We have just been told about the £99 Yoga Holiday and we’re really excited about the service. After a significant amount of research we found that many yoga holidays cost £500 or more per person for a long weekend. In our opinion yoga should be accessible to the many, rather than the few so in response to this we decided to develop a new more affordable service.

Cornwall Yoga Holidays & Retreats

Our yoga holidays offer an opportunity to practice yoga twice daily, we will work on both asana and pranayama practice building strength and flexibilty, we will also place emphasis on meditation during which you can appreciate your stunning surroundings! Weather permitting we will hold classes on the beach until sunset, the sounds of sea crashing in making this stunning place even more memorable.

Activities Around Cornwall

Magnificent sandy beaches, lush green countryside, huge craggy cliffs – and of course, plenty of the wet stuff. For those with a spirit of adventure and a love of the outdoors, Cornwall is one big, beautiful playground. Get the blood pumping by trying your hand at an adrenaline filled extreme sport or recharge the batteries with a serene coastal walk. Whatever your passion Cornwall can deliver. It doesn’t matter if you’re a novice or an expert, the Cornish sea air is guaranteed to bring out your sporting prowess! Surf-pounded cliffs and mirror-clear lochs, humming cities and ancient towns, romantic wildernesses and island getaways…with so much on offer, which Yoga Holiday will you choose? We know where we will be spending most of our Summer days. If you would like to know more then click here.

You may think that detox is something you do by either joining a detox programme or consuming nothing but liquids for 21 days. It seems either overly arduous or something only the rich and idle have time to do. However your body is naturally designed to detox every day.

How detoxification works

There are three main systems of the body that play a crucial role in the elimination of wastes — circulatory, digestive and lymph. The circulatory system pumps blood throughout the body, delivering oxygen to and carrying waste products away from cells. The digestive system processes the food we eat, separating nutrients from waste and eliminating anything the body doesn’t need. And the lymphatic system collects intracellular fluid from throughout the body and transports it to the lymph nodes where anything harmful (such as bacteria or other contaminants) can be removed before the lymphatic fluid is returned to the bloodstream. It’s a robust system that works well on its own. But in order to help your body keep up with the heavy demands our stressful lives and nutrient-poor modern diet place on these systems, the trick is to give your body an assist so it can perform its natural detoxing function. And yoga is an ideal companion.

How yoga facilitates detox

Most forms of vigorous exercise stimulate all three systems of elimination to some extent, thereby helping the body in its quest to detox. But yoga, with its focus on systematically stretching and compressing every part of the body, is particularly well-suited to keeping the waste-removal departments of the body functioning well.

In a well-rounded yoga practice, every part of the body is pushed, pulled, twisted, turned and upended. This facilitates the removal of waste products such as carbon dioxide, lactic acid and lymphatic fluid from the deep tissues and extremities of the body that a jog or a bike ride just don’t reach. Yogic breathing helps clear out carbon dioxide from the lung tissue, stimulates the organs of digestion and can, over time, retrain the diaphragm to move freely.

Have you ever felt an overwhelming happiness at the end of one of your yoga classes? All the worries gone, being able to breathe deeply with ease: everything in balance? This is what I felt after my first Yoga class and I never stopped practicing yoga since.

You could feel this way, too, thanks to the benefits of the yoga postures. For instance, opening the chest with backbends could easily make you feel energetic and able to breathe deeply and easily. On the other hand, Shoulder Stand (Salamba Sarvangasana) can have a sedative and neutralizing effect on the nervous system producing a feeling of calmness.

Nowadays we often overwhelmed by work, by responsibilities, everything is so fast paced. Thus, it is rare to be able to find time to connect with ourselves. We are always living in the future, what’s next, what do I have to do next? The mind is always spinning, projecting us ahead in the future; we are rarely able to appreciate the present moment, the moment we are living. We become unaware of our breath and most of the times the breath is shallow and irregular, causing a feeling of anxiety, sadness, nervousness and tiredness. Do you ever stop even for a second to notice your breathing? For most of us, we are so busy worrying about the past and the future that we do not pay attention to our breath, to our feelings in the “here and now”.

It is easy to lose ourselves by always living in the outside world, not having an awareness of who we really are, not being able to see inside ourselves. We become detached from ourselves. We look for happiness outside, for wealth outside, for recognition of who we are outside, but by doing this are we really happy?

If you are one of those people that often feel sad, suffer from depression or anxiety, I would suggest you to try yoga and see what happens. If you do decide to try, try a one to one session or a group class that you choose to take with no expectations. Don’t feel like you have to be the best or push yourself beyond your limits, there is no competition with others and with yourself.

To feel a deeper and lasting effect of the asana practice you’ll have to be persistent and disciplined, practicing regularly. In fact, the asana practice will create and increase awareness of your body, of your senses, of your mind. With practice you’ll be able to develop awareness of your thoughts, you’ll be able to sense the fluctuations of the mind, you’ll be able to recognize your internal states and to change them before they turn into negative thoughts or feelings. You’ll have the tools to bring your body and mind in balance.

In the past we have been asked to outline what a private yoga session would include. So we decided to put together a little example of what will be integrated in the session. We now offer private sessions for all age ranges.

• Asana (physical postures)- helping with joint mobility,muscle flexibility, strength, balance, circulation and digestion.
• Pranayama (breathing exercises)- to aid respiratory problems, stress.
• Mantra and Affirmations – to help with worry and negative thought patterns.
• Mudras (hand postures)- that focus and direct energy
• Visualisation - to relax and refreash
• Relaxation and Meditation

Some Yoga Wellbeing class focuses

Alignment Based

Sessions with detailed physical alignment are good for beginners who want to start out with a safe practice or existing yoga students who feel they want to go deeper into their bodies through accuracy and awareness.  Classes will involve a great deal of “hands on” adjustments.

For stress related complaints –Langhana practice

This type of practice is great for anyone suffering insomnia or digestive problems. It’s a cooling calming practice that focuses on relaxing the nervous system and helping to move away from a place of agitation. Postures are more likely to involve twists and forward bends.

In need of energy  – Brahmana Practice

For those who lack energy, feel sluggish and may experience depressed moments, this practice is more vigorous and uplifting. Sessons may focus on standing postures and backbends designed to expand vitality to all parts of the body.

Immune boost – Inversions

Those looking to boost their body’s natural defences could try this upside down class! Inversions bring the feet over the head, or the heart below the hips which stimulates circulation and encourages lymphatic drainage help white blood cells to be more efficient.

If you have anymore questions then please get in touch.

We love it when we hear more schools are introducing yoga to their cirriculum. We have just recently started teaching a lovely bunch of kids at Southfields Primary School. It’s a great experience to be able to teach a wide range of kids the physical side of yoga and a little bit of relaxation too. In addition to this we are really excited to be starting up with The Sports Academy next week to take kids through a couple of yoga adventures on their Easter holidays. We feel through yoga we are giving children the tools to deal with future stresses, and showing them that there is more to relaxation than playing computer games.

Barbara Herts, the chief executive of the young people’s mental health charity Young-Minds, says: “Today’s fast pace and often confusing world can have a real and lasting effect on the emotional wellbeing of children and young people. With increases in stressful events such as exam pressure, family breakdown and bullying, we are experiencing more triggers to stress and anxiety in young people.”

Visualisations

Visualisations are about setting kids up for when they are older, and it’s great for emotional literacy and helps overstimulated kids, through yoga postures and meditations. Connecting the quiet space inside you which we all have; you can’t relax and focus your mind until you relax your body.

The younger children do a version of yoga postures and breathing exercises as the teacher coordinates the movements to an adventure story. The older children do a more grown-up version of yoga. Many of our classes are incorporated into the school day or after-school programmes. Teachers give us lots of positive feedback saying that they are more focused and able to listen better. Starting the day with a little bit of yoga can make a huge difference to the kids productivity for the rest of the day.

If you have any questions about our Yoga Wellbeing’s programmes in schools then we would love to hear from you.

Dear yogi’s,

Today I am excited to announce the publishing of our first ever video.

It is a short introductory film which will hopefully give you an idea of the ambience we aim for during our yoga classes. As we journey through 2010 we plan to launch a new area within the website, where for a small subscription fee you will be able to access High Definition (HD) video classes and workshops.

We would like to see people from all over the UK and potentially further a field to have access to yoga tuition, even if there are no studios near to their homes. Please keep you eyes peeled for these exciting changes and introductory specials offers.

All thats left to say is Happy New Year! Heres to an exciting 2010 during which all our dreams come true!

Yoga is about caring for the world so we thought we would let you all know about The Age of Stupid. The Age of Stupid is the new four-year epic from  director Franny Armstrong. Oscar-nominated Pete Postlehwaite stars as a man living alone in the devastated world of 2055, looking at old footage from 2008 and asking: why didn’t we stop climate change when we had the chance?

The Age of Stupid

If the question is “What can I do about climate change?”, then the answer is “10:10”.

On 1 September 2009, the 10:10 campaign was launched in the UK. A few weeks later 10:10 launched in The Republic of Ireland. The plan is simple: by working together to cut our carbon emissions by 10% in 2010, everyone can make a meaningful difference. Over 50,000 people, businesses, schools and organisations have already signed up and pledged to make a difference.Now we need your help to take 10:10 global. Sign-up, donate some money and volunteer your time using the simple tools below. If you are in the UK or Republic of Ireland, head over to 1010uk.org

The production was notable for its innovative way crowd-funding financing model, as well as the Indie Screenings distribution system which allows anyone anywhere to screen the film.

We will keep you updated about our future events that are in the pipeline.

If you are interested in all things yogic then you should get yourself along to the Yoga Show which is taking place at Olympia from 30th October – 1st November. The show is a great way to discover and try out the many different styles of yoga that are out there. There are free workshops that you can pop along to anytime throughout the day and 1:2:1 equipment sessions, children’s yoga, demonstrations and lectures.

You can always give yourself a little break from being bendy and discover some tasty and healthy snacks. It’s also a excellent way to finding out about new music and many other things with a ‘wellbeing’ feel.

Yoga Wellbeing will be there on Sunday 1st November, we will be wearing our YW shirts so if you see us stop us and we can have a good chat.

To find out what’s in store, take a look – www.theyogashow.co.uk.

OK so not exactly Television, but we have just completed the shooting of our first ever video,  its really exciting!  In the current ‘days of woe’ (well that’s what the papers say) it is vital for small businesses like ours to use all media channels possible to get our message out there.

We have already seen the first cut of our footage, which took over 4 hours to shoot.  It looks brilliant – all 2 minutes.  After taking part in this process we have nothing but admiration for Suresh from DocuMovie.  He transformed a newbie in a little studio in Clapham into a media saavy pro.  Here are a few stills from the shoot, we will let you know as soon as we have completed editing and it is released!  Until next time.  Om peace.x

Take 23!

Some of the techy stuff