Only one thing went wrong with the Yoga Mantra classes.  The video recording didn't work.  we would have loved to have given you a sample of what it was like.

Loved by all who attended (even the reluctants who were dragged along by someone else - (you know I mean you) so much so that it is going to become a regular monthly class on our calendar. So look out for the next one.

To try to describe the experience would be futile but Barry was quite correct in saying that it clears the cobwebs from your mind and I for one feel really refreshed and invigorated by the experience - even after a good nights sleep.

Maybe some of the other attendees will be able to give a better description.

We were very pleased with the attendance at our free Yoga classes on Saturday.  Especially the people who travelled quite a distance to support Mandy.   The first class was full and the second was almost full.  This was despite Jayne the schedulesd teacher being ill and a bit of confusion about whether the class was cancelled or not.  Mandy stepped in and took both classes.

We are really grateful to the people who attended as they provided an invaluable experience for Mandy who is a trainee teacher with us on the Yoga Teacher Training course.

She throughly enjoyed the experience once she got over her nerves too.

We wish Jayne a speedy recovery so that she too can begin to experience the pleasure of the experience.

We will be having more free classes so keep an eye open and get signed up soon.

Competition to win a free yoga class.  Simples

Just look at the picture below that has a number of pictures of Barry in Yoga postures,

Look carefully and see how many poses you can spot Barry in.  Be careful some may be upside down postures, sideways or back to front poses (he gets himself into all sorts of positions!).  But they are all real postures and the orientation of each is correct. i.e. we've not turn the photo upside down (just Barry).

Tell us how many you found and name them.

The winner will be the first person out of the bag  who correctly counts the postures and names them.  Respond to this blog with your answer

Competition closes 31st May or if there are no winners as so

on as we get a correct answer after that date.  Check the blog fo

You may have know for a while that there are  benefits to replacing your normal oil with cocnut oil.  Up until now it has always been an expensive exercise as it has been imported in relatively small quanities.  We were therefore delighted to find in a recent trip to Sainsbury's that they have tubs of coconut oil at a very reasonable price - so no excuses now.  We list below some of the benefits of using coconut oil in your daily diet.

In case you're wondering coconut oil doesn't seem to taint the taste of the food at all, in fact it tastes fresher and cleaner when made with cocnut oil.  Even using as a spread it is tasteless and just adds that moisture to the bread or whatever you are using it on.  Of course if you are used to enjoying the taste of butter on bread or hot toast for instance it does take a bit of getting used to.

Here are some benefits of using coconut oil:

Do you suffer from sluggishness and feel as though you have no energy?

Coconut oil will help with that.

Fat content. The fat in coconut oil is of a type that is absorbed by the liver and converted into energy.  So in effect you are not taking fat into your system but are creating a boost of energy which will therefore aid in weight loss. 

Are you heavy than you would like to be and do you have extra weight on your belly?

Belly fat is very hard to shift but with a combination of exercise and cocnut oil it is possible to shift it - very important as belly fat is associated with heart problems.

Is your brain not as sharp as you would like?

These energy boosts also send extra fuel to the brain and this is especially useful in stressful times.  Coconut oil is said to help to eliminate the bacteria in your brain that makes it feel sluggish.  It has also been said to prevent nerve damage that causes problems like parkinsons, alzheimers, diabetes and multiple sclerosis.

Do you feel unbalanced in the nicest possible way)?

Coconut oil has been shown to balance hormones, hence the value in hypothyroidism, balances glucose levels and  reduces inflammation (another important aspect for a healthy heart).

Immunity

We all need as many antioxidants as we can get and although maybe not the best source it is good to know that coconut oil provides them.  Reducing inflammation is also essential for your immunity.

Breast milk contains  lauric acid which protects the baby from virus and bacteria, promoting a stronger immune system, in turn encouraging the body to more quickly recover from infections and other diseases minimising the use of medication.  Coconut oil is one of the few additional places where you will find lauric acid.

Do you want to look young for longer?

Beauty comes from within and coconut oil is said to slow down the aging process.  It is good for the skin both internally and when applied externally and can be used safely on babies and small children.

Coconut oil is one of the good cholesterol oils that helps get rid of the artery clogging bad stuff.

So whether it is for health or for vanity coconut oil is a great ingredient to include in your daily food list.  Rush down to Sainsburys and grab your tub.

Picturing ski slopes reduces hay-fever symptoms by a third. Sniffles be gone: self-hypnotism may provide a partial cure to hay fever.

People itching for a solution to seasonal allergies could get help from self-hypnosis, a team of Swiss researchers suggests. The study finds that simply focusing one's thoughts on allergen-free environments can reduce symptoms of hay fever by one-third.

Although the arrival of spring brings better weather, it also triggers the release of plant pollens that cause allergies. Hay fever affects about 10-15% of adults in industrialized nations. To treat this, people turn to medications such as antihistamines, decongestants and sometimes steroids. But these can cause side-effects such as drowsiness, a dry mouth and raised blood pressure.

Allergy sufferers have sought alternatives approaches, including psychotherapy-related methods, to ease their itchy eyes and runny noses. Wolf Langewitz of the University Hospital Basel, Switzerland, and his colleagues sought to find out how well self-hypnosis works.

“We felt that the results were encouraging enough to tell people to try it, because this intervention is free of side-effects.” - Wolf Langewitz
University Hospital Basel, Switzerland

About 40 patients stuck with the regime for roughly two years, and were tested for their biological response to allergens: they were exposed to pollen and their congestion was assessed using a device that measures airflow through nasal passages.

The participants were tested twice: once in the absence of self-hypnosis, and once after practising this form of therapy. Their symptoms, as measured by the congestion test and from simply asking the patients how they felt, dropped by a third thanks to hypnosis.

Langewitz admits that the findings are preliminary and a bigger study is needed. But, he says, "we felt that the results were encouraging enough to tell people to try it, because this intervention is free of side-effects". Sheerin adds that the treatment may have other benefits: "Some people can't afford the medicine."
Abstract from original Article - Self-hypnosis squelches allergies, by Roxanne Khamsi, NATURE MAGAZINE

There is a saying in Yoga that goes "Yoga is meant to find us where ever we are in life".

This is a wonderful selling point for yoga because it is saying that we don't necessarily have to be flexible or mentally calm to practice yoga. Nor do we have to have a burning desire to persue the loftier aims of yoga of Self Enquiry, penetrating deep into the dormant levels of our personality in a quest to find the true Self.

Of course these challenging portals are there for anyone to aspire to but where ever YOU are right now even a modest daily practice of yoga techniques can soon begin to enhance the quality of your experience of life. After all at the end of the day this is what we all really want from our yoga: a better quality of life and most of all, PEACE or SHANTI as it is known in yoga speak.

In my experience of yoga teaching for some ten years and over 30yrs of personal practice, most students who embark on the yoga journey only do so for physiological reasons. They want to get flexible, toned and stronger without busting a gut. They want to get some relief from the everyday stresses of work and family pressures. So can yoga do this for them? Do they have to subscribe to the spiritual path of yoga to really benefit.

The answer to the first question is Yes it can do this for them with persistent practice. The answer to the second question is No but they may find that even with passive practice whatever their spiritual beliefs might be or whatever they think about there being something eternal and higher than this reality then that may well start to become clearer and more meaningful to them.

Yoga postures are not just physical exercises. When we look more inquiringly at the nature of the various poses we begin to see that they all carry some identity or what we might call an archtype that we can connect with.

For example many of the postures are named after animals and there is an inference that the great Hatha Yoga Masters wanted us to find a significant charcateristic of these animals that might bring us benefits. For example the Cat Pose (Viralasana) allows us to take the spine in two directions, one to flex the spine the other to extend it while at the same time optimising and synchronizing the breath while between these two positions.

This movement is no doubt beneficial to the cat and when we adopt this pose it has the potential to bring us benefits of a similar nature.

The Eagle Pose (Garundasana) is a balanciong pose that brings poise,steadiness and concentration a  charcteristic essential to the survival of this proud hunting bird. While we may not need its predatorial gifts we can benefit from the poise, steadiness and concentration that this pose brings us. Furthermore, balancing poses such as the Eagle can cultivate mental and psychic balance and patience too.

In addition to animals, poses are also named after geometrical shapes, natural phenonema, and human characteristics.

Examples include: the geometrical shape of the Triangle (trikonasana). Apart from the triangles physiological benefits of stregthening the legs,and mobilizing the hips its positioning can give us the vibrational attributes of the triangle shape of completeness and uniformity that this pose displays and impacts on our awareness.

The natural phenonema of the standing Mountain Pose (Tadasana) brings us strength and solidness from the flexions in the feet and legs and pelvis giving us that immoveable feeling whatever comes our way. It can build confidence.and steadfastness as it translates to our daily lives.

The human characteristics of the Child Pose (Balasana) creating that return to the womb feeling of release, trust and security, while the Warrior Pose (Virabhandrasana) in contrast can bring us many of the qualities of the the warrior: strength, fortitude, confidence, courage and determination.

Many of the qualities I have mentioned here are not just meant to be experienced while on the mat in a yoga class or while you practice in the privacy of your own bedroom but can be exprerssed to our daily lives.

Many of us come to believe or perceive that yoga is mostly about posture even though in reality it is much more than this. Yet, if posture is so important then it has to benefit us in our daily lives. If yoga posturing is worth its salt it has to gradually make us more aware of our posture when we are not in class or on our mats. If we sit in a poor position when relaxing or eating or driving or working then this can undo much good work we do in our yoga practice. So it is a vital part of our practice that we cultivate an ever progressing sense of physical and mental awareness so that we can take this into our day to day lives maintaining what we have learnt about our bodies while in the deep absorption of posture.

I said at the beginning that yoga is meant to enhance the quality of our experience of life and while yoga is not strictly meant to be a therapy it can still be therapeutic. I have read often that some schools of thought believe that yoga should never be used for physical development or treatment and that the legacy of yoga posturing is to liberate the mind through the body. While a part of me also believes in the importance of this I also believe that if yoga can help us with a physical obstacle then why not use it for that reason. After all if when we sit to meditate we are plagued for example with an aching back or nervousness or anxious breathing that can possibly be alleviated with more specific and directed yoga practices then this can only benefit the smoothing out of our mental distractions.One of the misconception about yoga meditationis that one has to sit in a meditative pose whatever the feeling. The most important thing is that whatever meditative pose you adopt if you do meditate you must be comfortable with as few distractions as possible. Otherwise you focus will be on those distractions.

There are postures that can help us with individual problems whether on a physical, psychological or emotional level and while a general rounded practice can help with any of these, getting to understand posture more and how specific postures and breathing can identify with our needs can help speed up our evolution on the yoga journey bringing us nearer to that better quality of experience and the peace that we all desire.

Namaste

Barry Todd (Hatha and Yin Yoga Teacher)