but with something. I tell myself it is the British weather…but as I said earlier, it really isn’t that extreme. The UK isn’t really that big a place and for a small island we have a lot of opportunity. In fact I feel maybe it was just that the constant activity, the squeezing in rather than indulging in, my personal practice has meant less focus on the Yama and Niyama discussed in the Yoga Sutra. These are the restraints and observances. Basically a guide as to the way to be in the world and to treat the world around us. A way to learn how to treat yourself and how to treat the world in our constant journey toward Samadhi. Towards the enlightenment of realising who we are & who we can be.

Obviously I am constantly striving to practice tapas, using this discipline and motivation to keep moving forward. However this can sometimes detract from the practice of santosha, contentment. Enjoying where you are rather than looking for where you could be.
So for me this trip has been beneficial in so many ways. Admiring the beauty of snow capped mountains, and being glad I don’t live there! Getting the chance to really appreciate what I have at home and how much my life suits me and who I am. So basically it’s done what a vacation should do, taken me to beautiful places, allowed me to spend quality time with family and friends, and allowed me to really appreciate the life I lead when not on holiday. So the feeling of wanting to move away was necessary to realise that actually I find my santosha at home.

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Building a Yoga toolbox for treating yourself with TLC

Posted on January 2, 2013 by Tabs

Why do I want to call the yoga I teach YogaTLC. It’s yoga where we treat ourselves well. We don’t push ourselves into contortionist shapes but we use the physical asana (postures) to heal not harm. We aim to move out of our comfort zones but not be competitive. We are honest with ourselves and kind to ourselves. We provide our body with the nutrition we need, mentally, physically and emotionally only ingesting that which does us good.
I want yogaTLC to give us a toolbox from which we can take the things that allow us to heal.

Lego...building blocks for adults too

Be it a short physical practice that keeps our body feeling loose and comfortable rather than feeling we have to do an entire 75 minute practice every day. Knowing which postures may suit when we’ve spent the day at the desk and shoulders are tense, or when we’ve sat on a long journey and our back aches. Knowing that we can forgive ourselves for not always being perfect, and instead be kind to ourselves. I want to provide people with the knowledge and confidence to be kinder to themselves. To treat themselves as well as they are able with the tools they have available to them. We need to be as kind and loving to ourselves & to others as we would like others to be towards us.
So I want to offer workshops where we can learn about nutrition, not deprivation or weight loss, but nutrition that supports us in our lives. I want to offer short relaxations on YouTube that give you the opportunity to stop and switch your focus inward for just a few minutes. I want the physical practice of yoga to be something you understand. Not just a series of postures that you are talked through by a teacher in a class. Instead having your own individual toolbox of short practices that maybe you could do on waking to move your body into a comfortable space. I want my yoga holidays and retreats to provide, not just a time to relax but an opportunity to be able to expand your knowledge in the direction you are interested in.
I have a head full of information that I want to share. I have a passion for a lifestyle that can allow your body and mind to be more capable and comfortable than you may have believed feasible. I want you to be able to treat yourself with the Tender Loving Care that modern life seems to forget matters.

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Yoga core strength provides strength in action & in rest

Posted on December 30, 2012 by Tabs

I know that personally I often don’t get (make) the time to truly switch off except when I am actually on my yoga mat or doing a meditation practice. I am learning to recognise those…nearly having a melt down moments…when I have pushed myself too hard for too long! I may have the core strength physically, but we need it mentally too. Whereas the physical core strength helps us to keep going the mental one can help us to say no and to pause when we need to. When there don’t seem to be enough hours in the day, and instead of fighting it we learn to rest, I learn to forgive myself for not pre empting it, and that I don’t need to be everything to everybody and that actually to say no and to admit I need more me time is a great life skill. I am learning to utilise a short physical yoga asana, breathing or meditation practice to re set, to just give myself a few minutes kindness and not try and continually push through the tiredness. I am learning to use my yoga practice to improve my core strength on a number of levels.
I am also continually learning to reflect, to notice what leads me to work too hard. I have a passion for what I do. That I love about my life. However my tendency to always want to do more, to do it now needs to be lessened. Some of this stuff can wait! As my friends will notice, I am learning to say ‘thank you but not yet’ or ‘sorry I can’t fit it in this week’ to opportunities and social occasions. I am learning that sometimes more me time, time doing nothing more than indulging myself in pottering around my little house, reading or even sleeping more is good. Plus I am learning to forgive myself for not being super human and for actually needing to do this!! I am learning that having inner core strength allows me to actually relax more than the days when I felt I was always holding myself together from the outside.

I am learning that actually when I try to do everything maybe I don’t do anything as well as I am able. That making a to do list is great but sometimes makes me feel overwhelmed. That sometimes I am better to just focus on one thing at a time and doing that well. I may be strong and motivated but even I need a rest sometimes! I may have strengthened my core self to allow me more ability to endure. Yet I have also learnt that life is about more than enduring, it’s also about enjoying! I have put up another short core strength Youtube video to allow us to focus on our inner strength physically. This inner core strength helps gives us the power to keep our resolutions and intentions. It holds us strong from the inside to move in this very externally focused busy world we live in.

All this attaining, acquiring and material definitions of success seem to take us outward. All this focus on the external remove us from noticing that sometimes the internal world is actually where we live. Yoga encourages looking inward and strengthening ourself as we nurture our body and soul. To strengthen our core, psychologically & physically matters more than just pampering the surface of our bodies or acquiring a faster car. So take a few minutes to pause and maybe work with the breath and the core. Do some yoga, explore your core and discover what you need.

I understand that social expectation, pressure of mortgage payments and family time means that we often feel we have to choose between the quietly focusing inward and continually working toward external success. I want to show the world that a little knowledge and motivation can change how you feel about your world. That treating yourself with forgiveness for not being perfect, that allowing yourself a ten minute break on the days when getting to yoga class isn’t feasible is just as important. I want the world to be happier inside and out. Core strength will help not only with the physical stuff like back pain & posture. Core strength also helps provide the strength to say no, the knowledge to know when we need a rest. Yoga helps us turn our focus inward, to our core. Developing core strength helps us to act on the knowledge that we find! Maybe I dream big, but I also understand that each person whose life I can open to this possibility of feeling better from the inside out, to practicing yoga, means my dreams have come true.

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Finding time & space to relax with yoga

Posted on December 30, 2012 by Tabs

Yoga Relaxation Video Using A MetronomeGetting outside our ordinary everyday routine is wonderful for showing us things we need to change! as well as those things we need to appreciate! I have certainly noticed a few of both in this holiday. I have a life at home where, although I am busy, it is doing things that make me happy! I get to share my passion with wonderful people, to open my heart and my world to new experiences daily. I do however see many of these wonderful people stressed and worried as they have many demands made of them every day. Hence the new relaxation on YouTube using a metronome that can be used to bring a sense of focus and inner quiet to your day. Using an app…easily available for free on the iPhone…please let this bring some space to your holiday time that is just about you.
Whereas most people have lives in which they are often constantly in demand …at home by family, children and or partners; at work by colleagues or just the demands of day to day working life….I am lucky enough to be able to schedule peaceful time within my day. During my holiday I have been more in demand and at the mercy of other people’s schedules. This has really given me the motivation to change a few things not only in my own life when I return…the sign of a successful holiday I feel, but also when organising lifestyle retreats and yoga holidays. Normally my life is very removed to that of most people, and this inclusion in the everyday life of others has served as an educational experience in that respect. Hence the relaxation video…just a few minutes where my focus goes inward really helps me to stay as near as I will ever be to sane!
It is also a reminder that maybe what other people need in their holidays is something very different to what they have at home. Obviously I include lots of yoga time, opportunity to learn about the aspects of yoga philosophy, nutrition and meditation that they may wish to explore deeper than they have opportunity to in class. Also I include flexibility in scheduling and more time for relaxing, enjoying pockets of time throughout the day to just be as well as do. Regular check in time to enjoy a few minutes inner quiet, time to observe the breath and notice what it may be telling us about how we are in our mind and our body.
So my enthusiasm is really fired up for establishing more of these opportunities for others. More yoga holidays and lifestyle retreats. More different experiences where people can find space for themselves. Time for yoga (well obviously!!) but also combined with other opportunities. Maybe walking, maybe nutritional advice or therapy. Maybe weight loss and fitness retreats, maybe yoga retreats which also include hypnotherapy and motivational sessions. Holidays which are opportunities to discover the inner you. The peaceful light part of you that is intuitive. The part that tells you the answers you’ve been looking for, rather than the answers you hear from the external world. Retreats that allow you to notice the inner quiet, and find the peace that seeps through every part of you when you spend time there.
So please help me here. My life is a little the other way round…as I am lucky enough to live a wonderful life with few demands on my personal time. I have a life focused on that which I understand is not available to many people; yoga, good health and self study. So tell me what you would like in a holiday and let me do the work to bring it into being. I have the belief that sunshine, nutritional food, yoga and some luxury can be combined with many other opportunities to create some life changing experiences. I enjoy a challenge so give me one. Let me create a holiday with TLC. If I am developing yogaTLC to be a place where individual requirements are what I focus on…let me bring that same philosophy to my holidays!

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Yoga and holidays

Posted on December 26, 2012 by Tabs

Yoga in cheshire Tabitha's holiday happiness

Observing myself as I spend more time with other people makes me realise how comfortable I have become, in recent years, with my own company! This is great most of the time as I live alone, work for myself and as a yogi, spend a wondrous amount of time sitting with myself. Us yogis learn to revel in looking inward, in observing the undulations of our thoughts, our breath and how this brings sensation into our physical body. We learn to observe how physical sensations and activity can effect the breath and our thoughts. We learn to be able to become ceaselessly interested in this constant movement and connection between breath and mind and physicality. We also learn to notice.
Noticing the pause, the stillness and the quiet between the movements. This pause, this quiet is where the yoga happens. It’s where we connect to that which is always there but usually we are too busy moving to notice. Where we hear the answers to those questions we often don’t realise we were asking! It is as though movement is like a noise stopping us noticing the real yoga, the quietness inside.
Sometimes as yogis, it is only when we step onto our mat and have the reminder to notice that we remember. The social expectation of constant movement, of social interaction, and of the constant doing prevents us from just being. Of listening to the quiet. Just having the time to be on our mats teaches us to remember, to notice and to enjoy the quietness at our heart. The more time we get to do so the more we crave the time to do so. It can be like falling in love, every moment of the day is coloured by the joy of knowing this quiet, like a love, exists.
Except this time the love is within you. The quietness at your heart and within your soul is there between every breath, in every pause and every moment of stillness. One of the joys of yoga is remembering and re discovering this every time we get onto our mat, and taking that knowledge into the rest of our lives.
However maybe one of the downsides of yoga is that when day to day life is busy. When social expectation is of a constant business, chatter and noise, there may be slight resentment that this external noise distracts from inner quiet. That being alone with yourself. Having the opportunity to be internally quiet is something we may forget to appreciate when it is always available to you. Like many things…we often only really appreciate them in their absence. However the external noise can also be useful in distracting us from that which maybe we are fearful of hearing. That knowledge which can come to us in the silence.

Sometimes butterflies only land when you pause


It also serves to inspire. To remind me to really appreciate the situation I have. Just like many people it is when I go away and get to look from afar at what I have that I truly see it. I have allowed the sogginess of the last couple of British summers to direct my attention toward sunnier climates. I have pondered ‘what ifs’ and ‘if onlys’ as I am sure we all do at times. Maybe the difference being for me that I usually meet that challenge with a ‘go on then’ and jump in to focus on my next goal. Maybe I am growing up, I doubt it, but maybe! As this time I am allowing my inner guide, my heart to tell me that I have something more important than sunshine. I have a community. A place where warmth is from people as well as sunshine..and that is really the warmth that heals the soul.
I am going to, instead of looking outward at what could be, instead truly enjoy what is. I love my place, my life, my community. These people have really touched my soul and that is something I cannot leave behind. So for those that care…consider is an apology….for even considering that anything else could make me as happy as seeing you smile inside and out. It is knowing that this community heals not only my heart, but that of so many others. I have allowed the physical distance and space between us to become, as space so often does, the space that is yoga…that which unites. So I am returning with a full heart even more appreciative of that I considered leaving.

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Yoga Core Strength Exercise Video (Part 2)

Posted on December 23, 2012 by admin

As regular readers of my blog will know, back in the summer I injured my back. It did me good in a way that these challenges often do. Encouraging me to notice where I had become complacent and what parts of my life needed attention. With hindsight I had been out of alignment since a small car accident late in 2011 and feel that this probably led to a slightly compromised posture. We all make compensations for pain or stiffness in one part of our body and these can lead to other injuries or highlight previously unnoticed weakness.

This year has been an educational year in a number of ways. Encouraging me to study more into the physical aspects of yoga therapy, to explore the effects of such on my own injuries, weaknesses and mis alignments. Even how I coped with the pain of my back was good for me in a number of ways….even if it just allowed me more compassion for others with intense nerve pain it was worth it.

One lesson it highlighted is that I had neglected my daily physical practice over the early summer months. With other activities, admin and day to day life such as house DIY being given priority. Something I am sure all of us with a daily yoga practice do at times! Some months our practice is enthusiastic and easy to maintain, we may bounce out of bed onto our meditation cushion or yoga mat to indulge in a flowing smooth practice. At these times we never seem to have quite long enough to really appreciate the joys our practice is able to provide. Whereas other months it is only the discipline of knowing we need it for physical and emotional wellness that gets us onto our mat. It was after a couple of these less easy months that my back injury emerged.

There is no excuse but a wrist injury from gardening (yes it’s been one of those years for breaking myself!) had restricted my physical practice. I was non weight bearing for 6 weeks which meant many of my own practices weren’t the joyful flowing experiences that they had been on previous months and therefore I was having a bit of an ‘internal pout’ time of disgruntlement. This meant that rather than really doing a balanced practice I was often doing a shorter and less balanced practice with my mind often more on what I couldn’t do than what I could. Even this practice was sometimes foregone totally and hence my meditation practice also suffered as I find the two often flow together..,.sitting after loosening my body physically or feeling the joy of being alive and the need to move after a seated meditation or pranayama (breathing) practice.

This is part of the integration of yoga, for me anyway. That although each limb is in a way separate, they all integrate as a whole which encourages wellness in mind and body. When one limb is neglected I find it easier to neglect more and slip into old habits of externalising blame and feelings of suffering. So my discipline, tapas, was lessened as my meditation practice lessened and vice versa. So this summer taught me, and weekends since have reminded me, that a regular practice doesn’t need to be long, it doesn’t need to be anywhere in particular, but it does need to happen. Just making myself sit quietly or move on my mat for few minutes. Maybe for an entire song, which will often mean I then stay for three or four,or longer…re discovering how much better I feel as I do so. Yoga ing myself out of my mental or physical rut.

Anyway back to now. My back is so much better…I still have a partly numb foot and a herniated disc but in a way I’m almost healthier for the injury! Looking at the scan results and how my body feels and moves really highlight the positive effects of the yoga therapy. As with many of my lessons…I sometimes need to break to notice what I need to maintain myself and stay on my journey to wellness. I am enjoying exploring the principles of back care in observing the effects in myself. One great practice that I have incorporated into my daily practice is shown on my core strength 2 video on YouTube. Obviously working with your health professionals guidance as to what is appropriate for your body, in my opinion this is a great way of working through stages of strengthening and mobilising the core. So maybe try it and see for yourself. See if you notice a difference by including it into your regular practice. Or maybe for you it is more about using the new year as a reason to initiate a regular practice and noticing how much your life improves on a number of levels. I’d ask you to learn from my mistakes and maintain it through business, new passions and illness. In at least some form or another, but I know we all have this lesson to learn for ourself, in my case over and over again! That is however the joy of yoga, being an eternal student and accepting it’s a lifetime’s practice :)

And that it is worth it :)

 

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