Five Reasons to keep doing YOGA

In his book Light on Prānayāma BKS Iyengar says that there are four stages to yoga: commencement, intent endeavour, intimate knowledge and consummation. 

As you’re reading this blog, I’m going to assume that we can tick the ‘commencement’ box.  And that’s a big tick, as the first step is the hardest step of all.

We all start out with good intentions, but it’s much harder to translate those intentions into consistent action, especially when we have so many pulls on our time and energy.

In fact, the sage Patañjali lists nine obstacles to Yoga: physical illness, apathy, doubting your ability, indifference, burnout, uncontrolled desire, living under illusions, lack of concentration and inability to maintain achievements. And that doesn’t even include, ‘desire to socialise’ or ‘inability to keep eyes open due to lack of sleep’. Basically, there are a lot of hurdles to jump before we even get onto the mat.

So, to give you a boost, I’d like to give you some reasons for staying on the path or re-finding it, because it’s always there waiting for you.

Be Inspired by your Teacher

The ancient tradition of yoga has been reinterpreted for the way we live today, but the basic structure of the way yoga is learnt has not. You, the student, learn from your teacher. That teacher will be more experienced, will see things that you do not, and will have experience of how different bodies can access yoga poses. As Iyengar says:

“The obstacles, trials and tribulations in the path of yoga can be removed to a large extent with the help of a Guru.”

Unlike other forms of exercise, like running or body building, your teacher will guide and correct you, will encourage you and push you when you start to flag. And your teacher will have their own teacher who will do the same for them.

Make use of their experience and energy. That’s what I’m here for and I love my job!

Focus on the Needs of your Body

Once you’ve taken your first steps into yoga you start to get to know your body a bit more  – it might be that you need a small tower to sit cross-legged, maybe your shoulders are where your tension gets held – you’ll have become aware of your strengths and weaknesses.  

You’ll also have started to work out which poses you feel more comfortable doing, and which ones make you feel like running a mile. You’re starting to form a yogic relationship with your body.

By practising the sequences of poses, our bodies are gradually extended and strengthened. The more we do the poses, the quicker the transformation, but whether you go once a week, or have established a daily practice, any time spent on the mat is time well spent with your body.

Give Up Results

In work, in life, we have become ‘goal’ driven.  We are looking forwards, making lists, aiming to achieve our dreams.  This is all well and good, but sometimes this preoccupation takes us time-travelling out of the present and into the future.

When we are in a class, wobbling in Warrior 1 (Vῑrabhadrāsana I), we have no choice but to be in the moment, now, pressing down the big toe mound, or straightening the back leg, as without this concentration we flail and fall.

The results of yoga are tangible and real, but just because we can’t sit on the floor in Seated Hero Pose (Vῑrāsana) or get that other foot up in Lotus Pose (Padmāsana), however much we heave, it doesn’t mean we’re failing. Every effort, every inhabited pose is a result.

How Do You Do, Me

The previous two reasons have touched on this one, but it’s worth stating that yoga is as much about the mind as the body.

Some of the poses, such as the backbends, work on opening up the chest, and this opening can leave you feeling vulnerable. By opening up the body, we open up the mind to things that sometimes we’d rather leave hidden, which can be an uncomfortable experience. Many beginners find that this can manifest through tears or giggles. 

In Light on Pranayama, Iyengar says that the hardest pose can often be Śavāsana.  The frantic mind is forced to be still, which for the doers among us, can feel excruciating. That little itch on our nose becomes a torture as the mind fights to keep up a constant chatter. 

But when we allow that jumping bean of a mind to fall still, even for the smallest moment, we open a chink in the door to eternity.

Finding Joy

The eighth limb of yoga is ‘samādhi’ or ‘super-consciousness’.  Only the very devoted yogis reach this state in its purest form, but a glimpse of it is available to the humblest and stiffest of practitioners at any point. When do you last remember experiencing joy? It tends to be when we give in to the moment, and that burden of care or stress that we didn’t even know we were carrying drops away, leaving us feeling light and open.

To sum up, B.K.S. Iyengar says:

"In some postures, we lose the sense of duality and we live in peace, in a joy we cannot express in words. And even if we have to fight all our life to find this joy once more, it is worth doing it."

How Yoga can Lead to Contentment

It’s not easy to be content these days. FOMO is all around us and it’s catching. We get into the habit of upgrading and not just staying with what we have.

This attitude can affect how we feel about our yoga practice as well. Scrolling through Instagram it’s easy to feel that everyone’s practice is better than ours.

But it’s not about how yoga looks on the outside that’s important. Yes, we’re aiming to make the right shapes, but it’s what it’s doing on the inside and how we’re connecting our bodies that the real work happens.

What is contentment?

Contentment, or Santosha in Sanskrit, is one of the five niyamas, a personal ethical code which is one of the eight limbs of yoga. In yoga we need to cultivate contentment to make the mind a fit instrument for meditation, which is the ultimate purpose of the yoga poses we practice.

Originating from Latin and French, the middle English word ‘contentment’ has the literal meaning of ‘satisfaction from a claim or debt’. This puts a different spin on what we think of being content. It’s not a passive feeling, but an active reclaiming of something lost or wasted. We feel whole and that nothing is missing.

Action: Our posture can really impact mood and self-awareness. Try sitting up straight in your chair. Plant your feet on the floor and check that your spine is as tall as you can make it. Join your palms together in prayer pose or Namaskarasana and close your eyes. Connecting the palms brings us back to ourselves and pressing the base of the thumbs to the solar plexus centres us.

Namaskarasana or Prayer pose

But does being content mean that we’re passive?

There’s a misconception that being content means being without ambition or goals.

Contentment is about finding peace in every stage of life, but it doesn’t mean to never challenge yourself.

In the same vein, we can also apply contentment to an acceptance of our mixed successes in our yoga practice. Perhaps we can touch our toes after a long time of working at stretching the hamstrings. A student today touched her fingertips to her brick in Trikonasana, which for her was a great achievement. But for another student it might be kicking up in handstand for the first time.

Just because we can’t do something today, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be content. We’re right where we’re meant to be.

Action: Make a list of the poses you’d like to get better at. This isn’t to make you feel bad about where you are today, but to give yourself a focus for the future.

How can we cultivate it?

This week I’ve been teaching restorative classes. Just because these are less active classes doesn’t mean they’re easier. In fact, for some students these classes pose a greater challenge as they require mental tenacity.

Supta Baddha Konasana

According to BKS Iyengar in Light on Life contentment ‘is an acceptance of one’s mixed lot as a human being.’ Restorative yoga is a great place to start when practising acceptance. We learn to accept the discomfort of the pose because a) we know there will be benefits in the long run and b) that the pose will end at some point! Which reminds me of that saying that gets trotted out in the face of adversity, which is that ‘Things will be alright in the end, and if they’re not alright, it’s not the end.’

 Action: Give yourself ten minutes to practice one or two restorative poses. Suppta Baddha Konasana is the one that most of us remember (Reclining Bound angle pose).

How a yoga practice can help you to feel content

In the pursuit of happiness, remember: contentment is the only real wealth. Alfred Nobel

We can’t feel happy all the time. Life has thrown a lot at us in recent years, not to mention a global pandemic and a cost of living crisis. We can’t know what’s round the corner, but we can practice emotional stability, so that we can weather the ups and downs with a little more equanimity.

The final destination of the eight limbs of yoga is Samadhi, or bliss. From the physical postures we start to draw the attention inwards, leading to meditation, focus and stillness. Samadhi doesn’t mean that we don’t feel emotion, but that emotion no longer controls us.

I can’t say that yoga has solved all my problems, but my yoga practice has certainly given me a solid foundation from which to withstand the hardships along the way.

Action: Commit to a yoga practice, even if it’s once a week. Choose poses that are familiar and let your body start to let you know what you need to practice.

WHY YOU SHOULD GO UPSIDE DOWN (SAFELY)

Inversions are such an integral part of an Iyengar yoga practice. And by inversions I mean any pose in which your head is below your heart. The classic inversions are headstand and shoulderstand, and the energetic handstand and forearm balance. As well as this we have the gentler options of downward dog, standing forward fold (Uttanasana) and legs up the wall.

When would you NOT do inversions?

Inversions ARE good for you, but there are a few health conditions which mean that inversions should be avoided: unmedicated high blood pressure (although shoulderstand can be practised with caution), some heart conditions, neck injuries, recent stroke, detached retina, glaucoma, and epilepsy are common issues that should be addressed before inverting. Talk to your yoga teacher (or me) if you have any concerns.

Also, I would suggest that you take a break from inversions during your period. Generally in life we just have to ignore our body and get on with it, so it’s always nice to feel that we are being given the option of resting.

Why are inversions so good for you?

One of the (many) things that starts to decline as we get older is our awareness of our body in space or proprioception. This has a knock-on effect on our balance and stability. Going upside down is a proven way of improving our proprioception, making falls less likely.

Going upside down also helps improve the efficiency of the circulatory system, as it reverses blood flow and means that the heart doesn’t work as hard. It’s also very beneficial for the lymphatic system, which is a key part of our immune defence system.

Physically inversions are an excellent way to maintain core strength and flexibilty. In order to balance efficiently we need to be using the whole muscular system as well as strenthening the arms and shoulders (handstand, headstand and downward dog).

Also inversions are a great way of balancing out the endocrine system. Shoulderstand especially is great for perimenopause and menopause as it stimulates the thyroid and parathyroid glands which secrete hormones that regulate the metabolism.

Also, inversions are great for our mental health, giving us a new outlook on life and a confidence boost. According to BKS Iyengar in his book Light on Yoga, “Regular practice of Sirsasana [headstand] makes healthy pure blood flow through the brain cells. This rejuvenates them so that thinking power increases and thoughts become clearer.”

How to Practice them at Home

There are loads of ways to incorporate inversions into your home practice. It’s best to start with what you feel confident with, such as downward dog. Spend a bit of time in the pose, and make sure you relax the head and neck. Try different ways of practising, such as putting your hands on bricks, or pressing your heels to the wall. If you’re tired it’s a good idea to take support for your head. Your home practice is your way of finding out what works for you.

Shoulderstand is a great pose to practice at home, as we often don’t have time to fit it in during classes. Make sure you take support under your shoulders (as seen in the picture above) and if you can’t take your feet to the floor behind your head, then use a chair or go to the wall. Start by staying in the pose for a minute, and then build up from there. If you have any blood pressure issues always spend plenty of time in Halasana (plough pose) before going up into the pose, and come down slowly too.

In the Iyengar yoga system we don’t recommend that you practice headstand until you’ve been attending classes for a while. You should also be confident with your shoulderstand and all the standing poses (that doesn’t mean perfect). Once you’ve had a few goes at headstand in class it’s time to take your practice home as that’s where the real progress will happen. See below for a step-by-step guide to getting up into headstand at home.

Bricks, blocks, blankets and belts - why Props are so Important for Iyengar yoga

Back in ‘ancient times’ when yoga was first being practiced there were no props.

The only prop was the body itself.

In fact, Iyengar’s eponymous book, Light on Yoga, first published in 1966, includes hundreds of images of Iyengar in yoga poses, and there is not one prop in the book - except for a wooden box that he’s seated on in the last pose of the book.

Even the yoga mat was only ‘invented’ as recently as 1982, when an English yoga teacher called Angela Farmer got fed up with her hands and feet slipping on the floor and went to buy some carpet underlay - the very first yoga mat.

So why does Iyengar yoga use props?

BKS Iyengar was a perfectionist and when he started his yoga practice he was recovering from a long childhood illness. He looked around him for ways to access the poses without hurting himself. The props we use use today are based on the simple objects Iyengar found lying around the house or in the street.

Iyengar explains why he introduced props into his practice first, and then his teaching when he realised the benefits:

I was preoccupied trying various ways to improve and perfect my own practice. I used to pick up stones and bricks lying on the roads and used them as ‘supports’ and ‘weight bearers’ to make progress in my mastery of āsana…

As his teaching progressed, he realised the value of props, and pioneered the use of props in restorative and therapeutic yoga.

What are the most common yoga props?

The first yoga prop was probably the brick. Initially just a sawn-off bit of wood, these were used to assist the lift of the shoulders in headstand to reduce pressure on the neck. Gradually, the bricks were standardised and evolved into the cork or foam bricks we use today.

Now, if you visit an equipped Iyengar yoga studio you’ll find:

Mats, blocks, bricks, belts, bolsters, blankets, bandages, slanted planks, setu bandha bench, tressler, ropes, rope walls, chairs and more.

What do I need to practice Iyengar yoga?

While props are important in Iyengar yoga, they’re not essential. The lockdowns of the past couple of years taught us to improvise with our yoga props, just as Iyengar did all those years ago.

However, if you’re starting out as a yoga student, it’s really helpful to get your own props so that you can practice safely at home, as well as taking them to classes if needed.

Your starter props kit would consist of:

1 mat, 4 blocks, 2 bricks, 1 belt and 1 blanket

The blanket is possibly optional, but I find a blanket will be used in one way or another in most classes, under the head in savasana, or on top of the blocks in shoulderstand, and for restorative sessions it can be folded and placed over the blocks to stand in for a bolster.

And once you have your own props it encourages you to practice at home - where the real yoga happens.

The final yoga prop which is used in most yoga practices is a chair. Find a folding chair and keep it handy. Israeli yoga teacher Eyal Shifroni has written two books full of ways you can use a chair to deepen your yoga practice.

What your props are used for:

MAT - A large part of yoga is to improve our proprioception – the awareness of the body in space. Having a mat means that we can work out where to place our feet, to align the edges of our feet with the edges of the mat, to be in the centre of the mat in Tadasana and so on. It places the body in space. Mats also give a sticky surface to prevent the hands and feet from slipping. Mats can also be folded up give support in headstand, or rolled to support the spine in poses such as Chair Dwi Pada Viparita Dandasana.

BLOCKS – Blocks are used most often for seated poses to give a secure support from which to lift the spine. They are also used to ‘lift the floor’ when in shoulderstand, in order to lift from the shoulders, rather than letting the weight drop onto the back of the neck.

BRICKS – Bricks are mostly used as extensions of the arms in standing forward bends. If the hamstrings are tight the hands can be placed on bricks so that the spine can stay extended. Bricks are also used as supports in Brick Setubandha (the clue’s in the name).

BELT - The simple D-ring belt is an essential part of your yoga kit. A bit like the bricks it acts as an extension of your arms to reach the feet in supine and seated forward bends, in the standing balancing poses, such as Vrksasana, and it can help to give direction to a pose, e.g. to lengthen the arms up in Urdhva Hastasana. It can also contain the arms, e.g. keeping the elbows together to give a more secure base in shoulderstand.

BLANKET - A heavy cotton blanket is the ideal option, and most reflects the blankets used in the Iyengar Institute in Pune. Folded it can act as a support, and a way to soften the poses when being held for longer.

A final word on props.

Iyengar yoga focuses on alignment of the body in the pose, so instead of pushing the body beyond it’s natural limit, props are used to access the final pose, while still respecting each body’s particular boundaries.

There are endlessly creative ways to use props to change the focus of each pose too. This is another great advantage to Iyengar yoga - you will never do the same class twice, indeed you’ll probably never do the same pose twice.

However, as Shifroni states in the introduction to ‘A chair for Yoga’:

Practitioners should be careful not to develop dependancy on props; rather, props should be employed intelligently in pursuit of a more mature and mindful asanas practice.

Your Handy Festive Yoga Sequence

It’s hard to keep a yoga practice going at this time of year.

We’re tired, there’s a lot going on, and it’s easy to skip it.

But if you can take 15 - 20 minutes to fit in a yoga practice, you will:

• alleviate seasonal aches and pains

• stretch out stiff muscles from lots of sitting

• increase the efficiency of your digestion - much needed at this time of year

• reduce stress and improve sleep

• give yourself a much-needed bit of space

See below for an example of a quick practice to get everything moving.

Please take your own conditions into consideration. If you usually practice inversions, then add them in after the handstand - headstand, followed by shoulderstand.

And finally a 5-minute savasana (not pictured).

And a Merry Christmas to you all, and a happy New Year.

Can Yoga help your Self-knowledge?

Life can be tough, right?

The past few years have been a rollercoaster of global crises, and, for most of us, a few personal ones thrown in for good measure too.

When the proverbial hits the fan, it’s useful to have a sense of self. To know how or when we need to ask for help, to know when to stop and so on. But for many of us, this self-knowledge only comes through bitter experience.

However, there is another way we can build a sense of self-knowledge which is deeply useful in these tough times.

This self-knowledge comes through our yoga practice.

What is self-knowledge?

Self-knowledge, in Sanskrit, Svadhyaya, is one of the five Niyamas, part of the first limb of yoga.

Without the discipline of self-knowledge we cannot truly practice yoga, without practicing yoga, we cannot truly know ourselves. So, like the chicken and the egg conundrum, which comes first?

According to BKS Iyengar, “Your practice is your laboratory, and your methods must become ever more penetrating and sophisticated. Whether you are in asana or doing pranayama, the awareness of the body extends outward, but the senses of perception, mind, intelligence should be drawn inward.”

Action: When we stand on our two feet, spreading the toes, moving our weight back onto our heels, we draw our minds out of the fug of habitual action into the clarity of intelligent perception.

How can we cultivate it?

Self-knowledge begins with self-awareness. Iyengar again, with yet another brilliant sentence:

“Self-awareness is the opposite of self-consciousness.”

Our relationships with ourselves are (mostly) extremely complex. We are conditioned by our upbringing, societal norms, by social media, peer pressure and so on. When we begin practising yoga we are usually in two camps:

“I’m actually pretty good at this yoga lark – I can touch my toes easily in this pose.”

OR

“I’m awful at yoga, I’m so stiff, everything hurts, I’ll never be as good as other people.”

While being at opposite ends of the spectrum, both responses are self-conscious. A self-conscious response can lead to over-stretching of the muscles, either due to showing off how good you are, or through panicking that you’re not good enough. Neither one is very useful in the long run.

Action: The pose which most of us find easiest to be self-aware in at the start is Savasana. Lying still and quiet with the eyes closed we can use the gentle rhythm of the breath to just observe the body and mind. Then we gradually learn to take that quiet into the rest of our poses.

How to get out of our heads 

To become self-aware and not self-conscious requires practice and self-compassion. Iyengar puts this very neatly:

“When you are self-aware, you are fully within yourself, not outside yourself looking in. You are aware of what you are doing without ego or pride.”

The increasing use of social media and the focus on what we look like is a difficult habit to break. We tend to see ourselves as if from the outside, but we forget that we live inside our bodies. By truly inhabiting ourselves we can take a break from all that noise that goes on in our heads.

Action: The invocation practiced at the beginning of each yoga class is a way to move our attention from outside – in. Sitting cross-legged we bring our attention first to our posture. Then to the breath. Then to the movement and vibration of the breath through the sung invocation. We remember that we are just part of the long tradition of yoga practitioners, as well as a way to be unified with the other students in the room with us.

How to build a practice

Our noisy heads are one of the main obstacles to getting on our mats in the first place. Most of my students say, ‘I know I should do a yoga practice, but…’ and there are so many ‘buts’ that get in the way.

I can completely relate, as life has a habit of getting in the way of a whole host of good intentions.

The thing to remember is that your yoga practice is there for you, not the other way around. We are all different beings and we each need to find what works for us (self-knowledge…)

For some people getting up half an hour earlier than the rest of the household and doing a pyjama practice is what works.

For others the extra sleep is too important, and they find a way to fit 40 minutes of practice into their lunchbreak.

Or for the extra-busy person, yoga poses can be built into everyday life; Tadasana in the queue, Vrksasana while brushing your teeth, a quick Downward dog while waiting for the kettle to boil. It goes without saying that an undisturbed hour of practice is going to be more beneficial, but a quick pose here and there throughout the day is also a practice.  

Try adding in one pose to your daily routine, and see start to reap the benefits of self-knowledge that come with it.

What is Pranayama and how will it help?

Pranayama, control of the breath, is one of the eight limbs of yoga and is an essential part of Iyengar yoga. But it’s not easy to make time for it in our already-busy lives.

But so many of us are struggling with the burnout that 2022 has brought, coping with the aftershocks of a global pandemic, with the background of a war in Europe, rising energy prices and so much more

And the positive effects of pranayama are definite and not illusory. It gives relief from anxiety, stress-related diseases and everyday ailments. There are no short cuts – the only way to reap the benefits is through patient and regular practice.

How does Pranayama fit into yoga?

Pranayama is practiced side-by-side with asana practice, and while the asana practice is essential for pranayama practice, the practice of pranayama benefits our asana practice.

How? All those chest-opening poses we do in backbends expand the upper chest. All those twists we do strengthen the spinal muscles so that the lungs are supported. All those forward bends lengthen and expand the back body, and quieten the mind. All those standing poses increase stamina and help with postural alignment. And the practice of pranayama strengthens the heart and lungs leading to better poses.

While other forms of yoga rush to introduce complex pranayama practice, the Iyengar yoga method gradually introduces pranayama at a pace that allows the body to be ready for this powerful practice.

The Pranayama Practice

What exactly is pranayama? Simply put in BKS Iyengar’s words:

Pranayama is a conscious prolongation of inhalation, retention and exhalation.

The first step in any pranayama practice is awareness of the breath. By making our breathing a conscious act we start to bring our intelligence to the breath, just as the asana practice brings intelligence and awareness to the body.

For beginnners it is best to start in lying down in a supported position, otherwise the spine can start to collapse. Even just breathing normally, but with awareness, it increases your ability to focus, increases energy and softens the lungs.

Then there are many different pranayama techniques you can practice, but they all start with an exhalation breath to expel the air from the lungs.

Seated Pranayama

Once the student has practised the asanas for a good amount of time, and has done a fair amount of supine pranayama, the next stage is seated pranayama. The seated position can be cross-legged or in any comfortable position which allows the spine to lift (especially the lower spine), such as siddhasana, padmasana or virasana.

Once the seated position is established, the head is lowered towards the trunk in a position called jalandhara bandha, or ‘chin-lock’. Poses such as shoulderstand help to lengthen the neck and allow you to hold this position without stiffness in the neck. The hands rest gently on the knees. It’s important that when seated, you keep the trunk lifted so that the lungs and abdomen aren’t compressed.

Quick Pranayama Practice

If you’re like me and you find it hard to make time for a pranayama practice, try this ten-minute practice.

• Lie down on your mat with the the spine and head supported, on a bolster or folded blankets. You want the head to be angled down slightly towards the chest and not thrown back.

• Cover the eyes with an eye pillow or belt to relax the nervous system.

• Breathe normally. Observe the flow of the inhalation and exhalation breath in and out of the nostrils.

• Then work to make the breath even and steady, expanding the chest upwards and outwards at the same time.

• Then gradually lengthen the exhalation breath, breathing out to the end of the breath, but keeping the mind quiet.

Continue with the above for 10 - 15 minutes.  Then remove the eye covering and open the eyes gradually.  Stay breathing normally before gradually getting up when you feel ready.

The Benefits of Pranayama

How can just breathing help us? In lots of ways.

The regular practice of pranayama has been found to:

• Improve sleep quality

• Reduce high blood pressure

• Improve lung function

• Enhance cognitive performance

• Reduce addictive cravings

And more. So even if you just do 5 minutes before bed in the evening, try it. You have nothing to lose!

How Yoga can Help Tight Hamstrings

Tight hamstrings are extremely common, and one of the biggest reasons that people say, ‘I can’t do yoga – I’m not flexible’.

But just because you can’t touch your toes, doesn’t mean you can’t do yoga, it’s even more reason to do yoga!

Classically, men have tighter hamstrings, but both men and women can have them. There are multiple reasons for why tight hamstrings are so common. Firstly, it’s genetic. The flexibility of our bodies is an inherited trait. Lots of aerobic exercise such as walking and running builds up the muscles in the legs but can shorten the hamstrings. But one of the other main reasons for tight hamstrings is that we sit far too much. Sitting is not a good position for healthy hamstrings.

The Anatomy of the Hamstrings

The hamstrings are a very handy bunch of muscles which help us walk, run, jump, and stop our spines from flopping forwards when we bend over.

Situated at the back of the thighs, they start deep in the buttocks at the sitting bones, pass down the back of the thigh and attach to the lower leg just below the knee.

The hamstrings help to operate both the knee and the hip, allowing the knee to bend and to lift the leg backwards (for example in Warrior three when we take the back leg up).

Now (crucially for the toe-touching test) the hamstrings also control the movement of the trunk as we come into forward bends (to stop us from just flopping forwards over our legs). This is called ‘eccentric muscle contraction’, which is an action used a lot in yoga.

Why are Tight Hamstrings a problem?

The hamstrings can have a huge influence on our posture. They can pull the pelvis into a posterior tilt (tilting backwards) which can flatten out the lower back. This means that the spine is unable to move freely. Tight hamstrings cause the pelvis to over rotate at the back, causing lower back pain, especially in the sacro-iliac area, knee pain and foot pain.

 Happy hamstrings are long hamstrings. This means that the spine can move freely and the knees can fully open.

How Can Yoga Help?

For our hamstrings to function optimally, we need them to be both LONG and STRONG. If we just lengthen the hamstrings without strengthening them, we will not have enough support to lift the back of the legs and keep both the pelvis and the hips stable.

We also need to work with intelligence, because just pulling on the hamstrings will result in injury – which can take a very long time to recover from.

Yoga to Lengthen Your Hamstrings

There are many poses in yoga which help to lengthen the hamstrings. All of the forward bends, both standing and seated are great hamstring lengtheners. Here are some ways to work at lengthening the hamstrings in your yoga practice:  

• Get to know your limits. We all need to find that point where we’re out of our comfort zone, but not into the danger zone. We are aiming for mild discomfort, or feeling of stretch, which you are able to sustain, and which should start to ease the longer you hold the pose.  

• Work the opposite muscles. When lengthening muscles it’s important to flex the opposite muscles. This is because of a process called reciprocal inhibition. When one set of muscles is working, the opposing set relaxes. So, if we’re working our quads, it enables the hamstrings to relax and stretch more. So pull up those knees people!

• Take your time. Iyengar yoga is an intelligent and holistic form of yoga practice. We each have to take the time to get to know our bodies and their capabilities. Safely lengthening the hamstrings, as well as all the tendons and fascia that makes up the back of the legs won’t happen overnight. It will take months and years of regular practice.

• Use the props. Another reason why Iyengar yoga is such a great method (I’m biased) is because each student has access to a range of props which will help to access those poses that require long hamstrings. All the forward bends need long hamstrings, but if you’re not there yet, you can use the bricks for your hands in Uttanasana (Standing forward bend) or the belt to reach your feet in Supta Padangustasana (Reclining hand to big toe pose).

Yoga to Strengthen Your Hamstrings

There are lots of poses which work to strengthen our hamstrings too:

• Any poses which require you to lift your leg up backwards help to strengthen the hamstrings, e.g. Eka pada adho mukha svanasana (One-legged downward dog pose) and Virabhadrasana 3 (Warrior 3).

• Also, backbends where you lift from the floor are hamstring strengtheners, e.g. Chatush padasana (four-footed pose - with the weight on the shoulders and the feet) and Urdhva dhanurasana (Upward-facing bow pose).

• Floor-based backbends are also good hamstring strengtheners, e.g. Shalabasana (Locust pose) and Urdhva mukha svanasana (Upward-facing dog pose).

• Finally, BKS Iyengar reminds us that it’s not always the obvious poses to go for. Bharadvajasana (seated spinal twist) is also good for keeping the hamstrings supple, so it’s always worth adding this one into your practice.

Remember it’s not a Race

My final piece of advice to you is that yoga is not a competition. Some people have naturally long hamstrings, but they too will have their challenges. Yoga about getting to know our own bodies and then working with them to progress.

Ten Ways to Tap into Spring Energy for your Home Practice

Spring blossom

When it comes to our home yoga practice, there are certainly seasonal shifts. No one can deny that it’s harder to fit a morning practice when it’s cold and dark.

However, now the days are longer and the nights are shorter. There is more light, more warmth (sporadically – this is the UK after all), and it’s time to get back to business. So here are my TOP TEN tips for how to infuse your yoga practice with the energy of spring.

1. Rise with the Lark

One of the best ways to take advantage of all this extra light is to get up earlier. Although it can feel like every extra second in bed counts, that precious time in the early morning can be a really productive window. By setting the alarm just 20 minutes earlier you can fit in a quick yoga sequence as the birds sing their dawn chorus (well maybe not quite that early…).

2. Increase Your Practice Time

If you’ve got an established home practice then spring is the time to ask yourself whether you’re really getting the most out of it. Have you got into a rut of squeezing in a quick session without getting into the nitty-gritty? Use the positive growth energy of spring to deepen your practice by making it longer and more thorough.

3. Go for a Dream Pose

Spring into action by setting your sights on a dream pose - such as a pose that I’ve been teaching in my classes this week - handstand (or Adho Mukha Vrksasana). Poses like handstand require regular practice on your own to really master. Start by deconstructing the elements of the pose and work on each part, for example, practicing Downward dog and Uttanasana to lengthen the hamstrings, and then practice getting the lift of the hips by stepping up onto a chair or blocks from Downward dog.

4. Try New Things

Despite how wonderful yoga is, like anything that we do a lot of, we can start to lose some of our enthusiasm for the subject. If you’ve never been to a yoga workshop, why not make this spring a first (try my ‘Free the Shoulders’ workshop coming up this May).

5. Take Action

Spring is the time to make decisions you’ve been putting off and then DO something about those decisions! Have you wanted to start a home practice but never had the confidence? A lot of students say they’re just not quite sure where to start. Start with three poses. Repeat them all three times. Feel the difference. Go from there.

6. Spring Clean Your Yoga

You’ve gone out into the garden (or balcony) and cleared out all the winter detritus that builds up, spring-cleaned the house (opened the windows at least) and now it’s time to do the same for your yoga. Spring cleaning your yoga means letting go of old habits and embracing new goals. Or sometimes just finding that pose that you hate and giving it a good old dose of attention – it’s often the ones you don’t like that are the ones you need to practice.

7. Spring Clean Your Body

Once you’ve polished off your kids’ eggs in a late-night cupboard raid, it’s time to tune into your body to work out what’s best for summer. According to yoga’s sister science, Ayurveda, in the warmer, lighter months the body doesn’t need as much heavy food. So why not try whole grains, salads and lighter proteins such as fish.

8. Get Organised

Once you’ve made decisions, spring cleaned and tried new things, it’s time to get organised with your yoga. Do you have so many good intentions that fall by the wayside as obstacle after obstacle seems to block your path to your yoga? Life is busy and there are so many demands on us, but, by getting organised, we can build a routine that supports and makes space for our yoga practice.

So, sit down with your diary and put your yoga practice sessions into the diary, in indelible ink. Then once you’ve got your time slots, decide what you’re going to practice in each slot. You might want to put in a restorative practice if you know you’ve got a busy time coming up. Be specific.

9. Jump for Joy

There’s something about springing into the air on your two feet that makes you feel like a newborn lamb gallivanting in the fields. In Iyengar yoga we don’t do lots of jumping, but there are ways to add more movement into your home practice. (Just bear in mind that if you have a back or knee injury jumping may not be the best idea).

Try adding a few extra jumps when going from Tradasana into standing poses, or, from Downward Dog to Uttanasana. Or just add a few jumps in Tadasana at the start of your practice.

10. Be Positive

Spring is a time to be a glass-half-full person. The natural world is blooming and singing with zingy, green colours. Put your darker woollies to the back of your drawers and wear your brightest clothes. Make a list of what makes you happy at the end of each day. Choose a Sankalpa (intention) in your extra early morning slot and decide to be your happiest self today.

Why Yoga is the Best New Year's Resolution that Isn't a New Year's Resolution

We’re halfway through January (already!) and those New Year’s resolutions have probably started to wane by now, whether it was to lose weight, give up alcohol or do the whole ‘Veganuary’ thing.

But I feel that this year, what with it now being year three of a global pandemic, we are well within our rights to skip the resolutions.

Me feeling is that it’s enough to resolve to get through the year, and whatever it decides to throw at us.

The good thing is that if you’re reading this blog, you’ve made it this far. Through the fearful but sunny spring and summer of 2020, through the false hope of Christmas 2020, the dark days of January 2021, the uncertainty, vaccines, two-metre distancing, mask-wearing and probably, Covid itself.

But, it has left most of us with scars of some sort.

How Yoga Teaches us to take the Rough with the Smooth

The thing is, we all know that life isn’t a bed of roses. None of us really expect to be happy all the time, but it’s still hard when we face suffering and uncertainty - as BKS Iyengar observes accurately in his book Light on Life, “Most people want to take joy without suffering.’

Iyengar says, “I will take both.”

When we commit to a yoga practice we’re committing to to both pleasure and pain.

For example, in the yoga class that I taught this morning we focused on the feet and the hands. We worked them hard, spreading the feet, sitting on the heels (agony), asking tough things of our hands and feet. But with this effort came the pleasure of connecting hands, arms, shoulders and upper back. The pleasure of feeling the body come together in a pose.

Why We Commit to Yoga Again - and Again - and Again

Let’s come back to that word: resolution. When broken down into its component parts it is; a means of solving a problem or dealing with a difficult situation AGAIN. This is very similar to committing to a yoga practice.

I decided to commit to a yoga practice seven years ago as a yoga teacher trainee. At the beginning it was easy to stick to it as I had to a) know all the yoga poses off by heart b) get confident enough to teach them and c) had the support of my co-trainees on the same journey.

Seven years later my yoga practice is still something I have to re-commit to every day. The incentives have changed. Without an assessment looming the practice is for my own benefit and to inform my teaching. And there are days when I don’t get on to the mat. But I know that if I do, it will shift my perspective and allow me to face the day with a little more equanimity.

Why Isn’t Yoga a New Year’s Resolution?

Yoga is the best New Year’s resolution that isn’t a New Year’s resolution, because it’s an All Year Round resolution. And now I’ve said ‘resolution’ too many times and it sounds weird.

And because our yoga practice gives us all those ‘re-’ things that are healthy for body and mind.

Yoga teachers us resilience. Because we practice the poses we find hard, we pick ourselves up after falling over, we try again and again.

Yoga teaches us respect. Because we start to appreciate our bodies for the things they can do, not the things they can’t.

Yoga teaches us to relax. And not in a shallow way, but the deep relaxation of savasana, when we sink down through the layers of consciousness.

So in order to re-commit to your practice, whether it’s a daily one, a three times a week one, or your commitment to a weekly class, why not come up with your own ‘re’ word that motivates you to get on the mat?

And then we can resolve to make 2022 the year that we all practice yoga together.

Yoga Philosophy - and why it's more Yoga than Yoga

As yoga students, how important is it to know about the philosophy of the yoga we practice?

Yoga Philosophy is a vast subject; the Vedas, the Sutras of Patanjali, the Bhagavad Gita, and the Upanishads, to name but a few. You could spend a lifetime studying any one of these great texts.

But yoga is a physical practice, so do we need to know about the philosophy of it to be fully-rounded yogis?

What is yoga?

The physical poses that we know as ‘yoga’ are actually asanas, (postures), which are just one part of eight different aspects of yoga.

The eight limbs of yoga are the yamas (moral restraints), niyamas (positive duties), asana, pranayama (control of the breath), pratyahara (withdrawal of the senses), dharana (concentration), dhyana (meditation) and samadhi (self-realisation).

These eight limbs are described in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, which is perhaps the most famous philosophical or theoretical work about yoga – but by no means the only one.

A brief history of Yoga Philosophy

We don’t really know when yoga began, but the estimate is around 2,500 years ago. Modern Yoga is an amalgam of lots of different Indian forms, but the earliest mention of yoga in a written form is in the Upanishads and the Mahabharata.

The Upanishads are part of the Vedas (meaning ‘wisdom’) – ancient Sanskrit texts – which are a collection of spiritual teachings, and the basis of Hinduism. The Mahabharata is an epic tale (the other one is the Ramayana), which tells of the wars between two groups of cousins, as well as lots of devotional and spiritual teachings.

Within the Mahabharata is the Bhagavad Gita, in which Krishna’s teaching is infused with yogic concepts.

Following on from these works is possibly the most important philosophy of Yoga; the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. Written somewhere between 500 and 200 BC, it is a collection of 196 aphorisms (sayings) covering all aspects of yogic life.

In the 15th century, the sage Svatmarama wrote the Hatha Yoga Pradipika (Light on Hatha Yoga), which is much closer to a manual than the other works and is more like the yoga that we recognise and practice today.

Where to start

But where do we start? As yoga students the best place to start is the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. As an Iyengar yoga teacher, I start all my classes with the traditional chant to Patanjali, so it would be a bit remiss of me to chant away to some sage I have no idea about.

However, if you’re expecting a handy guide on how to do yoga, you’ll be disappointed. The sutras are a series of aphorisms that focus mainly on the philosophical journey of yoga. Within the 196 verses, there are only three that actually refer to the physical postures we call yoga.

There are four sections or padas of the book.

1. Samadhi pada – on concentration, or contemplation

2. Sadhana pada – on practice

3. Vibhuti pada – on properties and powers

4. Kaivalya pada- on freedom from attachment

The first deals with where you’re heading – samadhi. It’s an aspirational way to start and is directed at those who are already well on their way to enlightenment. The second sutra in this section is the definition of yoga that might surprise most yoga students:

“Yoga is the cessation of movements in the consciousness”

— Yoga Sutras of Patanjali

So far from being a way a way to feel healthier, grow stronger, or even gain self-discipline, the primary goal of our yoga practice is to quiet the endless chatter of the brain.

The second chapter is for the less spiritually evolved (so, most of us) and covers the eight limbs of yoga, as well as the three great paths of yoga; Karma Yoga (the yoga of action), Jnana Yoga (the yoga of knowledge), and Bhakti Yoga (the yoga of devotion).

The third chapter is about the divine effects of yoga and the eight supernatural powers, or siddhis. These siddhis include the ability to change size, weight, to attain every wish and to gain power over all things – so eat your heart out, Marvel.

The final chapter is about achieving kaivalya when the sadhaka (seeker) attains liberation from the extremes of pleasure and pain and lives in a state of virtuous awareness. Easy.

Things to bear in mind

It’s not a religion. According to Patanjali, those who practice yoga can be of any faith, colour, creed, or sexual orientation (well, he didn’t say that, but I’m extrapolating). Anyone can do yoga, and their beliefs and values will be strengthened by the practice and philosophy.

Don’t be overwhelmed. Yoga philosophy was studied by sages who literally did nothing else, for their whole LIVES. For us normal folk, studying yoga philosophy is likely to be a long way down our ‘to do’ list. I return to the same chapters of my books over and over again. Sometimes, if I have 5 minutes, I just open the book at a random page and read what swims into view and just digest that one section.

Yoga philosophy can be a practice. If your body isn’t up to practice, but you’re feeling the need to quiet the mind, then practising any of the eight limbs of yoga is still yoga. Studying any of the eight limbs of yoga, is still yoga. In fact, it could be argued that it’s more yoga than actually doing yoga (according to Patanjali and his 196 aphorisms).

Take Notes. Have a notebook that you keep to hand, and then when something makes sense to you, jot it down. Or keep a handy guide of the meanings of some of the recurring words, like samadhi.

Why a Restorative Yoga Practice is ALWAYS a Good Choice

I’ve written before about the importance of rest, but as we head into the winter months after a long period of uncertainty, this has never been more important.

Speaking to several students over the past few months, it feels as if things are very busy for many of us.

This isn’t surprising, as this is the first time in a while that we have been ‘back to normal’, while at the same time, living in a country that currently has the highest rates of Covid in Europe. This is on top of the usual coughs, colds and seasonal bugs that are starting to do the rounds.

The beauty of Iyengar yoga, and having a yoga practice, is that our practice can be a perfect fit. It can change according to your mood, the season, the time of day, your energy levels and so on.

And interestingly I have been choosing a predominantly restorative practice for the last few weeks.

A Bit More about Restorative Yoga

BKS Iyengar is credited with having ‘invented’ restorative yoga as a concept. Due to the ill-health he suffered in his formative years, Iyengar had to fashion props from bits of wood or everyday objects in order to get into yoga poses. His inventive use of props meant that the benefits of poses could be felt without over-straining the body.

Restorative yoga is about allowing the pose to do you, rather than you doing the pose. You have to allow the body to inhabit the pose, and then let the breath inhabit the body, and the mind inhabits the breath. When you become fully passive in the pose there is a sense of weightlessness and submersion in the pose.

 Why Restorative Yoga isn’t Resting Yoga (necessarily)

The name restorative can be misleading however. Some students get overexcited when the bolsters come out, but restorative yoga doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going to be resting.

Restorative yoga is about restoring the natural balance of the body, physically, emotionally, and hormonally. Sometimes this is done through supported backbends, long holds of inverted poses and other things that can feel distinctly UNRESTFUL while you’re doing them.

This is because yoga emphasises the need for relaxation, but it goes further and advocates rejuvenation. Relaxation is going from a negative to a neutral state, while rejuvenation is going from a neutral to a positive state.

Why Inverted Asanas are Especially Important

All restorative yoga poses have their benefits, but inverted restorative poses are particularly important for a stressed-out nervous system and for mental and emotional health.

Any pose where the head is positioned below the heart counts as an inverted pose, so you don’t have to be up in full headstand or shoulderstand. Also standing inversions, such as Uttanasana and Adho mukha svanasana with the head supported (preferably on something soft) give the same benefits.

Focusing on Relaxing the Eyes

We can feel tired after a whole day spent working on the computer, but it’s brain-tired. Our eyes are pushed forwards from looking at the screen, and we haven’t been breathing properly so the body is not fully oxygenated.

With so much of our lives now conducted on screens – Zoom meetings, online yoga, WhatsApp chats, and so on, we need to find a way to take a break from all the screen-related activities.

Yoga gives us this time to rest our eyes. Here’s a simple exercise you can try: take a bandage and softly cover the eyes. Lie in supported savasana and allow the eyes to completely soften. Focus on the breath.

In any yoga pose, it’s important to check on what’s happening with the eyes, especially strenuous poses such as backbends. We need to learn to soften the face, even while working the rest of the body – this eventually leads to the ‘effortless effort’ of Patanjali’s sutras.

Practical Help

If you’ve felt inspired to start a restorative yoga practice, then why not check out my YouTube video on the Five Basic Restorative Poses for some practical help.

How your Yoga Practice can Help Combat Age-related Muscle Wastage

Photo by Elina Fairytale from Pexels

There are many reasons that people seek out and start a yoga practice. It might have been to be able to touch your toes, to help with post-cycling stiffness, or to lose weight, that age-old motivator.

But once we start to submerge ourselves in the practice, the subtle, physical benefits of an improved sense of balance, quieter breath and deep muscle strength become the reasons that we want to continue with it.

The other day I came across the ‘delightful’ fact that once we hit the venerable age of 30, age-related muscle wastage starts to occur. After this age you begin to lose as much as 3 – 5% muscle mass per decade. An extreme version of this muscle wasting is called sarcopenia, which can affect balance, mobility and cause aches and pains.

That’s if you do nothing about it.

But for those of us that have a regular Iyengar yoga practice, there are ways to combat muscle wastage, using our body weight, and the regular props that we use.

According to ‘science’, there are three types of exercise that can help to prevent or alleviate the speed of muscle-wastage in the adult body.

These are:

1. Resistance training – Also known as strength training, this helps to actively build up muscle. It involves exercises that use weights, resistance bands or body weight.

2. Functional training – these exercises are aimed at helping people to carry out everyday tasks. It trains different muscle groups and helps them work better together.

3. Aerobic training – exercises in this category increase your anaerobic rate. This is your heart and breathing rate. Also known as cardio, this can include running, walking and swimming.

Can Yoga do all these?

Yes, although just because I’m an Iyengar yoga teacher, doesn’t mean I don’t do any other exercise. I’ve been a regular runner for over ten years, as well as doing plenty of walking. I know many of my students also cycle, swim and do other forms of exercise such as Pilates. But yoga has the capacity to really help in this area.

Resistance Yoga

We have an excellent strength training tool that we’re never without – our own bodies.

In fact, according to Google, ‘body weight training can be as effective as free weight training or training with machines’.

Poses such as Chaturanga Dandasana (Four-limbed staff pose) and Urdhva Prasarita Padasana (Upward-facing extended feet pose) are obvious poses when we exercise one muscle group by holding the weight of other parts of the body.

But there are others; Utkatasana (Chair pose) is an epic strength-training pose for the whole of your legs, Urdhva Mukha Vrksasana (Handstand) builds arm and shoulder muscles, Shalabasana (Locust pose) builds the spinal muscles. Basically, think about all the poses that you find hard, and start to huff and puff in fairly quickly, and they will be doing some kind of resistance training.

Functional Yoga

The purpose of functional exercise is allow us to do those daily tasks safely. Think picking up kids, putting shopping away, going up and down stairs, turning round to reverse the car into a tight spot. All these regular, everyday jobs require a degree of balance, flexibility, and strength.

Because yoga is a full-body practice, based on natural bodily movements, there is a functional aspect to our practice too. Okay, maybe we’re not arching up into backbends in our everyday lives, but backbends give us the spinal strength and freedom to reach over our heads, to turn suddenly, and to carry the weight of the muscular body on our spines.

Aerobic Yoga

Is yoga aerobic? Many people would would say not. BUT. Yoga can be aerobic too.

I feel like I’ve said this a gazillion times in my classes, but the simple act of lifting the arms up over the head (which is one of the classic ways to start an Iyengar yoga class) is an aerobic activity, because the heart has to work harder when working against gravity.

Aerobic exercise is generally classed as any movement that leads to an elevated heart rate and increased consumption of oxygen (in other words, getting hot, out of breath, and sweaty). So, going by this definition, Iyengar yoga classes are not often aerobic, but they can be! Sun salutations, backbends, and quick sequences of standing poses can all lead to more of an aerobic workout.

In short, come along to my yoga classes and let’s start building those muscles, because there’s no time like the present!

Why you Should Take your Yoga on Holiday

It’s summer! And now we finally have the weather to prove it.

And as the end of term approaches many of us will be getting ready to go on holiday, which for many of us will be within the UK’s shores.

But even though our summer holiday is a ‘staycation’, it’s still a joy to have a change of scene, even if it’s not abroad.

So what should you be packing to take with you? Despite the sun at the moment, it’s probably worth taking sunscreen, a sunhat, wellies, and a thermal vest. Cover all bases…this is the UK after all.

But what about your yoga mat? Is it worth taking up precious space in your bag for your yoga stuff? YES.

I have to say that I ALWAYS take my yoga mat at the minimum.

Here’s my reasons for why you should pack your mat this summer.

Make Your Yoga Practice Non-negotiable

By taking your mat (and/or other props) on holiday you’re sending yourself a message. That your yoga practice is a central part of your life which, for your own wellbeing, you bring with you to wherever you happen to be, even on holiday. This attitude will serve you well when you return to daily life, and you’ll be grateful that your yoga practice came with you on holiday.

Make the Most of your Holiday

We’ve all been there. The much-longed-for holiday arrives and then the stress that comes with going on holiday starts to bite. The packing, tidying up the house, the traveling, the traffic, the arguments over who gets which bedroom… By the time you arrive, you need a holiday just to recover from going on holiday.

This is when your yoga mat comes into its own. Recuperate from your travels with a calming yoga practice. Bookmark 20 minutes a day when you are unavailable (especially if you’re a parent) to any requests except emergencies. Then your holiday actually starts to be a real holiday, rather than just some nice photos to put on the family WhatsApp.

Holiday Smugness

Holiday yoga is actually the best kind of yoga. If you manage even five minutes you get extra smug points. This means that you are allowed to sunbathe all day, read ten books, indulge in food and booze, all guilt-free because you’ve done your yoga practice for the day.

Yoga with the Family

If you have your mat with you, it’s also a chance for your family to join in with your yoga practice. Tear them away from their screens and get them jumping about with you in an energising yoga session.

Or, if you’re heading away for a romantic break with your partner, try some couples yoga for some extra bonding (or just for a good laugh).

Get Creative

We’ve all had to get more imaginative with our yoga practice over the past 16 months, as our yoga lessons moved online.

In the same we you can explore your new location and adapt your practice to fit your location. Use whatever you can – towels, sofa, a bed to adapt your yoga practice.

Rest and Restore

If you’re heading on your first proper holiday for what feels like a lifetime (due to the madness of the past year and a bit), then perhaps now is not the time to challenge yourself.

Instead, experiment with supported inversions and plenty of supported supine poses. You might even just spend one practice in a 30-minute śavasana just observing the breath. Now that really is a holiday practice.

Why I'll be Celebrating International Day of Yoga 2021

Today, 21st of June, is International Day of Yoga 2021.

I’m not usually into celebrating #days, they feel like an artificial construct formulated for social media.

But I feel like this year we need any excuse we can to celebrate yoga, which has helped many people through the past 15 months.

The theme for this year is ‘Yoga for Well-being’ which is another buzzword that is bandied around a lot.

Really yoga is ‘Yoga for Being’, and we find out whether we’re feeling well or not through the being.

How Yoga can Unite Us

But despite my cynicism, International Yoga Day feels important this year.

Another reason it’s more important than ever to celebrate yoga, is because celebrations bring us together.

Today was also meant to mark the end of all Covid-19 restrictions in the UK, and although many of us felt that was a possibly unrealistic goal, it’s still been a blow to many people and industries to have that freedom taken away from us again.

The celebrations that we have had on hold must wait a while longer.

Instead of coming together physically, we can unite virtually in our appreciation of an ancient practice which gives us so much.

Iyengar Yoga

For me personally, I am grateful for Iyengar yoga. At the recent Iyengar Yoga (UK) convention, Abhijata Iyengar (BKS’s granddaughter) told a virtual gathering of over a thousand people that yoga brings us together in hope, strength and courage. Her words and her teaching made me feel part of a greater whole.

It’s not a perfect methodology, and there are divisions in yoga, just as there are in the world. But yoga gives us the tools to become unified within ourselves, and from there we have a chance of being more open to others.

Sequence for Today

Geeta Iyengar was also slightly reticent about the idea of an International Yoga Day. Back in 2015 when the first one happened she said, “For us, every day is yoga day.” But in honour of Guruji, she composed this sequence below.

If you can’t find time to do the whole sequence, then perhaps just choose three of four poses and do them a few times. Be fully present and be grateful for the practice that gives us so much.

How Yoga Helps your Balance

Falling over is something my son used to be absolutely brilliant at. He’d fall over everywhere (usually into mud or water) and pop up again unscathed and slightly triumphant.

This skill is something that we lose, and once we become adults, falling over becomes something we actively fear.

This is because our awareness of our bodies (and how to fall, or not fall), known as proprioception, gets less and less. But what exactly is proprioception and why is it important?

What is proprioception?

The term was coined by the Nobel-prize-winning, English neurophysiologist Sir Charles Sherrington. It is a word to describe how we know what our limbs and joints are doing in relation to our trunk – our sense of our body in space. This links closely to balance, as without having bodily awareness, we are less able to maintain and control our balance.

As we age, various factors mean that our proprioception decreases. This negatively affects our sense of balance, which leads to falls.  It can also lead to a deterioration in joint health because when we are less aware of our limbs in relation to our bodies, we can develop bad habits which can lead to arthritis and other chronic joint conditions.

Can you improve proprioception?

Yes! Proprioception can be improved through conscious movement and exercise - such as yoga. Physical activity positively affects the nervous system by building new and stronger connections among neurons, as the brain responds to repeated stimuli.

Iyengar yoga is particularly beneficial as it focuses on the alignment of the body which helps to develop and maintain awareness of the different parts of the body in space and in relationship to each other. This effectively preserves that precious sense of proprioception over time.

What yoga poses help with proprioception?

Proprioception is about being aware of our bodies in space. The most extreme versions of this are when we turn our worlds upside down in inversions. Inversions are incredibly important for re-calibrating the body and the mind. By turning ourselves upside down, the body learns to become hyper-aware of which parts of the body relate to others. We are also taking balance to the extreme by finding that central point of balance  – a small, coin-sized space on the top of the head. Practice sirsasana (headstand) daily to improve your body’s proprioception.

It’s also really important to strengthen the joints. The standing poses, e.g. the virabhadrasana poses (warrior poses) strengthen the joints and muscles of the legs and help to maintain proprioception.

And what about balance?

Balance starts with the feet. When I learned to teach yoga, my teacher trainer had a phrase that she would return to again and again - ‘Start with the base of the pose’.

This has really stuck with me, and for good reason. If your foundations are shaky or misaligned in yoga, what chance have you got for the rest of the pose?

When we walk, we are moving our weight from one foot to the other through a swinging motion. This is a complicated action, or dynamic posture, that involves a huge amount of sensitively interpreted signals from the feet and ankles. As children, we are, first of all, lower to the ground, and less afraid. Our sense of our bodies in space might not be fully developed (hence the terrifying lack of fear that most small children display) but they are reading the world around them with their entire bodies all the time.

As we age we get further from the ground, and we very rarely walk without supportive shoes on. This means that the subtle muscles and neural receptors in our feet and ankles are less sensitive to external factors, leading to a less reliable sense of balance.

Poses such as vrksasana (tree pose) are really important for improving balance. As we learn to balance on one foot, the sensory nerves, muscles, and tendons are strengthened and our awareness heightened.

If you struggle with balance, standing in tadasana (mountain pose) with the eyes closed is a good way to realise how much we use our sense of sight to balance, and by taking that out of the equation, the sense of touch suddenly goes into overdrive to keep the body steady.

Can you Fit Yoga into life with a Puppy?

Herbie exploring his new domain.

Our chocolate working cocker spaniel, Herbie, came home last week, and it’s been one of the steepest learning curves of my life.

Having never had a dog before I wasn’t quite prepared for the relentless nature of the task. It brought back all the old (long-buried) memories of having a toddler with all the crying, potty training, endlessly watching them (while they put stones/earth/leaves in the mouth) and the huge responsibility.

A couple of days in to the task my husband took over puppy duty while I did an online workshop. I have to say I have NEVER appreciated my yoga practice as much as I did for those few hours.

Every instruction seemed to make sense, every pose felt like a revelation, because I was so tuned in to just being present for the practice, and fully enjoying every moment.

How Yoga Teaches you Resilience

This year we have all been going through the life-changing impact of living through a pandemic, and all the loss, fear and uncertainty that comes with that.

For many of us the consistency of yoga – be it our weekly classes or our home practice, or both – has been a lifeline.  

As BKS Iyengar says in his book Light on Life, “We cannot eliminate stress and tension from our lives.” The aim of yoga is not to get rid of stress, but to manage it. “In short, our aim is to be able to deal with stress as and when it arises, and not to imprint and accumulate it in the body’s various systems”.

The stress of having a new furry bundle to be responsible for is real! But this is what all the practice has been for – now it all makes sense.

How to Fit in Practice

The introduction of Herbie into my life has firstly made me realise how much time I had before he arrived, but also made me appreciate how precious time is. When I have a window of time I can choose to sit and watch TV, put another wash on, scrabble to get some work done, or do a yoga practice.

I know which one makes me feel restored and able to face the rest of the day on high alert!

But there are other ways to practice yoga even when finding time for a physical practice seems impossible.

At the moment I’m starting with breath awareness. Just taking a moment to observe the breath as we do at the start of any pranayama session gives me a good indication of where my stress levels are. If it feels very high and tight I can gently lengthen the exhalation breath to move out of fight or flight mode (which is currently Herbie’s main mode too).

Time efficient Mudras

Mudras are hand gestures which also help to channel the flow of prana. We don’t often use them in yoga lessons, but you might be familiar with Jnana Mudra which we practice in Siddhasana (Sage pose).

At the moment I’m finding Garuda Mudra (Eagle Gesture) extremely helpful. This mudra balances energy levels and is useful in stressful situations when your breath is restricted.   

Coming into a sitting or standing position raise both hands to your chest and cross your wrists with your palms facing your body. Interlock your thumbs and spread your fingers wide apart.

A variation that is great for rebalancing the nervous system is to curl the fingers in towards the chest on an exhalation and then spread them out wide on the inhalation.

FIVE Ways Yoga can Help your Back

It’s easy to ignore what we can’t see, and so it is with ‘the back body’ - as it’s termed in yoga-speak.

However, the ignoring gets harder when it starts to hurt. And if it ‘goes’ we realise just how utterly dependent we are on the beautifully-designed spinal column for our mobility.

A sedentary lifestyle, poor posture, inactive glutes, and weak deeper abdominal muscles all add up to create the perfect environment for back pain.

A surprising number of people have scoliosis of the spine, and don’t even know about it. It might show as hip pain, or sciatica, or as if you have one leg longer than the other. Of course, you might have an obvious scoliosis, but even the most severe of back conditions can be helped by yoga.

Back Pain

The most common area to feel back pain is in the lower back, the sacroiliac or lumbago area. But pain is also common in the mid-back area, the thoracic spine, as well as the very top of the spine where the thoracic spine meets the cervical spine. In fact, back pain can occur all the way down from the neck and shoulders, to the hips.

I’m not a doctor so this blog will not address serious back pain or issues such as slipped or bulging discs. These should be seen by a medical doctor.

The back pain I’ll be discussing is the non-specific kind that is caused by a strain on the muscles, tendons, or ligaments surrounding your spine. This can be caused by lifting a heavy object, a sudden movement, or the wear and tear of getting older.

If you haven’t ever had back pain, but get the odd twinge – then ACT NOW. Prevention is better than cure. And this is where a regular yoga practice comes in.

So get on with giving me those five ways already! I hear you cry. Right, Ok then.

1.       Standing Poses  - Awareness

The best way to introduce yourself to your back is through practising the standing poses. They put your back through the full gamut of movement, while relying on your legs to do the heavy lifting as it were.

Once we become aware of how we stand in Tadasana, and how our body works through all the other standing poses, we can start to work out how our spine works.

If you have a pre-existing back problem, your teacher will always tell you to step, not jump your feet apart, and to stand with your feet slightly apart. This means that you’re not putting extra pressure on the spine.

2.       Twists  - Mindful Stretching

The other thing we do when we first start yoga is that we want to rush to the final pose. There’s an element of competitiveness, wanting to ‘do our best’, and impatience that pushes us to get to the last stage.

The problem with this is that if we ignore those intermediate stages we build in bad habits that will come back to bite us (in the back) further down the line.

Twists are a great way to practice mindful stretching of the spine, especially sitting on a chair, or plenty of height. It’s also important to get that twist right from the lower abdomen, this means that the twist works up and down from your waist and reduces the load on your sacro-iliac joint.

Using the breath to increase the twist, as well as increase your hold, will add to the mindful quality.

3.       Forwards Bends - Lengthening

The spine is supported by muscles, tendons and ligaments. If these supports are short and tight, it can impact the healthy movement of the spine. Through our yoga practice we learn to create space and length in the spine through the extension of the muscles, tendons and ligaments.

It's not a quick fix. A senior yoga teacher recently told me that it takes seven years (of consistent practice) to make a difference. But that’s still achievable, and shows that will persistence comes results.

Of course the whole body is connected tight hips and hamstrings can also have an adverse effect on the back. By learning to bend forwards, we lengthen the entire back body.

4.       Backbends and Abdominals - Strengthening

To have a healthy back we need to do a combination of stretching and lengthening these supports, but also building up the muscles that support the movement of the spine.

And there’s a lot of them. There are the para-spinal muscles, the trapezius muscles and the glutes – just to name three.

The backbends start to build up the muscles of the spine, increasing the strength and resilience of your back. Abdominal poses are important for supporting the movement of the lower back, especially for flexible people.

5.       Inversions - Postural improvement

When we start at an Iyengar yoga class, many of the instructions are perplexing to say the least. The longer we attend, the more we can feel and the more subtle our physical adjustments become.

Gradually you can build up to regularly practising the inversions. The inverted poses will help to strengthen your spine as you are lifting up the body against gravity. It’s also really important to be aware of your spinal alignment in these poses, as incorrect posture can adversely affect the neck and upper spine.

But if you treat the inverted poses such as headstand and shoulderstand with respect they will certainly help to strengthen your back well into old age.

A Ten-Step Plan to Commit to a Yoga Practice for Lent

Hi,

Many of us have good intentions, but life gets in the way. Especially when ‘life’ includes dealing with a pandemic and three lockdowns (and counting).

Today is Ash Wednesday and the start of Lent. Traditionally we give something up that we know is bad for us, such as alcohol, sugar, or chocolate.

However, what if we don’t give anything up this Lent, but take something up? And what if that something is a regular yoga practice?

For just over six weeks we can commit to a yoga practice and then see how we feel at the end of it. You with me?

Step 1 - COMMIT

Commit to your practice, starting from today/tomorrow! For these six weeks I’m going to advise you not to have a single day off. This doesn’t mean that you need to be doing an hour a day.

Each week you will have a ‘rest day’ when you will choose one or two of your favourite restorative poses and just do those.

Step 2 – PLAN

It’s best to have a rough plan of what your six weeks of home practice could look like. You could change it around each day of the week. Or you could choose a sequence and practice it every day and then change to a new sequence in the next week.

If you’re a relative beginner it’s best to incorporate a few standing poses into each practice, as they build up our strength for all the other poses.

Each sequence has a shape (see previous blog – the Secrets of Sequencing). Start with some poses to warm up the body, then move to some more energetic poses, and move to your peak poses. If you practice inversions, always make time for those, and then a few cooling down poses and then a five minute śavāsana.

Step 3 – GET SOME INSPIRATION

If you’re still not confident that you’ll know what poses to practice it might be worth investing in a yoga book which has some sequences in it (see previous blog – My Top 5 Yoga Books). Or you could look for inspiration from Iyengar yoga teachers on social media. There are plenty of sequences out there if you know where to look.

The secret to Iyengar yoga is the variation it offers. Other forms of yoga repeat the same poses for years until they are ‘mastered’. With variety we don’t neglect parts of the body, and also try to avoid bad habits building up. But if there are certain poses that you feel you ‘can’t’ do, don’t avoid them completely.

If, for example, you struggle with backbends practice Virabhadrasana 1, Virasana, Chatush padasana, and Bhujangasana on your elbows.

Step 4 – TELL EVERYONE

If we tell our friends and families of our commitment to a daily yoga practice, we’re much more likely to keep it up. Plus with everyone at home, there will be times when it will be tempting to think ‘there’s just no time’.

If your fellow householders all know that you’ve committed to your practice, they will understand that that time is ringfenced and non-negotiable.

Step 5 – CHOOSE A TIME

From experience I’ve found that it’s best to choose a time that you can commit to each day, especially during the week. That might be first thing in the morning, or perhaps straight after you finish work.

It’s best not to practice soon after eating a full meal, so that restricts what time is practical.

Step 6 – DECIDE HOW LONG TO PRACTICE FOR

I find it’s best to have a minimum practice time in my head. So if you’re just starting to commit to a home practice, that might be 20 – 30 minutes. If you’re more experienced, I find that 45 minutes is usually the minimum time required to fit in a whole practice.

But learn to know when to stop your practice. Also, be flexible. If you’ve hardly had any sleep, or are feeling unwell, put yourself in a supported pose, or even just do a 10-minute śavāsana.

Step 7 – PREPARE YOUR YOGA PRACTICE AREA

One advantage of all this Zoom yoga has been that we have now scoped out most of the places round the house – or the one place – where we can practice yoga. Get all your props and leave them neatly stacked in the area. Make sure you’ve got blankets and a sturdy chair in the vicinity. Make it as easy as possible for you to do your yoga practice.

Step 8 – HAVE FUN!

Think of your home yoga practice as a time to really tune in to your body. Try repeating the poses more than once. Try doing the poses slightly differently and see if you can feel a difference. Be questioning. You will probably have your teacher’s voice in your head with various instructions.

See if you can work out the effect of those instructions on the whole body. If you have Light on Yoga, try out some of the poses even if you’ve never done them before. BUT PRACTICE WITH CAUTION.

Step 9 – LET ME KNOW HOW YOU’RE DOING

As a yoga teacher I’m here to give you encouragement, to answer any questions and to cheerlead your achievements. You can email me, comment below, or follow me on Facebook and Instagram, where I am planning on giving some more home practice hints and guides to poses.

Step 10 – DON’T BEAT YOURSELF UP

Having said it’s best to commit to practicing every single day, it’s also not yogic to get stressed and depressed if you have to miss a day.

The first step to practicing yoga are the yamas and niyamas, which are a set of values and ethics. So perhaps if you don’t have time for your physical practice you can practice ahimsa (non-violence) to yourself, by allowing yourself a rest.

Poppy x

How Yoga Can Help with 'Working From Home' Syndrome

Hi,

I’m not sure any of us realised what we were heading into back in March last year.

The double whammy of a winter lockdown means that many of us are spending a lot of time indoors. It’s easy to skip the daily exercise when outside is dark, grey, cold and wet 95% of the time.

And many of us are back (if we ever left) to working from home.

In our home, our teenage kids are at virtual school in their bedrooms, and then watch animé in their breaks. My husband is holed up in a little study all day, and I'm alternating between Zoom classes and my PC for writing work. It does mean we all have a slightly longer lie-in (there are some silver linings), but between us all, we are spending a LOT of time on screens.

And as we all know, staring at a screen can bring all sorts of problems.

What does looking at a screen all day do to our bodies?

Many of us haven’t got round to setting up the ideal ergonomic desk set up. The result of this is that when we’re focused on a screen we don’t breathe properly.

As well as barely breathing, our posture is usually pretty terrible:

• We sit cross-legged, reducing venal flow and cutting off the circulation to the legs.

• Our lower back is often dropped, pulling on the muscles of the spine and causing compression of the nerves in the lower back.

• The shoulders are also pulled forwards, causing the chest to become convex and drop.

• The head is pulled forwards, again pulling on the upper spine, and pulling the cervical spine out of alignment, which can cause neck problems.

So what can we do about it?

As with most things, the first step is awareness. Once we become aware of how we’re sitting, it’s easier to do something about it. Sit at your computer and scan through your body – get someone to take a picture of you if you’re not sure! Once we see how we’re sitting we can use our common sense to do something about it.

But here are a few tips to start with:

• Uncross your legs, and sit on a chair that’s the right height so that your feet can be flat on the floor with your shins vertical.

• Lift your screen up on some big books (or you can buy a laptop stand) so that you can keep your head lifted while looking at the screen. Or just scroll up more often so that what you’re writing is closer to the top of the screen.

• Draw your shoulders back and down at regular intervals and try to keep them there while you work.

• Use a yoga belt round your shoulders and periodically pull on the tail ends to keep the shoulders drawing down.

Do some chair yoga

If you haven’t got time to stop what you’re doing but are starting to feel a bit hunched over, then quickly do some chair yoga for your shoulders:

• Urdhva Hastasana/upward-facing arms – stretch your arms up to the ceiling, with palms facing each other. I love this simple pose because it does so much. It lifts the heart, lifts the spine, stretches the shoulders.

• Gomukhasana arms/cow face pose arms – stretch one arm up to the ceiling then fold it down behind your back so that the palm is against the centre of your shoulder blades. Stretch the other arm out and slight the back of the hand up the back – clasp the hands together if you can. If you can’t catch, then get hold of your clothes and pull the top elbow up and the bottom elbow down. Change arms.

• Garudasana arms/eagle arms – bring your arms in front of you with your arms at right angles and your elbows level with your shoulders. Cross one elbow over the other and bring the backs of the hands towards each other until you can catch the thumb of the hand on top with the little finger edge of the hand underneath. Breathe into the stretch across the shoulder-blades. Change the cross of the elbows.

• Paschima Baddha Hastasana/Bound arms behind your back – this is a simple pose that helps to draw the outer shoulders back and down. Hold one elbow behind your back and draw the arm down, then reach across and hold the other elbow. Change sides.

Get up and stretch!

We all take tea breaks and loo breaks don’t we? So what about 5-minute yoga breaks? This should be mandatory in my mind.

When we sit for long periods our legs and back seize up. So try these yoga poses which help to stretch and tone the legs:

• Ardha Uttanasana/Half Forward Fold Pose – with your hands at the wall or on a surface at hip height step back till your trunk and arms are level with your hips, and your legs are vertical. Take the feet hip-width apart and stretch back from the hands to the outer hips, and lift the legs. This stretches out the back and the hamstrings.

• Vrksasana/Tree pose – As well as strengthening the ankles, this pose works on hip and groin flexibility and balance, which is great to focus the mind too.

• Vajrasana/Kneeling pose – while it might feel counterintuitive to sit on your heels after lots of sitting, kneeling is actually a great way to restore energy to the legs, as it compresses the legs for the blood to then efficiently return.

• Sankatasana/Difficult pose (!) – To stretch out the back of the calves and Achilles kneel up on the balls of your feet. Hold onto a chair and then roll backwards and forwards from the back of the ball of the foot to the toes.

• Adho Mukha Svanasana/Downward Dog – Downward dog is a stretch of the whole back of the body, including the shoulders, as well as an inversion.

Happy body, happy mind

Remember that our bodies and minds are intrinsically linked. If we don’t look after our bodies and let them tense up into one big knot, our brains will also be fogged and tense.

Getting up from your place of work to do some yoga (even an online yoga class) isn’t skiving off work, but making sure that you’re working to your optimum level.
.
Poppy x