Senbazuru - learn the Japanese tradition of mindfully folding paper cranes.
Folding a paper crane is said to bring peace, hope, healing and happiness. The practice of folding a crane brings mindfulness and pleasure through creating a little bit of time in the present moment.
Find out about Michael James Wong’s beautiful book about the tradition, and learn step by step how to fold your own paper crane and bring some mindfulness to your day in this blog post.
Read MoreEver since I can remember I have spent time on the beach looking for shells, pebbles, sea glass and treasures. It was a holiday ritual with my family every summer when we visited the Moray coast in Scotland, many happy hours were spent marvelling at what the tide brings in.
One of the little shells I look for is the European Cowrie, or in Northern Scotland the 'Groatie Buckie.' The process of gentle and mindful searching for these little shells brings peace and calm.
In my latest blog, find out how beach combing is yoga practice, and the significance of the cowrie shell world wide.
Read MoreI've recently started to swim a couple of times a week. I've always loved swimming, but never made it a regular hobby. I took my boys to baby swimming classes from about 6 months old as I know how important it is as a life saving skill, and also how much fun children (and adults!) have splashing around, jumping in and generally mucking about in the water once they are competent swimmers.
But there's something else that I notice when I swim, it's a quietness, a focus and an ease. When I swim it takes me to that quiet space of being that happens in meditation or deep relaxation. My mind quietens and I can just be with the action of 'swimming', of being in the present moment.
In this blog I talk about how we can use the hobbies and activities we lobe to drop into meditation, we can all do it, find out how…
Read MoreI 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.
Read MoreToday, 22nd May , is World Meditation Day. I wanted to share with you my meditation journey, how meditation is simple and effective and maybe inspire you to try it!
15 years ago in a California yoga studio, a shift in my yoga practice happened. One day on the mat I experienced a deep resonance as I moved in a sun salutation, like I had become one with the movement and the space around me. It felt amazing and I realised that yoga was not just a physical movement experience.
As I journeyed through my practice, widened my knowledge and trained to teach yoga I came to realise that what I had experienced in that California yoga studio was a meditative state through movement.
Meditation was something I was intrigued by, had sat and done guided by teachers and using recordings. But I didn't really understand what meditation was supposed to feel like, where it was supposed to take me or if I was doing it right. Recordings were lovely and relaxing, but there must be more to it than just following them and feeling rested. I wanted to really know how to meditate.
Four years ago I joined a meditation teacher training with Mick Timpson at Beanddo, Manchester. I didn't plan to teach meditation, just deepen my understanding of it. The accessible meditation tools I learned underpin every meditation I do, and actually everything I do in daily life. Read on to find out more about my meditation journey, why I teach meditation and how meditation might help you too.
Read More"Waiting is a state of mind. Basically, it means that you want the future; you don't want the present. You don't want what you've got, and you want what you haven't got. With every kind of waiting, you unconsciously create inner conflict between your here and now, where you don't want to be, and the projected future, where you want to be. This greatly reduces the quality of your life by making you lose the present.” Ekhart Tolle
We all find ourselves waiting. Waiting for this phase in human history to be over, for the solution, for the answer. When we project ourselves forward into a future we cannot know, we are missing what is happening NOW.
So how do we get to the now?
Read MoreWe all carry worry around with us. It’s a part of being human. We worry about things we can change and things we can’t change. Some of us worry more than others. It is ok that we worry. We all do it.
The tools and practices of yoga and meditation help us to calm the swirling thoughts of our mind by helping us to bring our awareness inwards, by helping us connect to the peace of the present moment. From this space we are able to take a moment to step back, view the world with more perspective, even change our perspective and then deal with the challenges in a calmer more responsive way.
Whether you practice yoga or meditation or not here are some simple ways to help you calm your mind and your worries and give yourself some space through being more present:
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My yoga bookshelf is getting pretty full, but there are a few books that I return to over and again as resources for my practice and my teaching. I’m sharing them here as they are all really accessible for any yoga student and I hope I inspire you to buy one as a gift to yourself this Christmas.
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