It’s easy to find Valentine’s Day annoying. It’s just another excuse for shops to sell us stuff we don’t need. For single people it’s a sick-making reminder of just how single they are. Then there’s the clichéd gifts of flowers and chocolates, the over-priced meals with lots of other couples desperately trying to look happier […]
How can we ensure that we are the best yoga teachers we can possibly be? Just as we need to take care of ourselves and our students, we also need to take care of our teaching career. From the early days of enthusiasm and energy, through to the later years of keeping it fresh, every
I whole heartedly succumbed to the holiday season frenzy. Every temptation was welcome as though they were necessary for survival. Logic and reason vanished as deep-filled mince pies were washed down with oodles of red wine, after a hedonistic night in the company of Nicole Kidman and the delicious Alexander Skarsgard. I ‘caught up’ on
As a society, we give expecting mums a lot of focus. There’s pregnancy yoga, an array of body therapies, pampering sessions and baby showers. The birth itself is the spotlight. We make birth plans, go to active birth classes and everyone is really excited about the due date. All this energy disperses after the little
In recent months I have explored the wonders of the wrist and the secrets of strong shoulders. Each has a huge influence on the way we practice yoga poses and both, rightly, deserved the individual attention. But, what of the bits of the arm between? Just a couple of bones, a few muscles and a
I always think that the thoracic spine is the ‘Cinderella’ area of the back. It is integral to many yoga poses but we rarely pay much attention to it. Until things go wrong that is! Maybe it is time to give your thoracic spine a little love to keep it sweet for the future. Anatomy
Handstands are one of those wonderfully iconic poses of yoga, isn’t it? Done well it is a graceful combination of strength, balance and poise — a challenging, dynamic inversion and pure poetry in motion, but I know I am not alone in struggling to master even a few moments in handstand before gravity takes over and I
Upward facing dog, or variations of it, are performed countless times by students during their yoga journey. As an iconic pose, novice students will strive to achieve upward facing dog but many will fail; repeatedly risking injury from their poor technique. Knowing how to teach this pose well is essential for every yoga teacher and here is how
June in London: we’ve warmed up to the idea of, well, warmth. We’ve experienced several days of sunshine (some even consecutively!) and we’re less tentative about putting on shoes that don’t require thermal socks when we go out. June also promises to be a great month for yoga, and yogi’s, with International Yoga Day on
I love people watching – I’m a physio, I can’t help it. For me, time waiting for trains is time spent checking out how people stand. Spotting the person with great posture becomes my passion. You know the one who stands tall; elegant, effortless and a delight to watch. But why don’t we all move
