This is one of my favourite poses. It can be a very calming pose, and with the head resting on something, can help a busy head start to quieten down. For me the intention behind it is to rest, to turn inwards, to quieten the mind and body, and to gently lengthen the spine in … Continue reading Relax into balasana child’s pose
As stress awareness month comes to a close in the UK, this blog post looks at one type of thing which can cause us stress: irritation. We all have things which irritate us. And different people will be irritated by different things. I don't mean things like a skin allergy, but things like: littermissing socksbus … Continue reading What to do if you’re irritated, including when meditating
During my recent workshop on managing stress and anxiety, one participant asked how some people are able to stay unstressed and seem calm pretty much most of the time and other people seem to be stressed far more often. There are various possible explanations for this but the one I'll focus on here is the … Continue reading The stress pot
I'm delighted to be offering two wellbeing workshops this autumn in Dumfries. Following positive feedback from the workshop on understanding chronic (persistent) pain, I'm going to be delivering this workshop again, but it'll be slightly longer at 3 hours to allow more time for the practical things. In addition, I'm going to be delivering a … Continue reading Wellbeing workshops on pain, stress and anxiety
Stress is something we all casually mention in conversations, about work, home or general life situations, but what does stress in the body actually do to us? This depends on whether we're talking about a short-lived single stressful incident (road rage, an interview etc), or ongoing stress for days, weeks or months. Recently in the … Continue reading Long term or chronic stress and the relaxation response
I recently participated in two workshops for therapists about understanding pain, particularly long-term (chronic) pain, and how to help people with such pain to improve their situation. The sessions were very intense with a huge amount of information and were led by a local therapist, Hedd Piper, who, although is a chiropractor by training, is … Continue reading Understanding persistent pain
If you're looking for free, good quality relaxation tracks to use at home, in English or Welsh, why not try these three tracks from Yoga i Bawb (trans: Yoga for All) a west Wales yoga group. The three available are: * Progressive relaxation - relaxing each part of the body in turn * Yoga Nidra … Continue reading Free relaxation tracks, including in Welsh
Several people have said to me that the only night they get a good night's sleep is when they've been to my yoga class. This includes someone who came to my 15 minute lunchtime de-stress sessions, not even a full-length class! So what is it about yoga which can help improve your sleep patterns? A … Continue reading Yoga to help you sleep
Last week was Mental Health Awareness Week in the UK (11-17th May) and for 2015 the theme was 'mindfulness'. People familiar with meditation and yoga may already know about mindfulness, especially as there has been quite a surge in interest in mindfulness in the media, in politics, in business etc in the last few years, … Continue reading Mindfulness in mental health awareness week
Recently I've been really enjoying a combined pranayama (breathing practice) which uses both a strengthening breath and a softening breath. I discovered this in Uma Dinsmore-Tuli's book Yoni Shakti which I have just finished (and will write a review of soon), and have used it several times in my own practice and also taught it … Continue reading Victory and surrender in one breath
Breathe Move relax 