Shedding Some Light on the Gunas

The Gunas - the word always makes me smile. It makes me think of my friend who supports Arsenal Football Club! Apparently, Arsenal fans call themselves The Gooners (as opposed to the team's nickname of The Gunners) who knew!?

Funny name aside, the Gunas play an important role both in yoga and in our everyday life but, while we might be vaguely aware of them, it's not until we get a better understanding of them that we realise how much they affect us. So what exactly are the Gunas?  

Ancient scriptures describe them as three strands or threads of energy which are interwined in all natural things in the Universe. The three Gunas are present within everyone and everything but we all possess different levels of each one and these levels fluctuate with our circumstances and lifestyles. 

Understanding these energy fluctuations can be helpful in our day-to-day lives as we start to notice how they play out in our moods and emotions. By noticing and adjusting these energies we can bring ourselves towards balance and harmony. 

So let's explore each one of the Gunas now. Have you noticed that some days you feel agitated, busy, with the heart racing and the mind whirring? This is rajas. Rajas is associated with activity, passion, ambition and accomplishment. When rajas is in balance it is a positive energy, but if it becomes too dominant it can lean towards hyperactivity, agitation, anger, and aggression.

Some days you might feel heavy and lethargic and can't be bothered to do much - this is tamas. Tamas, when balanced and in it's positive form is stability, loyalty, patience and ease. However, too much tamas presents itself as inertia, laziness, heaviness, apathy and depression. 

The final Guna is Sattva. You might recognise it on those days when you feel that life just flows, everything is aligned and you are peaceful, content and fulfilled.  We can reach a sattvic state through the practice of yoga - it is that deep and quiet peace that follows a good yoga class, a deep meditation and a long Savasana.

Even your food can possess these energies, for example, spicy food is fiery and rajassic, red meats are heavy and tamassic and sattvic foods are light and easy to digest like fresh vegetables. As always, balance is the key thing. 

See if you can spot the different energies around you - in rush hour traffic rajas is most likely to be dominant, after an evening watching telly on the sofa you are likely to feel tamassic and on a sunny spring morning a quiet walk in the countryside will hopefully leave you feeling sattvic. 

Notice the Gunas when you're on your yoga mat too - if you're feeling lethargic some Sun Salutations will bring a little more rajas to your practice to balance you, if you're wired after a busy day of coffee and meetings you'll need some quiet seated forward bends and restorative postures to bring you back to the present moment, and your Savasana will surely leave you feeling sattvic and more at peace with the world. 

The simple act of just noticing which Guna is most dominant in a situation is usually enough to diffuse it and bring you back towards a more balanced state. It probably won't change the situation you're in but it will change your reaction to it - the awareness is the important part. This is spiritual growth and, just by doing your regular yoga and mindfulness practice, you're already on the path and enjoying the journey towards it.

A Quick Refreshing Break For Tired Eyes

Here's a simple energy boost for your eyes, especially good if you've been sitting at a computer for a long time:  Rub your hands vigorously together until they feel hot. Gently close your eyes and place your palms lightly over them. Feel the warmth generating from your hands and visualise it soaking into your eyes bringing fresh energy to them. Breath slowly and deeply for a few breaths, then slowly move your hands away from your face and down to rest on your lap. Pause a moment more to notice how you feel. Try it - it works.

How to Do Warrior 1 Pose - Virabhadrasana 1

This pose strengthens the legs, stretches the hip flexors of the back leg, lifts the chest and stretches the sides of the body and the arms.

Here's how to do it (the Iyengar way):

1. From Tadasana (Mountain Pose), step the feet wide apart and place your hands on your hips. 
2. Turn the right foot out 90 degrees, externally rotating the whole leg, and turn the left foot in at about a 45 degree angle. 
3. Extend your arms out to the sides.
4. On an inhalation raise your arms above your head.
5. On an exhalation turn your torso to the right.
6. On an inhalation stretch up even more, lifting up through the legs, pelvic floor, tummy muscles, sides of the body and arms.
7. On an exhalation bend the right knee deeply - be sure to keep the knee directly over the ankle.
8. Draw the abdominal muscles in again so that the front of the pelvis lifts a little and the back of the pelvis and the tailbone lengthen towards the ground. This will help keep the lumbar spine long, which will keep your back safe.
9. Press strongly into the back foot and leg and breathe into the stretch there. 
10. Stay for 3-5 breaths. To come out of the pose, press strongly into the feet and straighten the front leg, turn back to the centre, lower the arms, and step the feet back together to Mountain Pose. 
11. Repeat on the left side.

Warrior 1

The muscles that are used in Warrior 1 pose
(illustration from Leslie Kaminoff's book "Yoga Anatomy")

Some wise words for you...

Finally, a video for you to smile at. Often when we practice binds in class (usually wrapping an arm around a bent knee and catching hold of the other hand behind the back) I hear mumbles of "my arms are too short", and sometimes in other poses its "my legs are too short". This video shows that shortness of limb, whilst sometimes can be challenging, needn't stop you having fun.

 https://youtu.be/glii-kazad8

p.s have you noticed I can now embed a video onto the page instead of just giving you the link? Me and technology... we're getting on fine ...at the moment :-)

The Benefits of Taking Your Yoga Practice Outside

I'm so enjoying this weather - clear skies, warm sunshine and the energy of spring literally bursting forth. I know it will change soon though so I'm doing my best to appreciate it while it's here, enjoying breakfast and cuppa on the patio and spending a bit more time gardening rather than being inside on the computer or doing chores.

Yesterday I did my practice outside, mainly to make the most of the sunshine, but it had other benefits too.  There were no walls to confine me so I felt much more spacious and expansive but there were a few more distractions - I noticed how much a clematis had grown in just 4 days, a bug landed on my foot and as I looked up to the sky I had to readjust my balance because it felt so wide and open. I did many of the poses in my usual practice but because of the change of environment it felt really different.

Here's a few ways that yoga in the garden can be helpful for your practice, your body and your mind:

You'll be accepting rather than being distracted by disturbances: 

Usually I like to practice in a quiet place so, if the house is busy, I'll take myself off upstairs or out to the Studio and shut the door. Outside, however, it's not possible to do that. I was aware of the birds and insects around me and the sounds of my local community as everyone went about their day mowing their lawns, walking their dogs, taking their children to school and so on. It was a lesson in acceptance. I don't have any control over the ambient noise around me so I just have to let it pass by and not let myself be distracted. This is the basis of meditation, we practice sitting quietly, not getting caught up in what's going on externally. The quote that hangs on the wall in my studio sums it up nicely:

"Peace. It does not mean to be in a place where there is no noise, trouble or hard work. It means to be in the midst of those things and still be calm in your heart." (author unknown)

You'll be adjusting to the uneven surface beneath your feet: 

Sometimes I do my practice on the wooden floor of the Studio or living room and sometimes on the carpet in my bedroom. The wooden floor is helpful to root down through my feet and feel strength and stability in the standing poses, and the carpet challenges my balance a bit more which makes me use my core muscles. It's the same when practicing on the grass outside. You'll become aware of the undulations in the ground beneath your feet and you'll need to concentrate more to balance.  The uneven surface helps to build the secondary muscles of the feet, knees, hips, and shoulders. The body has to adjust to this surface, thereby increasing balance, flexibility, and core strength. Be mindful though about doing too many Downward Facing Dogs and other poses when you lean weight into your hands - a smooth hard floor is better so you can really press down with the base of each finger to help keep your wrists safe and your shoulder girdle stable.

You'll be lifting your mood and getting your Vitamin D: 

It's lovely to feel the sun on your skin - it lifts the mood and you'll get your daily dose of Vitamin D too (but see my recent post about Sun Salutations which has an article about staying safe in the sun as well as more info about Vitamin D). Sunshine also increases levels of serotonin which regulates appetite, sleep, memory, and mood. Again, there's a mindfulness aspect in that you can't control the elements - the sun might be hot and you get a little sweaty, or the clouds pass over and the breeze picks up so you feel chilly - you just have to be okay with how things are in the present moment and know that they will change again soon.

You'll be getting an extra oxygen boost:

Practicing outdoors can encourage you to breathe more deeply. When you fully empty the stale air from your lungs and take in big, smooth breaths of lovely fresh air, increased oxygen is brought to the cells, which in turn increases energy. Deep breathing is your own quick, natural and free detox because it revs up the lymphatic system. The blood carries the oxygen and nutrients to the cells and the lymphatic system carries away toxins, so by moving dynamically through your practice and breathing deeply you'll pump the lymph fluid through your body, removing the toxins and reducing other health problems such as high blood pressure, fatigue and inflammation.

You'll get a different view of the world:

You'll be used to looking at your garden from your usual upright position. When you do your practice outside you'll be getting a different view. You'll see trees and plants upside-down or sideways, you might notice little insects, and in your Cobra pose you'll get a close-up look at blades of grass or daisy flowers. You'll notice the little things. It's refreshing and interesting to look at your familiar surroundings like this and you'll appreciate the variety of life within the small space of your back garden.

It felt great to pause my day to take 15 minutes to practice in the garden, being present and observing what was going on in the here and now.  Enjoy these next couple of days of sunshine and make the most of them before the weather changes, as it inevitably will. Leave your mat behind, head outside onto the grass and see how different your practice feels.

How to Practice Tree Pose (Vrksasana) - very appropriate as we're talking about doing yoga outside.

This pose promotes strong leg muscles, abdominal tone, open hips, balance and mental focus.

1. From Tadasana (Mountain Pose) bring your awareness down into your feet. Spread your toes out and shift your weight into your right foot.

2. Bring your hands to prayer position at the heart centre.

3. Lift up your left foot, bend the knee and bring the sole of your foot to your right inner thigh, toes pointing down. If this is too challenging bring the foot down to the inner calf instead - you won't wobble as much and with practice your balance will improve and you can try moving the foot up to the thigh.  It is important that your foot isn't directly over the inner knee joint - it should be either above or below.

Foot on inner thigh

Foot on inner calf

4. Gently draw the left knee back to open the hip.

5. Press your right foot down into the floor, lift your kneecaps and thigh muscles up. Press the sole of the foot into the inner thigh and the inner thigh into the sole of the foot. Lift up through the pelvic floor and draw the abdominal muscles back towards the spine - these adjustments will help you stay steady in this balancing pose. Focusing your gaze on a fixed point straight ahead of you also helps.

6. Next you can raise your arms above your head, either with the palms together or, if your shoulders prefer it, with the hands apart. Stretch up to your full height and breathe smoothly and steadily for 3 to 5 breaths.

Arms wide... or 

... palms together

7. To come out of the pose, bring the hands back to the heart centre and slowly step the foot back down to the ground.

8. Repeat on the other side.



Published in The Telelgraph this week: Meditation - 'as good as drugs' for depression

Meditation is as good as anti-depressants for tackling depression, a major study has suggested.

Researchers at Oxford University say that mindfulness-based cognitive therapy stopped as many people from sliding back into depression as strong medication.

Mindfulness is a form of meditation that encourages people to become more aware of the present moment and their own place in the world, to avoid thoughts spiralling out of control.

The study followed 492 severely depressed adults over two years, half of whom received mindfulness training and the other half who stayed on anti-depressant drugs.

It found 47 per cent of people taking medication slipped back into major depression, compared with 44 per cent of people practicing mindfulness meditation.

"While this study doesn't show that mindfulness-based cognitive therapy works any better than maintenance anti-depressant medication in reducing the rate of relapse in depression, we believe these results suggest a new choice for the millions of people with recurrent depression on repeat prescriptions," said Dr Willem Kuyken, the lead author and Professor of Clinical Psychology at Oxford University.

Figures published by the Health and Social Care Information Centre last year showed that around 50 million prescriptions for anti-depressants are written each year, a seven per cent rise from 2013. In towns such as Salford and Middlesbrough, one adult in six is on medication.

Official guidance from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence urges doctors in England to treat patients suffering mild to moderate depression with psychological therapies. But medication is recommended for more severe depressive illness.

Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy was developed to help people who have experienced repeated bouts of depression by teaching them the skills to recognise thoughts associated with relapse to prevent their conditions escalating.

Study participant Nigel Reed, 59, from Sidmouth, Devon, said the programme had given him a set of skills that had long-term benefits. "Rather than relying on the continuing use of anti-depressants, mindfulness puts me in charge, allowing me to take control of my own future, to spot when I am at risk and to make the changes I need to stay well," he said.

However, some experts warned that the trial was not large enough to come to a definitive conclusion and had not included a placebo group. The research was published in the Lancet.

Good to know that science is backing up what we're doing... and that we're on the right path to wellness in both mind and body :-)


Finally, some photos of beautiful things that might be out there in your garden that you rarely get close-up enough to notice - nature is truly amazing. 

credit: Andy Small

credit: Vyacheslav Mischenko

Yoga for Strong Bones

The human skeleton is a truly amazing piece of architecture. All those bones (206 of them in an adult body) holding us together! It has 6 major functions - support, movement, protection, production of blood cells, storage of ions and endocrine regulation. As we get older, our bone density starts to decrease leaving our bones weaker and more fragile and more vulnerable to breaks. 

Yoga can help to strengthen the bones through weight-bearing poses which build bone mass. This can help to prevent osteoporosis and other degenerative bone diseases. Standing poses, balancing poses, Plank and Downward Facing Dog are all great for strengthening the bones and they have the added benefit of strengthening the core muscles which help support the spine.  

Yoga helps to keep the bones healthy in other ways too - nearly all the poses help with joint mobility and flexibility so a regular yoga practice will be an all round benefit to your skeleton.

Take a look at this video - it's an x-ray study of a body in motion doing yoga  https://www.youtube/watch?v=wCu14zMZ_1Y.com

There are other ways you can care for your bones too:

• by eating a range of calcium-rich foods including cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, kale, bok choy, broccoli, almonds, sweet potatoes and a moderate amount of dairy products.

• by eating healthy fats like nuts, seeds and oily fish like salmon and mackerel which help with the absorption of calcium and fat soluble Vitamins such as D and K.

• by getting enough Vitamin D via healthy exposure to sunlight (see my post from 12th March - Sun Salutations On and Off the Mat).

• by decreasing the amount of sugar in your diet - it is acid-forming and depletes the bones of calcium and other minerals.

Here's an informative article about yoga and bone health:

Stay Good to the Bone with Yoga by Catherine Guthrie via Yoga Journal

Bone loss is serious business. Both men and women reach their maximum bone mass around age 30. After that, it’s a matter of maintaining what you’ve got, and no one is immune from the inevitable decline. If you’re a woman approaching midlife, fasten your seat belt. You can lose up to 20 percent of your bone mass in the five to seven years after menopause, according to the National Osteoporosis Foundation. “Osteoporosis is the disease of denial,”says Sara Meeks, a Kripalu Yoga teacher since 1984 and a physical therapist specializing in osteoporosis. “Nobody thinks they have it, but, by a certain age, almost everyone does.”

Bones are living tissue. The body breaks them down and builds them up in a constant flux that affects bone mass or density. While some bone loss is natural with aging, it’s possible to maintain a healthy equilibrium, a balance of bone destruction and reconstruction. But if there’s much greater loss than gain, osteoporosis (bone deterioration) can ensue.

The National Institutes of Health estimate that 10 million Americans have osteoporosis and another 34 million have osteopenia, low bone mass, that’s often a precursor of osteoporosis. And, although men have it, too, when it comes to bone loss, women suffer more. Eighty percent of those with osteoporosis are women, and half of all women will have an osteoporosis-related fracture after age 50. Indeed, denial may seem like the only option for women seeing risk factors beyond their control, such as being thin and having a small build. But here’s a wake-up call.

There are risk factors you can control, including diet and exercise. You can slow—and some studies suggest even reverse—bone loss by tackling it head-on, but it takes time and a concerted effort. And it turns out that yoga and a plant-based diet may be your strongest allies.

Get (Bone) Smart

Gina Martin, 52, of Knoxville, Tennessee, started doing a gentle yoga class years ago to relieve back pain. But in her early 40s, a test revealed she was suffering from the first signs of bone loss, and she jumped into action. A former nurse, Martin was used to taking her health into her own hands, so she traded her gentle hatha class for a more strength-building practice and revamped her diet to revolve around foods that enhance bone health, especially calcium-rich veggies like kale and spinach. To go the extra mile, she cut processed foods from her diet by refusing to buy anything with more than three ingredients.

But the change didn’t happen overnight. “After a lifetime of eating mostly processed foods, it took me a year or so to make the shift,”Martin says. But her take-no-prisoners approach paid off. Five years later, her next scan showed improvement in bone density. Her last scan, in 2008, showed that her bone density was back to normal—no more osteopenia. “I remember my nurse technician was genuinely surprised,” she says. “But I knew it was the diet and yoga.”

Bone Builders

The more we learn about bone health, the more it seems that yoga plus a largely plant-based diet creates a foundation for healthy bones. For starters, yoga is a weight-bearing exercise, meaning you hold the weight of your body up against gravity. Resisting gravity puts a mild stress on the bones. That stress forces bones into laying down new growth. In this way, yoga is no different from jogging, walking, or playing tennis.

But unlike some other weight-bearing activities, yoga won’t damage cartilage or stress the joints. Instead, it lengthens muscles and holds them there, creating tension on the bone.

“That pull of muscle on the bone is the single major factor in bone strength,”says Meeks. Consider, for example, Virabhadrasana I and Virabhadrasana II (Warrior Pose I and II). In both poses, the legs are weight bearing because they support the body’s weight. “But by bending the front knee to 90 degrees, you do more than simply bear weight in the front leg; you magnify the force on the femur bone,”says Loren Fishman, MD, an assistant clinical professor at the Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York and the co-author of Yoga for Osteoporosis.

In Warrior II, you’re also adding force to the shoulder joint. “Because you’re holding your arms out away from your body, you’re putting a lot more stress on the head of your humerus than you would if they were hanging at your sides.”

Yoga’s effects are difficult to measure by conventional medical standards, but Fishman published a small pilot study on bone loss and yoga in 2009. He enrolled 18 people with osteoporosis or osteopenia. (The average age was 68.) Everyone had a baseline bone-density test at the start. While 7 people acted as the control group, 11 others learned a sequence that included 10 yoga postures, including Trikonasana (Triangle Pose), Adho Mukha Svanasana and Urdhva Mukha Svanasana (Downward- and Upward-Facing Dog poses), and Setu Bandha Sarvangasana (Bridge Pose). Participants stayed in each pose for 20 to 30 seconds. (Research suggests that roughly 10 seconds of stimulation is enough to trigger new bone growth.) The daily yoga routine took about 10 minutes.

Fishman charted both groups’ progress and, two years later, asked everyone to get another bone scan. The results, published in the journal Topics in Geriatric Rehabilitation, were promising. While nearly every member of the control group either maintained or lost bone, roughly 85 percent of the yoga practitioners gained bone in both the spine and the hip. “I was shocked at the results,”he says. “By putting tremendous pressure on the bones without harming the joints, yoga may be the answer to osteoporosis.”

Food Factor

While Martin saw her bone density increase after she started taking two or three two-hour Power Yoga classes a week, she also fills up on vegetables. For lunch she makes a colorful salad with lettuces, fresh berries, mango, pine nuts, dried cranberries, and raw kale chopped superfine like parsley. And while she doesn’t shun dairy, fish, or animal products—she eats a bit of cheese every day, drinks cream in her coffee—even when she and her husband eat out for dinner (which is often), she always orders a couple of vegetable sides in addition to a small serving of protein-rich food.

This balance is likely a big contributing factor to the improvement in her bones. Some research shows that too much protein in the diet may actually weaken bone. That’s because protein is acid forming. When too much acid enters the bloodstream, the body pulls calcium, which is alkaline, from bone to neutralize it.

“We absolutely see a strong correlation between a plant-based diet and bone mineral density,”says Annie Kay, MS, RD, an integrative dietician at Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health, a yoga therapist, and the former director of the osteoporosis awareness program at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. “Most Americans eat twice as much protein as their bodies need, so there is a big acid push in the body that causes it to excrete too much calcium.”

Consuming large amounts of fruits and vegetables may help right this imbalance. “All of those fruits and vegetables neutralize the acid from protein,”says Lynda Frassetto, MD, a kidney-disease specialist at the University of California, San Francisco, and the principal author of a cross-cultural study on how protein in the diet impacts bone health. Published in 2000 in the Journal of Gerontology, her trial looked at diet and hip-fracture data from 33 countries. She found a direct link between high consumption of animal protein and a higher number of hip fractures in women age 50 and older.

Given Frassetto’s findings, the temptation is to make a sweeping generalization that animal protein is “bad”and plant protein is “good,”but unfortunately, it’s not that simple. Indeed, all forms of protein have the potential to be acid forming, whether it’s a hamburger or a veggie burger. What’s important is the ratio of your intake of fruit and vegetables to your intake of animal protein, says Frassetto.

Move It or Lose It

If you want to prevent bone loss, any amount of yoga is likely to be better than no yoga. The people in Fishman’s study got bone benefits with as little as 10 minutes of yoga a day. That said, more is probably better than less. If you are an experienced yogi and you are looking to either prevent or reverse early-stage bone loss, like Martin, almost any yoga practice that involves a series of standing postures (flow or no) will do the trick.

But if you’re a beginner with osteopenia or you have osteoporosis, take time to find an experienced teacher who is trained in a style of yoga that focuses on alignment and safety (stick to beginner offerings). Explain your situation before the class starts and make sure the teacher has some knowledge of yoga therapeutics or, at the very least, the contraindications for osteoporosis.

Yoga can be a bone saver, but it can also be detrimental if it isn’t practiced correctly. For instance, in someone with osteoporosis, forward bending (flexion of the spine)—which is a big part of the average yoga class—can increase the likelihood of spinal fracture by excessively loading the front of the vertebrae compared with your back.

Twists are another potential danger zone because they can put the spine in a vulnerable position. Meeks prefers supine twists. That way, the spine is fully supported and elongated. Carol Krucoff, co-director of the Therapeutic Yoga for Seniors teacher training program at Duke Integrative Medicine in Durham, North Carolina, advises her students with bone loss against “end-range”or deep twists (see sidebar above for pose suggestions).

But if you’re still in prevention mode, all poses are up for grabs, including forward bends, backbends, twists, and inversions. And it’s never too early to start saving bone. “If you build up the bones while you’re young,”says Fishman, “you can afford to lose a little bit as you age.”

Good Eats

Packing your diet with alkaline-rich fruits and keeping acidic foods to a minimum will help keep your bones healthy and strong.

Fill Up on These:
Low-acid (alkaline) foods
Dried fruit
Vegetables (especially broccoli, cabbage, tomatoes, kale, and zucchini)
Fresh fruits (especially apples, pineapple, bananas, oranges, and peaches)

Limit These:
High-acid foods
Cheese
Meat
Eggs
Fish 

Bust a Move, Not a Bone

If you’re in the early stages of bone loss, some research shows that you can slow and even reverse the condition with as little as 10 minutes of yoga a day. While it’s always a good idea to seek out an experienced teacher, the poses below (recommended by Loren Fishman, Sara Meeks, and Carol Krucoff) are a great jumping-off point. The goal is to build strength and balance while maximizing stability and safety. These poses aren’t designed as a series, per se, but they can be incorporated into a home practice or used as substitutions in studio classes when everyone else is doing a deep twist or forward bend.

Strengthen your skeleton with these 7 poses:

1. Vrksasana (Tree Pose)
2. Utkatasana (Chair Pose)
3. Bhujangasana with arms at the sides (Cobra Pose)
4. Setu Bandha Sarvangasana (Bridge Pose)
5. Virabhadrasana I (Warrior Pose I)
6. Virabhadrasana II (Warrior II)
7. Alternate arm and leg lifts (start on all fours, and lift and extend opposite arm and leg)

How to do Phalakasana (also known as Kumbhakasana) (Plank Pose)

Plank pose is another great pose to strengthen your bones. You are strongly working your arms and legs and there is the added benefit that it's a really good core strengthener.

Here's how to do it: 

• From Downward Facing Dog bring your shoulders forward so they stack directly over your wrists. You might need to do this pose in front of a mirror so that you can see if the alignment is correct. If your shoulders are too far forward there will be a lot of pressure in the wrists which really doesn't feel good. 

• Your hips should be in line with the back of your head and your heels. Don't let the hips lift up too high - you might need to wriggle your feet back a little to lengthen yourself out, or let the hips drop too low - engage the abdominal muscles by drawing them back towards the spine, engage the front of the thighs by lifting your kneecaps up and firm, but not grip, the buttock muscles. Lengthen your tailbone towards the back of your heels.

Hips too high

Hips too low

• Press the floor firmly with your hands and feel the shoulder blades move away from each other, broadening the upper back.

• Keep the chin slightly in so the back of the neck is long and relax the face. 

• Hold for 3-5 breaths initially and build up slowly with repeated practice.

If you have problems with your wrists you can do this pose on your forearms. All the other alignment cues are the same. 

Forearm plank

Finally, while we're on the subject of bones, take a look at this lovely video which shows us that really we're all the same and we all want the same thing - love and acceptance  :-)

Have a great week.

https://youtu.be/vljMbgIzE3E

5 Ways to Practice Your Yoga this Easter Weekend

When I started going to yoga classes it was for the physical benefits. I thought of it as an exercise class. I neither knew about or felt that I needed any of the other aspects of yoga. However, the more yoga I did, the more I became aware of the whole practice (the other 7 "limbs" of yoga - see my post of  February 2014 here) and noticed that it was seeping out into my daily life. As the quote below points out, it's more about the journey than arriving.

Over this long Bank Holiday weekend there are lots of ways you can practice your yoga. I've listed 5 here but I'm sure you can come up with more of your own. What they all have in common is mindfulness - being conscious of what you are doing and your reactions to what happens around you.

1. Unroll your mat and do some Asanas (the postures, which are the 3rd limb of yoga). Your body will enjoy the stretch, you'll get to check in with how you're feeling both physically and mentally, you'll breathe more fully and feel all the benefits that a Pranayama practice will bring you and you'll feel good about having enough discipline and commitment to your home practice. 

Start with some Sun Salutations, do some Cat/Cow Poses to mobilise the spine, add in a Downward Facing Dog, step through to a lunge, come up to Warrior 2, Triangle, .... you know these poses.... repeat on the other side... lie on your back with the soles of your feet together and your knees wide, do a few minutes Savasana ..... you've got yourself a yoga practice.

2.  Take a walk, bike ride, or run outside in the fresh air alone. It's great to have company - just making the arrangement to meet someone else helps to make sure you follow through. It's helpful too to have someone else to look at the map with if you're going off into unfamiliar countryside. But when you're talking it's easy to miss things. Beautiful things that our eyes skim over when we're busy and occupied. Clouds moving over the sky, buds on trees, emerging flowers, birdsong. When you're alone you can choose to pause whenever you want to take in the view, and soak up all that nature at springtime has to show you.

This gives me the perfect opportunity to share a lovely video with you. I know I've shared it before but it's so good I'm doing it again. It's a poem by Tanya Davis called How To Be Alone  https://youtu.be/k7X7sZzSXY

3. Eat your Easter egg mindfully. Sometimes at my yoga class we do a chocolate meditation. Everyone is given one square of chocolate and the idea is to savour it and notice the smell, the taste and the texture as it melts. It's interesting to notice any feelings that arise as you eat it (maybe there's a slight sense of disappointment that there's only one square) and also how you feel when it's gone (you might find you want more or maybe one square is enough). This mindfulness exercise helps us to be fully in the present moment and can also tell us a lot about ourselves. This is how yoga can help with weight loss - being mindful makes us more aware of what we are eating and why we are eating it. We start to notice if we are eating because we are bored, or unhappy, or if it is just a habit. Yoga encourages us to have self-compassion too, and when we learn to love and accept ourselves, and appreciate the truly amazing thing that is our body, we start to take better care of it. We practice more yoga to keep it moving with ease and we practice more mindfulness so that we notice how we react to the events that happen in our lives. Choose to eat your Easter egg mindfully, slowly, deliberately and with your full awareness on savouring the experience. 

4. Take a bath, a nap or some other form of self-care. When we're busy working and taking care of the house and family we can so easily put our own self-care to the bottom of the list. Maybe you'd love to curl up on the sofa with your book but there always seems to be a chore that needs to be done. Or you've been meaning to do one of those nourishing hair treatments or a face pack for ages and never seem to have enough time. Take a few minutes over this long Bank Holiday weekend to do something for yourself. Even something as simple as massaging your skin with oil for 10 minutes is beneficial, both for the body and the mind (I love coconut oil - it has no chemicals and the smell reminds me of holidays). By taking this time for your self-care ritual you are acknowledging that your wellbeing is important, and that in itself is empowering and life enhancing.

A Simple Self-Care Tip for Bad Days and Burnout by Sarah Harvey via elephantjournal.com 

Ugh, it's one of those days.
I woke up on the wrong side of the bed, waited till my blood sugar plummeted to eat anything, and wandered around like a spaced-out zombie all day.
Nothing was terribly wrong, but nothing felt terribly right either.
I felt so burned out, tired and grumpy that I couldn’t tend to my needs with the luscious, soufflé-like tenderness I so deeply craved.
I abandoned myself instead.
Then, I beat myself up for being reckless with my self-care routine.
Grrr!
What can we do when we’re so exhausted and stunningly blah that it doesn’t even feel possible to take care of ourselves?
We can stop.
Take three minutes.
And breathe.
I know it may sound annoyingly simple, but sometimes simplicity is surprisingly powerful.
Ready?
Inhale boldly, and feel the fresh air rush into your lungs and expand gloriously into your belly.
Take a tiny pause.
Blow the air out of your mouth fiercely and let out a deep sigh or grunt. Stick out your tongue and shake your head gently, from side to side, like a lioness deep in the jungle.
Ahhhh, right?
Pay attention to that tiny transition, where the inhale turns into the exhale: it’s the perfect place to anchor yourself and create a safe, quiet space.
Lather, rinse and repeat as needed.
Then, close your eyes and gently ask, aloud:
What can I do for myself right now?
What do I need?
Keep breathing.
Let your heart and soul have their say, unedited.
Listen carefully as your own juicy, caramel-like wisdom drips throughout your entire body, soaking it completely.
Listen with soft, eager ears and a wide-open mind.
Gather this sparkling knowledge and hold it firmly in your palms.
Open your hands slowly, like a shy flower blooming in early Spring.
What do you see?
Keep breathing, and settle into this freshly-squeezed, refreshing space.
Honor your needs, in any way you wish—but make a real effort to tend to them with focused intention.
Yes.
This short, simple little exercise seriously saved me today.
It reminded me that when our normal self-care strategies fail, it’s usually because our minds, bodies and souls are calling out for something new.
Self-care, like life, is very dynamic. We require different things each day, so let us make more room to accommodate our constantly cascading, ever-evolving needs.
This is so hard for me to remember.
In my mind, if something worked yesterday, shouldn’t it freaking work today?
In short, no.
Because yesterday is yesterday and today is today.
I need to be here today, feeling what I need right now.
And today, I need to make room for softness, laziness, chocolate, and some quiet time on the couch.
I need to remind myself that little indulgences are a big part of taking care of myself, too.
I think we could all use that reminder.
We are far too hard on ourselves, even when it comes to the lovely things in life, like self-care.
Even if we spend just ten minutes honoring our needs, it will change our day, and over the course of time, our lives.
It all comes down to this one question:
What do I need right now?
Yes, it’s a delicious question.
Taste it.
Lick it.
Mmm…let’s kiss it hard and put it in our soul’s front pocket, we’ll want to keep it handy for tomorrow.

5. Be patient with those around you and practice loving kindness. The Easter break often means spending time with family. Its lovely to have the time to all be together and to connect in an unhurried way but family time doesn't always go smoothly. This story (via one of my favourite meditation teachers Tara Brach (www.tarabrach.com) is a reminder for all of us to learn to live with the imperfections of others and admire their good qualities rather than focus on the little things that irritate us.

"It was the coldest winter ever – so cold that many animals froze to death. In an effort to save themselves from this icy fate, the porcupines decided to gather together to fend off the chill.

They huddled close to each other, covered and protected from the elements, and warmed by their collective body heat. But their prickly quills proved to be a bit of a problem in close proximity – they poked and stabbed each other, wounding their closest companions. The warmth was wonderful, but the mutual needling became increasingly uncomfortable. Eventually, they began to distance themselves one from the other, scattering in the forest only to end up alone and frozen. Many died.

It soon became clear that they would have to choose between solitary deaths in the freezing wilderness and the discomfort of being needled by their companions’ quills when they banded together.

Wisely, they decided to return to the huddle. They learned to live with the little wounds caused by the close relationship with their fellows, in order to benefit from the collective heat they generated as a group. In this way they were able to survive."

Finally, having written about colouring in last week's blog post, it transpires that this simple and relaxing past-time is fast becoming the "next big thing". Who knew I was so on trend?!! Click here to read an article that was published in the Times last week about the very book I'm colouring.

Have a Happy Easter!