​Anyone who is familiar with Ayurveda or Traditional Chinese Medicine, or any other ancient wisdom tradition that takes a holistic view of health and life, won’t find the idea of the mind and the body being inseparable from each other and influential upon one another strange. 
 
It is only really in the Western tradition that we’ve lost this inherent concept of mind/body connectedness. But we are rediscovering it and what is being indicated by Western science now has been known for thousands of years by many ancient traditions:  your mental health and physical health are beyond connected; they are inter-dependant. 
 
Interestingly, many research studies are now demonstrating that brain and mental health are influenced directly by what is going on in your gut. You may know that we have millions of commensal (friendly and supportive) bacteria and microorganisms living in our bodies, which it is now becoming clearer serve to support how our body functions. For example, you’ve probably all heard of the Gut Brain Axis, the pathway between the gut and the brain that the microbiome can influence.  
 
This pathway connecting bowels, gut, heart, lungs and brain as well as a few key glands which regulate the immune system needs supporting. Chronic over stimulation of the sympathetic nervous system coupled with poor nutrition and environment toxins can lead to chronic stress and inflammation, a suppressed immune response and vulnerability to recurrent illness. It can also contribute to low mood, anxiety and other mental health conditions. 

​Some bacteria in the gut, so called “good bacteria”,  it is now being shown, often function to produce substances eg short chain fatty acids,  that act as messengers sending signals along our nerves, specifically the Vagus nerve, with its efferent and afferent branches to and from the brain and the gut, maintaining the balance between our sympathetic (fight and flight) and parasympathetic (rest and digest) by responding to the plethora of stimuli we are subject to around the clock. 
 
If our gut microbiome is unbalanced, because we aren’t eating for our gut health,  or we have too much stress and toxic load to deal with compromising our gut, and the opportunistic pathogenic bacteria get out of control causing problems, and those good bacteria aren’t present, or able to create those key messenger substances as a result, we can feel that emotionally as well as physically. Many, many things influence that microbiome balance, but what are some simple things we can we do to support it? 
 
Here are my top tips: 

• Sleep 7-9 hours a night every night
• Eat plenty of fibre, plenty of green vegetables and take a broad-spectrum probiotic, or include fermented foods like sauerkraut, kimchi, kefir and yoghurt (non-dairy options are also available) to keep the microbiome balanced and your gut happy. 
• Lay off the sugar and processed food….
• Breathe and do yoga! The parasympathetic response (stress busting) is stimulated via the action of deep breathing on the vagus nerve. Try pranayama (yogic breathing), gentle breath-centred yoga or Breathworks. The Ice Man, Wim Hof’s method, also works on this principle.

​

Everything works better if you just breathe and move. Namaste :) 

Too often in life we confuse form with substance. How a thing looks to what it actually is. Our perception is often skewed and we are often blissfully unaware of it. In yogic terms our minds are clouded by avidya (ignorance) and we confuse that which is prakriti (temporary changing unconsciousness) for purusha (eternal unchanging universal consciousness and truth).  This can be seen in all aspects of life from monetary matters and the confusion of wealth (abundance in one's life) with its static form (having physical money), to matters of beauty pertaining only to what is seen by the eye and the outward display of a thing utterly exemplified by how an Instagram page may give a very slanted view of a life or someone's appearance, to more subtle confusions of ego and personal aggrandisement being conflated with the pursuit of the common good very often seen in politics and business. This is neither good nor bad - it is simply how things are, a very human erring. Its consequences left unchecked are, however, distressingly destructive almost without exception. 

One of the most confused aspects of modern yoga is this idea that the form is the substance of it. This has been one of the major problems with the importation of the practices to the West due to a great forgetting of the underlying principles. We see this in a striving for that perfect form of an asana all over Instagram and it is then rejected in people's often repeated mantra "I am not flexible enough to do yoga". This is a great shame because, as I have often mentioned, yoga is for everyone and there is no perfect form. What your body does, it does, what someone else's does, it does. The classical asanas are idealised forms and may certainly act as a guide to, but should never be a barrier to,  yoga asana practice. There is a yoga for everyone.  The yoga principles are the key and whether you are 5 or 50 or 100, these principles underpin the practice adapted to your body, your life and your ability. 

This is overtly stated in the teachings of Krishnamacharya, and his lineage descendant, through his son Desikachar and Mark Whitwell amongst others. I highly recommend this great article by Mark clearly summarizing these teachings:   https://markwhitwell.medium.com/a-summary-guide-to-the-principles-and-standards-of-teaching-yoga-mark-whitwell-a56f32b05710. It gets to the very Heart of Yoga and if you are further interested then check out the Heart of Yoga Studio and online offering at heartofyoga.com. or come to a class with me at cgyoga.org.uk.

​ The Principles 

1. The breath movement is the body movement- unity of body breath, mind.
2. The breath envelopes the movement- starts before the movement and ends after the movement stops.
3. The inhale is from above as receptivity, the exhale is from below as strength- strength that is receiving.
4. Asana allow for bhanda — the intelligent cooperation of muscle groups.
5. Asana, pranayama, meditation and life is a seamless process- Asana & Pranayama (sadhana) that which can be done, and meditation (Dhyana ) is a siddhi or gift.

This is a great gift available to us all and is an immense relief in a world of great confusion and internal suffering brought on by an erroneous belief that in this thing called life we must abide by and follow certain limited and limiting conditions and patterns. These yoga principles provide the framework for the teachings that speak truth to that erroneous belief whatever your religious background or beliefs, whatever your current social context.  A yoga teacher is a guide and friend to help you find your yoga and let go of the patterning that forces confusion of the form of life for the substance of it. Intimacy with the breath leads to intimacy with the substance of life. It is difficult to put into a few lines here the profundity  of these teachings, but I hope this gives a small insight. Practice is essential for realisation. 

There is light, there is hope and there is heart-centred clarity in abundance on offer here.  The truly beautiful thing is that it is already within each and every one of us, just waiting to be rediscovered, through the loss of nothing more than some common misperceptions on the nature of the reality and substance of life.

Namaste and much love to you. 
Claire x

​The Sun and the Moon symbolise different things in different cultures and traditions, but one thing that is common to all is their representation of polarity. One way of translating the term Hatha Yoga is “the union (yoga) of the sun (Ha) and the moon (Tha)”.  In yoga, in the tantric tradition, the very essence of the practice is concerned with polarity and reintegration of opposites.  The sacred Sri Yantra here represents this divine truth beautifully (The Sri Yantra. From douglaspfeifer.com).  Polarity is at the heart of existence and at the heart of polarity is the union of opposites. 

It may seem alien or abstract to think of your body and the world in this way, but throughout time stories and legend have been used to explain and help us understand the metaphysical aspects of being in ways which communicate something often otherwise ineffable. Think of the Greek myths and legends, the Apocrypha to the Bible, Aesops fables, Grimm’s fairy tales, the Ramayana, the Bhagavat Gita, and many more. What can be difficult to speak to directly, can often be understood through storytelling and creative representation. 
 
Yoga is a process of reintegration and transformation. We are already all that we need to be in our bodies and in the world, but often this has been lost beneath the layers of conditioning and everyday living that modern culture and life place up on us. Life is just life, this is neither good nor bad, although it is miraculous and beautiful, and because of the way we live we may have forgotten this. We may also have forgotten how to just be and what our natural condition is and this may cause us all sorts of problems and make us very unhappy in our time on this earth. We may have become disconnected and disassociated from ourselves and each other in many respects.   
 
In Yoga we have the opportunity to reconnect and start fully participating again in what it is to actually be alive, beyond the daily grind and pursuit of life’s material rewards, beyond the rat race and the ladder climbing. We get to rest and just be in our bodies and the world and realise what a relief that is. It is an immense relief and very healing.  
 
We can find many pairings that relate to this union. Masculine and feminine, hot and cold, sun and moon, shakti and shiva, the inhale and the exhale. They dance around each other and come together and flow and heal when in right relation to one another. This takes our practice beyond a series of gymnastic poses, out of the realms of mere exercise and transforms it into a mechanism for participating in life for these polarities are life itself and we are life itself too and when we tap into that amazing things come to pass. It makes us receptive to life and to living in harmony on all levels, physical, mental, emotional, subtle and ethereal. It allows us to open and to receive and to exist as and in love. 
 
In many ways, this reintegration starts and ends with the breath. The inhale and the exhale. Receiving and surrendering back. To truly experience this one must practice. Sit with yourself and simply breath for five minutes, closing the eyes, going within, focussing your attention on the inhale, pausing at capacity, and then slowly exhaling from the belly drawing the pelvic floor up and in.  How does it feel? What do you notice? The sense of peace and calm, the relief is immense. This is the natural state we are in when we allow it to be, and this can translate and fan out across our lives and into the world. 
 
I will leave you with this story of Hanuman rescuing Sita and returning her to Rama. It is a very well-known tale of Hindu mythology and I hope that it may spark a curiosity about your yoga and going deeper in understanding with it. In brief, Sita who represents the divine feminine or shakti within us all, and also the inhale, has been stolen from her beloved prince Rama, who represents the shiva/ the divine masculine force within us all and also the exhale, by a demon and taken far away to Lanka.  Naturally, Rama is lost without her and she is hysterical without him (as so much and many in this world are without their divine feminine and/or masculine essence and the inhale and exhale of life  in union), but his dear friend Hanuman, who is pure compassion and love and faithfulness and constancy as well as the complete breath in the body, makes a massive leap of faith, and goes to fight the demon even though he is not sure he can do it, to rescue Sita. In the story, he literally overcomes and moves mountains to do so. This demonstrates the power of the breath and faith. Hanuman, the breath, ultimately reunites the masculine and the feminine polarities and brings the world back to rights, brings wholeness back, and so all is well again.  
 
As we open up again here in the UK anxiety about “going back to normal” is on the rise. I feel it too although I am looking forward to being with people again too, to being reconnected. But being apart and having less on our plates in some ways has been a welcome relief from the hectic pressure of everyday living for many. We need self-care more than ever to stay grounded and balanced now. This realisation is precious and needs to be maintained. Trying five minutes of breathing a day may be all that is needed to realise  worries are surmountable and to stay connected to your body and your life in union and flow rather than division and resistance.  This is so beautifully simple and accessible to us all. This is Hatha Yoga. Much love and namaste and see you soon.  

What is Yin? 
Yin yoga is a practice of slow movement and long held poses, meditative in nature, based on Daoist philosophy, meditation and the Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) meridian system for well-being. Fundamentally it is about bringing about balance in the mind and body, our lives and by extension the world.  Yin yoga is different to more yang types of yoga which we are probably more familiar with, which work on the muscular yang half of the body. Yin yoga works on the deeper yin tissues of our ligaments, joints, deep fascia networks and bones. We need to move, release, lubricate these connective tissues to regain space and strength in the body as well as in the mind. These are key to keeping us mobile and supple as we age. 

Yin is quiet, cool, calm and feminine. Yin is within. The moon is Yin. The sun is Yang. Yin and slow things are good and we need them!  It is so important to take time to do Yin activities and time for yourself on a regular basis. Even with things being what they are none of us make enough time for relaxation, quiet things, looking inward for self-reflection and self-care. 

Five Elements Theory and Yin Philosophy 
Fundamental to Yin Yoga is the link with TCM and Five Element Theory. More specifically, we are a combination of the elements of Water, Fire, Earth, Metal & Wood.  Each element is associated with a season and has corresponding organs in the body we should look after in particular at that time. It can also imply which types of food we should eat at these times.  The Wood element is connected to Spring, a period of growth, which generates abundant wood and vitality, and our liver (LV) and gall bladder (GB). We can use the breath & yin yoga poses to stimulate, mobilise & bring qi (prana/ life force) to these parts of our bodies, acting on the meridians or channels in the body connected to these organ systems. It's a bit like giving yourself a very gentle acupressure massage.

Liver & Gall Bladder 
Our liver is one of our key yin organs supporting detoxification and regrowth. A strong liver helps us to come to life and increases energy. It stores and generates the blood. It is also associated with the emotions anger and impatience. An overactive liver creates too much heat in the system and that may lead to an imbalance. A balanced liver helps us to develop patience and kindness towards others and ourselves. The gall bladder in TCM is associated with courage and decisiveness and a sense of well-being when the liver and gallbladder are balanced. Spring is associated with a rising and expanding energy, we should be opening and moving our qi, building heat in the liver to help with releasing and detoxing from the sluggishness of winter and preparing for the fieriness of Summer. 

Yin yoga is different to more yang types of yoga which we are probably more familiar with, which work on the muscular yang half of the body. Yin yoga works on the deeper yin tissues of our ligaments, joints, deep fascia networks and bones. We need to move, release, lubricate these connective tissues to regain space and strength in the body as well as in the mind. These are key to keeping us mobile and supple as we age. 
 
Come and try a Yin yoga class this Spring, find a sense of strength and peace in your tissues, let go of some issues and balance your Liver Qi. Peace and love and namaste xx

Been pondering the myth of separation, especially recently in this time when we are so physically separate. It feels like we are apart and cannot see one another, at least here in the UK where lockdown is still very much on, and that feeling can be somewhat oppressive if it gets on top of you, you know?

So what is this myth I hear you ask? Basically, the idea that things are divided and separate from or to each other.  The way we perceive and the layers of conditioning that we each are subject to as human beings leads us inevitably to see difference and division in everything. It is useful to a point, to distinguish and to communicate specifics about this idea or that object, and duality is inherent in language and most thinking, but when this kind of thinking becomes inflexible, it can tip dangerously into imbalance and lead to many of the issues the world faces today, for example, fundamentalism, extremism, polarisation and the inevitable consequences of these: depression, anxiety, hatred, war even. And this takes place on a macro and a micro level, not just nations at war, but individuals at war with themselves, anxious societies holding on for dear life to things and status, depressed nations unable to get out from under that cloud.  Trauma plays it's part too. And we have had plenty of those shocks recently. 
 
Even if it seems like we are though, we are not actually separate at the end of the day, we are all connected, prima facie as living creatures, as part of this planet and universe, we all breath to the same beat, that same pulsating flow of life, and now more so than ever perhaps with all of the means to be in touch and stay connected we have at our disposal, this is true. It just seems to be that we learn to disconnect and separate from ourselves and from others, to get on with the busy task of "doing" life,  and in doing so from the truth that we are not separate. And the disconnect can emotional, spiritual or physical, makes no difference. They're all connected too, all part of the whole. 
 
The good news is that what can be learnt can be unlearnt. How? Well, in many ways, but of course, YOGA is one of them! Yoga is a simple technology we can all embrace to reconnect with our body, heart and breath. And in doing that we can reconnect with truth. No matter what the race, religion or creed, any body can do yoga and there is a yoga for every body.  It facilitates this essential connection to self and the truth of reality, which is just that we are all here in relationship with each other and life, living and breathing. Everything else is just conditioning and layering (which may be good or bad - that's a separate topic itself).

You too can realise this through yoga with a sincere intention and a letting go of any seeking. Just do your yoga and see what happens, as my teacher and friend would say. It might surprise you. Come and try a gentle breath-focussed Yin practice or a more dynamic breath-focussed flow class with us at CG Yoga. Reconnect. We’d love to see you on the mat. Peace. Love. Namaste.

I have been quite for a while whilst plodding on with life as we all have during these times. I found that I simply could not find the inclination nor the concentration needed to sit and write this blog, but today I wanted to finish off my writing on the Niyamas and close the circle as well as wish everyone a happy new year for 2021.  

It’s not anything that hasn’t been written before, but I learn as I reflect on these philosophical yogic principles and I find it so helpful to come back to these things, so here we are: the last three Niyamas (in Patanjali’s writings anyway):
 
Tapas (तपस्): heat, austerity, self-discipline, persistent meditation, perseverance 
Svādhyāya (स्वाध्याय): study of self, self-reflection, introspection of self's thoughts, speeches and actions 
Ishvarapraṇidhāna (ईश्वरप्रणिधान): contemplation of the Ishvara (God/Supreme Being, Brahman, True Self, Unchanging Reality), attunement to the supreme consciousness
 
 And it is convenient and helpful to group these three in particular together like this in fact - this relates directly to Patanjali's Yoga Sutra 2.1:

TAPAḤSVĀDHYĀYEŚVARAPRAṆIDHĀNĀNI KRIYĀYOGAḤ

Tapas (literally meaning "heat") is needed for any yoga practice. Without a bit of passion and perseverance, forget any kind of consistent practice (in life too, not just with yoga asana!). Tapas is the discipline to practice and to move through the blockages that build up from our reaction to life experience. This Yoga is as an inward journey, of Svadhyaya,  self-correction and knowledge in line with the yamas and niyamas. This heating of the inner self to connect with the essence of self and life and have the realisation, whatever your tradition, that all is one and here and now.  Ishvarapanidhara, whatever you conceive of that supreme consciousness or being as being, is then a result of that disciplined process of self enquiry and introspection. Surrendering to a greater force than yourself whatever that is and recognising that this exists and that you are in relationship to it.  This is the action of yoga (kriya = action).

Manifesting all of this through physical action and effort like yoga asana helps to ground it in the world beyond the fleeting, transient thoughts conjured by our minds. It puts us in relationship with ourselves inwardly to give us direction and clarity of mind. It allows this to be experienced in and by the body as well as the mind in connection to the environment around us. Through this, it allows us to truly participate in what life is. 
 
So, with that in mind, here we are again, a new year again, an arbitrary marker in fact, but also a natural one, set by our planet's solar orbit, of course. I’ve said before I don’t make resolutions so much as send out hopes for the future and do my best to keep it on a path, through staying grounded and connected, that may lead to what the universe truly wishes for me. I intend to stick with that this year and I very much hope that this year is easier on all of us whatever happens. Let's see..... let's look forward rather than back and live in the here and now at the same time.

​Love and peace and light to you. Namaste. xx

​I've just come back from a road trip around Scotland. It’s somewhere I’ve always wanted to go but since I’ve been overseas so much for work and living, I’ve never really had much chance to do the trip I wanted. Or perhaps it’s just that sense that it’s always there and could be visited anytime, one day. Given the limited options for going anywhere at the moment, I was most excited to be able to take the chance to get away and have an explore around the West coast and Isles of this beautiful, wild place. Road trip, camping, hiking, walking, fishing, connecting with nature, castles and the history. I felt totally safe from a health point of view, all COVID measures were in place everywhere I went and I was just grateful to be on the road. A change of scene. Awesome. 
 
But somehow things did not go according to my plan. All the logistics were right and the preparation was flawless, but when it came down to it, I was just not feeling my usual adventurous self and it really just showed me where my head is at at the moment. The trip was great, I’m glad I went even, but I spent an awful lot of it overthinking and telling myself off for not having left it to another time. For pushing myself when I knew I was tired, emotional and probably just needed to be at home pottering. 
 
So why do we do this to ourselves? Drive ourselves (literally and metaphorically!) to where we think we want to be and then realise once we get there it’s not what we quite expected or needed? And what to do when this happens? 
 
I spent a good few days talking myself down from the ledge of self-recrimination because I had not checked in with myself a little more before setting off on this adventure and was cross with myself for not enjoying it more - disappointed with my inner child for being spoilt and ungrateful. I’d had some misgivings, but I’d also really had positive intentions and reasons for going too.

And then I got a grip and went with the flow and decided just to see what happened and I did end up making the most it.  Stunning place, even when the rain is coming down sideways, you've got your period and there's nowhere to wild camp that isn't a bog. Finding gratitude really always helps. Yoga in action off the mat. 
 
The truth is it was not the external circumstances that were the problem, but the internal disturbances, the Vrtti in the mind, of which perhaps not surprisingly there have been many over the last 6 months, building up and swirling round, and I perhaps even needed to go away to see that there was so much going on in my head that I had been ignoring, or sidestepping, or simply unaware of. That I had disconnected from myself. 
 
So all’s well that ends well, my highland fling flung me back to me and to the mat once again. Where I have my yoga I have the means to participate in the experience of my life whatever that may bring. And it’s all good. So glad to be back.  Much love and namaste. 

​The next of the Yamas is Santosha and this is one that I have been thinking about a lot recently. It usually translates to mean contentment, but it's more than that: it's really a feeling of deep, deep gratitude within oneself for everything that one has. It's easy to confuse what one has with meaning what one possesses, I think, but Santosha of course, as with most of these kinds of things in yoga, goes beyond the material. When thought about in this light, in a more metaphysical way, Santosha is a feeling of contentment and gratitude for everything that life brings our way and all the lessons that are available to us from those experiences, all of the things which make up the rich fabric of life, from which we grow and learn and through which our experience of life becomes deeper and more meaningful . 
 
It sounds incredibly idealistic doesn't it? Because it is an ideal! But let's bring it down to a practical level.  Say, for example, you're having a bad day and nothing seems to be going the way that you think it should. You slept through your alarm clock, you missed a really important work meeting and deadline and as a result you have hours of extra work and have to make apologies to people, The cash machine swallowed your ATM card when you went to get some money out to pay your rent and now you have to phone up the bank and sit and listen to endless lists of menu options and it's going to take five days to get your bank card back. Your account is frozen. You had a really upsetting argument with one of your best friends and that could be the end of a lifelong friendship.  You get home to find that there's no hot water because the boiler is broken and a plumber can't come out for two days and you can't pay them anyway because your bank account is frozen. Any one of these things by itself would be crap,  but the universe decides to throw it all at you all at once. What do you do?

Well, perhaps first of all you have a really good cry, swear quite a lot and allow yourself a little bit of feeling sorry for yourself because you're a human being. 
 
And then you put Santosha into action. You breathe and you remind yourself that none of these things is life threatening and that there's a solution to each one and that In order for each of these things to have happened there is an underlying circumstance which is taken for granted such as having a job, having friends, having a house to live in and the ability to pay rent etc. You take a big old step back and refresh your perspective with a healthy dose of acceptance and gratitude. It seems a bit trite perhaps, but the thing is that it really works. If you bring this sense of deeper appreciation of all that you have to your life, it really keeps you grounded and rooted in reality. You can truly face literally almost anything with this mindset, whether it's a minor annoyance or a major challenge. 
 
Coming from that place of acceptance means it doesn't get inside you and bring out all those corrosive feelings and qualities, which we all have to a degree, but which actually make bad situations worse, not better,  such as anger, fear, frustration to name a few. It's not that it's bad to have those feelings even; it is perfectly natural. But to allow them to consume and drive life only leads to more of the same. And they are distractions when you think about how much of a  miracle it is that we exist here now in this time and space at all. Taking a cosmic perspective is nothing short of transformational.
 
So Santosha indicates that one of the keys to a happy life is not what you've got so much, or even what happens around you, as how you view and respond to it. One thing for certain is that everybody in this world has problems and faces challenges whether rich or poor and it seems to be that the most content people are those that can accept life just as it is and go from there. This is not to be confused with spiritual bypassing - feel the feelings! Just don't fall into the trap of wallowing. Pain is inevitable; suffering is optional.  
 
The next time life feels overwhelmingly negative, why not sit down and write out what is bothering you and then write out what you are grateful for starting with all the things you perhaps take for granted. Simple things: air; water; sunshine; colours; smells; whatever.  It won’t fix any of the bad shit, but it will make it a lot easier to stay sane and grounded as you walk through it. That's a promise.

And in our yoga asana practice we put this into action at the beginning of every class with breathing and coming into our bodies in the space, checking in with ourselves physically and emotionally,  finding the starting point, that still place of acceptance and appreciation of our body and what it can do, how it moves, the limitations it may have and yet, despite that, everything it does for us and everything that we have to be grateful for.  Over time, this practice fans out, multiplies, seeps into the fabric of your life and being. Honestly, it truly does. Hope to see you on the mat some time soon. 
 
Namaste, stay safe and well xx

It’s been said before and will be again, but these are turbulent, strange times for us all. I’m back after a short blogging break, sadly due simply needing to focus on walking through the experience of two family bereavements in quick succession. My father and grandfather passed away within a week of each other at the beginning of June and though they had both lived long lives and it was not unexpected, that doesn’t actually lessen the shock and grief of it, as many of you already know. 

I have of course been turning to my yoga and meditation practice during this time for emotional and physical support and I have realised again how lucky I am to have some brilliant friends and family in my life who are simply wonderful people and very kind. The kindness has made me cry more than the loss at times – nothing restores my faith in life and the living, particularly during these crazy times, more. That connection and compassion, the giving and receiving of love, the affirmation of life and acceptance of death as part of it all, is yoga in action. 
​
It has made me turn my attention again to the teachings of Patanjali and what he has to say about personal responsibility and care following on from my past reflection on the Yamas (or societal restraints – we need these right now a lot!).  The Niyamas are the second limb of Patanjali’s 8 Limbs of Yoga and set some guidance for how to take responsibility for oneself as an individual. There are five of them in all and the first is Saucha.

Saucha is literally “purification; cleanliness.” Sounds rather austere, doesn’t it? But as ever this is a practical path and the practice of Saucha centres largely on keeping your body clean and cleansed.  In Ayurveda the buildup of ama (toxins or waste – physical or emotional) in the body and mind is the underlying root cause of all disease, whether it be physical, emotional or mental. Or individual or collective for that matters - but we'll save that for another blog :) We do not have to try to hard to rid ourselves of ama:  Saucha arises from within if we let it.  

So healthy body, healthy mind and vice versa. It does not mean living like a monk, although it has been said that Saucha can be the foundation for better insight and calmer states of mind leading to an ability to meditate deeply. Saucha is put into practice when you keep yourself and your living space clean, are regular in and attentive to your yoga practice, maintain good eating habits, clean your yoga mat, do the washing up, sleep regularly and well and in many other ways. Learn to truly love yourself. 

So as the sages would say be wise in how you indulge your choice of food, emotions, and thoughts. This will help you to deal with the ups and downs of living and stay on an even keel, and you will be placed to engage with life (and death) in a healthy way. Never forget to practice your yoga, maintain your connection to life through the participation in your practice, and as a result unite mind, body and breath as a whole and with the whole.  You'll feel better and things will flow as they are meant to, no matter the challenges that may bring. Without the mud there is no lotus, 

Hope to see you soon on the mat. Stay safe, stay well. Peace and namaste. xx
​