Tag Archives: Judith Hanson Lasater

This is not Lying Down – This is Savasana

This is not Lying Down – This is Savasana

Sava ~ corpse
Asana ~ pose

Click here to learn more about The 365 Savasana Project

If I suggested that you put your lengthy to-do list to one side and lie down for twenty minutes right now, what would your response be?

(I think I can hear you shouting that you are too busy from here!)

Supported Savasna - here I'm using pillows for the pose - it's easy to improvise with cushions and blankets too

Maybe it would feel lazy or indulgent when you have so much to do? But I invite you to look at your life and ask what you hold most dear. Of course, we all have responsibilities and obligations we must meet. But busyness and meaning are not the same thing. It comes back to balance and being able to tune in to what your body needs.

During Savasana the parasympathetic nervous system is activated (the part of the autonomic nervous system in charge of your body’s rest and digest activities). Consequently, it is deeply nourishing and can have a regenerative effect on your entire system, far more replenishing than normal sleep.

If you find yourself feeling stressed, rushed off your feet or generally frazzled, this Supported Savasana is a good place to start. As well as helping to calm a busy mind it can make a real difference to sleep quality.

How do we get there?

In lieu of the yoga props you would find at a studio you can improvise with what you have to hand – pillows, blankets, cushions, the throw from your sofa….

(NB – I’m suggesting a version here that I find works very well, but what’s most important is that you feel comfortable, so adjust your props as much as you need to before you settle.)

Have a timer to hand that you can easily set to twenty minutes once you are settled into position.

– Create a comfortable space to lie down – if you have a yoga mat, place a blanket on top covering the surface of the mat for extra cushioning. If you don’t have a mat use extra blankets to create a thicker base
– Before you lie down, place a cushion or folded blanket for your head and neck to rest on
– Carefully, lie down on your back and place a thick rolled up blanket (or pillows / cushions under your knees). Allow your legs to relax and roll outwards.
– If you find that your heels do not touch the floor, take a rolled up bath towel (rolled onto a long ‘sausage’ shape) or cushions and place underneath your ankles for support
– Cover your eyes with an eye pillow or scarf
– Extend your arms out by your sides, palms facing up. Relax your hands – you will notice that your fingers will curl towards your palms.

From here, allow your body to be supported by the props and the ground beneath you. With each out breath visualise any remaining tension melting away. Just be here. See what happens. Notice if any resistance comes up to staying there.

If you find twenty minutes feels like it whizzes by then try thirty minutes, but if twenty minutes is way too challenging to begin with, then gradually work your way up. I’d suggest seeing if you can do this Savasana once a day for five to seven consecutive days OR you might like to try The 365 Savasana Project – click here for details. Judith Hanson Lasater, who I trained to teach Restorative Yoga with, jokes that restorative poses are magic, the magic being that they only work if you use them!

The main thing is to give it a try and to be kind to yourself along the way.

How To Ease Tired Legs, Boost Your Mood & More in Just 5 Minutes!

How To Ease Tired Legs, Boost Your Mood & More in Just 5 Minutes!

I share a simple 5-Minute Yoga boost with you in this short video filmed at Evolve Wellness Centre

5-Mintute Rescue: I share a simple 5-Minute Yoga boost with you in this short video filmed at Evolve Wellness Centre - click picture to watch


VIDEO: I call this pose my ‘5-Minute Rescue’ – click here to watch.

Legs Up The Wall (or Viparita Karani) is one of my favourite Restorative Yoga poses because it has multiple benefits including easing tired legs, reducing stress (helps boost your mood!), fatigue, insomnia and more!

In this short video, filmed recently at evolve, I show you how to do it, including a cheeky way to get into the pose if you have tight hamstrings (for you runners and cyclists out there – this pose is great for your weary legs!). I thank the wonderful Judith Hanson Lasater (who I studied Restorative Yoga with) for showing me this alternative way in to the pose.

Want to experience more Restorative poses like this? Join me for Relax & Restore Restorative Yoga classes on Fridays at Embody Wellness 6.45-7.45pm.

If you’ve never been to a Restorative Yoga class and would like to know what to expect, you can read a review of my Relax & Restore class from Carly on her brilliant Project HB blog by clicking here.

VIDEO: I call this my 5-Minute Rescue – CLICK HERE TO WATCH

There’s no such thing as a perfect yoga pose

There’s no such thing as a perfect yoga pose

Each month I write for OM Yoga Magazine - here is my column from November 2012

Since 2012 I’ve written a monthly column and the odd feature for OM Yoga Magazine. This column was originally published in the November 2012 issue:

A mild thoracic curve means my chaturanga can look slightly lopsided. However, I only noticed this after observation in a mirror and working one-to-one with a teacher. X-rays and scans confirmed mild scoliosis
as well as spondylolisthesis, so the wonky chaturanga then made sense. Not long ago I had the experience of being in a workshop where an advanced teacher tried to (literally) wrench my shoulder up and back in chaturanga to straighten me out, despite my explanation of my physical imbalances. Instead of listening, he stared at me blankly and said, “You’re not doing it right”.

These experiences greatly inform how I approach teaching. They also remind me what an honour and privilege and responsibility it is. If I were less confident, that experience with the advanced teacher would have upset me. (Let’s save the ‘what is advanced?’ discussion for another time!) I like to remember the words of Judith Lasater who I studied with earlier this year. During training, one of the many things she said that stuck with me in regard to yoga asana is that there is no right or wrong – there is only safe. It’s important that we do our best to be safe in our postures.

I enjoy one-to-one yoga sessions a lot. Each person I guide through practice teaches me something. Every body is different. There is no perfect yoga pose. One of the things I love about working one-to-one is being able to guide someone to finding the expression of a posture that works best for them. Together we can take more time to get back to basics, break down poses and tailor their practice. My hope is that within this the yogi comes to experience that the practice they are developing is about more than touching their toes. When a client told me she had practised a couple of poses on her own at home because she liked how they made her feel afterwards I was delighted. Delighted that she felt confident enough to do some asana practice on her own and that she was finding her own unique experience of yoga that went beyond where to place her feet in trikonasana. Even better that this was for her self-care and not to please the teacher.

Paula Hines is a London-based yoga teacher (www.ucanyoga.co.uk) – if you are in London and interested in 1-2-1 or Small Group Private Yoga, please click here for details.

If you’d like to read a selection of my past OM Yoga Magazine columns and a FREE 24 page preview of the latest issue at my U Can Yoga website, please click here.

A Year of Living Your Yoga by Judith Hanson Lasater

A Year of Living Your Yoga by Judith Hanson Lasater

A Year of Living Your Yoga by Judith Hanson Lasater - one of my previous Books of the Month

Over the past year on my U Can Yoga website I have been featuring yoga related books that I’ve really enjoyed and want to share with you guys reading out there. For anyone who has missed the titles featured so far, I am including some my previous ‘Books of the Month’ here. As we begin a new year, A Year of Living Your Yoga by Judith Hanson Lasater feels apt. I hope you enjoy:

One of the previous books of the month was Living Your Yoga, also written by Judith which is another favourite of mine. What I like about this easy to dip into book are the daily aphorisms where Judith combines yoga, mindfulness, meditation and day-to-day experiences in such a way as to provide reminders that the ordinary and everyday can be extraordinary and special. In way, this reminds me of a quote I read from Tara Stiles where she said “Every moment is spiritual, therefore there are no separate spiritual moments.” This book by one of my favourite teachers is rarely far from my reach.

Tis the season to be…stressed?

Tis the season to be…stressed?
Tis the season to be…stressed?

Originally published on the Urban Blog at Urban Lucy.

There’s something about the run up to Christmas that can send even the most easy going person’s stress levels soaring.

If I suggested that you put your lengthy to-do list to one side and lie down for twenty minutes right now, what would your response be? (I think I can hear you shouting that you’re too busy from here!) Maybe it would feel lazy or indulgent when you have so much to do? But I invite you to look at your life and ask what you hold most dear. Of course, we all have responsibilities and obligations we must meet. But busyness and meaning are not the same thing. It comes back to balance and being able to tune in to what your body needs.

I’m a qualified restorative yoga teacher and for me, one of the joys of a restorative practice is that it gives us the permission to do less for our own benefit. I love practising and teaching dynamic yoga too, and there are those days when there’s nothing like going for a run to clear your head. But sometimes, what our bodies need is to be still.

It is known that restorative yoga can activate the parasympathetic nervous system (the part of our autonomic nervous system responsible for our ‘rest and digest’ activities). Regular yoga asana practise can do that too, but in this instance, restorative yoga works on a deeper level. So, it can be especially beneficial when we are feeling fatigued, stressed or in a state of feeling ‘tired all the time’. Restorative yoga can also be helpful while working though ailments or injuries. (Many of the restorative poses we know have been developed by BKS Iyengar or inspired by his therapeutic work.)

What is Restorative Yoga?
Sometimes referred to as ‘active relaxation’, in this style of yoga, props including (but not limited to) bolsters, blankets, blocks, and eye pillows, are used to facilitate relaxation by supporting the body. While the body is supported there is no need to ‘hold’ a posture, so we are able to completely let go, giving the body the opportunity to rest.

In order to relax fully it is very important to feel comfortable in each pose, re-arranging your props as much as you need to before settling.

If you’re fortunate enough to be able to make it to a restorative yoga class in your area or have a teacher come to you, then that’s brilliant, but if not you can still reap the benefits at home. A good place to start is with this Supported Savasana. If I’ve been rushed off my feet and feel frazzled, I’ve found that doing this before bedtime makes a real difference to the quality of my sleep and calms my busy mind.

In lieu of the yoga props you would find at a studio you can improvise with what you have to hand – pillows, blankets, cushions, the throw from your sofa….

(NB – I’m suggesting a version here that I find works very well, but what’s most important is that you feel comfortable, so adjust your props as much as you need to before you settle.)

Have a timer to hand that you can easily set to twenty minutes once you are settled into position.

– Create a comfortable space to lie down – if you have a yoga mat, place a blanket on top covering the
surface of the mat for extra cushioning. If you don’t have a mat use extra blankets to create a thicker
base;

– Before you lie down, place a cushion or folded blanket for your head and neck to rest on;

– Carefully, lie down on your back and place a thick rolled up blanket (or pillows / cushions under your
knees). Allow your legs to relax and roll outwards;

– If you find that your heels do not touch the floor, take a rolled up bath towel (rolled onto a long
‘sausage’ shape) or cushions and place underneath your ankles for support;

– Cover your eyes with an eye pillow or scarf;

– Extend your arms out by your sides, palms facing up. Relax your hands – you will notice that your
fingers will curl towards your palms.

From here, allow your body to be supported by the props and the ground beneath you. With each out breath visualise any remaining tension melting away. Just be here. See what happens. Notice if any resistance comes up to staying there.

If you find twenty minutes feels like it whizzes by then try thirty minutes, but if twenty minutes is way too challenging to begin with, then gradually work your way up. I’d suggest seeing if you can do this Savasana once a day for five to seven consecutive days. Judith Hanson Lasater, who I trained with, jokes that restorative poses are magic, the magic being that they only work if you use them!

The main thing is to give it a try and to be kind to yourself along the way.

If you’re interested in learning more then Judith’s book Relax and Renew: Restful Yoga for Stressful Times – one of my previous Books of the Month – is a wonderful place to start.

NB – If you are in London over the Christmas and New Year period and would like to be guided through a full restorative practice then my regular Relax & Restore classes at Embody Wellness in Vauxhall will still be taking place 7-8.15pm on Fridays 20th and 27th December, and 3rd January. I will also be covering the Basic Yoga class at Embody directly before from 6-7pm on these dates.

Here’s to less stress in December!

Love: A Matter of the Heart

Love: A Matter of the Heart

LOVE (image via www.peaceloveandprettythings.com)“Time is precious. We’re given a certain number of heartbeats. You don’t know how many you’re gonna get – I don’t know how many I’m gonna get, so I think you’ve really gotta live every one of those to its fullest.” – Dr Kathy Magliato

It probably hasn’t escaped your notice that today is Valentine’s Day. Maybe it’s a day you look forward to or a day you loathe in proportion to the amount of Valentine’s you do or do not receive or your relationship status. But love, Real Love is so much bigger. It’s just that a day like today can make many feel as though it’s only romantic love that counts.

At the risk of sounding like a ‘rom-com’ cliché it’s true that love is all around us in many forms and sometimes in the most unexpected of places, if only we choose to be aware.

For a slightly different take on Valentine’s Day I wanted to share this 5 minute video with you where cardiothoracic surgeon Dr. Kathy Magliato explains how love affects us physically, how being a heart surgeon has impacted her own feelings about love and also why she believes the soul resides in the heart. This also ties in with the words of Dr. Mimi. Guarneri who is the author of my current Book of the Month, ‘The Heart Speaks’.

You can watch Dr. Kathy’s interview via Soul Pancake here: ‘How Love Affects Us Physically – A Heart Surgeon Weighs In’

Wherever you are this Valentine’s Day I wish you Love. And to quote one of my favourite teachers, Judith Hanson Lasater,

“Loneliness can only arise when we forget how much we are loved…. Love fuels gratitude and gratitude fuels compassion. Compassion changes the world.”

Relax & Restore for the New Year

Relax & Restore for the New Year

You can use props at home for your Restorative Supported Savasana

How was your Christmas? I hope it was good for you. Maybe you’re still enjoying some time off in the run-up to the new year, or maybe you’ve already headed straight back to work after having just Christmas Day off.

Either way, it’s easy to feel a bit of a slump at this time – the celebration of Christmas has passed and that phase between now and New Year’s can sometimes feel a bit ‘blah’.

The impending New Year can prompt reflection, and the altered pace of the things in the outside world can make us slow down whether we wish to or not. I suggest embracing that slower pace. Take some time to relax and restore your body and mind. One very accessible way to do this is with some restorative yoga at home. In my latest post for Urban Lucy, I’ve included a Simple Supported Savasana exercise that you can easily do at home – if you can give yourself twenty minutes a day then you can do this. And if you’d like to learn more about Restorative Yoga and its benefits then check out my Book of the Month by Judith Hanson Lasater.

And as we move into 2013, I’m really looking forward to teaching with Sally Parkes on the Relax and Restore New Year Retreat at Florence House in East Sussex Jan 11-13th. It will be a wonderful mix of Dynamic, Hatha, Restorative Yoga and Pilates.

If you’d like to join us and Bring a Friend for Half Price, then you can visit Sally’s website here for full details and to book. (Classes are suitable for all abilities including beginners.)

Florence House is situated between the stunning Sussex coastline and surrounding wild landscape and there will be plenty of time during the weekend to relax and enjoy the beautiful surroundings. There will also be the chance to pamper yourself with a range of treatments from expert therapist Jo Poxon.

It’s a great way to kickstart 2013 on a positive note and I hope Sally and I will see you there :)

In the meantime, however you plan you spend your New Year’s, I wish you peace, happiness, good health, prosperity and much love in 2013.

Paula
x

The Perfect Yoga Pose

The Perfect Yoga Pose

Originally published in OM Yoga & Lifestyle Magazine.

There is no such thing as a perfect yoga pose.

A mild thoracic curve means that my chaturanga can look slightly lopsided. However, I only noticed this after observation in a mirror and working one-to-one with a teacher. X-rays and scans confirmed mild scoliosis as well as spondylolisthesis, so the wonky chaturanga then made sense. Not long ago I had the experience of being in a workshop where an advanced teacher tried to (literally) wrench my shoulder up and back in chaturanga to straighten me out, despite my explanation of my physical imbalances. Instead of listening he stared at me blankly and said, “You’re not doing it right”.

These experiences greatly inform how I approach teaching. They also remind me what an honour and privilege and responsibility it is. If I were less confident, that experience with the advanced teacher would have upset me. (Let’s save the ‘what is advanced?’ discussion for another time, but really like Michael Taylor’s take on “advanced” yoga in his great Mind Body Green blog post here)

I like to remember the words of Judith Hanson Lasater who I studied with earlier this year. During training, one of the many things she said that stuck with me in regard to yoga asana is that there is no right or wrong – there is only safe. It’s important that we do our best to be safe in our postures.

I enjoy one-to-one yoga sessions a lot. Each person I guide through practice teaches me something. Every Body is different. There is no perfect yoga pose.

One of the things I love about working one-to-one is being able to guide someone to finding the expression of a posture that works best for them. Together we can take more time to get back to basics, break down poses and tailor their practice. My hope is that within this the yogi comes to experience that the practice they are developing is about more than touching their toes. When a client told me she had practiced a couple of poses on her own at home because she liked how they made her feel afterwards I was delighted. Delighted that she felt confident enough to do some asana practice on her own and that she was finding her own unique experience of yoga that went beyond where to place her feet in trikonasana. Even better that this was for her self-care and not to please the teacher.

Changing Seasons, Changing Pace

Changing Seasons, Changing Pace

Raw Chocolate Balls on a Berry Salad - one of delicious desserts we made (and ate!) on retreat :D

Raw Chocolate Balls on a Berry Salad - one of delicious desserts we made (and ate!) on retreat :D

Between teacher training, the exciting news of officially becoming certified by Judith Hanson Lasater as a Relax and Renew Trainer, teaching, writing and the usual day-to-day I barely noticed the days getting shorter this month. But I certainly noticed it getting colder! With the clocks going back in the UK this weekend we’re officially in that yin time of year.

With the autumnal weather last weekend I was in the perfect location – a cosy farm house in East Sussex with a wonderful group of people :D. I was teaching yoga on a Yoga, Pilates and Vegetarian Cookery retreat at Marsh Farm House. I went on this retreat earlier this year as a guest and loved the experience so much that I returned to teach on the weekend!

Over the three days of yoga and learning to cook (and eat!) some delicious, healthy vegetarian and vegan food I was reminded yet again of the importance of taking time out for ourselves. It felt like such a privilege to be there in the capacity of yoga teacher and helping to facilitate the weekend.

I’m already looking forward to teaching on the Relax and Restore New Year Retreat with Sally Parkes in January! If you’d like to welcome in 2013 by restoring balance to your body and mind, then come and join us! It’s going to be a wonderful mix of Dynamic, Hatha, Restorative Yoga and Pilates at Florence House. Plus there’ll be holistic treatments on offer from expert therapist Jo Poxon. Take some well-deserved time out for you :D

Moving with the Flow, Moving with Awareness

Moving with the Flow, Moving with Awareness
thingsweforget.blogspot.cpm

Find joy in the present - image via thingsweforget.blogspot.com

“ Live with awareness for the sake of ourselves and others.” – Sarah Powers

So far it’s been a yin yang summer.

This summer marks a year of leaving the ‘security’ of my old job and beginning the journey of yoga teaching. I’d known long before that I wanted to take this leap and share my love of yoga, but I held myself back for a number of reasons (i.e. excuses) – my postures not being Cirque du Soleil enough, not looking the way a yoga teacher is ‘supposed’ to, worrying other people might think I’d gone ‘la-la-woo-woo’, and a teeny matter of being terrified of speaking in front of groups… Then along came my mate Redundancy to give me the firm kick in the posterior I needed.

Judith Hanson Lasater, when I trained with her earlier this year, joked that yoga teachers are the most “go-go-go” people she knows, often scheduled to the hilt.

I relate to this. I have always had workaholic tendencies, though I’ve increasingly spent the past months being all go-go-go. Working seven days a week most weeks (not only teaching, admittedly), out of necessity to make ends meet. I believed. But when your mind believes one thing it’s funny how the wisdom of the body tells you very clearly not to believe your thoughts!

A number of physical signs stopped me in my tracks, telling me I had to start doing things differently. (Like actually taking a day off occasionally.) So, I followed my gut instinct and did something that seemed illogical. I gave up a part-time job.

But I have faith that when you let go of one thing you clear the way for something new. And funnily enough… I’ve been having a number of serendipitous experiences.

In June I did a wonderful intensive training with Shiva Rea. The timing, though I did not realise it then, could not have been more perfect. One thing that particularly struck me, within learning about the essentials of teaching vinyasa flow, were the reminders about moving with the flow of life off the mat too.

Then this month I was lucky enough to attend a workshop with Sarah Powers – yin yang yoga and mindfulness meditation. This was certainly not my first experience of a yin practice, though it was my first (and hopefully not last) experience of practicing with Sarah Powers, and the timing seemed pertinent. On the mat we were invited to meet our limitations during our yin practice. To see where we resist and, to recognise the resistance rather than resisting resistance. Sarah talked about ‘implicit resistance’ and how we may manipulate a situation to tell ourselves, “I’m fine”. And she also talked about compassion (karuna) towards our habits of aversion towards the uncomfortable situations in our lives. In turn, this allowed me to think about where I resist off the mat too and how, indeed, I had ignored my own internal signals over the past months. I recognised how little compassion I had been showing myself in that time.

For our mindfulness meditation practice, using the breath (observing it rather than controlling it) as a tool to anchor to the present moment, Sarah talked about developing the observing mind, seeing what happens when we observe resistance, pleasure and so on.

“If you can’t listen to the breath, then you can’t listen to the subtle internal messages.”

It was in paying attention to my internal messages rather than listening to my ‘logical’ thoughts that I realised I had to change what I was doing and how I was doing it.

All of these things were reminders of what I already knew deep down, internally. But how often do we push these kinds of feelings aside in favour of what seems logical?

In talking about her own practice Sarah mentioned how it is amazing to notice when you don’t practice for a few days that everything turns into ‘thoughts’ and assuming that our thoughts are reality. Again I was reminded of Judith’s words during training – “Watch your thoughts but don’t believe them.”

So, in paying more attention to those internal messages and becoming more aware I’ve been finding some more clarity. That is not to say it is always comfortable, but I am practicing showing myself compassion along the way. It is a continual practice – usually compassion for myself has seemed to come last on the list. For how many of us has showing compassion towards ourselves seemed challenging or selfish? But it’s a little bit like the oxygen mask analogy. You know, when airplane cabin crew take you through the safety procedure and the little film tells you to put your oxygen mask on before assisting others with their masks? Self-compassion is not selfish. This applies whether it’s during our asana practice or our day-to-day life. Yes, all this may seem obvious, yet I feel grateful for the good and the ‘bad’ over the past months, which has led me to this point.

Related to this, where I have decided to move with the flow – to let go of worrying about what may or may not happen in the future and focussed on the present, unexpected opportunities have somehow appeared just when I’ve least expected it. And again, at every turn, I am incredibly grateful!

One such opportunity is officially joining the retreat teaching team at Sally Parkes Yoga. I am excited to be hosting a retreat in October at the wonderful Marsh Farm House in Sussex. Why not take a break from your frenetic pace and join me in feeling the joy of moving with the flow. But in the meantime, don’t forget to enjoy the present moment!

For retreat details please visit www.sallyparkesyoga.co.uk.