How seriously do you take your yoga?                                                                   

I had reason to reflect on my own approach this week as I sat down to write my monthly newsletter for my students. Truthfully - I struggled this month! Yogini writer's block I guess they'd call it!

Sometimes it just flows: I see, hear or read something and I get an idea, and that's me - off the starting block! Other times I stare at the blank space on the computer and wait for inspiration........sometimes a long, frustrating wait!

I tell myself I'll "work out a better system", so there's always a bank of ideas just waiting for me to use. (Still working on that one!) I search through all my mass of books/teaching notes/yoga magazines looking for inspiration, and nothing jumps out at me. I search frantically as the deadline approaches for something "meaningful" and serious to share with my students......

And then I catch myself and realise….

The more I pressure myself, the harder the task becomes; the less I enjoy the process and the greater the risk I’ll end up writing something which really isn’t me: which doesn’t come from my heart.

And that's when I found myself laughing at myself!

I took a break - and googled "funny yoga quotes."

I had a giggle.

And I suddenly realised two things:

1. I had an inspiration for the newsletter!
2. Yoga is NOT all about having to be serious!
   

Humour is an amazing thing: it can not only help us laugh at our human frailties; our vulnerabilities and our challenges - it can teach us to be a little gentler on ourselves and remind us we are only human!

I read an article the other day which said many of us simply transfer our existing tightly wound up habits into the yoga class or our time on the mat so we have little chance of relaxing at all!

How many of these do you recognize in yourself?

• Frantically checking your phone or sending a message just before class starts.
  
  
• Feeling piqued because a newbie just took the space you usually have in class!
  
  
• Worrying you’re “not doing it right.”
  
  
• Comparing yourself with others.
  
  
• Telling yourself you’re “no good.”
  
  
• Feeling a failure because you don’t practice enough (or at all!) at home.
  
  
• Making your shopping list in Savasana!

3 or more? Guilty as charged?! Sheesh! How wound up can you get?!

 Seriously…(for a moment at least!):

 STOP IT!!! RIGHT NOW!

Wherever you’re starting from;
progress in anything meaningful is a bumpy road!

The fact you’re reading this means you’re at least ON that road!

 Give yourself a high five for showing up, don't take it too seriously, and enjoy the journey!!

Which asana is your biggest challenge?

Maybe it's a Warrior sequence? Maybe it's lunges? Maybe your hips groan when you try pigeon? Maybe you struggle with plank or balances?

As a teacher it is, of course, important to work on the more physical asanas; I like to try and walk the talk! And it's a good feeling as you find your body becomes more toned, flexible and you finally master a pose you found impossible initially.

All good.

But do you find yourself getting slightly fidgety when you lie still in Savasana or Legs up the Wall?   

When you move into Child's Pose do you see it as simply a transition pose and you're itching to move on to the next asana?

When you try to sit quietly and focus on your breath do you find your brain screaming, "Why are you wasting time? Don't you realise how much you've still got to do today?"

Letting go of all that constant chatter in our heads isn't easy.
And if you're in the middle of some crisis; or feeling anger, resentment, fear, sadness, pain or any other negative emotion it's all too easy to allow those emotions  to swallow us up.

What our bodies and minds actually need is space. Time to allow muscles which are clenched with tension to soften.

Time to allow minds which are racing at a hundred miles an hour (yet still not achieving as much as we think we should!) to just press the "pause" button, and slow down.

Time to breathe - to just simply "be."

Have you ever found yourself feeling you just need time to think?

Maybe what you need most is time to just STOP thinking! To just "switch off" from the craziness and just "be."

And that's what Savasana (or some of the other restorative poses) have the power to do.

And don't be mistaken for thinking a good night's sleep will do you as much good. Sleep won't help you "let go", and often sleep patterns when we're facing challenges are anything BUT restful.

Savasana is a conscious releasing and letting go. We remain in a state of gentle awareness: of our thoughts and of our physical state, whilst calmly and consciously allowing those thoughts and muscles to "let go".

The truth is, Savasana or any poses which require stillness take practice: consistent practice.

But the rewards can be immense.

Are you taking any medication? Do you associate getting older with expecting to slow down, become more tired, experience more health problems and taking more medication?

When you visit the doctor do you always expect to walk out with a drug prescription?

Having faced some recent challenges with quite severe pain in my feet I 
can vouch for the fact that, despite my reluctance to take anything unless I have to, when I did go to the doctor, I was in no doubt I needed something to help me cope with the pain. (which, by the way it transpired was the result of  nerve pain emanating from my spine; probably from a couple of injuries some months ago, and not a ligament or tendon injury as first suspected.)

I was struggling to cope even with walking my old lab; and as anyone who has suffered from chronic pain for any length of time will tell you, you are left feeling drained and low.

In such situations, taking medication, even if you hate taking anything, is a sensible and helpful thing to do. When our bodies are in pain, stopping us from normal movement, we need something to allow us to continue to live our lives.

Resting for too long is - as all doctors now agree, a recipe for seizing up further and making the problem ten times worse.

But when we continue to take the painkillers longer term; that can become a problem. Almost all doctors now agree that pain killers only work for a short while - then as time goes on, their effectiveness wears off - and we require more and more, to have the same effect - all the while, risking and experiencing sometimes debilitating side -effects; even having to take other drugs to mitigate those side-effects....till we are rattling from the number of pills we need to take.

Last month Dr Chris Van Tullekan led a documentary  called "The Doctor who Gave up Drugs." You may have seen it. If you haven't - the links are below - I highly recommend watching this fascinating programme.

One thing the programme highlighted was that the amount of drugs we use goes up in middle age.

By the time you reach 50 you might be taking 1000 pills a year and by over 60 you're likely to be on 2 pills a day for blood pressure - not to mention medication for other common ailments such as high cholesterol; depression; diabetes; arthritis and back or other joint problems.

Now, at NO point, did this documentary deny that drugs have their place in helping to support our well-being; in some cases they are an absolute necessity and they save countless lives.

But ALL drugs can do harm - with side-effects in some cases which can prove as challenging and unpleasant as the problem we want treating.

Overworked doctors, with only 10 minutes per patient, describe it as feeling as though they have nothing else to offer us, other than to write a prescription and hope it works.

And we feel short-changed if we walk out of the surgery without a prescription!

We seem to have become a nation who believes that the answer to any and every health issue
is simply to pop a pill.

In "The Doctor who Gave up Drugs", it cited an interesting report which was published last year (2015 by the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges entitled "Exercise - the miracle cure." (Here's a link, if, like me, you'd like to learn more:
Exercise - the miracle cure

However, to  save you some time here's a paragraph from that report which summarises quite nicely, the findings of studying lots of trials/case studies and research:

"Regular exercise can prevent dementia; type 2 diabetes; some cancers; depression; heart disease and other common, serious conditions - REDUCING THE RISK BY AT LEAST 30%.
THIS IS BETTER THAN MANY DRUGS."

In the BBC programme, individuals with diabetes, chronic pain, high blood pressure; depression or at risk of stroke were enrolled in some form of exercise programme, including Kung Fu; walking for 30 minutes 5 times a week and cold water swimming. whilst initially their motiv ation was weak, eventually, with the support of a group, they began to keep up their regime - and the results were dramatic.

In many cases, the exercise reduced the need for medication and measrues such as blood pressure, blood sugar levels and weight significantly improved. In addition - the transformmation in terms of how they felt generally was nothing short of remarkable.

Their mood test scores improved. They slept better at night. They enjoyed life more.

Dr. Van Tullekan said: "They felt like they were in charge of their own health and their own bodies. you can't put THAT in a pill."

So - I urge you to take a good hard look in yor medicine cabinet and ask yourself:
"How could I take back some control?"

Want to see the programmes?

Here's the link to programme 1: The Doctor who gave up drugs - episode 1

And programme 2: The Doctor who Gave up Drugs - episode 2

My own problem with the pain in my feet? My phsyiotherapist said to take the pain killers whilst the pain was severe, and see it as a course of treatment - much like taking a course of antibiotics - but meanwhile, to use physiotherapy and whatever I did, NOT to stop my yoga!

My feet are slowly coming back to being pain free and I have now come off the pain  killers. They have helped as a temporary measure - I will let physio and yoga do the rest.

OMG!!! I'm 64 next week!                                         

Last year at this time I published a blog post which I'm re-hashing this year - because it's still relevant - and some students won't have read it. So here it is:

Don't know how you feel about birthdays - particularly the "big" ones marking the end of a decade. Some people get nervy reaching 30 never mind 40 or more. And I was somewhat disturbed the last time I visited my hairdresser to find she and another girl  working there were having botox done - one of them not even 30 yet - and quite frankly - stunning looking without any "help!"

What's that all about?!

I'm not about to have Botox any time soon that's for sure, but I have to admit that hitting 60 bothered me.

Where had the time gone? When I was in my 20's, 60 was ancient!

And it wasn't the 60 so much that bothered me either! Know what it was?

It was the countdown to 70 - which scares the hell out of me!

I find each birthday since 60 my inner gremlin is saying - "Only 10 years to 70! Only 9 years to 70! only 8 years to 70!

And now, next week, I'm only 6 years to 70!

How scary is that?!!

My 70 plus yoga students will tell me it's not so bad. They look fab; and their quiet determination to do what they can to stay as fit as they can for as long as they can is inspiring, even if they are already feeling the effects of age through inflexibility or other conditions. They come to yoga because they want to increase their sense of well-being - and hold back the years - just like my hairdressers do - but through something far more powerful than botox.

And that's why I'm grateful to yoga.

I have long-standing friends, some of them younger than me, who are struggling with their health.

I feel blessed. I'm more supple than my kids. My core strength is pretty damn good for someone my age, though I say it myself - and I'm working on strengthening it even more. My energy levels are good, and my enthusiasm for life's challenges and experiences remain strong.

I have some twinges of arthritis in my right hand (probably RSI from typing too many blogs and training courses!!). And yes - there are some saggy bits around the neck (and other places I'd rather not divulge!!) and some wrinkles I sometimes feel bad about - but on the whole, I'm not doing too badly.

I say this not to brag. Because I don't think it's anything to do with genes.

I believe it's EVERYTHING to do with yoga.

And for those of you thinking to yourself - "oh well it's OK for her - but she teaches it/has more discipline/more time/" etc - actually, while I did teach for 5 years in my twenties - between 30 and 60 I didn't teach because life was just far too hectic with children, career and all that. And even my personal practice - whilst I never gave up entirely - was often spasmodic.

But I did keep returning to it - and I did build a routine which - whilst it was only 15-20 minutes long, I managed to do regularly. Truth is, in the end, it was no longer discipline - I began to notice how when I didn't do it I didn't feel so good - so I wanted to do it - and then that became as much a habit as cleaning my teeth before bedtime.

I know I can't do anything about my birthday next week! Whether I celebrate it or not (and I AM going to celebrate!), it will happen anyhow. I WILL be 6 years from 70 in exactly one week - whether I like it or not!

I can't change that!

But what I CAN do something about is HOW I get to 70!

Here's what yoga does for me:

• Yoga challenges me to stretch myself a little more every day.
  (Remarkably, what this physical stretching does for my mental ability to stretch outside my comfort zone is pretty cool too!)
• Yoga is helping me increase my strength and flexibility - in every way.
  The more I gently challenge myself, the more I realise I can do. (Physically AND mentally!)
  This is not about doing foolish things; about over exerting yourself or competing with others or trying to show off advanced poses - but it IS about gently encouraging our bodies to continue to move with grace and ease and comfort; so we can still squeeze out every drop of fun and adventure or even handle life's challenges better.
  (You know there's increasing research now showing older people, given a regime of weight training/other exercise, fare far better health wise than individuals not on that regime.)
  
• Yoga encourages me to care for my body - and eat healthily. In the last few weeks I've started moving from being vegetarian to vegan.
  Psychology research suggests that if we build discipline into our lives in one area, it spills over into other areas. For years now I've never dieted - despite having yo-yoing weight and slight bulimic tendencies in my teens and early twenties. 

  I found myself wanting to eat more healthily - taking more interest in how to eat a balanced and interesting diet. I stopped weighing myself - and focused on looking for foods which would keep my energy high, and leave me feeling good rather than bloated or sluggish. I've been vegetarian for 14 years now - and following my time in India for my advanced teacher training, have decided to move gradually to vegan.
  
  It's not about being obsessive - it's just about caring about what I put into my body - (and maybe a new-found respect and thought about where our food comes from.)

  
  

• Yoga keeps me calm - and sane - and grateful!
  Life can be challenging - and no matter what your age, those challenges can sometimes knock you sideways.

  It's no different for me. Over the last year I've seen my Mum degenerate severely as dementia takes over. As I write this it's unlikely she will see out the end of the month.
  
  I can't tell you how many times I've left her and fallen apart. There are times when it all feels too much.
  
  And I know many of my students face, or have faced similar daunting challenges. We need a reserve - a bank of inner strength and resilience, which will help us through those periods with a little more grace and ease.

  Yoga always helps in those challenging times - even when you don't realise it!

  Sometimes you look back and you don't realise yoga is actually helping you cope, until you realise how you've managed to stay a little calmer than usual in a crisis; or when you've had a setback, you've bounced back a little more quickly than you used to; or when you find yourself appreciating little things somehow a lot more than normal.

  Yoga's mental and emotional effects are often subtle - but quite profound. As you build resilience in your body, you build resilience in your mind - with massive personal benefits.
  (And hopefully staying calmer, more grateful and less likely to frown will stave off those wrinkles a bit more too!)

Quite an impressive list eh?! Can botox do that?!! I think not!!

I may be 6 years off 70 next week - but I think I'll continue to pass on the botox and stick with the yoga!

I hope you do too.