Are the pressures of this 3^rd lockdown beginning to take their toll even though we are seeing light at the end of the tunnel?

Is the prospect of transitioning out of lockdown & back to whatever real life holds for us starting to feel overwhelming?

Do you feel anxious or a bit frazzled?

If you answered YES MYAnanda’s Mini Retreat maybe just what you need.

YOGA & MINDFULNESS TO MANAGE STRESS

SUNDAY 13^TH MARCH 10am-1PM

A little bit of stress is necessary, helpful even, it gives us some purpose & a little bit of fire to get things done. Too much stress over a sustained period is when stress becomes a problem. Although it’s not stress itself that harms us but our reactions to it. The most notable reaction: not being aware of the chronic levels of stress many of us are operating under. And this can lead to burnout, when everything feels just too much, the tiniest thing pushes us over the edge, we are frazzled, overwhelmed, anxious & basically stressed.

In this retreat you will spend a whole morning relaxing & alleviating the symptoms of stress. You will also discover valuable tools to identify & manage stress & the layers of anxiety, overwhelm & feeling frazzled that often accompany stress.

Did you know yoga is an excellent way to relieve stress & calm your mind, balancing your emotions & giving you some much needed space physically & mentally?

Did you know that meditation is a fantastic way to engage the prefrontal cortex to offset stresses & bring the nervous system back in alignment offsetting the feelings of overwhelm & stress?

Did you know that mindfulness helps you to become more aware of how you are feeling & what you are thinking so that you take a kindful action step to make you feel better?

During this retreat I will lead you through 2 different styles of yoga practice so that you can experience for yourself how by synchronising bodily movements with the breath you can feel some profound shifts & channel some much-needed inner peace & calm.

We will explore different aspects of stress & how we can also use mindfulness & meditation to identify stress & calm a frazzled mind.

And we will practice 2 different meditations, whilst also introducing you to different breath work techniques & much much more!

These are all techniques I know work because I have used them my self. I have first hand experience of overcoming extreme stress, anxiety & overwhelm for myself.

I was so stressed with everything that had been going on during first lockdown (blended families, up to my ears in menopause, mental health wobbles, solo parenting…the same trials & tribulations we all did) that the tiniest thing was the straw that broke the camels back. And it did. Except the camel didn’t break, I did!

I broke into a millions pieces & having been in dark places before it was horribly familiar. Thankfully I have an arsenal of holistic tools & practices I use in these situations, accumulated over the years so the gaps between these wobbles gets further apart & my coping strategies are better so the bounce back is quicker & easier, more fun & usually really exciting & insightful. I have come to see these blips as a catalyst to better times!

So I come to you with a wealth of lived experience combined with a fervent passion for self-development & learning (I am always exploring new practices & tools), a geeky obsession for combining spirituality with science (as I understand it…Brain Cox I’m not!), decades of my own practice & years of teaching yoga & mindfulness around the world.

I would love to share some of the things I have learnt in my own struggles to make life easier, more fun, happier & enjoyable. Because, you know, life doesn’t have to be a struggle or stressful.

So please join me on Sunday 14^th March 1-4pm online for a morning of yoga & mindfulness. Take some time to invest in yourself, some much needed self-care to release some of the symptoms of stress, whilst discovering some useful insights into managing stress with more grace & ease – because you can!

To confirm your spot just email me alex@myananda.co.uk quoting March Mini Retreat & I will send you details – be quick though because places are limited!

Have you ever felt like there is something wrong with you?

That maybe you weren’t quite enough?

That you don’t quite belong?

I used to feel like this a lot. So I totally hear you!

As a child, I grew up knowing that my mum wanted for 4 boys & instead got me & my sister. I was a desperate disappointment to her because I was simply the wrong sex. But whilst I think she loves me, I don’t think she likes me very much, it certainly didn’t feel like she did growing up.

My mum was very controlling, abusive (in today’s standard). Screaming at & hitting your kid was considered acceptable in the 70’s & 80’s (I say kid because my sister didn’t receive the same treatment as me). I grew up having my every misdemeanor thrashed out on my legs with every syllable like it would somehow make me ‘better’ & feeling terrified of my mum. She’s 76 now & I’m still slightly wary of her.

My Dad passed away when I was 7 so there wasn’t anyone else I could turn to at home. My mum blamed me for everything & thought there was ‘something wrong’ with me. Cue: an inner dialogue of everything is my fault, there is something wrong with me.

Let’s not judge judge her: widowed at 33, 2 kids to bring up & working hard through a recession to ‘save’ their business during an era when no-one spoke about mental health. She was doing the best she could with what she had & I accept & honour her for that.

But my whole life I felt like everything was my fault, there was something wrong with me. It wasn’t until recently that I stumbled upon the highly sensitive person (HSP).

I had tried to read Elaine Aron’s book about the highly sensitive person the previous summer but it had irritated me, triggering me so I had tossed it out when we moved, coming to the conclusion that I couldn’t be HSP if the book didn’t resonate. As I learned more about HSP & did the test online, I realized with a 25/28 score that I probably was – fairly categorical score I’d say! And I’ve repeated the test & got the same score!

Highly sensitive people have more sensory neurons in their brains & tend to pick up on other people’s energy a lot, absorbing it as their own – yup tick.

Their parent’s often think there is something wrong with them – yup tick.

They subsequently feel like there is something wrong with them, they don’t quite fit in or belong & aren’t enough – yup tick.

Understanding HSP has been a really important healing for me. I now know I need to do even more self-care, especially if I am around ‘toxic’ people or in ‘toxic’ situations: more yoga, more meditation, more nature & gratitude!

I am much more mindful of absorbing other people’s energy, cutting those cords & giving that energy back to them, it’s not mine & this has really helped too.

I also now appreciate that being HSP is like a superpower: I’m mindful of other people’s energy & can really feel when something’s up with someone, which can be really helpful when I’m working with clients…I just sense it & if I can guide or help them than of course I will.

Understanding how my brain works & how it is different to others, approximately 15-20% of the population are estimated to be HSP, helps me navigate relationships better, be a better coach with my clients & has helped me heal from the abuse of my past.

And of course my practice: yoga & meditation have given me the space & time to process this. My mindfulness training helps me identify situations & people that previously I would have powered through & apply skills to help me navigate them better (virtual glitter balls, plethora of crystals…my pockets rattle with them when I’m in a stressful situation!) & it also helps me to know what I need to do to care for myself afterwards so I am not triggered or stressed, snappy or irritable because I have absorbed someone else’s energy.

In short, my practices have helped me to realize that I am enough.

Yep read that again: I am enough.

There is nothing wrong with me.

And that I do belong…I’m just slightly different & actually this difference is like a superpower.

This means I am a more intuitive coach, I can sense when something’s up & help guide you through it; I have better more fulfilling relationships & I more mindful in toxic environments to do what I need to do to protect myself.

So if any of the above resonates with you & you would like to know if yoga, meditation & mindfulness can help you drop me a YES! below or if you’d rather keep it private, drop me a PM – I’d love to hear from you & share some of the amazing tools I have learnt from my own healing & journey of discovery.

And if you are interested in HSP, here’s the test, would love to know your scores if you feel like sharing!

I believe whole-heartedly in the physical, mental, emotional & spiritual benefits these practices create because, well they have changed my life. Catch me on a melodramatic day & I’ll happily announce ‘They saved my life!’ always one to relish in theatrics.

I have used both practices to help me navigate the choppy waters of: mental illness (breakdowns, hospitalization, more breakdowns & eventually utter rock-bottom to precipitate the spiritual awakening that was the breakthrough – hurrah at last!); divorce (toxic nasty business, is there any other kind?); menopause (ghastly business, horribly similar to mental illness or such was my experience with the added extra of a hefty dose of anxiety & panic attacks…all very ‘normal’ apparently, who knew?); and anything else that life could throw me, lockdown & global pandemics included. But combined with daily practices of gratitude & nature, mindfulness & yoga are the cornerstones of my wellness & wellbeing.

I am a huge believer in the many benefits of self-care because I was so bad at practicing self-care that my mental health took a battering.

Self-care is the care we take of ourselves to nurture & nourish our physical, mental & emotional wellbeing, our mind, body & spirit. I believe that it is not a luxury but a necessity. I also believe that it’s not all chocolates in the bath & massages. And that it doesn’t have to be self-indulgent, time consuming or expensive.

Self-care has a number of benefits. It builds resilience, our ability to bounce back from adversity because when we have taken time to look after our self, so we are less likely to be floored by normal daily setbacks. It improves our sleep & so too our relationships because all our energy isn’t always going out, some of it is coming back inwards. Funnily enough attending to our own needs actually then gives us more energy & time for others. Think of it like this: you can’t pour from an empty jug.

Self-care is an act of self-love, it reaffirms our sense of self, building our self-esteem, a sense of ‘I deserve’ this simply because we have taken the time to invest in ourselves. Our self-awareness improves as we become better at identifying stressors & what we can do to limit of offset them. Of course this all has a knock on effect making for a happier & healthier outlook.

But establishing a daily practice of self-care is not as common as you would belief with almost three quarters of adults not practicing any self-care rituals. The common excuses include lack of time & energy, guilt & finances.

Time & energy I get but what I have found by slowing down & investing in myself for a few short minutes every day, I am actually more productive & efficient & so I get more done, I feel more fulfilled. And self-care doesn’t have to be time consuming…surely we are all worth ½ hour of each day just for us, to nurture, nourish, rest & replenish ourselves?

Guilt – why would we feel guilty for taking care of ourselves? Surely we deserve a few moments everyday invested in our self? Surely we care enough about our self, not in a narcissistic, self-absorbed fashion, to spend a few minutes on our self everyday? I also believe that when we model self-care to our family, not only do they learn to respect those few moments we devote to our own wellbeing but they start to practice it themselves…what a gift to give to our nearest & dearest.

Finances well yes, but as I’ve said before it doesn’t have to be expensive. And the longer term cost of not practicing self-care financially, emotionally, mentally…well I have experienced them first hand. My mental illness was the direct result of not making myself a priority in my own life. If you’re not a priority in your own life, how can you be a priority in anyone else’s?

So it was with this idea of how can I help my tribe establish their own self-care practices & because I know how much I (& my family indirectly) have benefited from my own self-care practices that I set up my couch to programs. Think a more nourishing & nurturing version of couch to 5k but couch to yoga mat or meditation cushion, or both as some of my clients have embraced.

These programs are aimed at anyone who has heard about all the wonderful benefits of yoga & meditation: physical, mental, emotional spiritual even but just don’t really know where to start. These programs guide you from the basics, establishing a good solid foundation in your practice so that you have the skills & confidence to go to any class online (or in person) & to cultivate your own regular, daily even, practice in yoga or meditation in the comfort of your own home, which is ideal in lockdown.

You can also join this program if you have done some yoga or meditated a bit, this program will help you fine-tune, finesse your practice & guide you towards establishing a a regular meditation or yoga ritual of self-care.

So how does it work? When you sign up, you will get a yoga practice &/or meditation delivered into your inbox everyday for 28 days (we are in the process of building a member’s portal, such has been the success of this initiative).

4 of the 7 yoga practices are less than ½ hour long so that they are easy to fit into your busy schedules & demanding family lives. Similarly, the meditations are all between 5-15 minutes long so again easy to slot into your hectic lifestyles.

In the yoga program there 2 longer recorded sequences so you can delve into to develop your stamina, whilst there also an hour long live session in both programs, so that you can experience the wonderful energy of practicing in a group.

You don’t HAVE to practice all the sessions in 28 days, you can take your time as you have life long access to the program. Many who have signed up have decided to practice 2-3 times & gradually increase it over the full program. Once you’ve completed once, you may decide to revisit it & do it everyday. However, you decide to tackle it, I guarantee you’ll be practicing MORE than before you started the program!

There is a small cost. Why? Well let’s face it we all need some incentive & a sense of accountability don’t we? We have all signed up for the magical 28 day free challenges & the problem is, because they are free we invariably don’t even get ½ way through, we forget one day or run out of time, then one day turns into 2, turns into a week & so on. Since we haven’t invested in it financially, well we are not emotionally invested in it & are not as inspired to finish.

With this program, you have invested (not a lot, it’s really affordable!) so there is that commitment you have made to yourself, the investment you have made, becomes an incentive to follow-through & complete it.

The program is self-led so so long as you do the sessions in sequence, since they are specifically designed to gradually increase your skills for a sense of progression & transformation with each day, how long you take to complete the 28 days is completely up to you.

If you upgrade to the ViP option, this includes a weekly 1-2-1 75 minute coaching session where we get to practice together via Zoom & I can help you to fine-tune your poses & delve into anything that you may be struggling with.

At the end, I hope to have guided you towards embracing a regular, daily even ritual of self-care which includes yoga &/or meditation & you will be beginning to discover the inner sense of peace & calm these practices provide on the yoga mat or meditation cushion. And the more you practice, the more this serenity, bliss even, will start to translate into your life.

After all, in the midst of lockdown with the backdrop of a global pandemic, now more than ever we need to invest in ourselves to help navigate the challenges these unusual times are bringing to us all. Now more than ever we need to embrace self-care practices to help us getting on getting through this.

If you would like more information message me at alex@myananda.co.uk.

For free resources check out my Facebook group: Mindfulness & Yoga for Self-Care, here is the link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/MindfulnessYoga4Relationships

However, because you would never bestow the honour of being a Yoga Master on yourself, that is an honour that someone else bestows on you, I always felt I had to explain it so no-one thought I was being arrogant.

When we moved back to the UK, it was time to re-launch my business & time for a re-branding.

I settled on MYAnanda for several reasons…

MY represents mindfulness & yoga & also ‘my’ or ‘me’. Ananda is sanskrit for bliss.

So Mindfulness & Yoga for Bliss, which also translates to ‘my bliss’. Mindfulness & Yoga are of course my bliss, so much so I qualified to teach them so I could share this gift with others. The time on my yoga mat & meditation cushion are moments of peace & calm & a real sense of bliss comes over me.

I’ve also got lots of A’s & N’s & D’s in my name so MYAnanda it’s somewhat reflective of my name!

However, it wasn’t until recently when I was reflecting on the journey I have been through this year, that I really feel like my brand took on a whole new meaning.

Like many, this year has been a struggle. I have reached some pretty low points & experienced some really dark times.

Throughout lockdown I was manically meditating & frantically yoga-ing & whilst the practices undoubtedly gave me a few moments of peace & calm whilst I was doing them, they just weren’t translating into my life.

We were living with my partner at the time & he even said to me one day: I’m not sure if yoga & meditation just don’t work or if you would be properly mental without them. I burst out laughing & said without skipping a heart beat: I would be properly f-bomb mental without them!

But I knew something was wrong, I knew my energy was all wrong. I was practicing out of fear.

Fear that if I didn’t practice things would go even more pear-shaped & that’s why it wasn’t translating into my life. I felt like I was hanging on by my finger tips to a cliff edge & if I didn’t practice, I would just slide off into the abyss.

There was lots of other stuff going on beyond blending families amidst a global pandemic. I had the most awful brain fog & was so terribly forgetful I honestly thought I had early onset dementia…I later discovered it was menopause. And no-one talk about all this!

After this discovery, then I was trying to decipher what was menopause, having had a brush with mental health many years earlier, what was mental health & what was just me. I was lost, stuck & totally broken.

I really believe in the energy of the universe, that what we put out comes back to us & this is how we manifest. I’ve seen it at work: I manifested amazing schools & a great first home here in the UK in just 2 weeks when we relocated back to the UK…a time frame I have never seen replicated in the 12 years I was overseas.

So I knew that if my joo-joo was all wrong, all that ‘wrong’ energy would just keep coming back to me.

But I just didn’t know what to do. It felt so long since I had felt joyful, been happy or had fun that I just didn’t know how to anymore. And that frightened me even more.

Then I had the insight & opportunity to slow down & I leapt at it. I just stopped, slowed down, got still & silent & turned inwards. And that’s when it came to me: I could just CHOOSE to be happy, I could choose fun & joy & love.

I was so desperate, so utterly unhappy, totally broken & absolutely bereft, I didn’t have any other options left to me.

We’d moved out, I couldn’t make the relationship work. We were technically homeless, house-sitting thankfully for friends who were away. OMGosh I am so grateful for their generosity: we had a bed to sleep in, a roof over our heads & time to find somewhere to live.

So I just stopped & decided all that was left for me to do was to choose love, joy, fun & happiness. Not in a contrived, zip-lining, jazz-hands, poker face type of way, just in a gentle I’m gonna choose to slow down & have fun. And I did.

I started practicing again but this time for the pure love & joy of doing so, instead of out of fear. I began noticing favourite tunes coming on the radio, which to me were a little nod from the universe that I was on the right track. I just surrendered, slowed down, got still & silent, turning inwards & loved doing so.

We found somewhere to live back in town & the kids are relishing being so close to friends & walking to school. In just 4 months, the transition is unbelievable, light & day from the summer months to now. We all reflected only recently how we are the happiest we have ever been here in Evesham. I can honestly say I have a sense of real inner peace, absolute bliss I had only ever dreamed of.

And although there were many layers to the onion of recovery & finding that bliss within, most of it came down to my practices, mindfulness & yoga, nature, gratitude, choosing happiness, joy, fun & love, slowing down & getting still & silent & turning inwards for guidance & inspiration, and of course it is also the culmination of many years of spiritual practice & several light-bulb, aha moments.

I have been exploring my human design as part of the spiritual awakening I have experienced these past few months & having a purpose, a meaning & feel fulfilled is hugely important in my human design. During lockdown I was responsible for parenting & home schooling my 2 kids & my partner’s son so all the other adults’ in our kids lives could continue working.

Last time I was at home in such a capacity with my kids they were babies & toddlers & needed me. During lockdown I was only needed as a part-time referee & general supervisor but I didn’t have a purpose as such. I also didn’t have the headspace to transition my business online like many had, which was a cause of frustration.

Since moving out I have thrown myself back into my business, rediscovering the love I have for what I do. Clients have returned, new clients have discovered me, a humble yoga in the park session has evolved into 4 new classes & in the latest lockdown we transitioned all the classes onto Zoom seamlessly. I have my purpose & meaning back & the oh so important sense of fulfilment.

So although 2020 has been one of the toughest years with some of the darkest moments, the lessons, the growth, the healing & transformation has been amazing, life changing, a real sense of spiritual awakening. And in the process I have found my bliss.

Of course, life will inevitably trip us up & those are yet more opportunities for spiritual growth. There is no end point, we will always keep learning & growing & that is also part of the bliss.

If you would like to know how you too can find your bliss send me an email to alex@myananda.co.uk quoting 28 days to bliss & I will send you the information for my fantastic new program 28 days to Bliss launching in the New Year.

Anyone who has been to one of my yoga classes, will know that I do like to wax lyrical about the benefits of each of the poses. Then one of my clients called me on this, saying, “How do you actually know inversions slow the aging process?” Hmmmm, good question, so I began some research.

Firstly, yoga is ancient practice thousands of years old. Yoga is derived from the Sanskrit ‘Yuji’ which means union. By uniting the body with the breath, we can help to clear the mind. Since yoga incorporates breathing exercises (pranayama) with physical poses (asanas) with relaxation techniques this can have significant physical, mental, emotional & spiritual benefits.

But what we who practice yoga ‘know’, science is just beginning to confirm. Michael de Manincour, a Psychologist at the Yoga Institute quotes a study done with a group of people suffering from clinical depression & anxiety who practiced yoga everyday for 6 weeks versus the control group, also suffering with their mental health but not practicing yoga.

The yoga group recorded a 33% reduction in depression & anxiety, reduced emotional & mental distress, increased resilience & an increase in the number of positive experiences they recorded along with a reduction in the negative experiences. The control group did not record the same benefits. What is even more staggering, is that those who practiced yoga did so for only an average of 12 minutes a day.

And this is not the only study. Type scientific benefits of yoga into google & you will come across scores of studies reporting similar results.

But we are not only are we beginning to understand the enormous benefits from yoga but where they come from.

Dr Loren Fishman says, ”It (yoga) thickens the layer of the cerebral cortex, the part of the brain associated with higher leaving & increase neuroplasticity, which helps us learn new things & change the way we do things.”

Yoga helps us manage stress. There is no doubt we are living in increasingly stressful times. Our neuro-endocrine system has inbuilt mechanisms to help us fight stress. But if we are constantly triggered & not given the opportunity to reset ourselves, then stress hormones flood our system affecting our physical & mental health significantly.

Our automatic nervous system has 2 parts: the sympathetic nervous system which is responsible for our fight, flight or freeze response & the parasympathetic nervous system which controls the activities our body does whilst at rest, digestion, sleep, sex.

When these complimentary systems work in harmony, we feel great, when the sympathetic system is overused, the balance is upset which creates illness. Yoga helps us restore balance.

By working with our body & our breath we can help restore calm in our minds. This works on many levels. First the breath. It is one of the most powerful ways to impact stress. Longer smoother breaths send a powerful message to the brain & balance our automatic nervous system. We can also reduce our blood pressure by slowing the rate of our breath.

But yoga also works from the physical perspective. Our mind ultimately controls our wellness. Yoga helps to bring our mind into focus. Try standing on 1 leg if you are thinking about something else. Indeed, you can often tell how much someone has going on in their mind, by how easily they can stand on one leg. Try balancing on your hands and arms, which is almost impossible if your mind is wandering or ruminating. By focusing on what we are doing physically, this focuses our mind & this helps to change our brains. It’s called neuroplasticity.

Advances in science & the advent of MRI scanners have enables us to see how meditative practices (& yes yoga is a meditative practice) can change the structure & activity within the brain.

By using MRI scans, we can monitor the activity in our prefrontal cortex. When we are balancing, we can see on MRI scans that redirecting our thought patterns helps to create new circuits in the prefrontal cortex, which helps us access these in times of stress.

Not only are we beginning to be able to actually see the changes in the brain from practicing yoga & meditation but advancements in molecular & cellular biology & science are beginning to show biomedical changes in our neurons & the functioning of the body at both cellular & molecular levels. Almost every week there is a new body of evidence being published about how yoga impacts our body at this micro level.

Relaxation occurs when our body & our mind is in a state of balance. Yoga helps create space in both our body & our mind which encourages the flow of energy.

Yoga has such a positive effect by increasing inner peace, contentment, happiness & self awareness. It helps to reduce blood pressure & heart rate, increase oxygen utilization, improve digestion, the immune system, hormone balance & better neuro-muscular coordination.

If you practice yoga, you will know this just from stepping onto your yoga mat: a sense of peace & calm begins before you even start practicing as your body & mind are aware of what is to come.

The physical poses (asanas) all have different benefits, stimulating different systems in the body: standing poses strengthen leg muscles, open the hip, flex the back & improve circulation; forward bends are calming & restorative; backbends increase flexibility in the spine, stimulate the central nervous system & may help deal with negative emotions (possibly because we are opening the heart chakra…but scientific advancements have not quite reached the stage where we can confirm the energy centres, the chakras or the flow of energy between them, so let’s not delve into that right now!).

So this brings us neatly back to inversions & the scientific research to support the claims behind the benefits of inversions. Dr Fishman notes that inversions improve bone density which he attributes to the muscles working against gravity.

Reversing the effects of gravity on the body has a profound physiological effect on the body. In 2000 Nasa reported that when humans enter zero gravity it causes severe biomedical problems: the sense of balance is destroyed, blood floods upwards speeding up the heart, muscles waste & bone mass drops.

On earth, gravity weighs us down & as the year’s progress so does the damage: varicose veins & hemorrhoids, the heart falters & more. The ancient yogis called gravity ‘the silent enemy’.

So by upending ourselves, we reverse the effects of gravity. Our body is made up of 60% water, when we upend ourselves, the tissue fluids of our lower body drain more effectively than during sleep, helping to clear congestion. David Coulter who taught anatomy at the University of Minnesota said, “If you can remain in an inverted posture for just 3-5 minutes, the blood will not only drain quickly to the heart, but tissue fluids will flow more efficiently into the veins & lymph channels of the lower extremities & of the abdominal & pelvic organs, facilitating a healthier exchange of nutrients & wastes between cells & capillaries” Couldn’t have said it better myself!

There are 4 major systems in the body: cardiovascular, lymphatic, nervous & endocrine. Inversions give the heart a break & are a healthier way, as we age, of getting benefits to the circulatory system because you don’t have to run really hard to get the heart pumping circulating blood down to the feet & back again.

We used to believe inversions flooded the brain with freshly oxygenated blood but we are now beginning to understand that the brain is protected from an influx of blood which would overwhelm its delicate structures. However, we are beginning to understand inversions could affect the movement & production of cerebrospinal fluid which is the juice of the nervous system.

The lymph system, like the heart relies on muscular movement & gravity to facilitate its performance. When you are upside down the lymph system is stimulated which strengthens your immune system.

The effect of inversions on the endocrine system is the least well documented or understood. Some believe shoulder stand helps regulate the thyroid gland but it has not been proven; whilst the benefits to the pineal & pituitary glands from headstands have also not been confirmed.

At the end of the day, a lot can be gained from being upside down, simply because by having a different physical view of the world can change our mental & emotional viewpoint too.

I think the important thing with inversions, whether you believe in their physiological effects or not, is not to rush into them. Take your time & only work with a good teacher who can guide you safely into & out of the poses. There are plenty of other ways you can practice inversions: legs up the wall (viparita karini) is deeply restorative & doesn’t tax the spine or the neck. Same with bridge pose (setu bada), downward dog, standing forward fold.

So there you have it, the science (in very lay-man’s terms!) behind the enormous positive effects practicing yoga can have on your body, brain, nervous system & immune system. Whilst we may not have ‘proved’ that yoga slows the aging process, if you stack up all the positive impact it does have it certainly suggests it could very well do so.

Check out this Uplift video for more information:

Or this article for more science based facts:

To find out how you can use yoga to change your body & your life email me at alex@myananda.co.uk quoting 28 days to bliss & I’ll let you know about a brand new program coming out in Jan 2021.

He’s only 6 months old & has only been with us a couple of months. He’d never been outside in the dark, let alone overnight so we were all deeply concerned & the kids were distraught. We toured the neighbourhood for hours looking for him & knocking on doors.

Whilst we didn’t find him, we were met with such an out pouring of support, kindness, suggestions & advise & plenty of reassurances.

One of my neighbours who I have only chatted 2 twice before insisted on joining me on the search. Another posted on the street what’s app group. Another offered to make flyers. Someone else looked for him whilst they were on their dog walk. The local vicar took my details, left his backdoor open with some roast chicken to tempt him in & kept me updated throughout the evening.

It made me really reflect on the generosity & kindness of both friends & strangers. We were still in lockdown, I didn’t expect anyone to open their doors, let alone engage with a masked random standing on their doorstep. And on the wonders of community.

We moved back into town after an eventful & difficult lockdown (we’re not unique it has been difficult for many) & immediately, after a fairly fraught few months, felt at home.

We all enjoy being able to walk everywhere. The kids adore the freedom & independence of walking to school & back. I love having the green hills of Greenhill surrounding us for our daily dog walks.

But it is the sense of community that we all really love. We now live only minutes away from some of our closest friends here in Evesham & that sense of support, security & belonging is priceless.

It reminds us a lot of our previous lives. No, not those kind of previous lives, although I do believe in them, (that’s fodder perhaps for another blog), no, our previous lives before we came back to the UK.

Before we returned to the UK 3 years ago, we lived overseas. The wonderful thing about the expat community is that wherever you go, you are immediately swept up by people who know exactly what you are going through. They all understand what it is like to be thousands of miles away from your nearest & dearest & you make friends deeply & quickly. Your friends very much become your family.

We have been blessed to meet some amazing people & make some wonderful friends, many of whom are still very much a part of our lives today. They continue to be a wonderful source of friendship, support, love & joy & of course a sense of community even across the miles.

Our friends in Germany have taken to calling themselves my ‘Board of Directors’ & any problems I encounter or doubts about what course of action to take, I’m instructed to seek their counsel & take them up on this kind offer. After all they were with me through major lung surgery & the recovery & during my hospitalisation for severe mental ill health & through that much longer journey back to wellness. They have been with us through thick & thin, through the toughest of tough times. They supported from afar during my divorce & sent the troops in when it ended up in court. And they are always there to celebrate the triumphs & successes too.

Our community right here on our doorstep, really reminds us of the community we had in Bangkok…the tropical weather & swimming pool apart! Just like over there, we have several of our closest friends within a 5 min walk from our house. One family has been our childcare bubble, which as a single parent I’m allowed, & this has been invaluable to both families during this recent lockdown.

But it’s the unexpected rendevous’ on the school run or on our way home from a dog walk & those valuable moments of connection that are priceless, especially during lockdown. They remind me fondly of the spontaneity of bumping into friends around the Moobaan in Bangkok & the invaluable support those friends gave me during another testing time, as my marriage was coming to an end.

Friends, community & connection are all so very important & utterly priceless especially in these times. Even when we can’t meet our friends properly, bumping into them when we’re out & about has given us such a lift to our spirits.

Community, connection & friendships, they have served us so well over the years. We are absolutely blessed and extremely grateful. It has made me appreciate how everyone has a part to play in our lives. Everyone in our communities has a role to play just as we have in theirs…it takes a village as Jay Shetty notes in his wonderful book, Live Like a Monk. Indeed, before the German contingent announced their Board-ship status, we referred to each other as our village.

But there is one more thing I’d like to share about community & again I credit Jay Shetty with sharing it in his book: the circle of love. Every time we give out energy, whether it is love, kindness joy or anger & disappointment, that energy comes back to us.

Of course I believe this because I believe in the law of attraction, whatever energy we vibrate & project, comes back to us. The circle of love clarifies though that it doesn’t always come back to us from the person we gave it to. It can come back from a variety of sources. We have a tendency to expect it to come back from the person we gave it to, but that’s not how it works.

This was rather a light bulb moment, an aha moment, yes of course…it makes perfect sense! Utterly beautiful in it’s simplicity. This is why it’s important to have a community, we all serve different purposes & the the circle of love can revolve.

Oh and yes, the kitten did come back. He waltzed in the next morning nonchalantly, a look of hey what’s the drama etched on his feline features. But I believe that everything happens for a reason, so his escapades gave me a chance to reflect upon the beauty of our communities, something I think it is so important to remember during these times.

The thing was I just didn’t feel I could slow down. There was SO much to do: 3 kids to home school, a house to run & renovate, 3 dogs to be walked, a business to revive…the list was endless. I felt like I had to keep ‘do-ing’ to keep on top of it all.

On top of the endless to do list, I upp’d my meditation practice but instead of doing this because I wanted to do it, I was doing it because I felt I HAD to do it. I felt the same about my yoga practice…I HAD to do it. Even walking the dogs, which has always been a joy to me, to get out in nature, a time to process or just be, started to be a race, just get it down.

Why did I feel like this? Well I was feeling really fragile, really very not myself. Very lost. Broken even. I felt like I was clinging on to a cliff edge by my finger tips. If I didn’t practice yoga or meditate it would all go horribly tits-up.

Of course, my yoga & meditation practice wasn’t ‘working’ because I wasn’t practicing for the joy of it because I wanted to but because I needed to. The energy was all wrong.

I also realized with horror that I just wasn’t having fun. I felt like I had forgotten how to have fun, how to be joyful, how to be happy. I was terrified I would never know how to be happy, have fun or find joy ever again. I wondered if I would ever enjoy my practice again.

I was a mess. I was miserable. I felt like I had let everyone down. But I was broken. I just couldn’t do any of it anymore. And then the lesson that had been hitting me over the head all the way through lockdown finally registered…slow down.

And that’s what I did. I finally, after something ridiculous like 20 weeks, had a much needed break from solo parenting when the kids finally both went to their Dad’s. I had a whole week to myself. So I just stopped. And I slowed down.

I recalled a time when we moved back to the UK & I had been feeling really down, missing our old spontaneous, sociable expat life & I had realized I just had to change my perception. It’s all I could do. So I literally made the decision to choose to see things differently. Nothing changed but of course everything did.

And I realized that was the key to me finding my joy, fun & happiness again: I simply had to choose to be happy, choose to have fun, choose to be joyful.

I decided to practice if & when I wanted to…so I did & I started loving being back on my yoga mat & on my meditation cushion. It was a joy instead of a chore.

I choose to enjoy my daily walks in nature again just for the love of being outside. I even managed to laugh when the dog rolled in a muddy puddle to cool herself, just like an elephant rolls in mud to cool itself. A week before that would’ve just felt like another sodding thing to do, wash her. Instead I literally laughed out loud on my own in the middle of a field!

I binge watched Big Little Lies & OMGosh how I relished slowing down, watching several episodes in a sitting. It felt like such a wonderful extravagance, a decadence, an absolute treat.

I thoroughly enjoyed my week to myself. I cancelled plans, so I could just be alone, still & silent. It was an absolute joy. A revelation. Who knew slowing down would be so much fun?

Then last week after finishing Jay Shetty’s Think like a Monk, I decided to follow his advice & set an intention for the day. I sometimes set an intention for my yoga practice or when I’m teaching a class but it hadn’t occurred to me to set an intention for my day.

What another revelation! Setting a simple intention at the beginning of the day, somehow holds you more accountable all day as you remember that you choose to set this intention & so only you can choose to live it.

Life had started getting a bit busier, the ole to do list was creeping up, a slight sense of frenzy, a vague dose of overwhelm & so I decided to set the intention to slow down.

Last lockdown I kept getting the message to slow down & it was like lockdown #2 was going to be a reminder to slow down again. And in many ways it was the perfect opportunity as life was once again slowing down & becoming slightly simpler & easier, less places to be & things to do…hurrah, the perfect opportunity to slow down!

Having set the intention daily to slow down, I felt accountable, so if I felt myself getting overwhelmed by all that I had to do, I reminded myself to slow down.

Maybe I would do a short meditation to centre & ground myself again, or just take a couple of longer slower, smoother breaths to ground myself back in the moment.

Sometimes it was a simple as reminding myself that the universe gives us what we need & no more than we can cope with.

Or remembering that whatever didn’t get done could wait for another day, when the time was right.

And you know what? I actually got more done. Yeah read that again: I got more done! By being more focused on one task, by being more centred & grounded, I just achieved more.

There’s a lovely Zen proverb: if you don’t have time to meditate for 20 mins, meditate for an hour.

That extra time, getting still, turning inwards, slowing down, gave me time & space to receive inspiration & guidance on how to move forwards.

And by slowing down I actually had time to acknowledge what I had achieved, to take a moment to saviour the accomplishment. Having enough time to enjoy & reflect on an accomplishment is so important.

By slowing down I found my joy, my fun, my happiness again. I rediscovered the joy, peace & calm of practicing yoga & meditation. My energy shifted: I was calmer, happier, more content. I also realised with delight that I was just flowing, which Is a beautiful place to be in, so it didn’t even feel like work or mundane stuff.

This is of course where the magic lies, by changing my vibration by slowing down & choosing fun, joy & happiness, more of those beautiful vibes were coming right back at me!

I was no longer racing towards the destination; I was now enjoying the journey…& that’s really the whole point.

So instead of racing through life, barely noticing the joyful moments in the most mundane activity or even having time to reflect something you have achieved, why not slow down? Enjoy a slower, slightly easier & simpler pace of life & notice how much more enriching life becomes.

And if you would like to bring some more yin to your yang life & really slow down in your yoga practice, please message me at alex@myananda.co.uk & ask about my yin yoga classes or investigate some of the free resources on my Facebook Group Mindfulness & Yoga for Self-Care https://www.facebook.com/groups/MindfulnessYoga4Relationships

How can I not? The trees are changing their colours, dropping their leaves. The skies are shifting from the blue skies of summer to the greyer skies of autumn. And there is a decided nip in the air.

I love seeing the seasons change & I especially enjoy watching the leaves on the trees changing their hues & the glorious shades of red & gold emerge before the leaves finally flutter to the ground…& then the joy of walking through the crisps leaves, kicking them up with each step or throwing the leaves up like confetti, like my daughter loves to do!

But it got me thinking about change. And how change is one of the few certainties of life. And yet so many of us are reluctant to embrace change.

I started to think about how mindfulness can help us to navigate the inevitability of change.

Firstly, mindfulness helps us to notice our reactions to change. Our thoughts & feelings about change. Instead of being caught up in automatic pilot & having an an unconscious emotional response to it, we can instead step away from these thoughts & emotions & observe them.

We may notice that we can choose to accept change. Acceptance isn’t a giving up or giving into but a conscious & active decision, a giving over to if you like. And here the serenity prayer springs to mind: grant me serenity to accept the things I cannot change, change the things I can & the wisdom to know the difference.

Mindfulness also encourages us to stay present, to not get caught up in the what if’s & start crystal ball gazing but instead to stay present & grounded.

We may even choose to befriend & embrace change.

Mindfulness may also enable us to choose to change our perception around change. To be more playful & curious about the impending change, maybe even more adaptable, open-minded & flexible. And part of this stems from the added resilience a mindful practice gives us. I’m quite a lucky person, I quite like change. I quite enjoy the excitement of something new & the opportunities it presents. And I think this is why I love the changing seasons so much. I love what they represent & I love observing the changes in nature.

It has got me reflecting on the attitudes of Mindfulness & I thought I would share my thoughts on these with you today…

The attitudes of mindfulness are the ways in which we approach mindfulness to embody the essence of the practice. They are very much practices in & of themselves & are very much interlinked. Often when we start to really embody the essence of non-judgment for example, we’ll find the spirit of acceptance & forgiveness is easier to cultivate.

So let’s investigate these attitudes in a little more detail:

Non-judgment – we are essentially quite a judge-y, it is almost like we are programmed to judge. The first step in not judging is not to judge the judging – simply just notice it. Overtime you’ll notice the judgment subsiding. It’s about not being quite so critical of ourselves or others.

Kindful acceptance, forgiveness & compassion – if we are kinder, more accepting, forgiving & compassionate to ourselves we are generally kinder, more accepting, forgiving & compassionate to others.

Acceptance, forgiveness, kindness & compassion are all choices we make. They are not a giving up or giving in energy but simply a choice to let go, surrender & release the stories we are telling ourselves.

They are also attitudes which help us to cultivate a sense of patience & trust in ourselves, others & in the process itself.

Playful curiosity – is sometimes a tough one for us adults, we sometimes take ourselves & life a little too seriously. Again this about a choice: choosing joy, fun & happiness & noticing how this really shifts our energy. And again it’s about not criticising our thoughts, feelings or emotions but bringing an essence of playful curiosity to whatever we are experiencing: oooh that’s interesting or I wonder what that’s all about.

Playful curiosity is closely linked to the idea of a beginner’s mind, bringing a sense of childlike wonder, the sense of what was it like the first time we experienced something.

Non-striving – this is something we often struggle with because we have been conditioned to pursue goals, push for achievements & accomplishments.

Very often we achieve a goal & yet we take no time to savour the joy of the accomplishment before we are onto the next time. Really the joy is in the journey not the destination. If the journey is so much fun, full of joy & happiness the end result becomes less important!

The funny thing with non-striving is actually once we take the pressure off & start to enjoy the process instead of the outcome, we actually start to ‘achieve’ more!

Gratitude – Cultivating an sense of appreciation & gratitude for our lives, experiences, thoughts, feelings literally helps to rewire our brains. I have practiced gratitude almost daily for the past 8 years & I credit it, together with an almost daily meditation & yoga practice, with changing the way I think about & relate to myself & others.

Heartfulness – in Asian cultures the word for heart & mind are often interchangeable so we can think of the essence of mindfulness as heartfulness.

In the end, as we start to embrace one or two of these attitudes, we begin to see how closely related & interlinked they are & it becomes easier to embrace other attitudes. But just like mindfulness, yoga & meditation, they are all practices. And the more you practice, the more they influence our lives for the better.

We moved in with my partner 2 days before they announced the schools were closing here in the UK. It had been planned for months but the timing ended up being dire.

We had no time to work out our new dynamic as a blended family before we were in lockdown.

My partner needed to carry on working, as did his ex-partner (my step son’s mum) & my kids’ dad lives 100 miles away, so I naturally took on responsibility for parenting & home schooling my 2 kids & his son.

The first couple of weeks the kids were feral: climbing on roofs, breaking windows, lying, peeing on trampolines…yes, I kid you not! It was bedlam. So I learnt really quickly we needed a routine: mornings were all about home schooling, the afternoons they were free to play, do what they wanted.

I had dreams of lockdown being a wonderfully nurturing time where we all connected, the kids embraced meditation & yoga, learnt to cook, built a tree house. I soon abandoned these ideals in favour of: we just have to get through this still liking one another!

Initially I was happy to do my bit by being the one at home with the kids but as the days turned into weeks & the weeks into months, I began to feel resentful that the lives of the other 3 adults in our kids’ lives had pretty much continued as normal whilst mine was very much on hold.

With 3 kids around I didn’t have the headspace to focus on taking my business online as many had & I certainly couldn’t service my clients as restrictions began to ease with 3 kids in tow.

Throughout all this I was struggling with my mental health. At the beginning of lockdown I had feared that I was experiencing early onset dementia. Later I discovered it was in fact menopause. I had no idea menopause manifested itself in awful forgetfulness, a real fog. Of course it was a relief to know it was menopause & not something more serious.

I was also experiencing crucifying anxiety. I had never experienced anxiety before. Prone to be a bit of a worrier, yes, anxious, no not me. Suddenly I was experiencing panic attacks which I initially feared was a heart attack.

I discovered that both these are subtle signs of menopause…except they aren’t really subtle, they are very real. I had gone from thinking I was the eternal Peter Pan who had sailed through the menopause: my periods had stopped, I hadn’t got fat & I wasn’t sweating…boom! Nope, I was up to my eye balls in aftermath of what the lack of oestrogen does to almost every system in your body.

I now know that menopause can often be misdiagnosed as mental health issues.

Life was unbearable. I knew lockdown was beginning to impact people with mental health problems & having experienced my own mental health crisis 8 years ago, the signs were frighteningly familiar. But I just couldn’t work out what was mental health, what was menopause & what was me.

I was broken & lost & I just didn’t know where to turn or what to do. I found us somewhere else to live & we moved again, for the second time in less than 6 months. I knew I needed some space to get well & heal. And then I had a breakdown.

My doctor wanted me to go to hospital but by now the kids were back at school & relishing some semblance of normality so I refused & was referred to the mental health crisis team. And so began a long process of referrals primary & secondary care which is still very much in its infancy but which I am embracing with gratitude & open mindedness.

Then my daughter got sick. It was only a temperature, I knew she just had a cold but she wasn’t allowed back to school without a negative covid test. Except there weren’t any available. I literally spent 2 days trying to secure her one & we ended up doing a 4.5 hour round trip to South Wales.

Facing isolation, with no TV as we’d only just moved, barely any food in the house & needing to get a note from the doctor for myself I asked my partner for help. All I wanted was some support & kindness. All I got was anger & aggression. I was devastated, after all I had done for him during lockdown, he couldn’t just help me. I responded with equal anger & frustration, the consequences of which were catastrophic. One day I will share this journey but right now it is too raw & painful.

But I believe everything happens for a reason. I had shattered into a million pieces to allow the light back in.

I had to get very honest with myself very quickly about the nature of the toxicity that our relationship had disintegrated into. I went through the stages of grief in breakneck speed: numbness, sadness, owning it & finally being able to see the humour in what had turned out to be a ludicrous situation.

I felt the feelings, sat with them, cried so many tears of shame, guilt, outrage & heart-breaking, gut-wrenching sadness. I accepted what had happened, my part in it & his. And I accepted all the help that was given to us by amazing organisations & our incredible friends.

I didn’t force solutions but waited for the right answers & to reveal themselves. I got still & silent. I wasn’t always patient but I knew I couldn’t do anything else except wait & see what happened.

When the awful ugly dark thoughts that are characterised by mental illness arose I reminded myself: these thoughts aren’t real, they are not fact, you don’t have to believe them, this is mental illness talking. I had never been able to do that before. In the past I could rationalise these thoughts afterwards but not in the moment. This was a first & it was a real break through.

I practiced & practiced but not in the manic way I’d practiced during lockdown. During lockdown I practiced from fear, that if I didn’t it would all go even more t*ts up than it already had, but in a gentle, kinder, more compassionate way.

And I tried not to beat myself up. Yes, I absolutely took ownership of my part of the fiasco but I didn’t allow myself to wallow in those unhelpful thoughts of: this is all your fault, you’re not good enough nonsense. I treated myself like a would a friend: this is hard, it’s ok to feel like this, you’ve got this.

I embraced the journey, knowing I would learn some amazing lessons from it. I turned to some of my favourite teachers to remind me of what I needed to do or be.

One friend/teacher advised me that narcissists are attracted by our light. This was a relief, I had wondered why I hadn’t seen it coming. I grew up with a controlling narcissist. When I understood that dynamic I realised with horror that I had married the same. After doing everything I possibly could to salvage that relationship, eventually I left. I couldn’t believe I had allowed myself to become entangled in another toxic & damaging relationship. Why hadn’t I learnt? My friend’s comment made me realise it wasn’t all my fault. Another revelation.

I realise that knowledge & understanding isn’t enough, healing from this kind of experience is necessary to avoid get caught up in something that feels like love. It feels like love because that is how love was presented to me as a child, it feels familiar & safe but of course it isn’t.

It has only been 3 weeks since I had my breakdown but I already feel so much stronger, I have learnt so much on this journey already. I know there is still so much healing, growing & learning to do. I know this is the breakthrough moment I have been waiting for. I am excited about what is ahead. I know things will get better. I am inspired about what I have learnt already & what is still to come.