Harvard University study has shown that most people spend 46.9% of their wakinghours in a state of distraction. The study found that people were thinking of anything other than what was happening around them for nearly half their time awake.

The study utilised the technology of an iPhone web app to collect data from volunteers as they spent their days. The 250,000 points of data covered feelings, thoughts and actions of the participants. The app randomly contacted the 2,250 participants to ask what they were currently doing and how happy they were. They were also asked if they were actually thinking about the activity they were engaged in.

This fascinating study was created by Daniel T. Gilbert and Matthew A. Killingsworth both of whom are psychologists at Harvard University. In their paper which was published in the Science journal, they wrote that “A human mind is a wandering mind, and a wandering mind is an unhappy mind,” adding that “The ability to think about what is not happening is a cognitive achievement that comes at an emotional cost.”

They also found that people’s brains seem to have a default pattern of mind wandering spending time thinking about past events, possible future events and total imaginations, all of which is unique to humans; animals only think about what is happening around them. Killingsworth explained that “Mind-wandering appears ubiquitous across all activities,” and that “This study shows that our mental lives are pervaded, to a remarkable degree, by the non-present.”

An interesting statistic emerged revealing that only 4.6% of someone’s happiness was due to their current activity, whereas 10.8% of their happiness was due to mind wandering.

To sum up, Killingsworth said, “Mind-wandering is an excellent predictor of people’s happiness,” adding that “In fact, how often our minds leave the present and where they tend to go is a better predictor of our happiness than the activities in which we are engaged.”

Yoga is designed to help your mind and your body, and many of the new trends emerging around London some yogis are finding a little confusing. Whether you practice yoga for the physical aspect, peace of mind or just because you love it. Yoga Wellbeing has been busy putting together a list of the top ten yoga trends in London. So cast your eyes on these quirky yogic ideas and let us know your thoughts;

1. Doga: Think your dog would like to do yoga? Yeah, probably not. That hasn’t stopped pet owners from trying, however, as this dog yoga trend (or Doga) has spread from coast to coast. While it’s all well and good to get your dog a workout, it would probably much rather prefer a run in the park to trying to perfect its downward dog.
2. Yoga Dinner: Nothing goes better with working out than some hors d’oeuvres, right? This trend pairs intense yoga training with a post-workout dinner. If you’re the sweaty type or just don’t feel like eating a gourmet meal in your workout clothes, this trend is definitely not for you. While it does get away from the tradition of yoga, you won’t have to loosen your belt or unzip your trousers courtesy of your stretchy yoga attire.
3. Mobile Yoga: As if rollerblades didn’t already make you look silly enough, this yoga trend asks practitioners to strap on some skates before starting up their yoga routine. While it might be a good workout, it certainly takes away from the relaxation factor in yoga, as you’ll not only have to concentrate on performing your asanas correctly, but also not falling on your rear end.
4. Funeral Home Yoga: While the dead are pretty much as peaceful and calm as you can get, most people would balk at performing yoga in a funeral home or a cemetery. Yet both of these places are becoming common destinations for yoga studios. If you’d like to meditate on death and your own mortality while doing yoga, then it might work for you. If you prefer something more upbeat, stick with traditional yoga practice.
5. Yoga Competitions: Yoga is designed to be personal, working with your body and your mind to achieve a sort of harmony. In Western society, however, that drive to achieve balance and harmony often becomes a drive to achieve it better than everyone else in your yoga class. Competitive yoga is a growing phenomenon, taking the practice of yoga and turning into a contest.
6. Yoga Dating: This growing trend replaces the coffee or drink date with one centered around yoga. While it’s great to meet people who share your interests, it doesn’t seem conducive to conversation or improving your yoga.
7. Naked Yoga: Many people can’t go on enough about how great naked yoga is and how it gets you in touch with your real being, without all those pesky clothes to get in the way. While the shedding of the often distracting status symbols is great, the reality is that with nudity comes sex, even if instructors adamantly claim their courses are non-sexual. The fact that many of these courses require students to pair up only further reinforces that there’s an element of sexuality to them. Why is this a bad thing? Because the quality of the yoga is often diminished by the sensuality. There are already enough things to distract you when doing yoga, naked yoga just adds another.
8. Room Service Yoga: You can order up a massage, a bloody mary and get your dry cleaning done through room service, why not call up a yogi too? Many hotels, resorts and other hospitality facilities now offer yoga on-site either through classes or on-demand. While having access to yoga no matter where you go is great, why pay for something you can do on your own for free? It simply further commercializes the already over-commercialized practice of yoga.
9. Ski Yoga: You know what hurtling down the mountain at dangerous speeds around trees and rocks needs to make it better? Doing it while in tree pose! Because, of course, everything is made better by adding yoga to it, ski resorts around the nation are now offering a variety of ski yoga classes visitors can take. While stretching out before skiing is a good idea so many places are combining it with everything from skiing to kayaking that it’s hard to concentrate on just the yoga.
10. Aqua Yoga: Doing yoga outside of the water is great, why not bring it into a pool with you? Doing yoga in water can reduce some of the stress it puts on joints, but it also limits the types of movements you can do. There’s nothing really wrong with aqua yoga per se, it just doesn’t seem particularly necessary and follows a trend of bringing just about every land-based kind of working out into the water.

In Eat Pray Love, Julia Roberts plays Liz Gilbert, a woman who travels around the world for a year to find herself, having realising that the life she had been living was not the one she had planned. Her emotional and spiritual breakdown is convincingly played by Roberts. In reality Liz Gilbert was an accomplished journalist and published author, living what many would consider to be an enviable life in New York. I did wonder how sympathetic I would be towards the main character’s crisis, particularly when played by somebody as beautiful and successful as Julia Roberts. To her immense credit, I was convinced by her portrayal of Liz’s inner turmoil, although I’m not sure that I totally warmed towards the film character. Maybe this was because her personality had become fractured and fragile as a result of her depression and summoning up the energy to simply function was all she could muster.

Eat Pray Love is charming and inspiring. The performances are great and the cinematography is lovely. The fact that Liz is now a practicing yoga teacher and is living the life she wants to lead is great. I enjoyed following her on her journey to find balance and peace. Namaste.

Anthony Paul Moo-Young, known as Mooji, is a direct disciple of Sri Harilal Poonja, the renowned advaita master. In 1987, a chance meeting with a Christian mystic was to be a life-changing encounter for Mooji.

In late 1993, Mooji travelled to India. He had a desire to visit Dakshineswar in Calcutta where Sri Ramakrishna, the great Bengali Saint, had lived and taught. The words and life of Ramakrishna were a source of inspiration and encouragement to Mooji in the early years of his spiritual development. While in Rishikesh, a holy place at the foothills of the Himalayas, he was to have another chance encounter; this time with three devotees of the great advaita Master Sri Harilal Poonja, known to his many devotees as Papaji.

Mooji has been sharing satsang in the form of spontaneous encounters, retreats, satsang intensives and one-to-one meetings with the many seekers who visit him, from all parts of the world. Few amongst the modern teachers of the advaita tradition expound the ‘knowledge of Self’, and the method of self-enquiry, with such dazzling clarity, love and authority. There is an energy that radiates from Mooji’s presence, a kind of impersonal intimacy, full of love, joy and a curious mix of playfulness and authority. His style is direct, clear, compassionate and often humorous.

Currently Mooji shares satsang in Brixton, London, where he lives. He also travels regularly to Ireland, Spain, Italy, Germany, Brasil, North America and India where he conducts satsang meetings, intensives and retreats.Yoga Wellbeing is really excited to go along to his next meeting and learn more from the Brixton guru.

Described by many people as one of the most beautiful places on earth. From art to food, from stunning and varied countryside Italy has so much to offer. This is the country that brought us Slow Food, devoted to the promotion of fresh products and fine traditional, cooking.

With 44 sites, Italy has more Unesco World Heritage sites than any other country on earth. Its great cities of art, like Rome, Venice and Florence, have been attracting visitors for centuries. Milan is up and coming creating one of Europe’s  biggest and most modern trade fairs and is planning a major residential development, the CityLife complex, in the heart of the city. Venice, the city of romance, is possibly the city that has, in appearance, changed least down the decades but it has recently opened a sleek new bridge over the Grand Canal.

Alongside Italy’s art treasures, you’ll find plenty to keep you busy in the countryside. You can ski in the Alps and hike the Dolomites. But as much as all of this, a trip to Italy is about lapping up the lifestyle. Taking a moment with a coffee and people watching is all you need on a bright sunny afternoon.

Laos is holds one of Southeast Asia’s most untouched landscape, intact cultures and lovely people on earth. It’s developing quickly but still has much of the tradition that has sadly disappeared elsewhere in the region. Village life is refreshingly simple and you could find yourself merging into the culture quite nicely. Then, of course, there is the historic royal city of Luang Prabang, where you will find plenty of things that will make you want to stay.

The forested mountains of Northern Laos, the gothic limestone karsts around the backpacker-haven Vang Vieng. The Lao wilderness is drawing travellers looking for nature. The adventourous souls out there will enjoy kayaking, rafting, rock-climbing and biking. It’s the community-based trekking that is most popular because it combines spectacular natural attractions with the chance to experience the ‘real Laos’ with a village homestay – while spending your money where it’s needed most.

There is a growing interest in Laos, but that just means there’s plenty of roads off Rte 13 where you can make your own trail.  It’s the same the world over the travelling here is the most important part of the process – the people you meet, pigs you share seats with, wrong turns you take and lào-láo you drink. Like most people after a while you will fall in love with it all.

Inspiration –

Cooking

Lao cooking courses are available in Luang Prabang and Vientiane.

Meditation

If you can speak Lao or Thai, or can arrange an interpreter, you may be able to study vipassana (insight meditation) at Wat Sok Pa Luang in Vientiane.

Living in the Philippines will always be an strong memory to me. The one memory that stands out to me is the kindness shown by the Filipino people. So get on a plane and share some lumpia with a local.

The second-largest archipelago in the world, with over 7000 tropical islands, the Philippines is one of the great treasures of Southeast Asia. Often overlooked by travellers because of its location on the ‘wrong’ side of the South China Sea, the Philippines rewards those who go the extra distance to reach it.

And because it’s off the beaten path, the Philippines is a great place to escape the hordes who descend on other parts of Southeast Asia. First and foremost, the Philippines is a place of natural wonders – a string of coral-fringed islands strewn across a vast expanse of the western Pacific. Below sea level, the Philippines boasts some of the world’s best diving and snorkelling, including wreck divingand swimming with the whale sharks off Donsol. Above sea level, it has a fantastic landscape with wonders enough to stagger even the most jaded traveller: the Chocolate Hills of Bohol, Banaue & the Rice Terraces and fascinating reminders of the islands’ history. And if you’re after palm-fringed, white-sand beaches, try Boracay.

Of course, any traveller who has been here will tell you that it’s the people and their culture that makes the Philippines unique. Long poised at the centre of Southeast Asian trade, colonised by a succession of world powers, the Philippines is a vivid tapestry that reflects its varied cultural inheritance. And despite the poverty that afflicts much of the nation, the Filipinos themselves are among the most ebullient and easygoing people anywhere. The Philippines truly qualifies as one of the last great frontiers in Southeast Asian travel. Cross whichever ocean you need to and see for yourself.

After years of war and isolation, Southeast Asia’s most pristine environment, intact cultures and quite possibly the most chilled-out people on earth mean destination Laos is fast earning cult status among travellers. It is developing quickly but still has much of the tradition that has sadly disappeared elsewhere in the region. Village life is refreshingly simple  it’s hard to believe this sort of languid riverfront life exists in a national capital. Then, of course, there is the historic royal city of Luang Prabang, where watching as hundreds of saffron-robed monks move silently among centuries-old monasteries is as romantic a scene as you’ll experience anywhere in Asia.

Away from the cities, there is so much more to see; the Plain of Jars in Xieng Khuang Province, the forested mountains of Northern Laos, the gothic limestone karsts around the backpacker-haven Vang Vieng and in the deep south, past the market town Pakse, is Si Phan Don, where the mighty Mekong spreads out and all the hammocks are taken.The Lao wilderness is drawing travellers looking for nature, adventure or both. Kayaking, rafting, rock-climbing and biking are all available, but it’s the community-based trekking that is most popular because it combines spectacular natural attractions with the chance to experience the ‘real Laos’ with a village homestay – while spending your money where it’s needed most.

There is undoubtedly a growing tourist trail in Laos. After all, half the fun of travelling here is in the travel itself – the people you meet, chickens you share seats with, wrong turns you take and lào-láo you drink with the smiling family at the end of the road less travelled.

YW Laos top five

1 Vieng Xai

Historic former Pathet Lao headquarters, housed in huge caverns in a hidden valley

2 Phu Khao Khuay Npa

Forested nature reserve with waterfalls and a herd of wild elephants Phonsavan

3 Phonsavan

Mysterious Indochina War relics Luang Prabang

4 Luang Prabang

World Heritage–listed former royal capital with 32 temples

5 Nam Ha Npa

Nature reserve specialising in cultural and environmental tourism

Simply superlative – this is Bolivia. It’s the hemisphere’s highest, most isolated and most rugged nation. It’s among the earth’s coldest, warmest, windiest and steamiest spots. It boasts among the driest, saltiest and swampiest natural landscapes in the world. Although the poorest country in South America (and boy do Bolivians get tired of hearing that), it’s also one of the richest in terms of natural resources. It’s also South America’s most indigenous country, with over 60% of the population claiming indigenous heritage, including Aymará, Quechua, Guaraní and over 30 other ethnic groups. Bolivia has it all.

This landlocked country boasts the soaring peaks of the Cordillera Real and the hallucinogenic salt flats of Uyuni, the steamy jungles of the Amazon Basin and wildlife-rich grasslands of the Southeast. Unparalleled beauty is also reflected in its vibrant indigenous cultures, colonial cities such as Sucre and Potosi, and whispers of ancient civilizations. Bolivia is now well and truly on travellers’ radars; there are even opportunities to teach yoga out there, to find out more click.

Bolivia’s social and political fronts have been in flux since the appointment of the country’s first indigenous president. Optimism is generally high, especially among the indigenous majority, although many changes are afoot. Protests, marches and demonstrations are a part of the country’s landscape. This is a truly extraordinary place.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Laura and Paul with a group of Cholitas