RESTORE & REVIVE RETREAT MARCH 2023 

Retreats are very different from our regular classes. We have the time to really settle and drift into a deep feeling of ease, relaxation and peace. We find this to a degree in our classes which is wonderful but a retreat is a much deeper experience filled with days of love, laughter, hugs, tears and literally coming back to ourselves, remembering who we are.

On retreat we have the time for deeper personal interactions, slower mellow yoga, longer 'everything'.

Facilitating a retreat is a huge blessing that leaves me full inspiration, gratitude and lovefor the people that give their precious time to come along and share these wonderful few days.

If you're thinking of going on a retreat (and it doesn't have to be any of mine), do it. Take some time to investigate the retreat, what they offer, the cost, location, venue.

Feed your soul, find some peace, some quiet. Be with people who want the same 💕

March 2023 Retreat 💖

It's hard to put into words just how wonderful this retreat was, but it's enough to say that we didn't want to leave, we wanted to stay together in this beautiful bubble of sisterhood that we'd created together.

We spent our days in love and laughter, tears and joy, compassion and understanding. We ate incredible food from Ospallas. We yoga'd, meditated, danced, sang, swam, bombed into the pool fully clothed (you can't do that in the local pool!) We had a fire ceremony in a very strong wind, now that was a funny struggle, but we embraced it together with laughter and hugs.

Friends were made for life at this retreat 💕

The feelings and memories of such an amazing retreat have stayed with us since and will forever be a part of us.

Of course we also had the most beautiful venue to restore ourselves in, that helped too.

Our retreat was midweek which doesn't suit everyone however, it's where we can afford the most wonderful venues that at weekends would be beyond our budget. I would urge anyone to take a few days off to join us for the next midweek retreat, you won't regret taking this time out.

If you're interested in joining one of our retreats do get in touch

Wishing you all much love 💖

January 2020 'Coming back to you' retreat.

What an amazing weekend we had! So much calm beautiful energy allowed us all to be in this wonderful physical and mental space. This was the weekend we all need every month!

We had participants who had never practiced yoga or meditation before who had the most incredible time (their words not mine). So if you haven't tried yoga or meditation before, you'll be fine. If you do practice but have never been on a retreat then why not make this the first one?

Rather than me wax lyrical about it I'll leave it to the participants who left their feedback anonymously  enabling them to be completely honest in their thoughts and feelings about the weekend.

"the most beautiful, soulful weekend of sisterhood I have ever experienced"

"an amazing weekend. I feel calm, relaxed, nourished and nurtured"

"a complete joy, mindful, thoughtful, encouraging"

"amazing venue, fantastic yoga/meditation, yummy food - I'll do it all again"

"a beautiful, heart warming, happy, nurturing, soulful weekend. I leave (reluctantly) feeling fully rested, relaxed and ready for the new year"

"my first yoga retreat and it's been so wonderful. We have all had such a lovely time. Great yoga, good laughs and 'me time'. Would not have changed a single thing"

"every step went over and above to make this yoga retreat weekend perfect, we couldn't have wanted any more from the weekend. We have all come away feeling totally relaxed and refreshed and can't thank you enough...when's the next one"

"upon booking I thought it was a little expensive for 3 days and 2 nights however, having experienced the whole weekend I see where the money goes and absolutely believe it to be such good value for the money. Wonderful, wonderful weekend"

"Wonderful relaxing retreat. I feel rested grounded and nourished. I feel positive for the year ahead. Your positive enery is infectious. Namaste"

"considering I don't practice yoga or meditation I found it all easy to follow and now understand the reason to practice yoga. I also loved the meditations. It was an amazing weekend"

"some very much needed headspace. Really enjoyed the yoga options, some of which I hadn't tried before. I really wish I'd been here for more of the weekend"

MY THOUGHTS AND MUSINGS, MORE COMMONLY KNOWN AS A BLOG!

New Year Musings

It's the first day of a new year and a new decade, time for reflection on 2019 whilst looking forward to what we're hoping for in 2020.

Life happened, thankfully! Not all of it was easy or wanted, would I have returned any of it if I could, of course I would but as it doesn't work like that we take what life has given and work with it the best we can, that doesn't mean it's easy but if life was always easy with nothing to shake us then how do we learn? How do we become resilient? How do we learn to appreciate what we have? How do we understand gratitude?  How do we sense the absolute glory and importance of this life that we've been given?

So moving into this new year and new decade, life is going to happen, it won't all be easy but it won't all be tough either. It won't be all happy but it won't be all sad either. You may not get everything you want but you will get some of what you want. Not all will go your way, but lots will. There may be tears, perhaps lots of them but there will be smiles and joy and love and laughter.

For me, and I hope you 2020 will be manifested with hope, focus, positivity, understanding, love, peace, alignment, compassion, laughter and gratitude for this life I've lived up to now and for the life still to come.

Be kind. Be thoughtful. Be gentle (but don't take sh*t). Be fierce. Be powerful (in a good way). Be strong. Ignore gossip. Don't gossip yourself. Be nice. Understand others perspectives. Forgive. Help and allow yourself to be helped. Understand not everyone is the same. Recognise that you don't always have to give an opinion. Know that silence often says more than lots of words. Your life is yours to enjoy in your best way.

Eat well. Drink Water. Excercise. Meditate. Rest. Relax. Love. Be with Friends. Be with Family. 

I watched a film today with 2 wonderful quotes will follow me into this new year:

' I think the best thing that we can do is let people know that each one of them is precious' (include yourself in this)

'Just take a minute to think about all the people that loved us into being'

I hope you have the year you wish for yourself.

Happy New Year

Namaste

INTERESTING BITS & PIECES

Amaravati Buddhist Monastery in Gaddesden https://www.amaravati.org 

Every Saturday there's a meditation workshop between 2 and 4pm. This is usually held in the Temple, but sometimes in the main Sala. The workshops, led by a sangha member, usually a monk or nun (other than January to March when they are on winter retreat, the sessions then are offered by lay people) offer instruction in sitting and walking meditation and the opportunity to ask questions on practice. There is no charge for attending and booking isn't necessary, simply turn up.

You don't have to stay for the 2 hours, you just need to stay for as long as you feel comfortable staying. Sometimes I'm there for the whole 2 hours, others I leave before or after the walking meditation, nothing is right or wrong.

If you haven't been before, why not give it a go.  

This made me chuckle :)

I am still tired from yesterday's tired.

Today isn't looking so good, and I've

already used up tomorrow's tired.

Tiredness is an absolute scourge with our 24/7 society. We all know the things we should do to help ourselves but we don't always do it, and sometimes even when we do do it we still don't sleep, we're still tired ... What's the solution? If I knew that I'd never be tired and probably make a fortune offering advice on how it's done (although of course I would offer it for free!!)

All we can do is eat well, excercise, hydrate, relax when necessary, meditate, practice mindfulness, practice yoga or tai chi, qigong etc and hope that this semi elusive yet immensely important thing called sleep comes our way and pays a decent visit!

Wishing you some good sleeps :) 

A few little lines

'Today I want you to think about all that you are instead of all that you are not'

'One day you'll look back and realise that you worried too much about things that don't really matter'

'Start where you are, use what you have, do what you can'

'Be softer with you. You are a breathing thing, a memory to someone, a home to a life. Be softer with you'

Meditation...

Let's get straight to the point, no faffing or messing about ... Yes you can meditate. The End.

Of course that would be a really short blog post and not very informative (but simple to write).

Before we go through the reasons you'll say you can't do it let's go through the reasons you should, along with what meditation can help with;

1. Boosts the immune system

2. Decreases stress

3. Decreases anxiety

4. Decreases depression

5. Decreases pain

6. Makes you more compassionate

7. Increases your happiness :)

8. Helps you to look at your emotions

9. Increases self control

10. Helps you to understand the mind and not be a slave to its drama

And before you baulk - this is 'proper' scientific stuff with empirical and medical evidence/confirmation via MRI's/Brain scans etc, we are not just 'chatting breeze' here (thanks urban dictionary for that little bit of slang. It also offered a few other slightly more colourful terms for 'talking rubbish' #toorudeforhere)

This is what meditation is not:

1. It is not a process of clearing the mind and not thinking about anything

The mind is noisy, it wants to keep you 'thinking' constantly - so we just sit, we close our eyes and accept

that this is what happens. We stay with our breath on the inhale and on the exhale; each time a thought pops

in which it will do a hundred times, we accept it, it's just a thought, we recognise where it came from and take ourselves back to the breath - that is meditation - we take ourselves back to the breath time and again. There are other methods of meditation however, we often use the breath as our anchor because it is always there.

2. You do not have to sit cross legged in the Lotus position (ouch) - sit how you want

You want to sit in Lotus, do it but if you want to sit on a chair with feet on the floor, or the sofa, at the table, even lying on the bed if sitting is a challenge for you (try not to fall asleep but if you do don't chastise yourself) then do that

3. You do not have to be a hippy - but hippies are cool man

You just need to be a person, although maybe animals meditate too, who knows

4. It is not a religous practice

Though if that's your thing then that's great

5.You do not have to be weird to practice it - you just have to have a mind (which most of us do)

I've seen some weird things (!) but meditation is not one of them. You do need to be able to breath though ;-)

6. IT IS NOT WEIRD. IT IS NOT STRANGE. IT IS NOT MYSTERIOUS.

If you think any of these, ask yourself why you think that, have a little chat with yourself - perhaps you are weird, strange or mysterious (it's a possibility)

7. You do not need to hum or chant

You do not need to do this at all - but chanting is so good! Hmmm maybe that's too weird to start with, maybe I shouldn't have said it - maybe I'm weird!

8. You do not have to do it for hours a day - any amount of time is better than no amount of time

Seriously you can start with 2 minutes a day if that works for you, we can all find 2 minutes. You can then slowly work up from there should you choose but whatever amount of time you spend try to spend it daily if possible, regularity is the key here

9. You do not have to wear flowing flowery clothes made of hemp - those ripped jeans are great (they're not

though, get some jeans that have all the material there!)

Flowy flowery clothes = fab. Hemp clothes = also fab. Do you need to wear them? Absolutely not, wear whatever you're in at the time. Caveat - no ripped jeans ;-)

10.You do not need to be spiritual/religous or believe in any 'higher being'

Just believe in yourself. Do your best. Do not berate yourself. Keep trying, but without trying.

There are some fantastic apps out there to help you along. There are also some great online videos/information

If there is anything else you'd like to know just shout me in class but please do it mindfully ;-)

Namaste

 

 Home Practice

Ok so I get it, you don't really have time to practice yoga unless you're in class. I understand that it's difficult to find anything like 5+ minutes inbetween work/family/friends/social media/TV/doing nothing much etc etc ... you get my point? If there is 5 minutes for all of your social media/tv then there is 5 minutes to nurture yourself, it's no big deal, it's just 5 minutes. And then perhaps that 5 may become 10 or 15, maybe even 20 minutes but it doesn't matter if not, the fact is you've taken that a small amount of time to look after yourself.

Beginning a home practice may seem a little daunting, but it really needn't be. Here are just a few tips to help get you started.

1. It's helpful to find a space that you'll use each time you practice, it only needs to be the size of a mat you don't need an open field or banqueting hall! But let it be your space for the time you're using it. Keep it quiet (ish) and calm (ish). Maybe music will help maybe it won't, it's your practice, play around and see what works for you.

2. Try to commit to a defined amount of time each day whether that's 5 minutes of 15, whatever it is try and stay with that commitment you've made to yourself whilst acknowledging and accepting that some days life may take over and your 15 -/+ minutes may have to be cut short. #socialmediaisnotanexcuse

3. Thinking about mats - you don't 'need' one but yes it's helpful to have one. A mat will help those knees (you'll miss those when they're gone so be mindful of them) from suffering to much. If you're getting a little sweaty in can aid you in not slipping about all over the place. It's also helps to give you a more stable stronger surface to practice on BUT I reitterate it isn't absolutely necessary to have a yoga mat #noexcuses

4. Each week particularly when your practice is new stay with a set of poses that you know. This is a great way to create consistency and to get you on the mat without spending to much time beforehand thinking about what you're going to do. The bonus to this repeating of asana is you can begin to see how you and the body are moving on.

5. Once you're in your space and on the mat (or not as the case may be!) turn down your phone, it's just for a short while, you'll be ok :)

Don't be tempted to check for messages/calls etc - just stay with yourself and the practice, just the two of you alone for the tiniest while.

6. Just 'be'. Sit, be in the moment for a moment. Recognise this is your practice, your space, this is your time. Breathe. Use a gentle pranayama or simply focus on your breath.

7. Warms ups - you can follow our usual varying class warm ups, along with a few Sun Salutes. From there perhaps a few standing poses, also is any practice complete without a Down Dog?

8. I am a great fan of using online practices as there is someone guiding you which makes it all the more helpful - watch who and what you're using though as not all yoga teachers/practices are equal. There are sites you pay for such as Yoga International; Ekhartyoga; Yoga Journal. Movementformodernlife, all of which are excellent. Alternatively get yourself over to Youtube where you don't have to pay. I love 'yoga with adrienne', 'physche truth' and 'strala at home'.

So these are just a few tips, well 8 isn't a few is it, there could have been a lot more! Of course ask me anything else in class

but in the meantime - try a little home practice, it's good for you ... although please keep coming to class :)

Beautiful Pics