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their own yoga classes simply feeds Rosalie aged five, and Bonnie aged my soul! eight, so they are my main passion. Mothering them pretty much feels like How do you stay motivated? my ongoing yoga practice and I do sometimes think they are actually my Yoga is a way of life but running a yoga spiritual teachers. The other day, for business is a totally different experience example, Rosalie asked ‘Where is god?’ to being a yogi, and business has of — and Bonnie answered ‘everywhere course been extra challenging because of course’. It’s not something I have of the pandemic. So yes, there are some ever told them so the way they thought days I would like to take a pause and about it and figured it out made me maybe pursue other business ideas, but laugh — it also made me think that every time I get to that point I’ll receive children are often wiser than adults. a sign to carry on. The sign could be an email from someone experiencing What’s your favourite quote? improved health since beginning yoga, or I’ll see someone I trained doing “Everyone thinks of changing amazingly well with their yoga business the world, but no one thinks of and finding fulfilment in what they do, and that keeps me going. changing himself” — Leo Tolstoy. How do you practice yoga off the mat? As humans we often consider and comment on the big picture and The practice of yoga is all encompassing how the world could be better if this and of course reaches far beyond and that happens, but there will yoga postures; it extends to our be no change unless we start with interaction with people, animals and ourselves. Practicing self-inquiry via our environment. While I am most our yoga practice is an ideal way to definitely an ongoing project, I do try question what we do and say. We can to consider this on a daily basis and then observe the effect it is having try to minimise my effect on the planet and instigate change if needed, and whilst utilising yoga to bring increased ultimately become the change that’s wellbeing to people. I also think it is our needed in order for overall change to responsibility to teach children about happen. boundaries and kindness, and about the natural environment too, all of For further information: which directly links in to the philosophy of yoga. sallyparkesyoga.com What else are you passionate Get social on Instagram: about? @sallyparkesyoga I am a solo mum of two daughters, You can also find Sally Parkes teaching online @movementformodernlife

Special Report: Best of British Michele Pernetta Fierce Grace founder Michele Pernetta is driven by a passion to share her love of yoga with as many people as she can What style of yoga do you teach? Based: London Teaches in: Four Fierce Grace studios I teach Fierce Grace. It’s a mixed style, in London, and two in New York, plus multi-level 12 class yoga system with a set of foundation poses than run through the 12 international retreats and teacher different classes meaning one can safely mix trainings, festivals and on FGTV. and match classes. Over 250 poses deliver variety and move the body in every way. It utilises elements of Ashtanga, Yin, strength training, physiotherapy, Qigong and fitness training. Six classes are an equal blend of Strength (Fierce) and Flexibility (Grace), while three classes sit on the Fierce side and focus on strength/stamina, and three classes sit on the Grace side and focus on flexibility/relaxation. This allows people to tailor their practice to achieve their goals. We have a strong foundation in injury modification and a 25-year history working with both beginners and athletes alike. What made you take your first How has yoga helped you grow as a before that martial arts, taught me to feel yoga class? person? beyond the body, as at some point (in my case after many years), the body ceased I needed knee surgery. I was training for my It has certainly helped me to conduct and to be the focus of my practice; at some black belt and didn’t believe surgery was process difficulty! Yoga teaches you how to point that which is living and breathing you the only option. I heard that yoga could help accept reality, the joys and the challenges, becomes the focus. you avoid knee surgery so I went to Bikram with patience. You are constantly reminding Choudhury’s class in Los Angeles where I your body and mind how to be fully present, What things are you most grateful lived. I thought: what have I got to lose if I and stay in place, stay ‘seated’. Yoga, and for? make it worse? He got me my mobility back and I was pain free. Some 32 years later I Our students, our teachers and team and my have still not had knee surgery. husband. The life and soul of Fierce Grace. What feeds your soul? Techno. Cats. The desert. My spiritual master. How do you stay motivated? Simply giving your energy to others is in itself the reward and motivation, as you get to live in the feeling of life and force and connection. I also remind myself life doesn’t ‘work out’ ultimately! So you may as well engage with it with full force and not save too much for ‘later’. The spiritual master Adi Da said to live your life as if you have a stick of dynamite strapped to your leg. As that is the truth of the body — it’s destined to self- detonate. If you do that you make different choices. 52

Special Report: Best of British How do you practice yoga off the mat? I try to be nice. It’s a good practice to not hide behind the yoga teacher ‘persona’. It’s helpful to demonstrate one’s worst poses, not one’s best poses, as it helps students feel less intimidated, and feel a common experience of the struggle or lack of idealised perfection. It’s good to challenge students often idealised view of the teacher, so a more human and intimate atmosphere is created. What else are you passionate gain their qualification, and then feel they Favourite quote? about? are a bit ‘at sea’. So they take another course, or read a lot. The skills needed “Relax. Nothing is under control.” Helping to open yoga to a wider audience. to facilitate the process of students Adi Da Samraj It already has an enormous audience, dropping out of their mind, into their of course, but there's still room for breath and body, while at the same time For further information: improvement, especially for the over keeping them aligned and safe takes a lot 60’s and those with injuries. One way to of work and needs support. I am in the fiercegrace.com do this is by supporting teachers, both process of setting up in-person mentoring before and after they certify. Providing programmes and post-graduate online Get social on Instagram: more support for yoga teachers in their trainings. journey to help others, specifically in @fiercegraceyoga technical skills and also in developing their teaching voice. Singers get coaching all their lives. Teachers can really benefit from coaching too. Often newer teachers 53

Special Report: Best of British Jackie Heffer-Cooke Searching for meaningful answers to big questions, and promoting changing the world one breath at a time, that’s what powers yoga explorer and founder of ZenMuma and ZenKids, Jackie Heffer-Cooke Teaches in: Everywhere! Based in: Deep in the big skies of Norfolk, England What style of yoga do you teach? Christianity. For me personally, this was cause, and at the same time down a sticky incredible as I was surrounded by (mostly) sidewalk of graduating, finding myself Hatha, Pranayama, Meditation, Prenatal, kind and caring people, had a supportive working in entertainment TV, buying into Antenatal, Children’s, Teens, Family. From church community, was taught ethical the champagne system, and on a hamster a tradition of Raja Yoga, yet happy to hang living through the scriptures, and could promotion wheel. Until I broke in 2003 out in Karma, Bhakti and Jnana yoga too. access a connection to the divine. But for and ended up in Asia. Literally searching me the Christian narrative didn’t quite fit for my lost soul. Over the last 15 years of What made you take your first (or sit). Being unlucky enough to be in a studying yoga, the texts of the sages, I have yoga class? place where I was abused by a youth leader, wholeheartedly become a better version and family who were led by good hearts, of myself. Kinder to myself, to others, able Curiosity and need. I was 30 when I entered but didn’t always seem to be the most to unpick unhelpful narratives, healthier my first yoga class. I was working as a ‘Christian’ in their relationships, hypocrisy in body, clearer in mind, more spacious in stressed TV executive and searching for and loss-of-faith got the better of me and I potential, and able to serve. meaningful answers to big questions. I left the church at the ripe old age of 10. wandered into a class, felt completely out However, during my childhood I was aware What are you most grateful for? of my comfort zone, wandered back out, of feeling ‘moved’ by something beyond and went to the pub. I left the TV job a year the world of the senses, I was aware of My kids are my biggest teachers, my later and spent a year traveling mostly a feeling of ‘connection’ that was quite relationships too. Travel opens your mind around Asia, where I became a mesmerised beyond me. I was also naturally inquisitive, and soul to beautiful otherness, and for me yoga voyeur, still certain I ‘couldn’t do yoga’, curious, and always ready to explore. I was it is the gateway to a deep understanding therefore ‘not yet ready to do’ yoga. on a search for some kind of truth that as of connectivity. Music is with me in my It wasn’t until I experienced the all- yet wasn’t available. I found myself asking daily life every single step of the way. I am encompassing, super-human state of the basic quantum-physics questions of grateful for all the inspirational teachers, childbirth that I began to get it. I felt the ‘where did the big bang come from’, and whether in person, or in carefully handed supercharged potential of power of what ‘what is infinite space’ without finding down literature and text, and I thank all my was inside me. Without thought, but in any sensical answers. Over my childhood students for showing me how to share and wisdom, I understood there was a level of years and into my teens and early twenties hold space. Yoga holds my soul from the connection of energy within myself, my my quest directed me to a literature and outside in. body, my mind, that I had little access to, sociology degree and at last a text I could but had experienced a glimpse of, and I understand ‘The Doors of Perception’ by How do you stay motivated? wanted to know more! Aldous Huxley. Easy, I can’t function without yoga practice. How has yoga helped you grow? This led me into a search of truth in Yoga has been there for me through the some substances seemingly helpful to the birth of my second child, being a mum, I was brought up in a ‘Free Church’ — a spiritual space with the narrative of 54

parenting a child with ASC, losing my own how they can master their own bodies and parent, and has held my hand through all minds, then they can teach our children. the difficulties of daily life and provided a deep comfort I didn’t know existed until I ZenTeens is the big project at the started to practice and learn. moment in this ‘Age of Anxiety’ – teaching high schools and delivering media In 2008 I began to develop yoga classes to support the wellbeing of our next in my local area for pregnant, birthing and generation and promoting education in the new mums who needed the connection human condition and the biology of stress. and community of yoga as much as me. For me, a big question is why are our kids ZenMuma was born. not being taught this on the curriculum? And why are they not being taught skills Soon the babies got older, they grew to help? That’s the mission. The social into children and needed kids’ yoga enterprise is open, and we are looking for in their lives, ZenKids grew. Now the funding in this great work. We are also children are teenagers and need it more hoping to support the children in the areas than ever! My work of taking yoga and where we hold retreats, in Zambia for mindfulness into teenage lives, and example. into their schools, continues with more meaning. The ZenTeens programme Me, I’m after policy change for effective shares tools and techniques of wellbeing wellbeing in schools and in our maternity and selfcare in order to empower services, so it’s back to education and an teenagers with the ability to self-calm and application in an MA in Social Development. promote physiological, neurological, and psychological reassurance at will. Of course, you can often find me filling my soul on sailing and safari retreats, both As for the mums I taught, well their yoga of which are on offer this year with our practice deepened along with mine, and as Freedom Yoga and Retreats. I learnt, I shared. We have enjoyed many journeys in trainings and retreats together. As the quest for truth continues, I am now honoured to teach the 200-hour internally in my own practice, externally foundation to all and take people around in our social and cultural climate, I look the world to inspirational retreat locations, not only to Britain in its examination and as a way of navigating their way back home. exploration of health and wellbeing, but I look to learn and get inspiration from the How do you practice off the mat? global stage. This global arena is where we can really listen, hear, and develop You can practice yoga beautifully and potential positive change, ethically and meaningfully on the mat, but the truth of with intention. We listen to the wisdom, yoga for me is ‘off the mat’. ideas passed to us by the wisdom keepers, yogic sages among them, and we must What’s next for you? learn and respond. A yoke of global understanding, interaction and compassion ZenMuma gently shares yoga around the has never been so important, so relevant, nation as we teach courses in pregnancy and so needed. yoga, hypnobirthing and baby yoga. The trainees are learning about health and For further information: wellbeing for this special group of people, but also about holding space for their local freedomyogaandretreats.com communities, just as my aim was to hold zenmuma.co.uk space for mine. Get social on Instagram: ZenKids trains parents and teachers in bodywork, breathwork and mindfulness in @Jackie.freedomseekers creative and imaginative ways, in the hope @zenmuma_zenkids that as they learn about themselves and

Special Report: Best of British Louisa Craig Senior yoga teacher and teacher trainer, Louisa Craig, loves sharing the alchemy of the practice to bring about deep and lasting transformation in her students Teaches in: Aberdeen, Scotland, online, What made you take What things are you most grateful and various locations worldwide your first for? Based in: Aberdeen, Scotland yoga class? My practices and students, freedom of What style of I was a stressed single choice and will, and finally being able yoga do you parent, working for an oil to travel again! Astrology allows me to teach? company, and one of my understand my life path and those of work colleagues dragged me others. My eldest daughter is my absolute Tantric Hatha, along to lunchtime sessions. rock, and my granddaughter fills me to Vinyasa This was over 25 years ago, the brim with joy and love. There is so Krama, Yin, and I’ve never looked back! much to be grateful for!! Restorative, Kids, Teens, How has yoga helped What feeds your soul? Kundalini, you grow as a person? Yoga Nidra Meditation, connection to my students, and Pregnancy Yoga is a great healer. It has trainees and loved ones, studying and Yoga. I been my constant and has learning, walking in nature, good food. teach and practice according to the given me so much faith in astrological alignments and the energy humanity, and has taught How do you stay motivated? of the day and my students. I always me to trust my intuition. have a bhav/theme when I teach or I was brought up with an Keep practicing – it builds tapas and fire practice. Yoga is alchemical, and can be emotionally abusive mother in the belly (agni). incredibly transformative if you learn to and physically abusive father. harness and concentrate prana without Yoga taught me to trust How do you practice yoga off the dissipating it mindlessly. myself, speak my truth, and mat? finally heal from my past. It allows you to integrate your life lessons Yoga allows you to hold your own space, which in turn, helps you to hold space for and soothe your soul. By doing others. It’s more than just pulling great this I was able to stabilise my shapes on the mat. Be a curious observer, emotions and listen to my inner always be yourself, and don’t be worried teacher (vijnamaya kosha) about being judged — what people think and this allowed me to help others on their own personal transformative yoga journeys — which I feel is my dharma (life path). Sometimes your weaknesses are your greatest strengths. Yoga has taught me to step out of my own way and not take anything personally. Through using asana to connect to the breath, and the breath as a bridge to the mind, I can access my subconscious and transmute any unhelpful (un)truths I have learned as coping mechanisms from the past (vikalpas). Shadow work is incredibly important and allows you to be authentically yourself. 56

of you is none of your business. Look at @LouisaYoga for more information or Develop your own every challenge in life as an opportunity to book. authentic teaching style to evolve or as a catalyst for change. • There are still spaces for the ‘in-person’ with course leader, What else are you passionate RYT200 in Aberdeen beginning in LouisaYoga about? October; all other trainings are available online. Online YAP accredited courses My children, granddaughter, my puppy Visit: lkyyogaschool.thinkific.com tailored to the individual: (the dark destroyer, Kali), my cats, friendship, travel, astrology, ayurveda, • I will be the teacher trainer on the

Special Report: Best of British Mel Love Dedicated to self-care and movement, Mel Love will teach you to connect with your body, others and the world around you with ease and feel supported by a universal flow Teaches in: From her home in south-east London and in studios around London Based in: London What style of yoga do you teach? wasn’t always that way. I am grateful for each day that I get to practice Vinyasa and Yin living. What made you take your first yoga How do you stay motivated? class? I am dedicated to taking care of I was drawn to yoga from a very young myself. I made myself a promise age. I had a volatile childhood and yoga many years ago that I will never helped bring me peace. I was drawn to leave myself again. That I will stay movement and spirituality for as long as I connected to my body and honour can remember. my intuition. It is easy to stay motivated when you can see How has yoga helped you grow as a the rewards of the practice of person? self-care. Yoga has been my stability over the years. How do you practice yoga It has given me a focus and something to off the mat? turn to when I’ve needed to get through some very difficult times. It has helped I practice slowing things down. me to navigate difficult situations in a Observing my breath, the more healthy way rather than turning quality of my hands (touch) to things that do not sustain me. Yoga on the things around me and I nourishes me. pause as often as I can to notice my environment and take it all What things are you most grateful in. I notice my feet on the ground for? or my sitting bones on the chair. Quite simply, I am grateful for life. It 548

I sense myself in the space am also blessed to have two Mel has been teaching human movement for over 25 years. around me. I breathe into each wonderful children and I am During the last 4, she has been supporting people through Yoga, moment just like on the mat. very passionate about them. Sound Healing, Breathwork and Mindfulness to achieve their life goals. Mel will guide you back to a place of safety within your own What else are you For further information: body. \"Mel's techniques have worked to release bottled anxiety passionate about? and neglected emotions from decades ago. I recommend Mel's mellove.info work to anyone seeking to feel more at ease inside their mind.\" I also offer sound healing and enjoy playing alchemy crystal Get social on Instagram: m: 07947881177 e: [email protected] singing bowls for people. I @mel._love._ w: www.mellove.info 59

Special Report: Best of British Lucy Leslie Lucy Leslie has used yoga to cope with her own life challenges, which is why so many now resonate with her unique style, one that nurtures, nourishes and brings out the very best in others What style of yoga Teaches in: Lake View Yoga Studio do you teach? Based in: Copthorne, West Sussex, England Hatha, Vinyasa Flow, Restorative, Hot, Prenatal, Postnatal, Childrens/Teenager and Yin. What made you take your first yoga class? It seemed cool and everyone else was doing it. I was 22 and struggling with chronic addiction drugs and alcohol. How has yoga helped you grow as and see that sometimes it’s not even about phones are switched off, notifications are a person? change but instead acceptance and coming silenced and the beginnings of an intimate home to who you already were. relationship with themselves can be In yoga I found myself equal to other nurtured. I take the responsibility seriously. people, not less than. I was delighted to What things are you most grateful know that suffering was, for the most part, for? What do your students say about a part of the human condition and that we your teaching? had been looking for ways to ease and avoid I am grateful that my work allows me to that suffering for over 4,000 years. Yoga meet good people. I have always supposed “I love practicing yoga with Lucy as my mentions the mind and ways to live in peace that the first limb of PYS is already in action teacher. She has taught me that my body alongside the mind as early as 5th century when I meet my students; my students are and mind are capable of so much more than BC in the Katha Upanishad. I felt less alone, kind people, already on a path to living I ever realised” — Chris F. more part of humankind. Yoga allowed me well and dealing with their health and their to accept who I was when I was younger impact on the world around them. “For me, your intuitive teaching is inspiring. How you know what pressing my little toe What feeds your soul? into the floor in trikonasana does to the rest of my body is insane!! I’m a space-holder (not my favourite term) Your teaching and teaching cues are a which describes the uniquely special setting perfect balance of body parts, breath, that my yoga classes provide for students emotions and mood” — Carly N. to explore their inner environment, without judgement. My words are chosen to allow “Lucy provides safe, functional but my students to feel their feelings in safety. progressive yoga in a beautiful setting at I share the ancient teachings in a way that the lake. She teaches us to grow not push & they might also feel that connectedness uses illustrative verbal queues to build our to our ancient ancestors that I found such understanding and physical awareness. She comfort in, who also struggled with their facilitates safe change in her students using mind’s instabilities. Allowing students to her own experiences. The list is endless, to feel their emotions is the greatest privilege me she is perfect” — Rebecca M. of my life and feeds my soul. My classes are often the only place in their lives that their 5640

How do you stay motivated? to dance teachers during the pandemic, it was so easy – upfront, straight-talking, I am a householder; I work in the field business-minded dance teachers were so of yoga to support my family. In this day easy to work with. Interacting with others and age, to love your job and to be able to in a way that is peaceful, with boundaries support your family by immersing yourself and honest will always be my work off the in yoga is a rare gift. Motivation is always mat. there to keep providing for my students and for my children. What else are you passionate about? How do you practice yoga off the mat? My children — and I love skiing; we travel to Switzerland and Austria as much as we A lot of my yoga for the first five years can. Skiing down the mountain behind my of studio owning was learning how to three children in the sun with bright blue manage my feelings around business and skies above us is a joy that I spent many staff. I found out that my boundaries were years sweating and carrying tonnes of non-existent and my communication equipment to finally now enjoy! We love skills, learnt in fashion and finance, beach holidays, splash parks and our weren’t working in the yoga world. I cats too. wasn’t alone, my colleagues weren’t much better – so much was unspoken, as if What’s your favourite quote? discussions about safety, housekeeping and money were beneath us. The business \"That which gives us good health side of yoga is still not grasped as fully as and good fortune is yoga. That I’d like to see it. When I rented my studios which gives us long life is yoga. That which gives us power of intellect is yoga. That which makes us wealthy is yoga. That which makes us human is yoga. That which makes our Bharatmata virtuous and faithful is yoga. That which gives us the power of discernment to know what we should do and what we should not is yoga. The knowledge that helps us understand why we have taken on this life is yoga. That which gives us the answer to the question — where is our god? — is yoga and not anything else. We can say this confidently.\" — Shri T. Krishnamacharya ‘Yoga Makaranda’ (1934) For further information: lakeviewyoga.uk Get social on Instagram: @lakeviewyoga

Special Report: Best of British Jacqueline Godfrey Jacqueline Godfrey loves to see the transformation of her students on the mat and believes it is an enormous privilege to teach yoga. She’s also a self-confessed Sanskrit geek and admits she only got into yoga originally after seeing Madonna do it What made you take your first understand that it is our own mind and yoga class? thought processes which get in the way. I’d heard that Madonna did Ashtanga Yoga Yoga has really helped me to navigate to recover physically after the birth of her life and relationships with so much more baby. So having no clue what awaited me grace and dignity than I would have I booked into a three hour-long Ashtanga ever been capable of without it in my workshop when I was around nine life, including some incredibly difficult months postnatal with my daughter (who and painful times. Through yoga, I have is now 22). It was a bit of an eye opener – come to a place where I am able to but there was obviously something in it, experience the beauty of life even in the as here I am, all these years later! seemingly darkest times. I have navigated a divorce, depression and the collapse of How has yoga helped you grow as a business. My yoga practice keeps me a person? focused on what truly matters. I am naturally an empathetic person, Yoga subtly opened me to different layers but yoga really underpins the unity of of my own being and revealed reservoirs all beings. To glimpse this unity, even of strength I did not know existed. fleetingly, is a blessing which has the Through yoga I feel I genuinely know power to change everything for all of us. how it feels to not ‘be the do-er’ but to instead be the instrument of something What things are you most bigger. As a naturally shy person, I’ve grateful for? done things because of yoga that I would never have dreamed of being possible Love. Being loved and having the – such as travelling the world to teach, opportunity to love. Also laughter. or confidently guiding others to become Nothing feeds my soul more than teachers. It sounds a little ‘out there’ but laughing with good friends until my really I’ve found anything can be possible sides ache and tears are streaming down on some level and the more intimacy my face. Being in nature feeds my soul we have with our practice, we can endlessly. I am always grateful to my own Teaches in Saffron Walden, Essex (around 1 hour from London and Cambridge) Also leads worldwide retreats - upcoming soon in India and Italy 62

teachers – too many to mention individually by name but they know who they are. They have always shared so generously and unreservedly and helped me to grow as a teacher and seeker. How do you stay motivated? There is nothing that motivates me more to keep doing my work than seeing the subtle and not-so-subtle transformations which students experience. Seeing that my work really helps people on a deep level reminds me of what an enormous privilege it is to teach yoga. The other vital aspect in staying motivated for all of us is to have a Sangha, a group or community of yogis who can uplift and inspire. What else are you passionate about? I am ridiculously, stupidly passionate about Sanskrit. I have been learning with the most amazing teacher all through lockdown and beyond and am now finishing off the final intricacies of Sanskrit grammar with my teacher before shortly being set loose on ancient texts. Hands up, I am the biggest geek and am so excited about Sanskrit! I am also crazily passionate about my two cocker spaniels, Freya and Winnie. Dogs are just the best yogis with the biggest hearts. Favourite quote? “We are the ones we have been waiting for.” - Hopi Elders Prophecy I chose this quote this because it reminds us that we have everything we need within us already. Yoga is the process of peeling back the layers to reveal it. Anything else? Applications are open for YAP Accredited 200 Hours Teacher Training with Jac and her teaching faculty in September 2022 For further information: jacquelinegodfreyyoga.co.uk Get social on Instagram: @yogini_jac

Special Report: Best of British Sevanti Sevanti is bringing the therapeutic powers of yoga to those suffering with terminal illness, disability or learning difficulties at her not-for profit Unity Centre in Lewes, Sussex What style of yoga do Teaches in: The Unity Centre, you teach? Lewes, East Sussex Unity Yoga (natural Based in: Lewes, East Sussex movement, breath, flow) What made you take Lucie LHow has yoga helped you grow as a up. I’m also grateful that the principles your first yoga class? of yoga were there to support me at the person? end of my parents’ lives. These most My first life-long passion significant moments of my life have been from childhood was dance. So I was Yoga has helped me to make sense of supported by the long-term presence of used to expressing myself through the world; a direct way to access inner yoga. movement and dance (initially ballet and resources of centring, grounding, settling, contemporary). I found my first yoga book activating, connecting with the world How do you stay motivated? in Brighton when I was 13 and felt that I around and within me. resonated with the principles of breath Through life challenges it has helped me For me, yoga builds a sense of self and meditative movement. I knew I had reach my still point. I travelled a lot when awareness and helps me tune in to what practiced it in my own way through my I was younger teaching dance, massage, I truly want in this precious life. When I young years so I was excited to teach Reiki and yoga around the world. I could get lost or overwhelmed, yoga can help myself some of the postures that I didn’t take my practice with me; I wouldn’t me see my life from a wider perspective. know. Then, when I was doing my Dance need to rely on any external support. I From that more spacious place, I can Theatre degree at The Laban Centre for have learned so much from witnessing tune in to clear decision making and tap movement and dance in London, I went the effect it has on others, people from into new energy and enthusiasm. The to my first ‘proper’ yoga class – back in all ages and backgrounds. It supports so main motivation comes from working 1992. I loved it! It became my respite/ many in a simple, accessible way. I love with various people through yoga and support whilst in professional dance to share yoga with children, teens, older seeing how much it helps them. It can be training. It helped my hard-working body people, those with learning differences a lifeline to many. I am still amazed how to relax, eased my mind and supported and mobility challenges, people from 90 minutes of practice can completely my emotions during those years. It then different walks of life, different cultures. transform our mindset or physical became a part of me and always has been. I am so passionate about the deeply suffering. I see many clients suffering It is my work, my personal release, my life therapeutic application of natural extreme challenges and I feel so fortunate movement and dance — its simple, yet to be able to offer a safe and held space profound, effects still amaze me! where yoga can ease pain, empower and restore hope. What things are you most grateful for? What else are you passionate about? I am grateful to have found this way of life from a young age. I share it with my I set up The Unity Centre, a not-for- 13-year-old daughter and feel blessed to profit wellbeing centre in Lewes, near be able to offer her life tools of self-care Brighton, because I had experienced and awareness as yoga can be a powerful first-hand with my parents the challenge support during the pressures of growing 654

of finding accessible studios/clinics for healing, sound and yoga nidra are added those suffering with terminal illness, in. So, I am currently excited by the disability or learning difficulties. I ran a combination of practices that I wish to studio in Brighton for many years which fuse together in my embodiment-based was wonderful, yet I needed to search workshops and retreats. My retreats for premises which offered excellent welcome both families and single accessibility, disabled parking and travellers; I love to connect all ages of space for wheelchairs and hoists. Yoga our community through yoga and these is completely adaptable for whatever related meditative-movement based we are dealing with in our body, mind, practices. emotional or spiritual selves and I am determined to ensure that anyone I also love to be in nature as often as can receive the support they need in a I can. Where I live backs onto the south welcoming, down to earth, yet sacred downs; I love the sense of space and and profound way. I love design and waking to the sound of the birds. I have creating nurturing spaces, so finding the always wanted to open a retreat centre, old Turkish Baths building in Lewes was something simple and, of course, in an exciting blank canvas for me! I love harmony with its surroundings. I would how colour, aesthetics, comfort, light, love to build a sustainable centre and warmth, fresh air and space can support would most likely have a few rescued us to unravel, relax and move. The Centre animals around me! I have to work hard also brings together my other passions. I to balance my energy, drive and passion teach my yoga teacher training diploma with stillness and simplicity, so I see the from there, and also my massage coming years as more spacious ones (I diploma, Reiki training and anatomy and hope!) physiology. We also have two treatment rooms, two studios, an infrared sauna, Anything else? floatation pool, gallery and vegan cafe. I love bringing together design, the arts, Yoga is a personal journey. There is yoga, movement and dance. no right or wrong way to practice if it leads to awareness, curiosity, self-love, What’s next for you? surrender, courage and acceptance. I like to introduce people to how diverse Today, 25 years after graduating from and accessible yoga can be and enjoy dance school, I am also now training in holding the space where people can ‘Open Floor’ conscious dance. This has rest in themselves without any external always been a passion and I am so happy pressures. to be immersing myself deeper into this incredible path. It is a deeply therapeutic Favourite quote? modality which I find supports and works well with the various yoga practices that I “Yoga takes you into the present have practiced all these years. moment, the only place where I created ‘Unity Partner Yoga’ back life exists.” Patanjali in 2002 and, following the pandemic, I am also excited to bring this back to my For further information: community to deepen our need for co- support/regulation. Partner yoga, yoga being-in-unity.com and mindful dance all work beautifully (Download the app: unitylewes) together, especially when massage and Get social on Instagram: @unitylewes

OMFM OMFM OM FOR MEN Inside: Page 67 The Meditation Man Page 70 Man On The Mat Page 71 Purge Emotional Writing 66

OMFM THE MEDITATION MAN Kadeem One is a meditation teacher, holistic wellness coach and an author based in the USA, who’s worked with brands like Google, Yahoo and Bloomberg. Not only does he believe that meditation is for everyone, he also insists it can be fun! Kadeem One is a meditation doesn’t see why wellness or meditation group. This 45-minute session includes and holistic wellness have to be so serious and stoic all the time. various types of meditative techniques practitioner — with a bit of while employing therapeutic systems sass! The US-based instructor He runs online classes and courses, as such as sound therapy, hypnotherapy and loves helping people, but well as in-person sessions, plus a popular energy healing. weekly live online meditative therapy What you see and experience may not be like any other holistic wellness site, however, with Kadeem One always keen to do things in his own unique way. He chatted to OM recently about his wellness story and what makes him tick — and why we all need meditation in our lives. Tell us about your own journey into meditation? I started getting into mediation, initially, because I started learning more about energy healing. The energy healing system that I practice is called Pranic Healing. Although it’s an energy healing system allowing people to clean and balance their energy, it’s very much geared towards helping people enhance their own spirituality. The founder of Pranic Healing, Grand Master Choa Kok Sui, believed that meditation is important as a part of one’s journey in regards to helping them tap more into their spiritual nature, in addition to energy healing. 67

OMFM Who inspired you in the early Do you have any other physically injured. I noticed that after days? favourite meditation teachers? doing meditation, I felt better. Meditation has been fantastic! Initially my mother because that’s how I One of my favourite meditation teachers first found out about energy healing. I had today is Master Stephen Co. He has a lot How did meditation help you an injury in college and I went to different of free meditation resources online, on during the past couple of years doctors, but they didn’t know what was YouTube for example. He helps to guide with lockdowns? wrong with me. They tried to throw a you in a fantastic way by tapping into bunch of pills at me and it wasn’t working more of who you are and combining it I found that I layered on a lot more as I still had pain. My body was actually with spiritual practice and energy healing. meditations. I usually tend to meditate starting to get sick in the process because I He also happens to be a master of energy twice a day, but during the lockdown I was taking so many pills. healing and was trained directly under increased it to three or four times a day. Grand Master Choa Kok Sui. In addition, I was also practicing some Tai So my mother said: “Well, let me try Chi and also some aromatherapy as well. some of this stuff that I’ve learned and What does meditation bring to So all the things and tools that I know see if it works on you.” After 20 minutes, your life personally? really helped me during those lockdown the pain was gone! The pain that I had for moments. about five or six months went away within In many ways, it has been my life saver 20 minutes. So essentially, that’s how because I think about moments in my What do you say to people who everything first started. life that were really challenging and feel they can’t meditate? meditation helped me to find my balance. What type of meditation do Although meditation is great in regards to I would say, erase the thought in your you practice today? helping you tap more into your spiritual mind that meditation is about sitting nature, there are also so many scientific and ‘clearing your mind’ because it’s not! The main meditation I tend to do on a day- benefits to it. It helps you to find a state It’s more about having one focus on one to-day basis is one called, the Meditation of homeostasis and balance the neurons particular thing at one time, instead of on Twin Hearts, which was created by in the brain, allowing the feel-good trying to multitask, which I feel like we try Grand Master Choa Kok Sui. It is a fantastic neurotransmitters to work and come to do on a day-to-day basis. Meditation meditation to not only clear the energy out. So meditation has really been a life allows you to focus on one particular thing itself, but it also strengthens your energy saver for me, even in times where I was in the moment, essentially allowing you to as well. I love doing that on a daily basis. 68

OMFM be with yourself and even have a moment four counts, hold your breath for four What’s your favourite or most of rest. counts, exhale for four counts and hold inspiring quote? your breath for counts; this is a very short So for folks who feel like they can’t meditation. You can get great benefits by I have a lot of quotes that inspire me, but I meditate, stop thinking that it’s all about repeating this series over and over for 30 think the one at this moment which I feel clearing your mind or that it’s about seconds or go up to two minutes. This is a most connected to is actually one of my getting in touch with the universe and the meditation. own: “Take time for yourself, because no angels (although it can be). one else is going to give you time.” I just Do you think meditation find it resonates with me at this moment But there are different forms of is even more important in in time. meditation. One meditation you can do modern times? is simply focusing on the breath. If you Anything else? just meditate on your breath, inhale for It’s important for everyone to tap into meditation in some form or another. In I would say for people that have started the same way that you take a physical their meditation journey, keep going. shower every day to help cleanse yourself, For those that may have started it and meditation is a great way to help give stopped, re-start it again. I believe that yourself an emotional shower that you we’re going to need it as the world need on a day-to-day basis. continues to change in this time and space. For those that haven’t started What do you do when you're meditating, start somewhere. Again, as I outside of work and not doing mentioned before, start focusing on your meditation? breath by inhaling and exhaling. Set a timer for 30 seconds and just do that. Rest! I really enjoy resting and sleeping late (that’s a hobby of mine!). I also enjoy Find out more about Kadeem One at: watching Korean dramas, I’m a big fan of kadeemone.com or connect via that. So resting, sleeping late, watching Instagram @kadeemone Korean dramas, oh and eating are some of the things I enjoy doing. 69

OMFM O N T H E With MANMAT Stephen Marks PLANK POSE (PHALAKASANA OR KUMBHAKASANA) Benefits • Avoid straining by holding for too long if Awareness you are new to this pose. • Strengthens the core by working all four • Feel your strength build with regular muscle groups in the stomach. Tips practice. • Helps the lower back by placing more • Learn endurance and resilience as you reliance on the abdomen. • Don’t let your hips drop: keep them up or are able to hold for longer. • Strengthens spine and aids better you won’t work the core. • Focus on your breath as you build up the posture as body naturally aligns. • Keep your legs tight: you can lift the legs time you spend here. • Good for joint and bone health with to deepen the pose (that’s why my left toes weight-bearing but no impact. are off the ground). Stephen Marks is an international yoga and • Don’t drop your head: keep it in line with meditation teacher based in Lisbon. Find him Avoidance the rest of the spine. at: stephenmarksyoga.com or on Instagram • Don’t angle fingers inward: have the @stephenmarksyoga • If you have an injury in the wrists. fingers turned out. • If you have osteoporosis to reduce risk of fractures. 70

OMFM Purge emotional writing If you’re in need of a quick mental health boost then try this quick 12-minute journalling hack to purge emotions W ith writing offering “In an age where we are surrounded by no looking back, no reflection, time to many proven cathartic technology and a constant stream of move on. benefits for your mental interruption, Purge Emotional Writing health, it’s a good place allows you the opportunity for self-reflection It’s an exercise that works best if you let to start if you’re not and is an excellent technique for surfacing your words flow freely without trying to having the best of days — and it’s quick too! repressed emotions, thus reducing stress control your mind and thoughts. Why not If you’ve not heard of it before, there’s a and easing anxiety,” it states. give it a go? (But do be careful when setting brilliant 12-minute writing technique known fire to paper!) as Purge Emotional Writing that can help A key expressive method that helps you you to unblock and release old emotions let go of deep feelings and thoughts to bring Follow the easy steps below to set your that might be weighing you down. mental clarity, the simple exercise of writing emotions free and find a clearer headspace. for just 12 minutes a day is a brilliant way to So we asked the folks at online gift cultivate some self-care. Endorsed by health 1. Grab a pen and notebook. emporium, Pen Heaven (penheaven.com), professionals worldwide, writing by hand to explore this fantastic and therapeutic not only helps quieten the mind and release 2. Prepare to completely immerse your- journalling technique with us and share your emotions, but it can also improve your some tips on how best to do it. sleep, boost your energy, and improve your self in your writing — that means removing all distractions, such as your phone, tablet, mood. internet, etc. Championing the 3. Set a timer for 12 minutes. handwritten word, particularly for better mental health, 4. Let your emotions flow to give your Pen Heaven also impresses the importance of making writing full freedom without restriction time for yourself each day. — this is your safe place after all and no From setting out personal subject is off-limits. goals and achievements to noting affirmations and giving 5. Stop immediately when your timer goes thanks, writing daily is one of the easiest, yet most positive off and do not read what you have written. changes you can make for a calmer, happier you. 6. Burn everything you have written to The key difference with this feel a true purge effect. exercise is that when your writing is complete, you simply 7. And finally, forgive, forget, and let it go burn the pages afterwards — – that includes your own mistakes, as well as those of others. 71

Special Report: Online Yoga Platforms ONLINE YOGA SPECIAL REPORT 72

Special Report: Online Yoga Platforms Feeling fine online…nothing beats attending a real live in-person class, but online yoga can be a great addition to your practice too. Whatever yoga style you’re into, there’s so much variety on offer and it’s all available to you whenever you can make it to class — you’ll never walk in late! You can practice with some of the world’s best teachers all from the comfort of your living room — and no expensive leggings required either! Deepen your practice and expand your horizons with some of the great digital online yoga studios featured inside this special report. INSIDE: PAGE 74: ZEN KI YOGA PAGE 76: YOGA DOWNLOAD PAGE 78: MOVEMENT FOR MODERN LIFE PAGE 80: KATIE WINDER YOGA PAGE 82: THE YOGA CLASS 73

Special Report: Online Yoga Platforms ZEN KI YOGA Zen Ki Yoga — Download from the App Store or Google Play Store Zen Ki Yoga is a unique and powerful Japanese style of yoga working on your meridians and organs to change your health and body shape. You will find it gives you quick results because it is based on Traditional Chinese Medicine and Japanese Zen Shiatsu. The Zen Ki Yoga app has over 100 classes across different sections such as: specific yoga for every season; meridians and organs in your body; women’s health; back pain; anxiety; psoas release; core yoga; and weight loss. With lots of classes within each section, it’s easy to find classes specific to your needs. There are also challenges and you can opt in to as many as you wish to stay motivated. What’s great about it? Zen Ki Yoga founder, Janie Larmour, has been teaching and helping clients change their health and body for 28 years. Classes are easy to follow. She also holds free, monthly 10-day challenges for any subscriber to the app, with emails filled with information about each class suggestion for the day, so you learn how to get the most out of the classes and about your health and wellbeing on a deeper level. You may find Zen Ki Yoga different to anything you’ve done before as there are no sun salutations or down dogs to be found! Instead, it’s core-based and you might even do several classes completely on the floor as you How much? Monthly subscription is £12.99 per month. Two complimentary weeks, cancel at any time. 74

work directly into each organ to improve and change the health of body and mind. According to Traditional Chinese Medicine, each meridian is connected to each organ in the body, as well as specific emotions, mental and emotional states, on top of your overall physical health. You may well find it a very effective healing system. Free stuff You get two weeks complimentary classes and unlimited access to the Breast Health & Anxiety 12-minute class, which is also great for heart health and circulation. Join the regular 10-day challenges for free and get direct contact with Janie Larmour. 5 great reasons to sign up  Over 100 unique easy-to-follow Zen Ki Yoga classes to help with a range of health issues.  Target specific areas: reproductive and digestive issues; classes that alleviate back, hip and neck pain; classes that tone your waist, belly, thighs and buttocks; classes to release the heat in summer, and build inner warmth in winter; or find balance all year round with information on each season and the meridians.  Regular 10-day challenges for free and direct contact with Zen Ki Yoga founder Janie Larmour. (Next scheduled 10-day challenges are: July 25, August 29, October 24, and November 28.)  Offers something entirely fresh and different to most traditional yoga digital platforms.  Available to download from the App Store or Google Play Store.

Special Report: Online Yoga Platforms YOGA DOWNLOAD yogadownload.com With YogaDownload you Your Back Pain, Yoga for Weight Loss, Yoga of your own home, or anywhere you might can throw away the script, 101, Yoga for Runners, challenges, prenatal be. Then as you practice more consistently think outside the studio, programmes, plus many more, you will be you will be amazed at how you improve and build the yoga practice ready to achieve your goals in record time! flexibility, strength, balance, and overall that works for you — your way, on your health. time! Find YogaDownload on its website, Easily find your perfect class: With mobile apps, Roku, Fire TV, Apple TV, and advanced filtering you can quickly and Community buzz Android TV channels and discover new easily find your perfect class for right now. teachers, styles, and inspiring places Filter by length, level, intensity, style, “Love this website and app. I've been to take your yoga with an ever-growing teacher, and even a specific goal or focus, or watching the free Yoga Download library of 2,400+ yoga and fitness classes, simply search using keyword(s). videos for years. Great variety and easy plus over 80 targeted programmes from search options. I just recently paid for a internationally-acclaimed teachers. Great for beginners: Classes and membership, and I couldn't be happier.” ~ programmes designed for absolute Rebecca J. What’s great about it? beginners or those “I have been a subscriber for years. I love With hundreds of options for beginners with just a little the variety of classes and teachers as well through to advanced practitioners, over experience. Through as being able to do yoga anywhere. It's 25 different yoga styles, a range of lengths the beginner so worth the money, too - you would pay from 10 mins to 1.5 hours, a wide variety programmes the same amount by only going to a few of world-class teachers, and focused you’ll develop live classes. Instead I can have the exact classes and programmes ranging from your practice and yoga class I want every day all year at my energising morning yoga, to relaxing understanding of convenience. I love it!” ~ Deanna S. Yin classes, to vigorous vinyasa, to yoga + HIIT combo classes, you will always yoga in the comfort find something to suit your mood and schedule at YogaDownload. Easy to follow classes for every ability: Classes and programmes for absolute beginners as well as challenging sweaty flows for advanced students, plus everything in between. All designed specifically for your at-home practice, so they are super easy to follow and will leave you feeling stretched, relaxed, and ready to take on the world. Achieve your goals: With over 80 expertly curated programmes and packages including: Morning Yoga Programme, Heal How much? Gain unlimited access to the full library including unlimited free class downloads for as little as £8 per month with a year membership (£95/yr), or choose one of the other membership options: £9.50/month – Standard Monthly Membership (2 class downloads per month) £14.00/month — Unlimited Monthly Membership (unlimited class downloads) 76

Special Report: Online Yoga Platforms “Yoga download is a wonderful, down Free stuff 5 reasons to sign up to earth resource for people who want to do yoga at home. There are If you’re not convinced or not ready to  YogaDownload offers yoga for thousands of videos and hundreds of commit, you can still access over 120 instructors… completely free classes available on the every body, ability, time and place — I really enjoy the down to earth look site by going to: yogadownload.com/free- and has done since 2006, making it and feel of yoga download as well online-yoga-classes.aspx one of the early movers in the online as their regular friendly email yoga space. communications. It’s also affordable.” ~ Or simply download the app on your Chloe B. mobile device or through one of the TV  Access 2,400+ exclusive yoga and channels and get 20 days of full access absolutely free. fitness videos plus over 80 targeted programmes on the Yoga Download website, mobile apps (iOS and Android) or its Roku, Fire TV, Apple TV, and Android TV channels.  Internationally-acclaimed yoga teachers with the experience to help you get the most out of your practice.  Top-rated classes: over half of Yoga Download’s library is rated 4.8 stars or higher. Throughout the website and apps you’ll find talented, inspiring teachers who have mastered the art of teaching online.  Something for everyone: classes and structured programmes for beginners and advanced students. 77

Special Report: Online Yoga Platforms MOVEMENT FOR MODERN LIFE movementformodernlife.com Movement for Modern Life Choose from beginner's classes to Free stuff has been transforming lives advanced; from gentle or restorative yoga to since 2013. Its ‘Movers’ have strengthening flows; from yoga to energise Movement for Modern Life offers a free revolutionised their wellbeing your morning or to help you sleep. Do you 14-day trial to all new subscribers, giving by finding new styles, new classes, new want to feel more confident? Or more calm? unlimited access to all on-demand classes teachers, new ways to move and a new Energised or focused? Recover from illness and courses and the app, plus free live community to move with. With yoga, or learn a new skill? Do you want to get community classes for all subscribers. After meditation, Pilates, Barre and somatic started on your yoga journey or deepen the 14 day trial, the special discount for movement, and new sound healing your current practice? Know that you can OM readers provides 30% off (just use code classes, you’ll find classes for any time and trust the platform’s handpicked selection OMONLINE - see below). any mood…from 3am sessions in dodgy of experienced teachers to safely guide you tracksuit bottoms, to vinyasa yoga before through your personal journey, all in the 5 reasons to sign up breakfast and yin yoga for some calm in comfort of your own home. the evening. Create your own sustainable  World-class teachers. practice, defined by you, just right for you. “I can access a yoga class anytime to suit  Access to the free online community Practice what you want, when you want. me and I am spoilt for choice,” says one This is your yoga, your way. It’s time to start MFML Mover. “There are classes for every to ask questions of teachers and get your Wellbeing Revolution! occasion, emotion and benefit, and to fit inspiration and support. any timescale.” What’s great about it?  Free monthly live online class, plus Community buzz A multi award-winning platform, Movement special rates for live online workshops for Modern Life and its team of world- Take your classes online with Movement and home yoga retreats. class teachers brings you over 1,400 yoga, for Modern Life and get weekly inspiration meditation, pilates, barre, mindfulness, and access to its friendly and supportive  Thousands of yoga, meditation, qigong and sound healing classes into your community offering motivation and live home. With on-demand classes, live online Q&As from teachers, ensuring pilates, barre, qigong, mindful movement educational workshops and free community you get the support you and sound healing classes tailored to classes, it’s no surprise Vogue magazine would expect from in-person your personal needs. once dubbed it the ‘Netflix of Yoga.’ yoga classes. Your Wellbeing Classes start when you say: there’s no need Revolution starts here!  Free ioS and Android App for to get out of your pyjamas (or even your bed!) to get your daily dose of movement subscribers, download up to 10 classes and mindfulness. With classes from just two at a time. minutes to 90 minutes, you can fit a practice into your day and make time for you, no matter what your schedule. How much? ● Free 14 day-trial, cancel anytime. ● 12 months subscription of unlimited access to on-demand classes for just £10.99 per month (billed once at £131.88). ● Monthly subscription of unlimited access to on-demand classes for just £15.99 per month (billed once at £131.88). ● Use code OMONLINE to get 30% off your subscription forever. 78

OMSUMMER

Special Report: Online Yoga Platforms GROWTH & GRATITUDE - KATIE WINDER YOGA katiewinderyoga.com Growth & Gratitude is Katie self-confidence or keeping yourself Winder’s online yoga grounded in the present moment. platform where you can connect to your inner self, While there is access to all content explore self-beliefs, let go, create with the option to practice a class space and find movement on your that suits your mood, the platform is mat. Through yin, vinyasa flows, designed not to be overwhelming. It breathwork, meditation and guided gives you the structure for a weekly journalling sessions you are gently ‘go to’ class through an ‘On The Mat guided towards a self-regulating This Week’ option, so you can follow practice to help you find inner the journey at your own pace. It’s growth and cultivate balance in perfect for those looking to self- your wellbeing, with each month regulate their wellbeing and explore focusing on a new aspect of yoga or who they are in the comfort of their self-discovery. own space without spending hours wondering what to practice! What’s great about it? This slow journey approach has Growth and Gratitude is more than high intentions for you to build an online platform, it’s a journey a relationship with your practice towards knowing yourself on a and to help you support your own deeper connection. Every month is mental and physical health, as curated around a theme to break well as giving you the tools to help down your practice; each month is navigate towards finding greater life designed with a goal in mind to help balance. implement the lessons you learn on the mat and apply them in everyday Community buzz life. The monthly theme is closed with a Yoga & Journal Practice so You’ll get to enjoy and experience you can continue your practice off your own yoga journey in good the mat, whether that be building company, guided by Katie Winder, who established Growth & Gratitude out of her own personal journey How much? ● Access to all content is £15 per month, which includes a 7-day free trial for new members. ● You also get to pay monthly, rather than for a full year up-front like some other platforms. ● After the 7-day free trial, you will be charged monthly until cancelled. 80

Special Report: Online Yoga Platforms of growth through the introspective and incredible practices of yoga, journalling and self-study. Free stuff There’s a 7-day free trial for all new members. 5 reasons to sign up  A new class upload onto ‘On The Mat This Week’ every week.  New theme starting on the first Sunday of the month.  Each themed journey includes: 1x 60-minute Yin Class, 1x 60-minute Vinyasa Flow Class, 1x 30-minute Vinyasa Flow Class and 1x 60-minute Yoga & Journal Practice class which can include a combination of different styles and practices to complement the month’s theme.  Additional bonus content such as guided meditations, plus access to all previously recorded classes.  The class library is categorised for those moments of finding a class suitable for you should you want to delve into something different including ‘beginner-friendly’ options. 81

Special Report: Online Yoga Platforms THE YOGA CLASS theyogaclass.co The Yoga Class is a digital studio writer to OM, hosts luxury global retreats and app full of nourishing low- and has specially selected a team of top impact movement to improve and UK teachers, who share her ethos. sustain strength, flexibility, tone, mobility and posture, reduce anxiety, The Yoga Class offers a transformational calm the mind and create a stronger body workout for body and mind, through yoga, mind connection. It’s about coming home movement and meditation, wherever you to you! Expect informative, innovative, are in the world and whenever you need enjoyable and effective low-impact it. Feel like you are stepping into a bright classes, across multiple styles of yoga — and airy yoga studio, designed to inspire beginners, vinyasa, power, skills, yin and you to move and breathe — wherever you restorative — plus pilates, barre, active are. Enjoy easy access to all your favourite recovery sessions, meditation, breath- classes through the easy-to-navigate apps work and dedicated pre- and post-natal and digital studio. sections. All classes work with the breath Classes range from 10-60 minutes, as an anchor and guide, to calm the categorised by style, level, length and mind and connect into you through a target area, making it easy to choose a moving meditation. Discover nurturing, innovative and effective classes to class for however you feel strengthen and mobilise the body and from one day to the next. calm the mind, across a wide range of yoga, movement and meditation styles What’s great and categories. There is always a class about it? suitable for how you feel! The Yoga Class was set Discover a free four-week beginner up by experienced yoga programme and comprehensive, safe and and meditation teacher, specialist programmes for each stage pre- mother and model, Laura Dodd, with the aim to empower clients to unfold this transformational practice for body and mind. She has worked with a wide range of celebrity clients, is a contributing How much? 14-day free trial. Subscribe for £19.99 per month or £139 per year. 82

Special Report: Online Yoga Platforms a consultation. Any members signed up to the newsletter private clients will have first access and early bird pricing to have complimentary award-winning retreats! and personalised class pathways created and Free stuff also receive a substantial discount to the app and 14-day free trial. Plus regular offers, digital studio. Plus all discounts and giveaways via the newsletter. Special offer if you sign up between before 30 September 2022 — get 40% off first three months subscription, using code OMMAGAZINE and post-natal, along with personalised 5 reasons to sign up support and extras from the team.  Practice enjoyable, breath-led Community buzz classes with some of the UK’s top Expect monthly newsletters with personal teachers. themes, tips, thoughts, discount codes, special offers, giveaways and regular  Move the body to still the mind, online challenges to keep you motivated and help support. Connect with a workout through nourishing, effective and buddy to keep you motivated and share informative classes across 14 styles of your thoughts, feelings and progress with yoga, movement and meditation. and comment on the community forum. All queries are personally answered by  Sessions range from 10-60 minutes Laura Dodd or the team, on classes, postures or alignment. There is also and are categorised by style, level and the opportunity to have personalised length, making it easy to choose a class class pathways created for you after for how you feel one day to the next.  iOS and Android Apps for easy access to over 250+ classes.  New content added weekly. 83

om mind Embodied Living: Mindfulness & Yoga for Life’s Everyday Challenges Expanding the heart to embrace the unbearable Cultivating an expansiveness of heart can lead us to transform life’s challenges into life’s greatest lessons. By Lauren Bloxham H ow do we keep going? How ‘nourishing’ or ‘depleting’, but in doing so we when we stop attempting to control, do we bear the unbearable diminish them. We separate them from the manipulate or change how things are going and still wake up each whole experience and view them through a to go, but simply say ‘they’re going’, then we day and live? If we could narrow gaze; our viewpoint becomes limited learn to ride the turbulence and the richness have imagined some of and likewise the experience. We process of life that is on offer. the challenges we have endured before only a slither of what’s truly happening. they’d happened, we just couldn’t imagine Maybe through ignorance, maybe through Nothing we experience in life leaves surviving them, let alone rising from their preservation of known outcomes, or maybe us unchanged. But rather than leaving ashes with greater strength and clarity. through lack of knowing what else to do. us closed, embittered, feeling resentful, When we imagine the worst outcomes, neglected, abandoned, or that life is unfair, or look towards our worst fears, again, So how do we find the courage to lean opening our hearts to the circumstances we simply can’t imagine how we’d cope. into life with an open heart, when it leads which have triggered those feelings, moving The idea can turn us away from ourselves us through turbulence? How do we imagine closer again to ourselves, we have the completely, the thought can lead us to things going wrong, alongside imagining opportunity to turn them inside out. To embrace fear and abandonment. But the them going right, and firmly occupy the transform them by seeing both sides of invitation that fear extends is more complex space in-between? We have to let go, to the experience. Becoming intimate with than this, more multi-dimensional when it’s surrender to the ride and to say ‘yes’ to the the shadows fear casts we begin to explore experienced with an open heart. experience, which means acknowledging it the source of light that inevitably exists for all that it teaches us. All pain, all sorrow, alongside those shadows, and we know the It's easy to label experiences as ‘good’ all grief, all relief, all joy, and all peace. When darker the shadow, the stronger the light; or ‘bad’, as ‘positive’ or ‘negative’, as we have no investment in the outcome, we simply have to alter our focus and allow 84

om mind ourselves to notice…and this takes practice, We use them to shape a life that we believe allowing stillness to arise naturally. persistence and often reminders from is acceptable, setting harsh boundaries on Cultivating awareness of our physicality, external sources. what is ‘right and wrong’, using judgement as a guide. But these shadows can be our without judgement, and for the sole Our presence is our greatest ally in staying greatest teachers, and whether we choose purpose of softening our physical bodies open to the experience of life, in keeping daily to lean towards them with the light of into relaxation leads us towards being able our hearts soft and supple. We have to give our own awareness, or we wait for them to to cultivate awareness of the breath, and ourselves the time and space to notice become monsters before we tackle them, more subtle still, awareness of our thoughts how we feel, to stay embodied rather than ultimately, we are left with no choice but and feelings. We begin to experience the abandon ourselves. Spending time with to tackle them. Life’s circumstances are the condition of our being, and in doing so our own feelings, sitting in the chaos and same, however unbearable they become, extend compassion towards harsh feeling confusion, assessing the mess and the and when we have to tackle them, we will… in the same way we extended comfort devastation, and soaking up the peace, and we will because we have the capacity towards tension. Here is where we start to beauty and joy, whether it’s through rest, to do so, it’s what we’re made for. We all soften subtly. Here is where we begin to meditation, in therapy or through our asana have the capacity to experience life in all melt our hearts, and in doing so encourage practice. We have to be present for life and its complex, unbearable, beautiful, and the suppleness of heart elasticity to expand all that it brings us without pushing the paradoxical glory. around the experience we are having. This experience aside, diminishing it or denying is the point of transformation, where the it. We have to cultivate a strong relationship The practice of connecting with unbearable circumstances we thought we’d of faith in ourselves to stay with the the heart never survive become our greatest teachers, experience, and in the process of developing where harsh lines of division are blurred and this relationship we get to notice our hearts We need to carve out time to practice our experience of living becomes something blossoming and shying away. We begin connecting with our hearts. We need to precious, to be embraced and nurtured. to develop compassion for fear, curiosity feel safe, comfortable and be undisturbed for feeling and ultimately the strength to for a period of time. Offering ourselves Practice yoga with Lauren Bloxham online embrace the unbearable as the teacher that physical softness, comfort and warmth will at blackdogliving.com or in person in West it is. encourage the body to relax, minimising Cornwall. You can also join her on her retreat, distraction and maximising the conditions ‘Embodying the Elements’ at Bala Brook retreat We all live with shadows, our fear, shame, which encourage pratyahara, where centre in Dartmoor National Park (April 20-23, grief, our denial, and our guilt. We use them our awareness moves from the outside 2023). Follow her on Instagram @blackdogliving to tell ourselves we are not worthy of life; we environment to the inner environment, use them to keep us small and conforming. 85

om mind Show your gratitude today Step into the gratitude 1. Give thanks for today. zone: 5 great ways to show You don’t even have to thank a person, you can thank life itself! you’re grateful today Wake up, and greet the day with gratitude. Be thankful you’re The most precious gift that alive and for the precious time that you have. we have is time. It’s so easy to get caught up in our busy lives that we forget about all the little things. Yet the time that we have here on earth is given to us free, it costs us nothing, and yet it is worth so much to us. So let’s be grateful for that. If you can find other little ways to bring gratitude into your life, there’s a good chance you’ll become much happier as a result— and you’ll probably make the people around you a bit happier too. That’s the kind of ripple effect that will start to make the world a better place. Such small gestures, yet it takes a bit of focus and awareness to get it done. Here are some other ideas to change the world around you simply through nurturing an attitude of gratitude. 86

om mind 2. Do someone a free favour. Without expecting anything in return, simply do something nice for someone. Get them a drink or a coffee, do a chore for them, offer to do an errand. Just something small that will brighten someone else’s day. 3. Acknowledge someone you know with a bit of public praise. Find a way to acknowledge the contributions of someone, to show your gratitude, in a public way, whether that’s in the office, among friends and family, on your blog, in your local newspaper. 4. Send a thank you note. You don’t even need to send a formal thank you card (although that’s a nice touch), but just a little handwritten note saying thank you for a specific thing the person has done for you along the way. Show them you noticed it and appreciated it. If you want to ramp it up a bit, then give someone a list of all they’ve done that you’re grateful for. Take five minutes and make a list of 10 (or 50) things you love about someone, or things they’ve done for you that you appreciate. 5. This is a tough one, but say thanks even for negative things in your life. When things go wrong, when we’re not happy, when people are mean to us, when we are worn down by the slings and arrows of everyday life, we don’t want to say thank you. But this is the time when it matters most. This is when a gratitude practice can help see us through. When life gets you down, when you’re hurt, angry, confused or frustrated, take a moment to stop and close your eyes and find things to be thankful for. It will help you realise that not all is bad in this world — and be happy for that. 87

om spirit Yoga, music and the magic of Baluji Shrivastav Exploring the spiritual world of Baluji Shrivastav OBE, a highly-respected musician from India, who has played alongside the likes of Coldplay, who wants to challenge stereotypes around the blind Blinded at only eight months, Baluji Shrivastav OBE has every day and he would teach me to recite a new verse in Sanskrit of spent nearly all of his life challenging the common the Bhagavad Gita. stereotypes around the blind, both as a leading musician and as a keen yoga and meditation practitioner. “I began to play music and people felt there was something special An Indian multi-instrumentalist, he established about me. Then, when I was eight, I would sit naked on the flat roof of the house and meditate for up to four hours, impervious to the heat the Baluji Music Foundation in 2008 – an or the cold. When I was around 14, I left home organisation which aims to support visually- “The mind can be easily to live with the Naga Babas in Agra. They are impaired musicians which then in turn distracted by thoughts and a sect who worship Lord Shiva who believe in founded The Inner Vision Orchestra. It is the the philosophy of becoming shiva to worship world’s only professional ensemble of blind the senses. Your mind needs shiva. They are fierce in appearance but very and partially-sighted musicians, established to be able to control how gentle and are detached totally from this to challenge the barriers Baluji faced as a much your mind becomes world.” child. Naga Baba tradition has two branches: Firmly established in the Hindustani distracted. If you can do that Sadhus and Jains. “Some of them believe that classical tradition, he delights in exploring the four directions are their clothes. They live music in all of its forms, as he shared you have achieved yoga.” naked under the trees. I don’t think it would when entertaining the world at the closing be allowed in England! I lived with them and ceremony of the 2012 Paralympic Games with Chris Martin and sang and played music. People wanted me to give up everything and Coldplay. He composes for film, dance, theatre and original works for follow them but I wanted to make my own choices in life. I felt that Western orchestra and Indian ensembles. music would be my path.” His spiritual traditions and his musical ability date back to his early What about his actual yoga practice? As you might expect, it is childhood. “When I was a child in India, a blind person had two paths intrinsically connected to his musical practice. “As far as yoga is open to them: to become a beggar or a spiritual person,” he tells OM. concerned, Nada Yoga mainly concentrates on music practice. It “So when I was four years old, I would walk with my father in a garden focuses on how to prepare yourself for music, how to prepare yourself 88

for the whole life, for the Open your heart and nourish yourbody whole being, and that with a daily serving of cacao, you’ll be is why it’s called ‘yoga’ feeling more joy, more presence and more because it is about union with the cosmic being. connected throughout your day Nothing to do with From bean to heart. any particular god or Cacao is chocolate in its purest form, religion. made from a single ingredient “The mind can be – 100% cacao beans! easily distracted by For more information, inspiration thoughts and the and recipes on your cacao, or to senses. Your mind needs to place an order, please visit me at be able to control how much your mind becomes distracted. If you can do that you have achieved yoga. Nada Yoga is about music and cacaocalling_bygemma how to prepare yourself for the power of music. That requires warm up, using your whole body, through exercises like squatting done www.cacaocalling.co.uk slowly, without force, because if you force you damage your body. The movements should be connected with breathing. Breathing techniques called pranayama are also part of Nada Yoga because breath creates sound. There are many kinds. You have Bhramari pranayama which is like humming like a bee. When you do this you find out what is happening to different parts of the nose, throat and chest, vibrating with the sound. You have to feel it and take control. If it gives discomfit you stop. There is Singha nath, which is sharp exhalation. Then, using the vowels to control different parts of the body, called the chakras. When you have explored one note properly then ideally progress to the 84 notes of one octave. Breath control is very important for everyone — how long it takes nobody can say. If you see improvement that is the right way. This is what it is.” Like yoga itself, it took a great deal of practice, patience and persistence. “I heard my gurus and whatever I felt comfortable with I continued. It improved my sense of hearing and feeling with my surroundings. It has gone up and down. I’m surprised I can hear the smallest microtones that most people cannot hear.” For Baluji, yoga is about everything he does and his essential being. This is reflected in his music. If you listen to it with a quiet mind, he hopes that it will give you that same experience. “The whole being is yoga. If you continuously listen to something, or do something continuously, it creates a union with the universe. All my music. All my breathing.” He mentions the chant, ‘Om anand nara yana hari om’ — all of which essentially means ‘limitless, boundless’, key themes used in Baluji’s compositions. Now close your eyes and feel the whole of the universe around you, and within you. Listen to Baluji Shrivastav OBE and his music on Spotify or to find out more visit: balujimusicfoundation.org

om lifestyle eat drink yoga Healthy eating goodies Cacao Calling SHORE Seaweed Chips Open your heart and nourish your body. With a daily serving Get your vitamin sea with SHORE, the Scottish seaweed of cacao, you'll be feeling more joy, more presence and more specialists. Vegan-friendly, gluten-free connected throughout your day. From bean to heart: cacao and low-calorie, there are three flavours is chocolate in its purest form, made from a single ingredient to choose from: Lightly Salted, Peking – 100% cacao beans! Duck and Sweet Sriracha. All packed with Known as the 'food of nutrients, including iodine, antioxidants the gods', cacao (kə-ˈkau̇ ) and prebiotic fibre. Available from the is the seed found in the Holland & Barrett website, plus Scottish fruit of the Theobroma Sainsbury’s and Coop. cacao tree, which 99p (25g), £2.09 (80g) was first discovered shoreseaweed.com thousands of years ago and has remained a staple in many cultures. £17 (250g), £33 (500g) cacaocalling.co.uk White Rabbit Italian Ready Meals Tonic CBD Tea New Italian meals and dough balls (vegan and gluten free) Tonic CBD Teas are a delicious and effective way to create calm from the foodie magicians at White Rabbit. Range includes and equilibrium throughout your body. These five luxurious, Lasagne Al Forno, Macaroni Gratin and Tagliatelle Bolognese. organic tea blends are infused with their own unique water- Tasty and easy meals for the home. Available from Sainsbury’s soluble full spectrum CBD, the most easily absorbed form of CBD. nationwide. Treat yourself. White Rabbit Ready Meals £5 (350g) £19 (10% off first purchase with code: WELCOMETOTHETRIBE Dough Balls with Garlic & Herb Dip £3.75 (180g) thetonictribe.com whiterabbitpizza.co.uk 90

om lifestyle Bowglsooodf ness Everything you need for a tasty, healthy, satisfying meal…all in a single bowl Super Summer Bowl stems as needed. Divide the rocket, cucumber slices, peach wedges and berries into two bowls. Top with the chopped almonds, drizzle SERVES 2 with the Lemon and Mint Drizzle (see recipe) and sprinkle over with For the salad: the herbs. • 200g (7oz) rocket • ½ cucumber Lemon and Mint Dressing • 1 peach • ¼ bunch fresh mint • 50g (1.7 oz) blueberries • 1 lemon • 50g (1.7 oz) gooseberries • 4 tbsp olive oil • 25g (0.8 oz) almonds • 1 tsp maple syrup • 2 tbsp white balsamic vinegar • Salt and pepper • 2 tbsp olive oil • 1 tsp maple syrup 1. Wash the mint, shake dry, pluck the leaves from the stems • Salt and finely chop. Squeeze the lemon. In a bowl, combine the Extras: mint, lemon juice, olive oil, maple syrup and a pinch each of salt • Fresh herbs (e.g. garden cress, parsley, basil) and pepper with 2 tablespoons of water and whisk until fully incorporated 1. Wash, spin dry and tear up the rocket. Trim and wash the 2. Walnuts can be used instead of almonds in autumn to round cucumber and thinly slice with a mandoline. Wash, halve and out the flavour, while other seasonal fruits, such as strawberries in pit the peach. Cut into thin wedges. Sort the berries, wash and spring and pear wedges in autumn make excellent alternatives to carefully pat dry. Then cut them in half. Coarsely chop the almonds. the fruit used here. 2. To make the dressing, mix the balsamic vinegar with the olive oil, maple syrup, a pinch of salt and 3 tablespoons of water. Recipe from Vegan Buddha Bowls by Jessica Lerchenmüller. 3. Wash the herbs, shake dry and pluck as many leaves from the Grub Street Publishing. 91

om lifestyle Cucumber Salad Bowl with Peanut Tofu Cubes and Fried Ginger SERVES 2 1. Drain and cut the tofu into cubes. For the marinade, combine the For the peanut tofu: lemongrass, garlic powder, chilli flakes, soy sauce and peanut butter • 100g (3.5 oz) firm tofu in a bowl. Mix the tofu into the marinade, coating well. Then heat the • 1 tsp dried lemongrass oil in a frying pan and fry the tofu over medium heat for 2–3 minutes, • ½ tsp garlic powder until crispy. • 1 pinch chilli flakes 2. Peel and cut the ginger into thin slices with a knife or mandoline. • 1 tsp soy sauce Heat the olive oil in a small frying pan and fry the ginger slices over a • 2 tsp peanut butter high heat. • 2 tsp sesame oil, for cooking 3. Trim and wash the cucumbers. For the garnish, cut roughly a third For the salad: of one cucumber into thin strips with a mandoline or into noodles • 1 (about 2cm) length fresh ginger using a spiraliser. Thinly slice the remaining cucumbers with a knife • 2 tbsp olive oil, for cooking or mandoline. Wash the parsley, shake dry and coarsely tear. • 2 cucumbers 4. To make the dressing, whisk all ingredients together with a pinch • 6 large lettuce leaves of salt and 2 tablespoons of water. For the dressing: 5. Divide the salad into two shallow bowls and arrange the cucumber • 2 tbsp rice vinegar slices and fried tofu on top. Twist small bundles of cucumber strips • 1 tsp rice syrup or noodles with a fork and arrange over of the salad along with the • 1 tsp sesame oil fried ginger slices. Finally, sprinkle with black sesame seeds and • 1 pinch garlic powder drizzle with the dressing. • Salt Extras: Recipe from Vegan Buddha Bowls by Jessica Lerchenmüller. • 2 tsp black sesame seeds Grub Street Publishing. 92

om lifestyle Out-of-the-Garden Bowl METHOD 1. To prepare the couscous, bring 200 ml of salted water to the SERVES 2 boil in a saucepan. Put the couscous into a heat resistant bowl For the salad: and pour in the boiling water. Allow the couscous to swell for 5-10 • 100g (3.5 oz) couscous minutes and then keep warm. • Salt 2. Drain the chickpeas from the tin. Rinse, drain and put them • 1 tin chickpeas (about 240g/8.4 oz drained weight) into a bowl. Trim and wash the radishes and finely slice with a • 10 radishes mandoline. Wash the chives, pat dry and finely chop with a sharp • ¼ bunch fresh chives knife. To make the dressing, whisk the remaining ingredients • 3 tbsp apple cider vinegar together with a pinch each of salt and pepper, and 3 tablespoons • 2 tbsp olive oil of water. • 1 tbsp medium-strength mustard 3. Combine the couscous, chickpeas and radish slices in a large • 1 tsp maple syrup bowl, mix well and divide into two small bowls. Make small dots • Pepper of pesto sauce over the salad and sprinkle with chives and black Extras: sesame seeds. Drizzle with the dressing before serving. • 2 tbsp pesto sauce Tip: • 2 tsp black sesame seeds You can replace the radishes with sliced carrots or cucumbers, and a handful of nuts roasted with salt and pepper to provide extra crunch. Recipe from Vegan Buddha Bowls by Jessica Lerchenmüller. Grub Street Publishing. 93

nutrition zone tFhoeogdoodfs Ceremonial Cacao: if you’ve not experienced the wonderful healing and therapeutic powers of a cacao ceremony yet, then now is the time. By Gemma Alvino If you love chocolate, then the chances heart expand and a loving feeling wash There are so many different ceremonies in are you will love a cacao ceremony! over me. existence today. Some will lead you on a Experiencing the ultimate cacao bliss journey of dance, breathwork or yoga, while with the highest-grade ceremonial cacao A cacao ceremony is rooted in helping to others will centre on meditation and inner is something to remember. That’s what re-balance the energies within us, to help reflection. motivates me here at Cacao Calling, where find clarity and restore good health. It’s also I dig deep into the journey, from bean to a wonderful time to give ourselves mental What is Ceremonial heart, to help educate and inspire others in and physical space and peace. You get to Cacao? this sacred offering. switch off, and retreat inwards, helping you to learn more about yourself, and gain clarity Cacao was something I was already familiar I experienced my first cacao ceremony on where you are and where you’re headed. with from a young age, but I never quite whilst going through a very dark period It is through discovering who we really are understood the history and benefits in my life where I felt completely lost and that we can reach our highest potential, and of adding chocolate in its purest form, disconnected from myself. I remember create the most beautiful life for ourselves Ceremonial Cacao, into my daily routine taking the first sip of cacao and feeling my and those around us. 94

nutrition zone until I found myself sat in a Cacao Ceremony their flavour and activating certain natural anxiety, by boosting our overall mood. — and my calling to share this with the compounds. • Boasts its fair share of phenylethylamine, world began. aka the ‘love drug’. In other words, it Ceremonial Cacao is cultivated with contains the same chemical our bodies Cacao beans are the primary ingredient intention, and in alignment with the Cacao release when we fall in love! in chocolate, but have you ever wondered Spirit. This means the lands, the farmers, • Promotes feelings of joy and bliss: cacao where these beans actually come from and the process, and the finished cacao are contains anandamide which is known as the what makes Ceremonial Cacao so different? treated with compassion, love, respect, and ‘bliss’ molecule. Ceremonial Cacao is the purest form of reverence for you to the enjoy and journey • The antioxidants in theobromine have chocolate we can come across, made from with. been shown to lower blood pressure, a single ingredient – 100% cacao beans. thus lowering the risk of stroke and heart Known as the ‘food of the gods’, the cacao In buying cacao this way, we are also disease. beans found in the cacao plant, Theobroma supporting the indigenous communities Cacao were first discovered centuries where it is grown and keeping their farms Gemma Alvino is the founder of Cacao Calling, ago and have remained a staple in many in business. So it’s important to use your which sources ceremonial grade cacao from cultures. discernment when choosing where to buy Peru and Ecuador. Visit: cacaocalling.co.uk Cacao has always been a very powerful your cacao from! and important food, medicine and even CACAO TO COFFEE currency. Many years ago, cacao was seen Known for it’s mental, physical and CHALLENGE as a gift from the gods and only people with spiritual benefits, there’s no surprise that high status were privileged enough to drink this beautiful plant medicine is being For 21 days, ditch your coffee for it. Cacao beans were also used as currency, shared far and wide. a daily dose of cacao and see so it was known that drinking cacao was like what changes happen drinking pure gold! Benefits Unfortunately, as time has gone on, Are you being called to take on the the value and beauty of chocolate has Cacao is known for its very many health cacao challenge? Then it’s time to ditch diminished. Conventional cacao or cocoa benefits. As one of the highest plant-based the coffee! For many of us, starting powder and a lot of the ‘chocolate’ we sources of magnesium on the planet, it the morning with a cup of coffee is see in shops today has been stripped of is packed full of anti-oxidants and feel- one of life’s small joys. But have you its natural goodness and compromised good compounds, making it a delicious ever wondered what happens to your with fats, sugar, dairy and other processed and natural way to boost your mood and body when you drink coffee every day? ingredients, with very minimal pure cacao support your well-being. Here are some of Between anxiety, jitters, afternoon added. It is said that for anything on the its amazing benefits: crashes, and a potential caffeine shelves to be called ‘chocolate’, it only dependency, it can all leave you feeling requires 20-30% of actual cacao and the rest • Heart opener and enhances meditation, pretty sluggish. Cacao Calling has an can be made up of other ingredients! yoga practices: a ceremonial dose connects alternative — yes, adding a daily dose of Bingo! This is what makes Ceremonial people with the spirit of cacao to help chocolate into your diet! Unlike coffee, Cacao different! release blockages around the heart and which comes from the Coffea plant, heal emotional wounds. cacao results from the cultivation of the From bean to heart • Natural energy boost: no jitters or caffeine Theobroma tree. The main ingredient crash in coffee is caffeine. In cacao, the Ceremonial Cacao from bean to heart is • Rich in potassium, amino acids, zinc, iron, stimulating effects are derived from much more simple and pure, and is made in magnesium, calcium. theobromine, a member of the same a traditional way with minimal processing, • Zero sugar: a healthier chocolate alkaloid family as caffeine but instead it which means the beans still contain all or alternative! works as a naturally-occurring stimulant. most of their natural compounds, full of • Contains chemicals that help rejuvenate That means you’ll get the same boost of nutrients! This means that we maximise its old cells, thus providing anti-ageing benefits energy that coffee gives, except it lasts health benefits that support both physical and reducing the appearance of wrinkles. longer, is softer and without all the nasty and psychological wellbeing when drinking. • Aids with relaxation and sleep. side effects. Drinking Ceremonial Cacao The cacao beans, which are technically • Relaxes the nervous system as well as the is a great way to slowly transition away seeds, grow inside pods surrounded by a busy ‘thinking mind’, enabling us to access from high caffeine drinks altogether. It’s white fleshy pulp known as Baba. the deeper layers of consciousness that simple: for 21 days, you just ditch your The beans are taken straight from the often go unnoticed or neglected. coffee for a daily dose of cacao and see pod, fermented, lightly roasted or sun- • Induces feelings of peace, calm and what changes happen for you. dried, removed from their shells and then harmony. ground down into the ‘cacao liquor’ that • Balances blood sugar levels, and the blood becomes solid at cooler temperatures. flow to the brain, creating more mental Nothing is taken out or added during this agility, awareness and focus. process, which is necessary for cultivating • Renowned for releasing dopamine and endorphins in the body, which soothe symptoms of PMS as well as depression and 95

om family Yoga, motherhood & pregnancy How yoga can provide vital support during pregnancy and motherhood, helping you to regain that all-important sense of control at a time of change. By Charlie Baker Y oga is something that can or the mental health benefits. Some popular option in the programme and be so personal to people. people like to lose themselves on the it’s clear why. During pregnancy, there It can also be used for all mat for their practice, others like to are so many emotions and hormones kinds of reasons, whether use their practice to work on physical flying around that it can often feel like that is for the physical strength, or perhaps a mixture of life is going by at a million miles an hour. Allowing yourself to slow down the two. by practicing yoga for even half an hour Bumps & Burpees can do wonders for your mental health as well as for your physical wellbeing. is a platform that aims to help, By focusing on slowing our breathing support and down and breathing mindfully, which educate women we often don’t do, we are zoning throughout out of the noise of our everyday life their pregnancy temporarily. We are choosing to focus journey and into our attention on the ‘here and now’ motherhood. It which is hugely important at any time of provides a safe our lives, but especially so in pregnancy, space for women when so much is changing within us. to exercise with This is something that can give us back experts in all our sense of control, which for many aspects of exercise women is a safety net that is so longed including yoga, for. In a class, listening to an instructor Pilates, strength, allows you to be in the moment and cardio and relieves you of any decision-making stretching, allowing responsibility. them to pick and choose what they From a physical point of view, yoga feel comfortable can offer an unbelievable amount with and ensure in terms of health benefits during that they feel safe pregnancy. As our bodies go through doing it. so much change, with our postures altering as the bump grows and then Yoga is a very 96

om family \"Building and maintaining strength in pregnancy is super important to help offset some of the less desirable side effects\". disappears again, the stretching aspect many new mothers experience a lot of a means to find a moment of stillness, of yoga is vital for allowing us to access aches in the back from awkward feeding on and off the mat, and begin to regain those areas that are especially prone positions. They also find that moving that all-important sense of control. to getting tight, such as our glutes the body in a mindful and gentle way or our backs. Holding stretches and can really help to relieve some of the Charlie Baker runs the Bumps & Burpees positions for elongated periods of time discomfort. online studio supporting women through enables our muscles to relax and access pregnancy and motherhood with yoga those deeper stretches that we don’t So whether it is for the mental health and other fitness classes. necessarily get with a quick stretching or physical benefits, or a bit of both, Visit: bumpsandburpees.com class. adding yoga into your routine during pregnancy and into motherhood can be Working through a series of movements in various sequences can then ramp it up a notch, where we really feel those muscles working and our heart rate rising, allowing us to build strength which is key for this time in our lives. Building and maintaining strength in pregnancy is super important to help offset some of the less desirable side effects such as pelvic girdle pain, back ache, joint pain and many others. By keeping our muscles strong we are able to support our growing bodies. As we progress through our pregnancy, the developing baby and growing bump will cause our posture to change to a more lordotic one (think arched lower back, bottom sticking out) to compensate, but with the right strength and ability we are able to carry this new weight and posture in a way that will not cause us too much discomfort or pain. When it comes to postnatal yoga, new mums often report that yoga is all about simply finding the time for themselves, precious time that they crave. You don’t need any equipment, you can do it in your pyjamas, and it can be done for 10 minutes or 60 minutes depending on what time you have available. Finding your peace and quiet on the mat can be all you need to turn your day around. Many mums also love to have their baby join them on the mat too. In the initial postnatal period, while your body is recovering from birth, 97

om family Why study kids yoga online? Let’s make this world a better place! 10 great reasons to get certified to teach kids yoga online. By Gopala Amir Yaffa W hy study kids yoga 10 reasons to get certified online? All you need to teach kids yoga online: is a computer or a portable device! 1. Balance a more effective learning method for Yesterday’s online independent learners. With online programme option: basket weaving. An online teacher training lets you fit classes, you’re in charge of when and classes into your crazy, jam-packed how much to study within the course Today’s option: Kids yoga certification! schedule, making it easier to keep up framework. Stress inhibits learning, Distance learning has come a long way! with work, family, social and school so there we go…less stress and more We're in 2022 now, which means that — on your terms. With an online quality learning for you! we are fully equipped to teach and learn teacher training delivery, your study kids yoga — this most awesome and fun commitments don’t have to get in the 4. Lower Costs discipline — online! And, here at Rainbow way. It’s easy to work your study into Kids Yoga, we take great pleasure in doing your busy schedule. Enjoy more affordable tuition and this! zero travel expenses to complete I want to make the world a better place 2. Anytime, Anywhere your certification. and to leave it a bit better than I found it Online Study — do you? 5. More Content I see it starting with the next generation One of the benefits of online study is and I believe that the more of us are out that you don’t have to get dressed, get When we, as teachers, are limited by there to share the magic of yoga and in the car, fight traffic or commute to the time constraint of an in-person mindfulness with the world the faster we class. You can study when you want. It training we don’t always get to pour will see positive change around us. doesn't matter if you’re a night owl or into it all of the knowledge and Taking a kids yoga training online is an an early bird, you can make your own experience we would like to pass on opportunity for you to easily access and schedule and stay in your own flow. to you. The online platform allows us become certified to teach kids yoga from Study in your pyjamas, in the comfort teachers to add a lot more valuable wherever you are. of your own home. content to an online training and to As quickly as you put your mind to it, assist you in becoming the best kids you can learn to share yoga and help 3. Self-Paced Learning yoga teacher you can be. children grow to be happier, healthier, and more peaceful, kinder and responsible Going at your own pace is shown to be citizens. There’s no bigger or better task in life! 98

6. More Support 9. The Training Is Complete on Its Own Studying online does not mean you are left alone. Some of our best When you graduate from a trainers at Rainbow Kids Yoga are also training (such as the Rainbow participating as mentors, providing Kids Yoga online teacher training you with all the support you need to course), there is nothing else make this journey easy and enjoyable, you need to do before you start and for you to get the most out of teaching yoga to children! Upon your training. Helping to keep you graduation, you will receive a right on track and answering every certificate, be able to obtain comment and every question, we professional insurance, and are passionate about being here for you’ll be ready to start teaching you at every step of your journey in in a variety of places such as becoming a children's yoga teacher. daycare centres, kindergartens, schools, yoga studios, private 7. Growing Resources classes, gyms and more. Each section of a good online training 10. And It Doesn’t is accompanied by a question or End There! a short assignment to keep you engaged with the materials learned. If your heart has awakened with In this way, with the many hundreds the passion of sharing the magic of online students taking the training, of yoga with children and you each contributes to the communal don’t want it to end, you can knowledge and wisdom contained in continue your training online to the training with its ever-expanding become more knowledgeable insights, ideas, class plans and yoga and even more capable with games that everyone brings to the a more advanced training. We table. never stop learning! 8. Review & Retain So, ready to study kids yoga More Information online? We are ready to receive you with a warm embrace! What People only remember 10% of what are you waiting for? they read, 20% of what they see and 30% of what they hear! When you Gopala Amir Yaffa, co-founder sign up for some of the best kids & wizard at Rainbow Kids Yoga yoga online trainings you get lifetime Training, providing life-changing access to the course enabling you yoga education around the world to always come back and review to make it a better place for future the materials so that none of the generations. Find out more at: information, ideas and techniques are rainbowyogatraining.com ever lost.

Teacher zone Teacher zone A deeper understanding of yoga... for teachers, by teachers Inside: Page 101: My Yoga Biz Page 102: How To Find Your Perfect Yoga Teacher Page 104: Beating The Burnout Page 106: Teachers’ Tales Page 107: OM Books 100