A Simple Stress Busting Breath Practice

Stress…sometimes it feels like we live life feeling perpetually ‘stressed out’, particularly in these challenging times.

In managed doses stress is necessary for us to function, perform and survive - it boosts our energy levels and immune system and helps us to achieve our goals in life. In fact the Mental Health Foundation simply defines stress as ‘the body’s response to pressures from a situation or life event.’

These physiological responses are linked to the sympathetic nervous system - the branch of the autonomic nervous system responsible for our body’s ‘fight or flight’ response - they’re extremely helpful when we’re facing an acute threat that we need to evade or defend against.

However, the problem that many of us face in modern life is the continual stimulation of the sympathetic nervous system through the various stresses, strains and challenges we encounter - the demands of work and family, paying the bills, overstimulation of the senses (TV, social media etc.).

This is being amplified exponentially by the critical situation we’re currently facing with coronavirus and in combination these stressors have the potential to lead us down the path to chronic stress.

Chronic stress is particularly pernicious because it’s sometimes difficult to recognise - the body and nervous system will continue to adapt to the demands placed upon them…until they can no longer cope.

The effects on our physical and mental health can be severe - exhaustion, emotional breakdown, panic attacks, anxiety, depression, immune deficiency and more.

And it’s a vicious circle too - the effects of ill health can then lead to more stress...and so it continues. 

Yoga practice offers us a space in which we can look to rebalance the nervous system - to dial down the sympathetic nervous system and dial up the parasympathetic nervous system responsible for ‘rest and digest’.

Simply taking the opportunity to rest in stillness and become more attuned to the body and breath has enormous value.

Moving slowly (even in ‘dynamic’ practice), paying attention to felt sensations and transitions will also help us to calm the energy of our inner environment.

And making sure that we complement dynamic movement with practices that encourage a further rebalancing of energies - restorative, yin, meditation etc.

One of the most powerful tools we have at our disposal is the breath.

Scientific research has identified many benefits of conscious breathing for stimulation of the rest and digest response - in particular slowing and softening the breath cycle and lengthening the exhalation.

So…here’s a simple breath practice for you. It can be taken at any time and is especially helpful if you notice that you’re feeling stressed out - I often use it when I’m struggling to drop off to sleep.

• Take a soft and light breath in through the nose for a count of 4 seconds 

• Exhale through the mouth for a count of 8 seconds (pursing the lips as if you were blowing out a candle)

• Repeat for 10 cycles of breath (or longer if you have the time)

And that’s it - super simple but very effective.

I’ve found it to be a very powerful tool to have in my armoury and I hope you find it as helpful as I have.

5 Reasons To Slow Your Yoga Flow

If you’re no stranger to my classes then you’ll know that I tend to encourage a ‘slow-flow’ approach to practice - one that’s centred around moving deliberately, with awareness, intention and attention. 

This philosophy is partly driven by a simple belief that yoga practice is an opportunity to counter the sometimes overwhelming busyness and pace of everyday life; to recenter so that we can move through life with a greater sense of ease.

But there’s more to it than that…so I’ve explained my thinking in a little more detail below by outlining my top 5 reasons for ‘slowing the flow’ in your own yoga and movement practice.

1. It cultivates a mindful connection to practice

“There is a secret bond between slowness and memory, between speed and forgetting” Milan Kundera 

The Pali word ‘sati’ which is often translated as mindfulness can also be translated as ‘to remember’ i.e. to remember what is occurring in the present moment and to continually come back to that experience. By slowing things down, we’re really able to deepen our connection to the ‘memory’ of our present moment reality and our experience of practice as it arises.

Of course it is possible to bring mindfulness to fast or quick activities too (and just for the record I’m not at all averse to fast movements - in fact I love them, just not in the context of my yoga practice)…but it’s much easier to build our ‘mindful muscles’ by moving slowly.

“When we move slowly, observing movements and sensations as they arise, we create time and space to observe the conditioning arising in the body-mind. And in seeing this conditioning we can begin the process of freely choosing how to respond, rather than blindly react.” Frank Boccio, Mindfulness Yoga

2. It teaches us to move better

When we take a slow, focused yoga or movement practice, we become more connected and embodied; cultivating greater awareness of our body and the ways in which we move and breathe.

Slowing our movements and deepening the mind-body connection in this way increases the amount of time we have to drop awareness into the body and process sensory information. We become more attuned to the QUALITY of our movement experience and how it lands in the body; whether it feels effortless or challenging, easeful or uncomfortable.

This in turn creates space for exploring different ways of moving and developing 'movement maps' for the body; these help us to become more proficient with our existing repertoire of movements and also to expand that movement repertoire over time. 

Once skill has been acquired, this expanded repertoire can then be progressed to faster expressions of the movements (if we wish)…but if ’fast’ is our starting point and we only ever jump from one movement to the next then we simply don’t create the right conditions for learning to move with a greater sense of ease

3. It helps us get stronger (through greater ranges)

Our bodies respond and adapt to the forces, loads and demands placed upon them. Simply put, when we load the body (providing we don’t exceed its capacity to withstand that load!), it will adapt by getting stronger, specific to the ways in which that load has been applied. This is know as the SAID principle (Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demands).

When we move slowly we are effectively increasing both internal resistance and resistance to gravity…in turn increasing the load and demand that we place on our body. This  maximises muscle activation and increases the feedback we send to our nervous system, causing it to create more adaptation in the body's tissues in response (i.e. by developing more strength!).

‘Putting on the brakes’ in this way (thanks to Jules Mitchell for the analogy) is primarily achieved by engaging muscles eccentrically (i.e. lengthening them under tension) and, where appropriate, by ‘irradiating’ internal tension through the body to maintain the integrity of our movements (e.g. when we wish to isolate single joint movements).

In combination with end range isometric loading (i.e. static stretching with applied load), eccentrics also help us to increase the ranges of movement available to us, as well the functional control that we have through those ranges.

4. It improves postural control, balance and co-ordination

In addition to improving motor control, slowing our movement practice down also teaches us how to better maintain a controlled, upright posture. Once again this is in part due to the fact that moving slowly provides us with the space to become more centred and grounded in our body; with both a greater awareness of the position of our body in space (proprioception) and a more acute sensitivity to the inner environment and experience of our body (interception)…which in turn helps to improve our balance and co-ordination.

Moreover, moving slowly is an optimal way to engage our muscles in the ‘right ways’ to improve postural control. This is explained expertly by Todd Hargrove in ‘A Guide to Better Movement:

“Slow movement preferentially recruits motor units with fewer muscle fibres, which have control of force output…[and] is an effective way to improve postural control which should be provided by tonic slow twitch postural muscles, as opposed to phasic fast twitch prime mover muscles.”

5. It promotes beneficial adaptations in the nervous system

Moving slowly helps to teach our nervous system that it’s ‘safe’ to move in new and novel ways. If the nervous system perceives a movement as threatening then it may try to restrict our ability to take that movement (e.g. by creating ‘stiffness’ in the body or inhibiting muscular engagement) - but if we move in ways that teach the nervous system that these movements are in fact perfectly safe, then over time those movements will become more accessible to us. Todd Hargrove explains:

“Moving slowly reduces the perceived threat associated with movement because it decreases mechanical forces to their minimum. Thus, slow movement is an important tool in a plan of graded exposure that can allow you to explore and try movements you may have neglected for years because they are perceived to be unsafe and involuntarily restricted.”

This can be helpful not only when we’re recovering from an injury, but also when we want to explore new movements that we may find challenging or movements that we haven’t taken in a long time.

Further to this, moving slowly can help to dial down nociception - the sensory nervous system's response to harmful (or potentially harmful) stimuli. This may help to reduce any pain previously associated with movement, once again teaching the nervous system that it’s ok to allow us to move more freely. And it may also have a ‘soothing’ effect on the nervous system in general; dialling down our fight / flight / freeze response, dialling up our rest and digest response and thereby reducing stress levels by helping us to find a greater sense of internal balance.

So there you have it - 5 reasons to slow your flow. I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments - and if this is an approach to yoga and movement that resonates with you then I look forward to seeing you in class or on retreat soon.

References + Further Reading:

• Mindfulness Yoga - Frank Boccio

• A Guide to Better Movement: The Science and Practice of Moving with More Skill and Less Pain - Todd Hargrove

• Recovery Strategies: Pain Guidance - Dr. Greg Lehman

• Yoga Biomechanics: Stretching Redefined - Jules Mitchell

• Functional Range Conditioning Lectures - Dr. Andreo Spina

How Do You Meet Challenge?

I recently had an interesting chat with someone about ‘challenges’ (specific to yoga and movement).

This person told me that they find it so frustrating when they ‘can’t do something' (a pose or transition) that they’d rather not even make an attempt…that they simply shut off to it.

I found this intriguing because it’s the diametric opposite of the way in which I’ve tended to approach movement challenges myself. My frustration at not being able to do something has usually ended up with me focusing on it obsessively until I either work it out, or concede that it’s definitely beyond my capabilities.

Admittedly this has not always ended well. I’ve certainly suffered injuries in the past as a result of this headlong approach but I like to believe that these days I’m somewhat more considered in my practice (at least most of the time…samskaras will be samskaras!).

But I do believe that it’s important for us to mindfully embrace challenge - to gently probe our boundaries and preconceptions about what we believe is possible (not only in terms of movement, but in life too). Often (though admittedly not always) the movement will come in its own good time and we end up surprising ourselves.

Of course I’m conscious of what is realistically possible - I’m in my 40s now so am unlikely to learn how to do a triple back somersault with pike. But there are certainly still movement challenges and poses that I’m exploring and working towards. I don’t know if I’ll ever ‘get’ them but I’m genuinely finding enjoyment, and a lot of value, in the journey of exploration.

It’s also good to bring to mind that many of things we can do now may once have felt ‘impossible’. It sounds ridiculous but before I started practising yoga I literally could not cross my legs in a seated position…at least not without using my hands to forcibly lift one thigh over the other. 

In comparison to that admittedly low bar my current movement capacity seems pretty good…and ultimately, cultivating a sense of contentment and gratitude for the things we do have, rather than frustration about those we don’t, is a much more valuable gift of practice than the ability to take full lotus.

So my advice would be to set your movement goals, but to hold them lightly - try to enjoy that journey and see where it takes you, knowing that we all have a different starting point and that the end point may be somewhere very different than you’d first intended. 

Why Do We Call It 'Practice'?

Why do we call yoga practice ‘practice’?

We ‘do’ Pilates, we ‘go’ to the gym, we run, swim or cycle - so why do we ‘practice’ yoga?

As with so many things, the answer lies with intention. With all of the activities listed above, the goal is an overtly physical one - to improve our physical capabilities and capacities in one respect or another.

The goal of yoga is very different. Although it’s often presented as a physical practice it’s actually anything but. In fact Patanjali (who’s system did NOT include practice of postures beyond meditative seated poses) explicitly tells us to cultivate ‘disgust for our bodies and the bodies of others’.

Even in the non-dualistic school of Tantra in which the body was considered as sacred and indistinguishable from spirit, the physical form was simply used as a tool to achieve transcendence.

And though it might sound a strange admission for a yoga teacher to make - yoga really isn’t a great ‘movement’ discipline. Think about it...we move in mostly linear and basic ways on a small rectangle of rubber. Of course there ARE physical benefits to doing this - but if you want to be a great ‘mover’ you’d definitely be better served with dance, gymnastics or martial arts.

But that’s ok - because yoga postures weren’t intended to help us move better, they were intended (within the context of the Tantric philosophy mentioned above) to help us move towards realisation of Self.

This is why, as I’ve written before, there’s no such notion as being ‘good’ (or ‘bad’) at yoga. And this is also why we call it ‘practice’ - because we’re practising cultivating a sense presence and stillness in which we can access a truer understanding of Self.

There’s no doubt that at times in our yoga practice we will find ourselves in unfamiliar and potentially even slightly uncomfortable (but I hope not ‘painful’) places…both physically and mentally. But by grounding and centring ourselves in body and breath we have an opportunity to retain a sense of balance and presence - a connection to that underlying sense of stillness that’s with us at all times.

We also have an opportunity to recognise patterns of the mind as they arise. If discomfort is present how do we meet it? Do we immediately back away, do we grit our teeth and ‘push on’, are we able to simply be with that sense of discomfort, exploring it gently? Taking the opportunity to know ourselves better.

And most importantly - are we able to exercise discretion and care, to take the most skilful and appropriate course of action in each moment?

This is where great value in ‘practice’ lies - developing the capacity to meet the challenges and discomforts that life will throw at us without losing our centre, without losing our connection to that inner sense of stillness. Using the situations we encounter in our physical practice, or when we sit for meditation, as ‘training for life’ so that we can retain our connection to Self as we move through life’s ups and downs - responding appropriately rather than reacting instinctively.

We won’t always get it ‘right’ - nobody does - but hopefully over time, and by approaching our practice with the right intention, we’ll find that our progress through life becomes just that little more easeful as a result.

Connecting to Nature, Body + Self...

I’ve recently been making a list of a number of things I’d like to address in my life.

I’ll spare you the boredom (and me the discomfort) of sharing the list in its entirety, but one of the things I feel a deep yearning for is to spend more time in connection with nature.

I realise this might sound a little clichéd - but I believe that our disconnect with nature is to a very large extent responsible for many of the issues we’re dealing with as a global community (not least with climate change) and also for the struggles that many people face with mental health. Indeed, I’ve written before how spending time in nature can help us to manage unhelpful patterns of thought when they arise.

Cultivating a deeper, more heartfelt connection to the world around us not only helps us to feel more centred in ourselves, but it might also inspire us to live in ways that safeguard a sustainable future for our children. Because when we feel a connection to something we naturally begin to care for it and wish to see it thrive.

But what, you may be asking, has this got to do with yoga?

The answer is ‘everything’…

Non-dualistic yoga philosophy teaches us that we are quite literally one with the world around us.

The oft used analogy is that of waves and the ocean - whilst each of us might identify as individual waves, when we expand our awareness to see things as they truly are, we realise that we are all in fact the ocean. Indistinct from one another and from the world in which we live.

When viewed from this perspective, taking time to connect with nature could also be considered an opportunity to connect with a truer sense of Self. And caring for the world around us seems only natural. Indeed how could we not wish to create the right conditions for the planet (and all of its inhabitants) to be healthy and thrive?

Drawing on this analogy further, I think we can see distinct parallels between this disconnect with nature and the disconnect many of us have with our own bodies. Modern living - with its myriad distractions and stresses - simply doesn’t encourage us to be in connection with our bodies, or to treat them with the care they deserve. Instead we spend most of our time in our heads - distracted, anxious, ungrounded…

Yoga and mindfulness practice is an opportunity to rediscover that connection to our bodies - to spend time feeling into sensations and paying attention to the ways in which we move. Using movement as a means to find stillness.

And indeed, these strands of connection - with body, nature and Self - can be intrinsically entwined. Spending time outside is a wonderful opportunity to ‘get into the body’ - feeling the earth under our feet , the sensations of air or water against our skin and tuning into the sounds of nature as they arise. Using this time as an opportunity to connect to a more expansive sense of being.

And on that note, I’m off for a walk…

A Simple Yoga Sequence For Happy, Healthy Shoulders

If we were to rewind the clock to our hunter gatherer past, we’d find our ancestors using their arms and shoulders in a variety of interesting and exciting ways - climbing trees and rocks, scrambling across uneven terrain, throwing projectiles at prey - and many more important ways besides.

Fast forward to today, and for many of us our shoulders (as with most of the joints in our body) are chronically under used (think long hours sitting at a laptop with our arms resting on a desk).

And to coin a cliché, if we don’t use it, we’ll start to lose it. If we only take our joints through very limited ranges of movement, then our nervous system responds by literally closing off our ability to move through greater ranges (why waste precious energy and resources?)

But thankfully there’s an antidote that’s readily available - movement.

Yoga is a great start - it gets us moving our arms and shoulders through ranges that we might not be accustomed to on a daily basis. But most of the movements we take in yoga are passive stretches that rely on the application of external force (teacher adjustments, the leverage of our own body or gravity).

To complement these passive stretches it’s helpful to take active, controlled movements that cultivate the strength needed to functionally access the range of motion in our shoulders.

To get you started, I've put together a short shoulder mobility sequence that will help you cultivate more active strength and control through the range of movement in your shoulders and maintain healthy functioning of these important joints to support your yoga practice (and daily life!). And as most of them are simple movements, it’s ideal to take this sequence as a mindfulness practice, really dropping your awareness into sensations, thoughts and breath, and welcoming whatever arises. 

So enjoy the exploration, be interested in your experience of the movements and the sensations that arise, and as always, be sure to listen to the feedback from your body.

Shoulder Girdle Articulations

This first movement is called a ‘Controlled Articular Rotation’ (CAR) - we’re not simply rolling our shoulders around, we’re moving intentionally through the full range of motion available to us. At the same time we’re creating some internal tension and resistance through the rest of our body (tensing legs, belly etc.) to both isolate the movement in the shoulder girdle and to maximise the feedback that we’re sending to our nervous system.

For this movement keep the elbows locked and your palms clamped to the sides of your legs (rather than rolling your hands around to the fronts or backs of the thighs).

Begin by drawing your shoulders up towards your ears and then with the shoulders lifted, squeeze your shoulder blades back towards your spine. Maintaining that squeeze of the shoulder blades back, slide them down your body - then with the shoulders drawn down, roll them forward. Finally, with the shoulders rolled forward lift them back up towards your ears. That’s one round.

Take 3 - 5 rounds in total and then 3 - 5 rounds in the opposite direction (i.e. shoulders lift, roll forward, slide down, squeeze back and lift up again).

Upper Arm Axial Rotations

For this movement we’ll rotate the arms along their length - technically called axial rotation. Watch out for the front ribs wanting to lift and flare (keep them a little bit ‘knitted’ towards your mid line instead).

Start with your arms reaching wide of the body, palms open, and then rotate the little finger edges of your hands towards the space behind you. You might feel the muscles around the tips of your should blades engage. From there rotate the palms forwards, down and around behind you. Continue for 20 - 30 rotations.

Shoulder Joint Rotations

This is another rotational movement - joint rotations are the best way we have of moving through all ranges of motion accessible to us and letting our nervous system know that we want to keep those ranges open.

Again you’ll need to keep your elbow locked for this movement and create some internal tension throughout the body. Other things to watch out for are that pesky rib flare and the torso wanting to rotate around towards the direction of the arm that you’re moving…keep it facing directly forward instead.

Start with one arm reaching up overhead (palm facing in towards your midline) and then begin to rotate that arm back behind you, drawing a semi circle in the air with your hand. At the same time, rotate your arm along its length (just as you did in the axial rotations) first rotating the palm forward and then away from your midline…so that when your arm reaches the side of your thigh the palm is turned away from you with your thumb pointing behind you.

From there we return to the start position - drawing a semi circle in the opposite direction and rotating along the length of the arm so that the palm ends up facing back in towards your midline when you’re reaching overhead. That’s one round - take 3-5 rounds each side.

Shoulder Diamonds

Start with your arms alongside your body. As you inhale reach your arms overhead and, keeping a slight bend into the elbows, tap the tips of your index fingers and thumbs together. As you exhale, return the arms alongside the body.

Take 20 - 30 rounds moving slowly with intention, awareness and focus - imagine you were moving your arms through treacle.

Shoulder Flexion Active Stretch

Place your hands against a wall and walk them down until you can feel a gentle ‘stretch’ in the shoulders - make sure it’s not too intense, just so that you’re aware of some sensation there and make sure that the movement is coming from the shoulders, not from arching the lower back and flaring the front ribs.

Hold for one to one and a half minutes and then actively press the palms into the wall and also create the sensation of trying to pull them down the wall at the same time - gently at first and then gradually building the intensity of that sensation. Once you’ve found your strongest safest sensation, hold for 5 full breaths.

From there, try to pull the palms away from the wall - they more than likely won’t actually lift away . Again, hold for 5 full breaths and then relax. Optionally take another round.

Shoulder Extension Active Stretch

Hold a belt behind your back with your palms facing forward. Take a deep bend into your knees and fold forward to rest your abdomen on your thighs (this isn’t a hamstring stretch). Draw your arms away from the back of your body and hold for a minute and a half to two minutes, making sure that you maintain a squeeze of the shoulder blades back (rather than rolling the shoulders forwards).

When you come back up from the fold, rather than dropping your arms back towards your torso keep them lifting away from your back. Once you’re standing fully upright hold for 5 - 8 full breaths and then release. Optionally take another 1 - 2 rounds (on subsequent rounds no need to stay in the fold for a long time).

Active Gomukhasana (Cow Face Pose) Arms

Begin with your arms reaching wide, palms open. Reach one arm up to point to the ceiling, turning the palm to face forward. At the same time reach the opposite arm down and back behind you, turning the palm of that hand to face backwards.

From there bend both elbows, bringing the top hand towards the back of your head / neck and the bottom hand towards your lower back - there’s no need to actually make any contact between your hands and your toros (if there is contact, keep it light).

Keep the shoulder blades squeezing back towards your spine at all times and your gaze directly forward. Try to resist the impulse to round the upper back / drop your gaze, roll the shoulders forward and wriggle the hands closer…we’re not interested in interlacing the fingers here, simply moving through our active range.

Take 3 - 4 rounds moving side to side and on the final round hold for 5 breaths each side.

Active Garudasana (Eagle Pose) Arms

Hug your arms around your torso and lift your elbows. From there point your fingers up to the sky.

Keeping the elbows lifted, press the top elbow into the bottom forearm and draw the backs of the hands towards each other - DON’T worry about taking a double cross of the forearms so that the palms are together. In fact definitely don’t do this - instead simply point the fingers upwards with the wrists in a neutral position.

Hold for 5 full breaths and then feel as if  you’re trying pull the elbows apart. Again hold for 5 full breaths before relaxing, lifting the elbows and holding the position for another 5 full breaths. Switch sides, rinse and repeat.

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This post was originally written for my friends at soweflow…

Something Old, Something New...

The essence of mindfulness practice is to cultivate a sense of connection and presence - a caring, attending attitude towards ourselves and our life’s experience as it unfolds moment to moment.

This in turn tends to transform our awareness from the narrow focus on life we can all too often adopt into something much more expansive - an understanding of our connection to the people and world around us, and our place within that delicately interwoven network of connections.

It’s easy to say or write these words - but not always easy to access a felt sense of this truth when the busyness, challenges and routine of life obscure our ability to truly connect (and attend to) what’s here, right now, in this moment (both ‘good’ and ‘bad’).

That’s why getting away from the noise of every day life can be so valuable. It offers the opportunity to pause…to allow that noise to be put to onside so that we are able to really and truly be present with ourselves and whatever arises.

It’s not always ‘nice’ but it’s so so valuable. It benefits not only ourselves but potentially everyone else with whom we come into contact.

As I type these words I’m half way through teaching a yoga retreat in Morocco - and I realise that taking time out to come away on this type of retreat is an enormous privilege and not always possible given life’s other pressures.

But we don’t necessarily have to come all the way to Marrakech. Any change of environment, or of routine, or trying new experiences has the power to help pull us away from habituated patterns by allowing us to quite literally see things with a fresh pair of eyes.

It can be as simple as taking a different route to work, brushing our teeth with our non-dominant hand - or approaching our yoga practice as if it was the first time we’ve come to our mat, taking new entries into poses, or moving our body into slightly different positions than we’re accustomed to taking.

So perhaps take time this week to try something new - or to try something familiar but with a completely fresh perspective and with a beginners mind…being interested and curious in your experience and what comes up.

You might be surprised at what you discover…and either way I hope you enjoy the exploration.

Beware The Perils Of Abstract Landmarks

We stretch for the feet in folds, strain to 'take the bind' with our hands and crane our necks around to get a deeper twist...

Some of us even try hooking our legs behind our neck...or try tapping our feet and head together in back bends. 

I’ve done all of these things...and more besides.

And my experience of practice tells me that when we become overly fixated on these arbitrary goals it often comes at the expense of the quality and form of our movement…we start to quite literally pull ourselves out of alignment (physically and perhaps also mentally and energetically).

Because when we pull and push to contort ourselves into postures with force, it is rarely done with much thought to the mechanics of the body or based on an intuitive sense of how the body is feeling and what would serve it best.

Instead, we tend to lose our connection to practice as a bodily enquiry and allow the goal-oriented mind to assume the driver’s seat (and being honest…for most of us it already spends a little too long sat there). 

And when that tendency to push and strive becomes so strong that we override the body’s feedback mechanisms, then we also create a greater risk of injuring  ourselves (I’ve done this too…).

This is why I’m of the opinion that abstract bodily landmarks are false friends in our yoga practice - yes, the feet can be a convenient point of reference to move towards in a forward fold, but if stretching for the feet or holding onto them for dear life doesn’t serve the body then it becomes not only unhelpful but potentially a problem.

It’s for this reason that I prefer to take these landmarks out of the equation as much as possible - for example taking a seated fold with the hands joined at the chest, so there simply isn't an option to hold the feet - or taking 'hands free' twists so that the rotation has to be created internally rather than through the leverage of the arms. 

This approach will teach us to start owning and controlling our bodies through the ranges of movement we have, rather than constantly encouraging the pursuit of more flexibility (there comes a point when enough is enough…) - to build the capacity for moving with a greater sense of stability, autonomy and control.

It also encourages students to embrace exploration and inquiry over ‘achievement’ - to sense into their own felt experience of the practice rather than worry about attaining the ‘peak expression’ of a given pose.

This is partly why I’m not such a big fan of adjustments and why I also tend to avoid encouraging use of binds or other methods that allow students to hold a position ‘artificially’ (i.e. without internal control of their body). Instead I try to help students develop the ability to move in ways that really serve their body best (which means less extreme range, more strength and stability through the ranges that are already there). 

Admittedly for most of us this approach requires a little un-learning and re-learning - particularly when we’re used to approaching our yoga practice in the way that is often encouraged, with such a premium placed on extreme flexibility.

But I’m finding that most students are pretty responsive to it and I believe that over time they'll come to feel their bodies are thankful for it too. And if it sounds like an approach you'd like to explore for yourself then please do join my weekly all levels classes in Waterloo where we'll dive into this experientially in our practice.

It's Ok To Be Angry

A while back I was chatting with a student who was struggling with a long term niggly injury.

They’d been doing a great job of adapting their practice to accommodate this injury - and an equally great job of telling me how it had been a really valuable opportunity for learning and finding new ways of practising.

I didn’t doubt what they were telling me - injuries can indeed be great opportunities for learning and reflection, for trying new approaches to practice - but I just had a sense they were holding something back.

And so I replied “it’s ok to be angry about it”.

The sense of relief was almost palpable - I could visibly see their body relax as they gave themself permission to really open up and articulate honestly how frustrating they’d been finding the injury.

I find that sometimes in the yoga world there’s an unspoken pressure to put a ‘spiritual sheen’ on things - to impress upon others (and perhaps ourselves) that ‘everything is great’ or that our practice is ‘so nice’ when the reality is anything but (and anyway, yoga isn’t meant to be ‘nice’!). 

That to be honest and say “actually things are pretty shit right now” or to acknowledge ’negative’ emotions such as anger or sadness is somehow ‘unyogic’ or calls into question our commitment and relationship to practice (surely if we were a ‘proper yogi’ then we’d be all sweetness and light 100% of the time?)

This notion that our practice should somehow insulate us from all the unpleasantness that life flings our way is a deeply flawed misunderstanding - and deeply pernicious too because it encourages us to bypass how we actually feel and avoid facing up to reality as it is (which is in fact the diametric opposite of the purpose of yoga practice). 

Not only that, but it can cause us to compound our suffering - giving ourselves a hard time for slipping below the impossibly high standards that we set ourselves as practitioners of yoga.

But if we don’t face the reality of life, as ugly as it can be, or the reality of how we truly feel, then how can we develop appropriate strategies for managing our responses to whatever arises? 

Because whilst yoga and mindfulness are indeed powerful tools for helping us to develop these strategies and responses, they absolutely should not be used to bypass or deny what’s actually here or how we really feel.

Rather, they should be a means for allowing and connecting all the more deeply to what arises - thoughts, emotions and sensations - and the life situations that we’re presented with. A way of being able to offer some genuine care and kindness to ourselves and others as those phenomena manifest. And a way to identify the most appropriate responses to those experiences - ensuring that we’re not at the mercy of powerful emotions, but that we’re able to work with them in skilful and compassionate ways.

And so if a particular situation demands anger (and there are countless examples we could all point to) - then allow that anger to be, knowing that it’s fully justified and that it can often be a powerful catalyst for action and change.

I’m not saying that I’ve got this licked. In fact, as a teacher I often find I’m prone to putting even more pressure on myself to pretend to others that ‘everything’s fine’ when really it’s not.

But it’s something that I’m consciously working with in practice and life - and as I’ve said before, shining a light on our existing patterns of thought and behaviour tends to weaken their hold over us…and can often be the first important step in identifying new ways of moving through life that can serve us better.

My 5 Favourite Yoga Podcasts

I spend a lot of time listening to podcasts...it’s a great way to spend time productively and enjoyably when I’m travelling around or in between classes.

If you find the right ones they can be a source of great information on all aspects of the practice...but there are so many of them out there that finding the right ones can be a challenge. 

So to make your search for inspiring yoga related chat an easy one I’ve listed below (in no particular order) my 5 favourite yoga podcasts...

1. J Brown Yoga Talks 

Once you get used to the long winded intros (annoying at first but after a while quite endearing) J’s podcasts are well worth a listen. As well as interviewing many well known yoga teachers he provides a platform for ‘everyday yoga teachers’ to be heard...and he often invites on guests who are doing important, valuable work with yoga but who perhaps receive less exposure than they deserve. He also doesn’t shy away from addressing some of the difficulties and challenges facing yoga - his series last year on the abuse in the ashtanga community was an important contribution to the discussion. 

2. Yogaland with Andrea Ferretti

Andrea is an ex journalist - at one point she was the editor of Yoga Journal. So she’s very well connected with the ‘big name’ yoga teachers and her interviewing style is both professional and warm. She sounds like someone you’d want to have a cuppa with. Her husband is Jason Crandell - a highly respected and popular yoga teacher. He’s a regular guest on the podcast and his contributions are always valuable - especially for yoga teachers. 

3. Mindful Strength with Kathryn Bruni-Young

Kathryn is a real innovator and someone I admire hugely. She grew up a dedicated ashtangi (her mum is also a respected yoga teacher) but has been exploring other approaches to movement over the last decade. She describes herself as a ‘movement educator’ and she invites a really eclectic mix of guests onto the podcast - it’s so valuable to hear perspectives on the body and approaches to movement from outside of the yoga scene.

4. Chitheads

Without a doubt the best name on this list (‘chit’ means consciousness in Sanskrit). I enjoy listening to this podcast because it focuses specifically on the philosophies of yoga (the discussions explore other eastern philosophies too) - a  nice counter to some of the more anatomical and technical discussions elsewhere.

5. triyoga talks

triyoga attracts some of the biggest name teachers out there and they do feature on this podcast - but it’s nice to hear interviews with lesser known but no less accomplished UK based teachers too...some of whom have been really important teachers for me over the years. It’s also fun to hear my ex-colleague Genny do the interviewing (she’s another ex-journalist, a very dedicated yoga practitioner and a great teacher). 

So there you have it - I hope you enjoy diving in to some of these and if you have any podcast suggestions of your own (they don’t have to be yoga related) then I’d love to hear about them...I’m always looking out for inspiring and entertaining shows to add to my listening repertoire.

Practising Without Goals

I’ve been thinking a lot about ‘goals’ in physical yoga practice this week - inspired by a mini epiphany that I don’t really have any…

Of course there are plenty of poses I ‘can’t do’ - but to access them I’d need to pull my body into places I don’t want to take it to and I don’t have any real desire to take deeper forward folds, twists or backbends (in fact I used to go a lot ‘deeper’ into poses than I do now…these days I prefer less passive range, more active control).

My appreciation for the practice has in no way diminished as a result of this shift - I still feel very inspired and committed to it and there are lots of poses and transitions that I continue to explore.

But this exploration is undertaken more with of a sense of mindful curiosity and appreciation for the process than with an overbearing concern for whether or not I can or can’t ‘do the thing’ at the end of it. 

I think this is probably the first time I’m able to say this, hand on heart, since I started practising yoga all those years ago. Honestly…it feels a little weird. And it’s a big shift from my days of ashtanga practice where ‘getting the next pose’ was a big deal.

I realise there’s a risk of sounding smug here - that I'm suggesting I’ve achieved a certain level of proficiency in asana and I’m judging those who do have goals in their physical yoga practice.

But that’s not it at all - I’m definitely not denying the value of goals or saying they shouldn’t be a feature of asana practice…there are all sorts of reasons why goals are valuable for the brain and for our mental wellbeing (as long as they’re realistically achievable). 

In other movement practices I have plenty of goals - but somehow they seem to have removed themselves from my asana practice. I’m not entirely sure when that shift happened, but actually it feels pretty good. 

We can certainly never underestimate the value of growth - of learning new skills, techniques and practices.

But can we allow ourselves to enjoy the process of learning, growth and exploration as an end in itself, rather than being overly focused on the end results? Because if we become overly focused on results they can morph into something akin to obsession - and the brain will respond by triggering all sorts of anxiety related responses. 

That’s not something I want to invite into my yoga practice - it should be an antidote to the many other stresses we encounter in life. An opportunity to rebalance mentally and energetically and practice in ways that feel nourishing, rather than piling further pressure on ourselves. 

So I'm grateful that dynamic seems to have removed itself from my asana practice (I didn’t do it consciously)...for now at least.

To practice without attachment to physical goals and find a sense of acceptance with where I’m at feels quite a blessing (and quite a novelty too)...and certainly more conducive to the explorative approach to yoga that I want to continue cultivating.

Yoga = Nervous System Training

The further I explore yoga practice, the more I'm convinced that, from a physiological perspective, it's a very sophisticated system of 'nervous system training'.

When we stretch muscles, we're not significantly altering their structure over time - we're encouraging the nervous system to 'allow' us a greater range of movement and 'reset' it's existing range.

When we load the body safely, more and better quality 'matter' gets laid down - making our bodies stronger and more resilient to whatever life throws at us.

When we actively move through ranges that we're no longer habituated to, we're stimulating mechanoreceptors and 're-awakening' muscles - helping us to improve our levels of mobility. 

When we subject the body to low levels of 'stress' (as we do in asana practice) - proteins and endorphins are released that create the 'feel good' factor many of us associate with yoga practice.

When we meditate we're not only changing the ways in which the brain functions during practice (dialling down beta waves and dialling up alpha and theta waves) - we're literally changing the shape and structure of the brain over time.

When we engage in breathing practices we're consciously overriding the 'lower' brain functions with higher brain functions in ways designed to affect our energy levels (regulated by...the nervous system!).

And when we encourage the body and mind to find a sense of calm we're creating the right environment for the 'rest and digest' branch of our nervous system to do its thing (and dialling down the 'fight, flight, freeze' branch at the same time). 

That's not to deny the original spiritual intentions of the practice - although the 'flow state' that we sometimes enter into in practice can reduce a sense of self and induce a sense of 'being at one with things'.

Could it be that this psychological response is linked to the non-dualistic philosophy that underpins hatha yoga practice…?

Perhaps - who knows for sure. Either way, the nervous system’s responses to yoga is a fascinating topic and one that I’ll enjoy exploring further as I continue to deepen my understanding of this wonderful practice.

A Manifesto For Practice

Super fast movement, punishing sequences, extreme poses, brutal intensity, loud music...a complete absence of introspection or cultivation of self awareness.

It seems that this is becoming an increasingly popular approach to yoga - the ‘do more, push harder’ culture is in full effect.

And whilst I really enjoy challenging calisthenics and exercise, unless they encourage an exploration of the self and cultivation of presence then they’re not yoga.

I'm conscious that what I offer in my own classes sits at odds with this trend.

I don’t play music, preferring to give you the space and silence to really connect to your breath and a sense of inner stillness - rather than giving the mind another ‘hook’ for distraction.

We explore the practice in a way that encourages a rebalancing of the nervous system - breath work and meditation in particular - rather than using our yoga practice to further agitate our fight, freeze or flight response.

We move slowly, paying attention to the sensations that can be felt in the body, and the effects of the postures, transitions and practices at the various layers of our experience (physical, mental, energetic).

We work with simple movements and sequences so that we can focus on how we move and the quality of movement rather than worrying about complex sequencing.

We take ranges of motion that can be controlled functionally rather than pulling and pushing our bodies into extreme places - making sure that we pay attention to cultivating strength and active mobility rather than simply focusing on passive flexibility.

There aren’t many (if any) hands on adjustments - you’ll be encouraged to connect to the intuition and innate wisdom of your body rather than relying on me for external guidance. Any assists I do provide will help cultivate a greater sense of grounding and stability rather than forcing your body into places it’s not ready to go to.

And we approach everything that we do in our practice with a sense of curiosity and compassion - cultivating kindness towards ourselves and our bodies, and engaging in the practice in a way that’s both enjoyable and nourishing, rather than as another way of diminishing and criticising ourselves.

That’s not to say it won’t be challenging or even dynamic at times. Yoga is a means of probing our existing patterns of thought and behaviour and expanding our potential to its fullest state (including our movement potential). But we’ll explore these edges in our practice mindfully and with a sense of care.

This approach might not be fashionable, but I’m increasingly convinced it’s the approach that most of us need.

We’re subjected to so much ‘noise’ these days that we’re chronically over stimulated - the time we spend practising yoga is an opportunity to retreat from this constant assault on our senses. To embrace quiet, to still the mind and soothe the nervous system.

And if this approach to yoga strikes a chord with you then I very much look forward to exploring the practice together - in whatever shape that may take.

The Integration Of Practice

There was a time when practice for me meant getting up at 4.30am to run through 2+ hours of postures before beginning my day.

There was a time when I would sit for 40 minutes of meditation every day - sometimes twice a day.

But as the conditions of life shift and evolve, so does the 'shape' of our practice.

Right now - and particularly of late - the circumstances of life do not allow me the luxury or space to commit to this sustained level of ‘formal’ practice.

There will be a time I'm sure when this space will open up again, but in the meantime it's left me pondering - what does ‘yoga practice’ mean for me?

Certainly I like to move as often as I can - though my movement practice is a lot more explorative and unstructured than the formal systems I used to adhere to…and sadly less regular too.

It’s also a lot more opportunistic - taking advantage of breaks and gaps in my schedule whenever I’m able to...though it’s rare that I’m able to practice for more than an hour.

I do of course meditate and explore breath work when I can - though again these practices have to fit around the cadence of work and family life, rather than being the structure around which everything else is organised, as was once the case.

In the Bhagavd Gita Krishna outlines three forms of yoga to Arjuna: jnana (the yoga of knowledge or wisdom i.e. study of scripture), bhakti (the yoga of devotion), and karma (the yoga of action).

In the Yoga Sutras, Patanjali lists svadhyaya (self study) as one of five internal observances (niyamas).

And seva is the Sanskrit word for the art of selfless service that is believed to contribute to our spiritual growth.

I think a combination of karma, svadhyaya and seva is probably where the heart of my practice lies right now.

Life has thrown a lot at my family of late and so a big focus for me has been the integration of yoga practice into everyday life. Taking care of my family, showing up for my students and trying to maintain a sense of equilibrium so that I can be a decent human in my daily interactions with other people.

Because ultimately, yoga is whatever allows us to find a sense of flow and connection - to ourselves and to others…recognising that we are part of something bigger.

For some of us it’s making shapes with our bodies and sitting for meditation, for some of us it’s climbing, gardening or playing music and for some of us it’s caring for others and engaging in meaningful work.

Because the essence of yoga can be found not in what we do but the way in which we approach what we’re doing.

It can be found in the way we respond to what life throws at us - knowing that we won’t always get it right, but using those occasions to learn about ourselves and our patterns of reactivity…and perhaps finding more skilful ways to respond in future.

So whilst it can be tempting to give ourselves a hard time when we’re not able to take as much formal practice as we’d like, it can be helpful to remember that yoga is so much more than the relatively limited time that we’re able to spend engaged in postures, meditation and breath work.

The real work of the practice is how we then integrate that back into our everyday lives and how our practice can help us to meet the many challenges that life will surely present.

Why I Don't Adjust in Public (Classes)

Continuing on from last week's consideration of alignment in yoga - I wanted to touch upon a related topic, which is the thorny question of hands on adjustments and assists.

I don't tend to use hands on adjustments much (if at all) in public classes these days - and I sometimes feel there's the whiff of suggestion that you're not providing the 'complete experience' if you don't provide these sorts of assists. 

But for me it's not a question of lack of skill or confidence (I taught in a Mysore room for a number of years and was well coached in the art of adjustments by my teacher at the time)...it's a conscious decision.

But why?

Well let's consider the most common justifications for a teacher placing their hands on a student in a yoga class...

1. To help a student get 'deeper' in a pose.

For me this is an inherently unsound justification.

Firstly it's based on the understanding that a 'deeper' pose is somehow better than the alternative which I fundamentally disagree with - as I've said many times before, what's important is our felt experience and personal exploration of the practice, not the depth to which we take each pose or what the practice looks like.

Furthermore, our bodies are pretty smart and generally know what's best for us (if we listen carefully).

Our nervous system is designed to stop us from taking a pose beyond the range of movement that it currently deems to be 'safe' - and we should listen to that feedback.

Granted, based on our history of movement and injury, the nervous system sometimes closes off that range prematurely which can cause issues or restrictions - but if we approach the practice skilfully, over time we can teach our nervous system that it's perhaps ok to move a little further.

But the key to doing this is patience, skill and time - we can't (or shouldn't) cheat that process by using an external force (i.e. the teacher) to simply 'crush' us into a pose (and I use the word crush intentionally).

Not only does this risk injury but any additional range that we create will be done so passively - i.e. we won't have the capacity to access that range by ourselves (I'll post more about this another time).

Furthermore the sensation of ‘stiffness’ that many of us associate with restricted ranges of movement will not necessarily be remedied by continuously pushing further in stretches…in fact that may be entirely counterproductive.

This sensation of stiffness or tightness can often be caused by weakness or instability - a response by the nervous system to create greater stability in areas of the body that are inherently unstable.

So rather than helping, continuing to stretch that area of the body is likely to exacerbate the issue - and we might be better served by working on strengthening those muscles instead (or as we do in the Functional Range Conditioning system, doing both things at the same time!).

2. To help a student stay safe in their practice.

This goes back to the question of alignment - i.e. the assumption that 'correct' alignment is going to keep a student safe in their practice. 

As I mention above, I wrote a whole post about this last week, but to recap - 'safe' alignment is often in fact idealised alignment and there's no guarantee that it is any more or less safe than alignment patterns that deviate from these often abstract ideals.

Yes there may be some cases in which a student is doing something that's probably not a good idea - but this can be addressed verbally rather than needing to use hands on adjustments. 

3. To help a student find a greater sense of ease and stability in a pose

I think there's some justification in this. When I do use hands on adjustments (mostly in private classes), it's generally to help students find a greater sense of stability in a pose that is inherently unstable (for example providing an anchor point in standing balances or spotting handstands).

However when it comes to the question of 'ease' I feel that teachers are at risk of imposing their interpretation of what easeful should look like rather than what it actually feels like for the student (again see last week's post for more on this).

Better I think to invite students to explore moving in ways that allow them to find their own sense of ease in a posture - rather than imposing that upon them externally by pulling them into a position. 

4. It facilitates a 'deeper connection' between teacher and student 

This may or may not be the case - but the prevalence and extent of physical and sexual abuse in almost every tradition and style of yoga is deeply troubling and surely acts as a strong counter point to this argument.

Students are often being told, quite literally, to override the feedback and sensations from their own body and submit to the will of their teacher instead…this is very very shaky ground and leads us to the issue of consent - which is a big one.  

For me, the difficulty in knowing whether a student truly consents (or not) to a physical adjustment is the strongest supporting argument for their exclusion from public classes.

Yes, you can ask permission first.

But in so doing we must acknowledge that it can be difficult for students to feel empowered to convey their wish not to receive a hands on adjustment given there can be a stigma associated with this choice and also given the power dynamic (perceived or real) that exists between a teacher and student...I've been there myself.

So why risk putting your students in this position?

(This last consideration is an extremely complex and important one - it's a subject I plan to return to more extensively in another post. In the meantime I would highly recommend reading Karen Rain's article and listening to her podcast interview with J Brown).

There are probably other justifications for providing hands on adjustments that I've neglected to mention here.

But ultimately I don't feel that the essence of the practice loses anything from a lack of hands on adjustments - and given the risk of upsetting, injuring* or triggering someone, I personally can't see a justification for their continued use in public group classes (private classes are perhaps a separate debate).

It's a very tricky and nuanced subject and I accept that my views won't be shared by everyone, but hopefully the above helps to clearly outline my perspective - I'd be really interested to hear your thoughts too as either a student or teacher of yoga (or both!).

*In a recent podcast interview, Jason Crandell mentioned that on every Advanced TT he asks all students to raise a hand if they’ve ever been injured by a hands on adjustment. He claims that the % of people in the room who put their hands up is consistently at the 50% - 70% range. Food for thought indeed…

What Does Yoga Alignment Actually Mean?

Edit 17th January 2019:

I’ve been giving this some further thought and one other benefit of ‘alignment’ is that, when we have a base ‘template’ to work from, we can readily observe habitual patterns of movement - and perhaps explore other options.

The body is very good at finding the path of least resistance, in fact we’ve been designed in that way to conserve energy - but that sometimes means that we have a tendency to set up poses in ways that aren’t conducive to best realising their intended benefits (or that we maybe lack the requisite body awareness to do so).

But when we have a clear intention of ‘why’ we’re taking a particular movement or posture - what it is intended to achieve - then we can identify the most appropriate ‘alignment’ to meet that intended aim (though this will still vary person to person).

So maybe I’m still a little bit ‘alignment based’ after all - I did say I reserve the right to change my opinions. :)

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A fellow teacher recently started an online debate about the value of 'alignment' cues.

She asked me to pitch in with my two pennies' worth and, should they be of any interest, I've pasted in my thoughts below - although I should note that my perspective on this is ever evolving (see my last post for why I reserve the right to change my opinions :))

And if you'd like to  find out more, or work more closely together on what alignment might mean for your practice, please do get in touch to arrange some one to one sessions.

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I’m a little conflicted on this. I used to wear the term ‘alignment based’ as a badge of pride but now I never use it.

I guess the first question is ‘what does (physical) alignment actually mean’? For me it’s finding a greater sense of ease, fluidity, comfort and efficiency in whatever we're doing. This is going to be different for each individual’s unique body - which calls into question the validity of 'universal alignment principles'.

That said, I do think that alignment cues can be helpful as a container for practice - particularly for newer students or those with less body awareness...to guide students (roughly) into whatever posture we’re practising in a given moment.

The problem I think is that 'alignment' has become a loaded term because it’s being used as a synonym for ‘safety’ which is not necessarily always the case.

Maybe ‘alignment’ cues could be broken down into different types

1) ‘Precision’ cues - used find our way into ‘the shape’ (although it's often an idealised version). But who’s to say that the traditional or 'correct' shape is the right one for every body in the room?

I did find these type of cues useful when I was new to the practice...but then over time I came to realise that some of the alignment cues I was being given (and told to strictly adhere to) weren’t always working for my body...which ultimately lead to a much deeper exploration of the practice for me.

2) Technical cues - used to help students find greater ease / efficiency when setting up a given pose or taking a particular movement.

I do use these types of cues quite a bit - I find they can be particularly helpful for poses or transitions that are technically more challenging to access for most people.

3) ‘Safety’ cues - this is tricky territory because we can’t guarantee that what we’re offering will indeed guarantee a safer space for everyone.

Also, some commonly used alignment cues are seemingly plucked out of thin air and it’s important to remember that injury only occurs when a load is placed upon the body that exceeds the body’s capacity to handle that load (unlikely to happen for e.g when we place a foot on the knee in tree pose…unless there’s a big problem with the knee already).

In fact as long as we don’t exceed the loads that our body has the capacity to handle, our bodies will lay down stronger and better quality ‘material’ - so we’ll get stronger moving in ways that we’re not used to doing.

So the key to mitigating injury (we can’t ever guarantee it will be avoided altogether) is to approach our yoga practice skilfully and really listen to the feedback from the body - that’s much more important than taking ‘correct alignment’.

Plus life itself doesn’t always happen in perfect alignment - so if we’re only ever teaching/ moving in the same ‘correct’ patterns then we’re not really preparing ourselves for the reality of what life will throw at us...if our physical, internal, spiritual, mental sense of balance is reliant on ‘perfect alignment’ then we’re on thin ice.

4) Internal / explorative cues - I try to use these more and more.

Once we’ve got into ‘the shape’ inviting students to sense what’s felt in a pose and encouraging them to explore the posture for themselves...find what position of an arm, leg etc. feels most easeful, to find their ‘sweet spot’ in a stretch, to move in ways that feel right for their body in that moment and to bring a greater sense of awareness to habitual patterns of movement (and whether we can find alternative patterns that offer a greater sense of ease and efficiency).

So yes I do think that ‘alignment cues’ can be useful but we should be clearer and more honest about what exactly we mean by ‘alignment’. It’s such an interesting question though (for me at least!), one I think about a lot and I’m sure my opinion will continue to change and evolve...

Knowing is Overrated

The above quote is from Dr. Andreo Spina, founder of the Functional Range Conditioning system of mobility training...an incredibly smart approach to working with the body.

I've been exploring his techniques for developing mobility for a while now, and a few weeks ago I took a certification in the system (I'm now an officially designated FRC 'mobility specialist' :))...and this exploration has led me to question many things that I previously thought I 'knew'.

Many of us, myself included, place a lot of store in 'knowing things', in looking for concrete answers and being 'sure' about things. Sometimes we look to science to support this knowledge...without acknowledging that science (like everything else) is also not fixed, but an evolving entity.

And I have to say that yoga's pedagogy can often be particularly guilty of making statements of fact that leave little room for questions, challenge or evolution.

Personally I believe that part of the reason is due to the heritage of the 'guru culture' in yoga - that the teacher's instructions are to be accepted as fact and not questioned.

If you read the hatha yoga scriptures you'll find many descriptions of the benefits of practising poses (including eternal life!) presented as absolute certain fact...many of these assertions (and more recent ones too) have become so ingrained that they are no longer questioned.

For example I often hear it stated with confidence that practising shoulder stand 'is beneficial for thyroid problems' - but there is absolutely NO evidence to support this...the only thing we can be sure about is that practising shoulder stand makes you better at doing shoulder stand (unless you hurt your neck...). 

This is just one example but I could list countless others.

If you contrast this with the approach taken by movement scientists and trainers you will find that they often use the 'language of possibility' (e.g. the current evidence suggests that doing x MAY lead to y) - and their assertions are usually supported by considered research rather than seemingly being plucked out of thin air.

So where does this somewhat ironic attachment to accepted wisdom in yoga stem from - is it  a lack of empowerment (accepting what we're told because it comes from a 'higher authority'), dogmatism, quality of training, laziness...or because things are being taken out of the context for which they were originally intended?

I don't know, but I do feel that it's very limiting because 'knowing' limits the potential for discovery and asking questions - if everything is fixed then where is the opportunity for uncovering new possibilities? Surely yoga is first and foremost a practice of exploration, of diving into our inner experience and finding our own truth? 

It's also very liberating to be open to exploring new possibilities and revising our perspective when we discover approaches that serve us better (as long as we're clear on why we're doing something a particular way, and, to quote Dr.Spina again, we're 'confident in our current interpretation').

This is why you may occasionally notice that I'm teaching something differently to the way I was 6 months ago - because I'm always looking to evolve my teaching in ways that serve my students best

So how about rather than being satisfied with 'knowing' we embrace 'not knowing' instead - always questioning, always exploring, always discovering new possibilities and always seeking to expand our understanding?

Thanks for reading and enjoy your practice. 

Suffering, Impermanence, Not-Self

Yesterday was world mental health awareness day.

Coincidentally, this week I found myself struggling with some difficult patterns. The triggers are varied and sometimes simple but the effects can be profound.

Luckily I’ve got a bit better at spotting the warning signs - and taking actions to address these patterns before they escalate into darker moods.

So yesterday morning I pulled out all the stops. I took a long mindful movement practice, connecting to my breath and articulating each of the joints in my body in turn - dropping my awareness completely into movement and sensation (and out of my head!).

Then I switched gear and took some strong dynamic movements to shift the energy. Sun salutations, press ups, chin ups and handstands. Energising music to get everything moving and flowing.

After that I took a walk in nature - I’m lucky enough to have some woods behind our house in which to take a stroll. 

I stood and watched the trees moving, felt the wind against my skin, the ground beneath my feet and listened to the sounds of birds…and felt a sense of spaciousness opening up.

When life feels claustrophobic I find it extremely helpful to connect to something bigger, particularly by spending time in nature…it’s deeply nourishing and helps me to remember that what is arising in this moment is impermanent.

Our society has a tendency to want to ‘pathologise’ and make things permanent - ‘I am this’ or ‘I suffer from that’…as if these things are fixed and can’t be changed.

But mindfulness teaches that whilst suffering (dukkha) is inevitable, so is impermanence (annica) - everything that arises moment to moment will pass (unfortunately this means the ‘good’ stuff too…but that’s another post). 

The third mark of existence is not-self (anattā) - non identification with the stories that we construct about ourselves, as if we too are fixed and unchanging. 

So whilst we may wrestle with certain patterns of the mind from time to time those patterns do not define us - they are not the ‘essence of our being’.

Since my teacher Cathy-Mae Karelse introduced me to this teaching I’ve found it very liberating...I’m grateful to be able to ‘pay it forward’ and I hope you'll find it helpful too.

After walking I sat for meditation, simply watching my breath moving in and out of my body and connecting to whatever arose moment to moment. 

I mention this because whilst seated meditation is an incredibly powerful practice, it isn’t always an ideal option if you’re in the thick of the struggle.

Without distraction for the mind, thoughts can spiral out of control - I definitely wouldn’t have sat if I hadn’t felt sufficiently nurtured and spacious from moving and walking.

For me, this is the true power of our movement practice - providing an anchor point for our awareness, particularly when we need it most.

It might surprise some people to hear that a yoga and mindfulness teacher with a committed practice can wrestle with these types of patterns - I think sometimes there’s an assumption we’ve ‘got our shit together’ and are somehow immune to them.

But it shouldn’t be a surprise. It’s utterly normal to struggle with mental health and we’re as human as anyone else. 

All I can say is that I am extremely grateful to these practices for providing me with ways in which to recognise and work with these patterns.

I also want to acknowledge how positive it is that the stigma surrounding mental health is starting to dissipate...it's an incredibly important shift. 

And if you are struggling then please please please do reach out to someone for help.

Go well.

OM Yoga Show London Ticket Giveaway

I have 2 free pairs of tickets to give away for this year’s OM Yoga Show London at Alexandra Palace 19 - 21 October.

If you’d like one of them simply email me on hello@mattgillyoga.co.uk by 6pm UK time on Thursday 11th October and let me know:

• what your favourite yoga pose is and why

• who you’d take to the Yoga Show with you

And that’s it - super simple…good luck!

Confronting Death...Celebrating Life

Last week was tough.

We buried my cousin. He was much too young to leave his body and losing him has been a deeply painful experience...to see the suffering of his parents and daughters was incredibly difficult to bear.

Of all the lessons of our yoga and mindfulness practice, coming to terms with death and with our own mortality is the one I struggle with most.

But it’s perhaps the most valuable lesson of them all. And in many ways it’s the essence of the practice.

For if we’re not using our practice to confront the reality of existence then what are we doing?

And what reality of existence is greater than the certainty of death?

Cognitively I get it. What I perceive to be ‘me’ is merely a set of conditions - and like all conditions they are ever changing and impermanent...in time they will cease to exist in this form.

The life force that animates me will one day grow quiet, the essence of ‘me’ shifting to another state, leaving just this physical container behind.

The sooner we can REALLY turn towards this reality...and TRULY accept the felt essence of this truth rather pushing the discomfort away, the less resistance we’ll have to our final journey.

If only it were that simple.

The reality is that I do struggle to accept that one day the world will spin, the wind will ruffle the trees but I won’t be here to witness it.

It’s something I’ve sat with in my practice and from time to time I do feel somewhat more reconciled to this reality - but yesterday was a reminder that there’s still much work for me to do.

But this doesn’t have to end on a somber note.

For if we are able to start reconciling ourselves to the certainty of death, it throws the beauty of life into sharp relief...

A reminder to be grateful for what we have, to cherish the ones we love and to embrace life and the many wonderful experiences it has to offer.

I think back to an interview I listened to with the musician Wilko Johnson. He described how, after being diagnosed with what was thought to be incurable cancer, he walked out of hospital…and in that moment he’d never felt more alive.

His senses were acutely heightened and he was filled with a sense of genuine awe and wonder at the living universe around him.

Thankfully he went on to make a miraculous recovery and his perspective on life has forever been changed (for the better I think).

But we don’t need to wait for a tragic diagnosis.

As practitioners of yoga and mindfulness we’ve been gifted a wonderful opportunity to cultivate this same sense of awe, wonder and reverence for life NOW...even as we reconcile ourselves to the certainty of its final destination.

So my way of honouring my cousin’s memory will be to fully commit to appreciating and honouring the beauty of the life I have to live.

Are you with me?