Category Archives: Yoga

Sunrise in Milano Marittima

What to do when you don’t have a holiday coming up

This may seem like an odd thing to be writing about given I’ve just spent a wonderful week in Italy, but since I now don’t have anything planned until my trip to India in October, I am starting to get cabin fever already.

The problem with having a ‘secure’ job is that generally, your boss likes you to be there to, you know, work. That really puts paid to any idea of working from a beach or my hotel balcony like I have been doing the past week.

I figured since more and more people are going away less and less, either because they feel they can’t take the time away from work or they simply can’t afford it, I might share a few of my own tricks for feeling like you’ve had a holiday, even when you haven’t. Continue reading

champagne_and_ice_cream

Credit where credit’s due

When was the last time you celebrated something you’d accomplished?

When I asked myself this question yesterday, the answer didn’t surprise me. I couldn’t remember. After a while I came up with the fact I went for a meal when I got promoted in December. Woop-di-do.

It has come to my attention that most of us do gooding humans have a tendency to beat ourselves black and blue when we do something we think of as wrong but refuse to congratulate ourselves when something goes right. Continue reading

Facing your fears (and other cliches)

This week, as you may know if you follow me on Twitter, I finally booked my flights to India.

This trip has been five years in the making. Ever since I did my yoga teacher training with my inspirational teacher Conrad Paul, in London, I have wanted to see the ‘birthplace’ of yoga, the one constant in ten years of changes in my life.

It may seem like a small hurdle to have booked flights for two weeks in October but for me, this is a massive accomplishment, both psychologically and spiritually.

The view from Chamundi Hill Palace, Kerala, India, where I will be spending two weeks in October getting Ayurvedic treatments and food and twice daily yoga and meditation :-)

Continue reading

Being limited by my own world view

It occurred to me this morning that, over the past few months, I’ve managed to put myself back in to a little bit of a box.

What I mean by this is that I started wondering if I was being limited by my own world view. As regular readers will know, I recently started a new job in London and went through some other changes. By ‘normal’ standards I’m doing well. I have a good job that allows me to live in a lovely flat in a good area of London, right by the river with great transport links in to the City.

What does all that mean? It means I’ve stopped wondering what ‘else’ I could do. Continue reading

Using Yoga for Relaxation, not weight loss and fitness

Particularly in the Western world, we have developed an emphasis on using yoga for weight loss and fitness. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not necessarily a bad thing, but for me, yoga is all about relaxation.

Yes, it is possible to get super fit using only yoga, you only need to check out Kino MacGregor for proof of that, but you’ll notice that she’s using that power for spiritual enlightenment, not simply amazing abs. Continue reading

Pushing for personal growth – how do you do it without having a mental breakdown?

I’m sure you’ve been there before, the same way most of us have. You’re tired, you’re not sleeping properly, your boss is keeping you awake all night, or you don’t have a boss and that’s stressing you.

The problem is – when does it move from being ‘worth it’ to ‘not worth it’?

Pushing yourself for personal growth – how do you do it without having a mental breakdown?

There are so many articles about this on the web, but most say the same thing – it’s not worth it when it’s impacting you life in a way that makes you feel rubbish.

I’m going to contradict that a bit, because I do believe sometimes when things are really rubbish it’s when our biggest growth spurts occur. Continue reading

How I know you're not reaching your potential

Have you ever been told you’ve got so much potential? Maybe you haven’t – if so, I’m sorry.

Most people have been told at some point or another that they have ‘so much potential’. Sometimes it’s said in a positive way, but sometimes it’s more along the lines of, ‘you’ve got so much potential but you’re not using it’.

The second scenario is the one I’d like to focus on today. Continue reading