Yoga on Your Holidays

The start of the summer holidays..... bliss! 6 weeks with the feeling of a little more space and spontaneity to my days. 6 weeks without having to encourage my teenage son to get up and ready for school. No school run traffic. No strict timetable to adhere to. Lots of adventures doing things we don't normally have time to do. Lovely. 

If you have school-age children and you're fortunate enough to be off work too you'll know exactly what I mean. If you don't have school-age children, or you are still working even though they're not, you might notice some of the benefits too... less traffic on the roads, and a sense that everyone around you where you live relaxes just a bit.

The downside to the summer holidays is that I can easily lose my routine and everything becomes just a bit too random. So, as usual, I'm looking to bring some balance into my life and using the teachings of yoga to guide me.

This article reminds me of the importance of pausing in my tendency towards busyness, and taking some time out to just be, and the summer holidays are a good time for me to do more resting. If you'll be working and continuing to juggle all those balls in the air, maybe you could take some smaller breaks to rest and be quiet, such as stepping outside on your tea-break to sit in the sunshine rather than stay at your desk, having a relaxing bath before bed rather than watching one more TV programme or taking advantage of the light summer evenings and going for a walk after dinner rather than collapsing on the sofa.

As always, you can use your yoga practice to create some "me time". Focus on your breath and the way your body moves through the poses and enjoy a lovely long Savasana to replenish yourself if you are tired.

4 Practical ways for Women to Recover from Everyday Life Exhaustion - the radical notion of rest and why it is vitally important that we do it.

by Emma Derman Teitel via Elephant Journal 

Too exhausted to think, too overwhelmed to respond, too fast, too full, too much, not enough, it’s a lot. These are the words I hear almost everyday, from the voices of the women I sit with. So, what is it that has us exhausted, depleted, un-inspired and desperate for the next best thing to make us feel better, more alive, more inspired?

It is a deep rejection of rest.

Choosing rest is choosing to take a radical stand for the feminine. We will get very little validation or high-fives for lying in bed all day, sitting in the grass and watching it grow or closing our eyes in the middle of the afternoon. Few will celebrate our silence or our, “I don’t know what’s next-ness.” And it is rare to receive recognition as we float in the ocean of vast mystery. When we choose rest, it is easy to feel unworthy.

In stillness, it is easy to question our value. It may look as if absolutely nothing is happening. And yet in the absence of doing, we will be faced with the greatest task of all—befriending and trusting our own exquisite nature. That which cannot be spoken, that which cannot be done, that which can only be felt from the inside out.

When we choose rest, we are choosing to restore what is broken. We are mending the tapestry of life that has become painfully undone with the demand of modern life.

To rest is a radical act of dissent from the collective devotion to speed—it is to claim a space of inner freedom. When we resist rest we once again degrade the feminine. It is to abuse her, to ignore her, to call her names and to strip her of her value. It is to delude ourselves into thinking that if we do enough, eventually we will be worthy. And yet, when we honor rest, we are taking a powerful stance for the return of the feminine in one of her most glorious forms.

Sure, there are the necessary planetary shakes going on as women rise up from all corners of the earth, changing politics, starting businesses, raising families, traveling, falling in love and everything in between. And yet, for these contributions and creations to experience sustainability, we must also rest.

Four practical ways to make space for rest.

1. Give yourself a 24-hour break from talking.

With so much collective wounding in women—around holding back, not taking up enough space or playing small there is an insurgence of self-expression occurring for many of us, myself included! We live in a day and age where there are infinite platforms and channels through which to write, speak, make videos and share our thoughts, feelings and experiences. This is beautiful and I am in full support, yet no woman is designed to produce indefinitely. Many spiritual traditions, including yoga, honor and recognize the important role of silence for preserving creativity, increasing consciousness and restoring balance. Commit to a 24-hour period without talking. Depending on your work situation and/or if you are a parent, it may definitely require a bit of extra planning or you many only get a few hours, but either way, take the time, you will be amazed at what you find in the silence.

2. Take a full day off and spend it being.

So often, when we have a vacation or a break from work, the mind immediately starts crafting up brilliant plans for places we want to travel, things we want to get done, people we want to see and personal projects to knock of the to-do list. While this is all wonderful and important, it keeps our bodies and our minds in a state of perpetual doing. Operating at this pace keeps the softer, subtler and more intuitive parts of our awareness at bay and ultimately this limits our overall capacity as human beings. Being is the key word here. How can you set yourself up for being? Perhaps it is sitting outside on the grass as you savor a delicious meal and watching the birds, or maybe it is lying down in bed and watching the trees outside the window. Whatever it is, I invite you to do less and to pay close attention to what emerges in your mind, body and soul.

3. Give yourself a tech detox.

I will be one of the first to raise my hand with gratitude, appreciation and love for my technology.

And yet, too much tech can quickly tip any woman over the edge. There are an infinite number of apps, ideas, articles, websites and inspirations to plug into, yet constantly turning our attention outwards means that we are missing an entire universe of experience within ourselves. The inner world is our most fertile soil. It is from here where all original insight arises. So, give yourself the gift of turning off the cell phone, closing the computer and attuning to your inner world. You will be amazed at the colorful and complex world that is waiting for you.

4. Notice the spaces between.

Commit to noticing the pauses before the actions for an entire day. Feel the gap before the key unlocks the door or starts the car. Feel the space before food enters your mouth or the stillness before your finger hits the computer key. We go through thousands of tiny transitions each day, see if you can be more conscious of what is happening before each new action. The symphony of life can easily create the illusion that something is only happening when the tempo is fast and the beats are audible. And yet, there would be no symphony without the silence, there would be no beauty to the sound without the gaps in between. From the ripe and pregnant pause is the very origin point of life itself. From emptiness emerges form, from stillness arises inspiration and from the void brilliance ascends.

Unplug the phone, close the laptop, walk outside or find your way to the bed.

Rest dear woman, your soul will thank you.

Are you going to be travelling over the coming weeks? Maybe you're off to foreign climes for your summer holidays or travelling for work. This article from Om Yoga magazine offers some tips for taking your yoga practice with you.

Yoga for Travellers - how yoga and travel can teach us to live better, more mindful lives, both at home and while we're away by Jennifer L Ellinghaus

I love yoga. I love travelling. And the amount of yoga retreats taking place around the world suggest I'm not the only one. But how do you combine yoga with your travel experiences, whether backpacking or flying to business meetings? And why would you want to mix them anyway? Well, its entirely possible to take your practice everywhere, and learn to take yoga off your mat and into your daily life. Here's how:

1. Now is your chance

If you've regularly attended yoga classes over the years but have not developed a self-practice, travelling is a great time to do this. I first started my 'home' practice years ago on holiday in Morocco. I had read somewhere that it's better to practice for a short time each day than for an extended period once a week. So I decided that if I couldn't do yoga for 15 minutes each day when on holiday, when could I? We can all do a few sun salutations, a twist and spend some time in Savasana or 10 minutes a day quietly watching our breath. I admit it was some time before sheer determination to get up early and practice became a routine as customary as brushing my teeth. So rather than putting unrealistic pressure and expectations on yourself, start with just 5 minutes; your practice will soon grow.

2. When the going gets tough

Travel can be tough on the body, and the mind. Long haul flights, overnight trains and buses with limited legroom, carrying a heavy pack, sleeping in beds of varying firmness and quality, all cause pressure in different ways. Overall, my body generally feels better when I'm away from computers and long periods spent sitting, but you might find that different parts of your body hurt from the usual ones. Fortunately, yoga can make a big difference. Your practice doesn't need to be complicated, just get on your mat and see what happens. Once you start you will find you intuitively move your body in the way that it needs to. Even a brief daily practice will sort out those aches and pains, and make you ready for your next day of adventures.

3. Things do go wrong

When travelling, as in life, things don't always go to plan. Your train breaks down, you miss your bus, the monsoon rains make it impossible to do anything. Yoga philosophy kicks in at this point, teaching us to use these times as an opportunity to stop, pause, breathe and be truly present in the moment. Try taking a few breaths: couldn't you do this more in your everyday life? We rush around all the time at home in our 'real' lives, why do it on the road as well? Is it really the end of the world if you catch the next bus, watch the monsoon or read your book? Wouldn't you love to have more time to pause at home? The more often you spend a small part of your day on your mat to familiarise yourself with stopping, breathing and stillness, the more you'll be able to access and implement these practices in your day-to-day life.

4. Be your best you

The beauty of socialising when you travel is you can play with the person you are, and try being more like the person you'd like to be. There's no reason why you can't nurture the qualities you would like to develop in yourself in this safe environment. You will never see most of your fellow travellers again, so who cares what they think? I've had many conversations with other travellers about how they actually 'like' themselves more when they travel. We become, perhaps, the person we want to be - more patient, more grateful, more sociable. Wouldn't you like to be a person who frequently says hello to strangers, who takes the time to speak to and help people, who is constantly grateful for their wealth, health and life? Like yoga, travel can teach us to be better people, if we make the effort to notice the lessons around us. And the more we practice yoga, the better we become at observing ourselves, so we can promote the qualities we like and accept the qualities we don't.

5. Embrace your freedom

Yoga isn't about complicated postures. For me, it's more about being prepared to have a go: to face whatever scares or challenges me, without trying too hard or wanting it too much. It's about developing our intuition and learning to trust that our instinct will guide us in the right direction, whatever that direction may be. It is about being grounded in order to be free and understanding how this grounding facilitates freedom, both during our asana practice and in the world. It is this groundedness, developed through my yoga practice, that enables me to enjoy the freedom of travel and whatever the world offers me, without feeling unsettled or unstable (most of the time anyway). And, rather than detract from your holiday, yoga will add to your experience, much as in day-to-day life, complementing your travels by providing valuable opportunities for reflection and learning about yourself, other people and the world. Let yoga enrich your travels and your life as much as it has mine.

Eagle Pose on a mountain top 

Barbequed Butternut Squash

As a vegetarian, barbeques can sometimes be challenging! Shop-bought veggie burgers are often tasteless and home-made ones, although yummy and full of healthy ingredients, have a tendency to disintegrate into the flames! Halloumi (Cypriot cheese made with sheep's milk) is always reliable and delicious and I love, love, love it. Another option is to barbeque butternut squash. As I write this it is pouring with rain (my garden is happy!) and a barbeque is definitely not an option, so I have cooked the squash on a baking sheet in the oven first for 20 minutes and finished it off in the griddle pan, which gave me that same results as barbequing it.

Ingredients:

1 butternut squash (choose one with a longer "neck" rather than a rounder base, as you can cut more discs before you reach the seedy part).

1 tablespoon Olive oil
1 tablespoon Balsamic vinegar
Salt and black pepper
Herbs of your choice (I used fresh Rosemary and dried Thyme)

Mix the olive oil, Balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper, and dried Thyme in a cup. Wash the squash and slice the neck into discs. You can leave the skin on in you want to - it's very nutritious - but if you don't like it's slightly chewy texture you can peel it first. Brush the discs with the marinade and place on the barbeque. Grill until the flesh is soft and the surface is brown and caramel-y. Serve on a salad or in a bun.

Here's a nice restful meditation for you to practice. Perfect when you want a little time to yourself to rejuvinate.