Mindful moments to
reduce stress

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Uncertainty!

I wonder how your stress levels are at the moment. I know mine have been up and down what with all the changes that we are living and witnessing right now. It can be difficult to navigate uncertainty especially when we can see the end in sight. I do feel lucky that through my yoga trainings I have amassed tools that help me find balance, stability and resilience although of course I get thrown of course too!
One thing we can always be certain of is uncertainty. Life is constantly changing, every moment.
Life is transient, fleeting, nothing is permanent and everything has a cycle. I like to remind myself ‘this too shall pass.’ When I find my mind racing I try to catch myself and stop and remind myself to breath. I hope you found the breathing technique in the last newsletter helpful. We can change our lives one breath at a time, literally. When we become aware of our breath, consciously slowing it down and bringing it into our belly we change our physiology but we can also change our perception of the world, which is why it is so powerful for helping with stress, depression and anxiety.

Mindfulness.

You might have heard the saying ‘neurons that fire together wire together’ so what we put our attention on is what we get. Focusing on what we haven’t got or what we think our problems are is what we get more of.
We can get stuck in our heads on a loop going over the past or fast forwarding to a future that hasn’t happened yet and when we do that we can overlook the present moment that is here right now.
But in the present moment we can live our lives fully and truly that is where our power lies.

“Yesterday is history

Tomorrow is a mystery

Today is a gift

That is why it is called the present.”

When we use these tools we are practicing mindfulness. We begin to pay attention on purpose in the present moment. We can use our breath and senses for this by observing what we can see around us our actively listening when someone is speaking rather than been distracted. The space between our thoughts can increase and then we can begin to witness our thoughts and tendencies rather than viewing the world through our thoughts. Seeing the world as it is rather than how we would like it to be. We become the observer able to put some space between us and the goings on of our environment, we can then respond rather than react to everything that happens around us.

Instead of placing our energy on anticipating the future or reliving the past we can focus on living fully in the present enjoying the richness that life has to offer and then visualising the future that we would like to create. When we do this we are changing our brains neural pathways so that it can reorganise the way it operates. I am so happy that we have the capacity to do this for ourselves and I know that it has certainly changed my life, which is why I am delighted to share what has been of value to me.

I often like to find poems that echo these learning and John O’Donohue is one of my favourites in his poem “True Belonging” he says;

‘Our bodies know that they belong
It is our minds that make our lives so homeless.’

Today I will live in the moment…

I’d like to share with you a meditation that you can use whenever you need. I hope that you find it helpful.

I’d also like to offer you the opportunity to attend a free yoga class tomorrow 2.30-3.30pm.

This is a slow flow class to help you feel calmer, improve your mood and energy and a great opportunity to stretch out any tired muscles.

Here is the link for you to join:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86155670137

My online classes then resume the following week Friday 6.30-7.30pm for deeply relaxing yoga with yoga nidra.

Zoom classes begin back on 6th February and I hope that you’ll be joining me. These are slow flow restorative yoga classes for deep relaxation and stress relief. They can be booked individually or in blocks of five.

Weekly drop in

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5 week block

https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=Z8J8HJPF2DFU2

If you, or your workplace do need any further support please get in touch. We are here to help you.

Blessings…

Grace