Juicing (and juggling normal life!)
The last time I embarked on a juice cleanse I was at a retreat in a remote part of Cambodia. We woke up with sun salutations, replaced meal times with massages and spent our afternoons strolling along beautiful beaches or reading in a hammock. It was the perfect place to press pause on my usual eating patterns and by the end of the week, I was really starting to listen to the signs and signals my body was giving me: eating when hungry, stopping when full. It sounds so simple
Why I Quit Vipassana...
A lesson in flexibility (not failure!!) I lasted a grand total of 26 hours at a 10-day silent meditation retreat. Which is surprising because I rarely ever quit. I’ve pushed through a 100-mile bike ride on two dodgy knees, endured a week-long juice fast and experienced tireless rejection as an actress. And yet I couldn’t conquer sitting in silence. I trained for Vipassana like I trained for the marathon: I meditated every morning, preparing my mind and body for the challenge
Sitting in Silence...
For 10 day whole days I will be sitting in silence, without internet, a mobile or a book. Why? Because I have signed up for a Vipassana meditation retreat... During a Vipassana students observe a noble silence that prohibits communication- whether by speech, gestures, sign language or written text- and meditate from 4am to 9pm each day. Now believe it or not but this is a beginners course, introducing novices to a pre-Buddhist meditation technique that was revived and popular
Tias Little: Yoga of the Subtle Body
Tias Little's 5-day immersion into yoga of the subtle body has transformed my approach and attitude towards practicing yoga. Over the past year my knowledge and understanding of yoga has vastly but it's practical application has somewhat plateaued. Primarily because I've been trying to micromanage my yoga practice in the same way I try to organise my life. The focus has been on control- with both breath and body- leaving no room for release or a sense of Shavasana. The dharma
New Year, New Lens
At the turn of the year we often find ourselves evaluating and examining the previous year’s progress. We focus on what we don’t have and wh
The Significance of Shavasana
Shavasana is the crown jewel of yoga asana and is the most difficult pose to understand- physically, mentally and spiritually. We end our practice in this lying down position because this is moment when we let go of all of the technique. Throughout the practice we may focus on balancing muscular energy, controlling the mind and slowing down the breath but in shavasana, we drop all of this. It’s quite a wonder that at the end of each and every practice, yoga dismantles its own
Finding Yin in Yang
Teaching at Vagabond Temple has taught me so much about my self and my understanding of yoga. I’ve had the opportunity to teach a variety of students from all over the globe, with classes varying from fast flowing vinyasas to restful restoratives. The freedom to play around with time has been incredibly liberating, as I can really slow my classes down, planning 2-hour sequences starting and ending with a 15-minute shavasana! Yet the greatest lesson I have learnt is that I am
Mindful Meals
I went into Vagabond Temple’s 7-day detox programme hoping to reboot my digestive system and recalibrate my hunger But these were merely sur
The Freedom To Choose
A lot of things in life are out of our control. Death, disease, redundancy, difficult people... Whilst we may not be able to change certain circumstances we can control how we respond to the situation. As my yoga teacher, Lorraine Woods, would always say “why make more drama out of drama?” If you have ever been involved in a car accident then you will understand that it is quite dramatic in its own right. You don’t need to make more drama by shouting and swearing at the other
YOCO: The similarities between yoga and life coaching
Last week I made a start on my reading list for my yoga training. I’m currently reading a borrowed copy of Pantanjali’s* commentary on the Yoga Sutras, ‘Four Chapters on Freedom’. The copy is 3 years older than me and was printed in India, so it certainly turned a few heads on the tube! (Unfortunately, Pantanjali hasn’t published a kindle edition yet!) My initial reaction was I’ve read this before because whilst the Sanskrit translation can, at times, be quite wordy and compl
VOGA: Values and Yoga
Yoga teacher training had been at the back of my mind for a long while and yet until now I’d never acted on it. I guess I supposed it would be something I would do ‘when I’m older’ or ‘once I’ve mastered splits up the wall.’ Those simple and rather flimsy excuses were the only thing stopping me from flying to India and training to be a yogi master. That and finances. And going against the grain... The latter might come as a surprise to you because my career path has been neit
