For a moment I thought perhaps I shouldn’t write anything yogic about the Christian holiday of Easter however on reflection I see that Easter and my way of thinking really go hand in hand. 

Now I am sure someone will correct me if my memory of the Easter story is a bit rusty but what I remember of years of growing up in Sunday School and then from attending church during my adult years, Easter is about the life of Jesus Christ before his crucifixion , subsequent death and then the ultimate resurrection.   Jesus Christ died so that our sins would be forgiven. 

Ok so I hear you say what has that got to do with yoga and my way of thinking.  Well let’s look at this from a different perspective.     In the cycle of life things are born, live, die and then is reborn.   Think of a butterfly.  It is born of an egg into a caterpillar, it lives its life as a caterpillar and then the caterpillar must “die”.  For after a time the caterpillar spins its own cocoon and then it is reborn into a beautiful butterfly.    While the caterpillar is still alive but as a butterfly, we could think of it as the creature we saw as a wingless, fat little crawling insect dies to be resurrected as a newly born colourful insect with glorious wings.   

We could have the same thoughts of any living being.  A tree is born of a seed, it grows, it produces new form in the way of a flower and fruit and then it is reborn.   Some plants actually die before the new growth comes through almost in exactly the same spot as the parent plant. 

So yes I see Easter as the story of the cycle of life.  Obviously this is a very simplistic way of looking at it and I haven’t even touched on the lessons around sacrifice and love.   And I definitely don’t want o be demeaning the Christian story of Easter by comparing it to an insect but I do invite you all to think about Easter as a way of reflecting on the cycles of life around us.   
 
Easter gives me time to pause and think about my own ‘cycles of life’.   Even within my life I see mini moments of birth, life, death and rebirth.  I get to appreciate that life is ever changing and am reminded not to get too attached to the emotions of the moment because the next moment will come along soon enough and the mood may be extremely different to the previous one.  Simply because well life continues, things a constantly born and things die.  Even Jesus Christ seemed to be at peace with this fact.

Perhaps in that reflection we can learn that change is not a good or bad thing to go through.  Change is just a fact of life and it is up to us to enjoy what time we have in every moment.   I invite you to reflect this Easter on how you handle change and maybe how you can reconcile with it in your life. 

What relationship do you have with your womb?
 
Do you feel it is barren and empty or a place of great power?
 
Recently I was completing an application for a course and one of the questions was how do you feel about your womb?
My automatic answer went something like this "she (as in my womb) is pretty cool. We have had a love-hate relationship but I now respect and honour her".
 
As this was an almost unconscious answer I decided to reflect a little and decide when, how and why I came to this point. I mean there have been times when I felt her emptiness and had movements of feeling like a failure as a woman! These have been times of feeling barren. But then when I am connected I have such a great sense of power that I understand why a patriarchal system came about - why wouldn't any man feel threatened when a woman stands in her power. We accomplish such greatness. We feel with depth, we action with ferocity yet we have the power of such motherly care. Yes man may well be fearful of a woman standing in her power.

Yet I feel that man should not fear woman just as I shouldn't fear the power of my womb! Harmony of the sexes is as important as a woman living in harmony with her womb. There is a balance to everything including the relationship we can have with our womb.   

I am sure that even those among you who have had children will have your stories of womb trauma just as those amongst us who have not carried a child for 9 months.  It is the trauma or stories that we attach ourselves too which form the fear and the ‘hate’ aspect of our relationship with our womb.

What makes up the love aspect?  I can speculate that the miracle of life that can and does grow within us, even if we chose not to have a baby or cannot by reasons out of our control get pregnant and carry a baby to term.  The fact that each month we have the power to release physically from our body in the form of menstrual blood is another reason we should love our womb.  Learning to let go and experience change on a regular reoccurring process is really a blessing.    It has only taken me a decade to realise this and every now and again I can be forgiven for forgetting. 

As I come to a greater understanding of my own power I move to a greater sense of loving my womb.  Despite our differences I can honestly say I respect her. 
 
I have come to this point of respect and honour through years of meditation, yoga and listening to her cycle. I have observed the interactions with nature, the moon and the seasons. I have participated in ritual and honoured her flow through her monthly flow, infertility, pregnancy and miscarriage. But I confess it's only in the last few years I have learned to respect her power. I can probably pinpoint the exact moment my womb answered in response and gave me a great gift, but that story is another entry.

Right now I want to share with you my tips for coming to that place of understanding your womb:

1) observe the dance she and your body have, including the hormonal and emotional response
}
2) observe the dance with nature, the moon and the seasons

3) become involved in the ritual (my moon journal touches on some ways you can do that)

4) fake it till you make with her...love her regardless of the times she comes when you least want her or the times she doesn't nurture the life you so badly wanted to grow inside you

5) find a knowing that she is powerful deep within you. Harmonise with the depth of the cavernous formation she is.

6) honour her in a healthy manner, learn about the products you use, the food you eat at different parts of the menstrual cycle, move according to the cycle, relax and meditate more. Adopt a self care regime that includes your relationship with your womb.

This is just the entrance of the depth of your womb, the tip of the ice berg, the beginning of a wonderful relationship.

If you want more information PM me. I love this topic and will be forever learning about the depth of my womb and always happy to share.

Autumn means a time of letting go.

Clutter in the house can often be a sign of a greater problem. Clutter could mean the mind is feeling stressed or overwhelmed by too much information or too many thoughts. Then when we look around we see clutter so we become more stressed about the clutter. Autumn can be a great time to declutter our lives. We can learn to let go and clear our space in the home and our mind.
 
Here are some practical tips on decluttering your life:
 
* Use a journal and reflect. Let the pen doing the work. Do not think about it just write. Emptying the mind in this way can be great for reducing the clutter of the mind

* Meditate daily

* Clean out the closets - give away anything you haven't worn for 12 months

* Reconsider your daily routine - what can you say no too?

* Make lists - I love lists because I can see where my life is going, what I am doing, what I have done and then I can prioritize the important things first and delegate if I need too.
 
These are just a few ways to let go of things that might be overwhelming you and help you to support imbalances with the metal element within.

I am 8 days into my 21 day yoga shred challenge to get the body I always wanted in only 20 minutes a day.  Although officially I am only up to the 3rd day of watching the videos and reading the material provided as part of the challenge.  I haven’t even watched all the videos or tried any of the recipes. 

So far the shortest video was 5 minutes and I have watched all of these – all 2 of them.  The 20 minute videos are of the instructor giving us the inspirational gee up and keeping us motivated which I must say has been pretty awesome particularly when she refers to wine.  I like that part – I don’t need to compromise on my weekend binge drinking seeing as Friday is fast approaching and it is my weekend to spend with family and friends.

I have been impressed with the yoga flow and as an instructor have found the information on alignment and anatomy useful.  Her use of yoga language and description of anatomy have given me a new perspective for using on clients who may not understand what I am trying to describe.  Keeping simple is a key and the anatomy explanation has a simplistic feel about it – sometimes. I would like to pick her brain and ask more questions directly to her so I can unpack other aspects but overall yeah impressive knowledge base.   I think she would be a great person to lead a workshop on anatomy and alignment. 

Today I decided to practice her video on Arm Flow and Core Strength so I rolled out my mat to make the video my daily practice.  I had some time even if it went over 20 minutes.  The first 10 minutes was a beautiful yoga warm up with breathing and chanting.  I practiced this with glee – I love the Bija Mantras.  I couldn’t keep up with her lead but I still practiced. 

The practice then moved to a 10 minute core flow which I am going to continue practicing.  I liked the transitioning from seated to supine and felt a nice spread of warmth through my lower abs, quads and glutes.   I must confess to then getting distracted and hit pause thinking I would come back later.  So far though I really liked this yoga shred and started thinking maybe I go this challenge thing all wrong.  Maybe it is yoga for weight loss and it really does work. 

When I finally got back to it I had a cup of tea in hand and thought to see where the session was heading.   After another 10 minutes into it I began developing a new perspective once more.    This was Aerobics Oz style with a mindful slant to it.  Seriously burpees…I mean you might call it plank to chair but I call it burpees.  And I hate fn burpees.  Any personal trainer that has ever worked with me knows I hate burpees.  I love plank and I love chair pose but I hate burpees with a passion. 

Today I think this is not yoga…this is a personal training session with a dash of chanting and mindful popped in at the beginning and end.  Right now I cannot get through the rest of the video…I am too tired from all the burpees and all I was doing was watching while sipping on my cuppa.

Does an elephant ever really forget?
 
And can it be good for them to remember everything?
 
Well apparently elephants do have great memories.  These memories serve them well.  In fact it is a big part of their survival instinct. 
 
They have strong memories to help them source food and water.   They also remember those who hurt them and if needed learn to avoid hunters or protect themselves in the presence of animals / people who may have hurt them in the past.

So I guess an elephant doesn't forget and also doesn't forgive.  Can this same theory of forgiving and forgetting apply to humans?

I certainly wonder if I am like elephant.  Not forgetting those that hurt me.   Then does this mean I haven't forgiven either?

Learning to forgive those who have hurt us and forget the situation or event seems like a good idea in theory but if a wild animal remembers for survival perhaps humans find the thought of forgiving and forgetting not possible for the same reason. 

If we have been hurt by others our primal brain - the limbic brain is going to kick in and we will revert back to the flight or fight scenario.  And some studies show that when we consider forgiving the limbic brain fires up again.  Negative emotions ignite and the forgiveness process is interrupted.  This demonstrates the whole relationship to forgetting and forgiveness to a need for survival.

However forgiveness (at least) is shown to be beneficial for our health. 
|
Continuing to hold a grudge and not move past forgiveness can cause a physical response in our body.  This is part of the flight or fight response.  What we might perceive as protecting us and be responsible for that primal survival response is actually harming us more.  When we experience negative emotions like anger, negative thoughts and grudges large amounts of cortisol are released into our body.   In the long term cortisol can cause serious side effects in the body such as increasing blood pressure, inhibiting insulin production and producing a cascade of physiological symptoms including infertility, weight gain, and digestive issues.

Therefore learning to forgive actually contributes to a healthier and happier life. 


But how is it possible to learn to forgive if our natural response is to revert to the Limbic Brain or survival mode whenever we start thinking about forgiving. 


Well this is where mindfulness techniques can help.

Mindfulness has many benefits including helping us perceive situations differently.  Mindfulness reduces our stress response.  Mindfulness increases neural connections in the pre-frontal cortex therefore giving us the opportunity to think rationally and logically before our emotional brain kicks in.   Mindfulness provides an opportunity for us to observe our emotions without reaction.  


When we can think clearly and rationalise our emotions and how we feel we are more likely to forgive. 

Forgetting about the situation or event that occurred though, that is a different kettle of err umm - elephant? 

Sometimes remembering what has occurred can serve the purpose of empowering us to set boundaries so as to prevent becoming a doormat to the other person’s behaviour and actions.   While it is good for our health to forgive someone, that doesn’t mean that we allow the same situation to occur again.   This is where mindfulness practice can help us transform our perspective of a negative situation and event. 

Practicing mindfulness can actually help us to learn the lesson in the negative.  Can even help us see the gratitude in the moment?  Mindfulness can even empower us not to accept being treated in particular ways.  Our self-perception changes through mindfulness practices.  It builds our self-confidence in learning to say no to another person’s behaviour towards us.   Not forgetting can actually be beneficial. 

Mindfulness is a great tool for helping us go through the process of forgiving and not forgetting.  The benefits for our physical and mental health are important particularly when we are not elephants and do not need to fight off hunters or other wild animals who would like to eat us.   Who knows perhaps if we practice more mindfulness we grow a brain as big as an elephant.