Hello friends in yoga!
It's been a while – almost a year since I last got in touch, at the beginning of the first lockdown. I hope with all my heart that you are well and in good health. I'm fine and have moved to Brockley with my partner, which we love – though even Hilly Fields is struggling to look its best in the straggly grey! I have been going deeper into my yoga practice after a bit of a lull (it happens) and I'm hoping to offer outdoor yoga classes in the park this summer, all being well. In other news, I'm now guesting weekly on Nicki Chapman's Radio 2 show in my other role as a journalist, chatting about uplifting things to do amid all the craziness – and this Saturday morning, we'll be talking about meditation and yoga. Tune in, if you'd like – it'd be lovely to have you there.These are difficult times indeed. Living with the constant hum of anxiety during a pandemic is exhausting, as is the massive overload of information we absorb daily online and on TV. The news can be addictive, but also not very calming! With that in mind, I just wanted to offer a reminder to go gently on yourself; rest if you need to rest; please don't feel you need to push yourself. There's always a big drive in the new year to somehow transform your life dramatically, whether that's Veganuary or Dry January, or some other intense lifestyle reform. While eating well and cutting back on the booze are both fine things, I'm wary of the short-sharp-shock approach in winter. Each season has its own rhythm and energy, and you may find it more helpful to use this cold, dark time to rest and recover.
In Traditional Chinese Medicine, winter is a yin season. The expansive, hot, exciting energies of summer begin to contract and move inwards in autumn, ready for the winter. Yin is associated with darkness, the feminine, earth, water, softness, moisture, night-time and slowness – so please don't feel you have to force yourself into some kind of full-on fitness regime! (Though of course, if you are already fit as a flea and your routine feels good to you, then go for it.) Part of the reason we need to rest in winter is to prepare us for the rushing, vigorous energy of spring; it may help to see yourself as a little seed in the soil, quietly germinating in the dark, ready to make your ta-dah! green-shoot entrance in the spring.
One thing we all want to keep a careful eye on is our immune system, and how best to boost it. There's a great BBC programme you can catch on iPlayer regarding just this. The upshot: fibre, Vit D, moderate exercise, massage, and even a quick dose of mild peril (turning the shower to cold for a few seconds) can really help. Prolonged stress, however, is not so good. With this in mind, I'd like to share a couple of resources I've found really helpful in easing stress.
First, a chanting and restorative yoga class on Zoom. You might remember we did a little bit of chanting with the harmonium in our classes at Lee CHC, and it's a real love of mine. If you enjoyed that, I think you'll find this hour-long group class very soothing. It's taught by my brilliant yoga and music teacher friend, Seth Lieberman, who lives in upstate New York, and features a couple of chants to sing along to (with your mic on mute, don't worry!), and then we all get to lie down in a restorative pose while Seth improvises beautiful music. There are three weekly sessions remaining, on Mondays at 5pm our time. I will be there for my rest and reset – it would be lovely to see you there, too!
Secondly, guided meditations. The seasoned meditation teacher Susan Piver offers guided meditations via the Open Heart Project, and also on YouTube and Instagram. I've been doing a daily 10-minute meditation with her every day for the past year or so and it's made a huge difference to the way I go into my day. She is so kind and clear – two essential qualities for a meditation teacher, I think! I highly recommend investigating that.
Other helpful apps:
-Calm has daily guided meditations, plus bedtime stories from the lovely likes of Stephen Fry
-Headspace is great for beginners, and has a free basics course
-Insight Timer is free and has 30,000 guided meditations!
And finally, some great resources for kids, if you're homeschooling right now:
-Cosmic Kids Yoga on YouTube, and Happy Tent Tales on CBBC
-Goldie Hawn (yes really!) offers meditations for children on YouTube, called Brain Break
-Smiling Mind is a great free app from Australia, designed for kids and teens, and for parents struggling in lockdown
-RelaxMelodies is a great bedtime app, which lets you make your own lovely mix of peaceful sounds
Okay, that's it from me for now. I hope you're eating plenty of lovely warm soups, remembering what makes you happy (and doing that, where possible!), and rewarding yourself for getting through all this.
With lots of love,
Sophie x
