Are you listening? Working for Peace - how yoga helps us to respond rather than react.

What happens when we listen to someone we believe we could never understand? Just over 20 years ago I had the extraordinary experience of sitting in a room with Jo Berry and Patrick Magee – Jo, whose father was killed in the Brighton Bomb of 1984, and Patrick, the man who planted the bomb. Their story of meeting, talking, listening and finding a way to campaign for peace changed my viewpoint from black and white to multi-colour.

October is the anniversary of the Brighton Bombing, and Jo and Pat continue to share their story and ask people to listen to each other. Their courage, and their work for peace, has stayed with me. So has the question: are you listening? Because when there is conflict, we tend to think of two sides – one right and one wrong. Yoga offers us another possibility: it teaches us to pause, listen and respond from the present moment rather than react from our thoughts, judgements and habits. Maybe if we did that just 1% more of the time, it could change the world.

Yoga and Wellbeing, Yoga Practice, Yoga philosophySarah CloverOctober 12, 2026yoga practiceComment

Moon Salutation - 3 ways

I'm sure you've heard of the yoga Sun salutation. If you are a yoga student you've probably done a few of them in your yoga practice. But have you heard of the moon salutation?

Find out more about the moon salutation in this blog post and there’s a free 40 minute class where you can try out 3 variations!

At Winter Solstice

During winter we let go of light just as trees let go of leaves, we look towards cosy and warmth and probably more time indoors, and we should rest more as our ancestors once did when they followed the seasons and the longer nights more closely than we do today.

Winter is nature's sign to slow down, let go of brighter months and spend more time resting and reflecting. The cycles of the seasons can support us so much if we listen, feel and follow them rather than fight against them.

This blog invites you to reflect on your year and take time to rest. I also share some beautiful words from the poet and philosopher John O’Donohue.

Meditation, Yoga philosophy, Yoga and WellbeingSarah CloverDecember 17, 2024yoga quotes, yoga philosophy

B.R.A.I.N.

In this blog post I explain the acronym B.R.A.I.N.

It is a really useful tool to use when making choices, and is especially well known in the world of Pregnancy, Labour and Birth, when having to make choices can come quickly and without much warning. I’ve included a free B.R.A.I.N. card to print out to use at antenatal appointments, through labour, birth and postnatally.

B.R.A.I.N. can also be used by anyone for day to day, and more complex decisions. I invite you to have a read and see if this tool could be helpful for you.

Yoga Gives Back - 10 years of Fundraising

As the tenth anniversary year of Breathing Space Yoga draws to a close, this blog post is a celebration of all of the students that have joined me in class over the past 10 years, and a celebration of some fantastic charities that we have supported in that time.

Every year since 2013 I have organised annual fundraising classes. It has been really important to me to be able to give back to important causes through the yoga that I love to teach. I carefully choose the charity that we support each year.

Over the ten years my fantastic students have generously raised over £4,500. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for taking part and to these amazing charities who do such essential work supporting people.

Read on for a little summary of each of the charities we’ve supported, and of course if you have a few spare pennies maybe you can click ‘donate’ on one of their webpages…

Ten Years, Yoga philosophySarah CloverDecember 7, 2023Ten Years

10 Books for your Christmas List

I’m a big fan of books. Any kind of book- fiction, non-fiction, hard back, paper back, kindle. I thought I’d share 10 books with you that I’ve loved over the past 12 months or so. There’s a variety, but they are all focused on yoga and mindfulness, and cover the breadth of my classes from pregnancy to meditation to menopause.

Whether you add them to your Christmas list, or are looking for a gift for a friend, you can find all of them (and lots more recommendations) on my https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/Breathingspaceyoga pages – if you buy from there you support local bookshops and also a little tiny commission comes to me. Otherwise they are available from most of your usual booksellers.

Let me know if you read any of them…

Rest and Digest

I love the autumn time, the leaves turning, the cosiness of the darker evenings where lights twinkle in warm homes and we can begin to hibernate. But autumn for me also comes with some challenges.

There’s a cycle to this rhythm of challenge and back to ease for me which I can observe. A cycle that usually lasts for a few weeks at time (but I sometimes notice it over days or longer over months). There’s usually a beginning, a growth phase, some status quo and then a challenge. Then back to the start again. I notice it in my activities, my nervous system, and particularly in my body and mind in the form of anxiety or overwhelm or tiredness. You may also recognise this in your own day to day life.

In this blog post I talk about what this cycle looks like for me, how I let go of challenges and the tools and techniques of rest and digest that work for me to get back to the beginning, to feel brighter and stay well. I also offer you a downloadable Yoga Nidra Practice – created in collaboration with my teacher Barrie Risman – to help you to let go of challenges this autumn and enjoy some rest.

Transition

This time last year in the UK we celebrated Spring Equinox with a sense of being pulled back from blossoming and outward growth, and being pushed inward, into our home spaces and losing freedoms we had taken for granted.

This year I am celebrating a year of teaching classes online, all that it has taught me and the students who’ve joined me. I’m celebrating the teaching of the Steady Centre that yoga brings us. How coming back to centre and spending more time with our ‘self’, has been one of the things we’ve been thrown into, has most challenged us and possible has taught us the most.

We are no longer the world we thought we were, the world of ‘normal’ and we are not yet a new world emerging. We are still in transition. We are still navigating change and always will be.

Read on for my reflections on our year of change...

Yoga and Wellbeing, Yoga philosophySarah CloverMarch 18, 2021yoga philosophy, yoga practice

Love and Listening

Over the last week, I have been overwhelmed by the death of George Floyd and the response worldwide to not only his death but so many others. Responses I see daily on email and social media from yoga teachers, friends, strangers.

I hope that this is a time of great change, of love, listening and unity. That this time around we move forward.

I have been reflecting deeply and am very aware that where I thought I was I am not. In this post I share my feelings and intentions to make change as #blacklivesmatter

Yoga philosophy, Yoga PracticeSarah CloverJune 8, 2020yoga philosophy, yoga practice

Pause

In yoga and meditation, we learn various techniques and tools to help calm the body and the mind, to re-balance, to find ease and to find 'a pause'.

These last few weeks have in many ways been 'a pause' for all of us. Whether our daily lives and activities have changed a little, a lot, or perhaps not at all. We have all been given an opportunity to stop and reflect. This in itself is a practice of yoga.

Breathing Space Yoga Northwich - Occasional Thoughts Blog

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