WHY????? 🤷‍♂️

A simple question and one that at certain times can be bloody annoying. We all know what it’s like to have the adorable 4 year old niece/nephew come to stay and ask “why...why...but why????” As adults we get proper annoyed by it and make up some shit to brush them off after a while when we can no longer answer the questions. This kind of questioning is how Socrates made his name in Ancient Greece....by annoying the shit out of anyone close to him 🤪. The interesting thing is that if we aim that question at ourselves, often enough we can really begin to dig down through the weeds of our insecurities and start getting to the roots of some of the issues we may be facing. 

Many philosophers have discussed that idea that our base emotions are that of fear and love/pleasure. The myriad of possible thoughts/feeling are born out of one of these two things. A place of love or a place of fear. I wanna look at this place of fear a bit more. 

I was discussing with some students the other day about practicing yoga at home. Their response was, “well I can’t do it at home, there are to many distractions”. To which I replied, “me too, my dogs constantly come and join in and push me over and climb on me and bark, but I still do it, I just ignore it”. The question i put to them was WHY do you think you can’t do it? Do you even think that you can’t do it or are the noises/kids just an excuse to not? (We all know we can be lazy at times) Do you say that you want to do “in person” classes as an excuse to get away from the family/kids? To have some personal space, as it’s the only way you can get some quiet? Again my question is why? The world is a big, noisy place with so so so many distractions. Phones/tv/traffic/work/family’s etc, one of the main purposes of a yoga practice (to me) is to give us the tools to deal with this stuff, with the distractions, not just as an escape for 60 minutes. When you are flat out at work (as I used to be as an A&E nurse) you can’t just go find a quiet corner to relax in, to get away from the annoying people shouting at you...this is your practice, at this point you can again maybe ask that question of WHY??? WHY DID I NOT GET BETTER AT DOING THIS SHIT UNDER SOME KINDA PRESSURE!!!!! Ask your self why you didn’t use your yoga to adapt to your current stresses rather than run away!!!

It could Be that you feel that at the heart of it, maybe you’re not “good enough” yet (what ever the hell that even means) and that you actually like the in person direction?!? Is it a deep knowing that actually you’re just lazy and that you can use the distractions as a excuse to not do it? If so WHY? Is it the fact that actually the idea of just being in stillness on your own with out a group around you makes you feel uncomfortable?? Again if so WHY?? What is the fear that is arising?? So so often with this stuff we end up digging deeper and deeper and we have to be brutally honest with ourselves to truly answer these questions (again we would prefer to tell ourselves to fuck off like we do to our niece/nephew when they come to stay and start with the awkward questions...we all tell our 4 year old relatives to fuck off yeah 🤣🤣🤣) 

So what is it you are avoiding? Who are you not confronting and standing up to? What boundaries are you not putting up and sticking to?? Ask your self WHY? Is it because the idea of confrontation scares you? This is so often the case (and definitely with me) but again WHY, why are we scared to actually say what we honestly believe? Especially if we can say it from a place of love, that place of wanting to be happy in ourselves and for the other person to be happy too and trying not to react to a situation and speak from a place of fear and that then turns to frustration/anger. 

A personal experience of this was jen came down stairs the other day and said to me in a pretty gentle way, can I not put her clothes away anymore because she can’t ever find them...seems a pretty simple and easy request that shouldn’t get my hackles up. But because I was trying to be helpful and kinda saw it as her being ungrateful I got defensive and started blaming her weird way of putting her clothes away. She then obviously started saying that she wasn’t trying to be a dick but just wants to know where her skirt is when she wants to wear it. I then basically went, OK I WONT PUT THEM AWAY...and left with a tension in the air (fucking shit that you get wound up about sometimes ay haha) I then thought about my reaction and how that stemmed from a place of fear. Fear that I wasn’t able to help jen out more, fear that I wasn’t making her life easier but actually harder. With that I went back and apologised and cleared the air. Stupid minor things that you bicker about when your married etc but without an eye on WHY I was reacting like that, it would have hung about in the air for much longer. 

WHY? 3 simple letters and perhaps the most important and probing question you can ever ask yourself. Next time you are allowing your thoughts/emotions/reactions to a situation take the lead begin to ask yourself WHY, it might just be the start of a beautiful journey in towards your truest self

What’s keeping you awake?

What’s keeping you awake at night?

My anxiety has been rife lately, as I explore my feelings and heal I keep playing things over in my head. I have been on a journey with an amazing friend of my called Robyn I have been working with her to explore the root causes of all these feelings and managing ways in which to deal with them. Essentially rewiring my brain to go to the good stuff not the bad stuff first, this is a work in progress. One of the skills I had to do was write an “I am” list, actually quite hard to do when you put yourself down all the time, I needed to list all the positive I am’s about myself. I digress ….. so the night time thing … ugh go away! I realised as I go through all this anxiety my body cannot distinguish whether or not it is actually happening so as I go through all these scenarios in my head, all bad obvs but my body acts like it is actually happening. So when I have a flippant thought of “does that person like me” (these thoughts are less frequent its more of an example) my body is acting like this person doesn’t like me and I am filled with self-doubt and hate all from one bloody thought. So try for a minute to think of someone who does have anxiety, this happens to us all day, every day and sometimes night. So we are exhausted, I mean utterly truly exhausted. The other night I couldn’t sleep for fear of something happening to the dogs so I played out a scenario in my head, worst possible of course and my body feels like I have been hit by a bus as I go through every imaginable emotion that I would feel if this made up scenario in my head actually happened. So the body acts on the mind, back to the I am list, the constant thinking of positive I am’s makes my body feel super confident and loved … cue head held high walking on air … Keep practising the good thoughts, stay away from the negative ones, be kind to your body as well as your mind …..LOVE LOVE xx

I am She Hulk

I have a hypothesis …. I am SHE HULK. She’s a superhero, we basically have the same name, the same birthday, and the same job, and I am betting no one has ever seen us in the same room! Prove it …..

Ok so her actual name is Jennifer Susan Walters, mine is Jennifer Grace Walter. Her birthday February 1980, mine is May 1981. She is a lawyer and I am a nurse. You see how some of the statements are similar but not actually correct, it’s a bit like that in the nutrition industry there are a lot of people out there that claim that there is one diet that is the best and has the best results but do you know who has the best results?? Science does, and there ain’t no messing around with that fucker, truth bombs galore! But to give him his dues (yeah I think science is a bloke what of it) when he fucks up he owns it!

My point is although this is my thought process (I am She Hulk) it is not supported by scientific data. There is no evidence that I am actually She Hulk so therefore the theory is null, it’s my opinion, by all means I am happy for you to go out there and prove my theory wrong, green actually is my colour.

Some hypotheses are out there are to be tested … like will eating carbs make you fat (no eating too many calories will do that), eating little an often boosts your metabolism (your metabolism does fluctuate but only marginally), gluten free is healthier (not unless you have coeliacs disease and there is no choice to cut out gluten for fear of shitting yourself).

So there is this theory that insulin causes fat gain and as most insulin spikes come from carbs they have been deemed the devil food. Insulin stimulation is not the reason for weight gain and obesity or the fact that you can’t lose weight, calorie control is how we can maintain or lose weight not insulin control.

Let’s talk carbs … yes beautiful, intelligent, lovely carbohydrates. STOP BEING MEAN to them and yourself, there are no “good” and “bad” foods! Carbohydrates are one of the building blocks that are needed in our diet for our body to function. Before you hit me with your opinions (that may or may not be scientifically proven, yeah SCIENCE not opinion) here are some key things to look at as to why it may not be a good idea to cut carbs out completely and thus disproving the theory that insulin causes weight gain.

The body needs insulin to regulate blood glucose levels at all times so that cells receive enough energy to meet their needs exactly for things like fuelling and repairing. Simply we eat carbs, blood sugar goes up, pancreas releases insulin, sugar (glucose) gets moved from blood into cells and increase fat storage, then it prevents breakdown of stored fats and proteins for energy – burning sugar for fuel. So the theory is by cutting out carbs our insulin levels won’t go up and you’ll burn more fat.

But I’ve lost weight (I hear you cry), to be fair you probably have but you have massively reduced a major group of foods (a might delicious one), so of course there will be some weight loss. It is a bit like the non coeliacs cutting out gluten, of course you will lose weight as all the good stuff has gluten in it, believe me I know!!  I cannot tell you how much I miss pastry! You have most likely changed your diet to a protein heavy one which in turn will make you feel fuller and potentially less likely to snack, you will have also lost water … BOOM weight loss!

There is so much more to health than weight loss and if you are struggling with weight loss maybe do a little research before you cut out a major food group because what works for one person may not work for you, the Chinese consume the most carbs outside of the US and they’re not obese.
So before you start believing that I am actually She Hulk and start telling everyone about my theory think about where the source of this information has come from.

Is there an optimal diet for human health?

Is there an optimal diet for human health?

The quick answer … No! Want to know why? Read on …… Don’t give a fuck? Scroll on

Do you sometimes wish you were like buzz lightyear in Toy story 3 where he had his settings reset and all of a sudden he’s speaking Spanish? A bit like when we think of our diet, do you wish that you could press your reset button and ta dah, you eat healthy and it comes naturally to you like you have always lived that way? FYI we don’t have it that easy, we don’t have reset button that can be switched and miraculously we are the weight we want, or we choose the healthy option first over the calorific one, we are never hungry. This way of thinking needs a bit of work and a little bit of brain re wiring, if you’re going to read a book following this post pick ‘The hungry Brain’ by Stephan Guyenet.

Firstly what is your goal, what is it that you are trying to achieve with your diet/fitness/health/life. I do this is in work, I get asked all the time what to do with a complex wounds, one of the first things I ask is what are you trying to achieve to which I get that look, the look of “well of course I am trying to heal it” that might not be the case, you could be trying to achieve wound closure, or getting the wound ready for a skin graft or there is no way this wound is going to heal you are you just trying to maintain quality of life for the patient. 

The World Health Organisation (WHO) defines health as “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity” did you read that? Let me repeat PHYSICAL, MENTAL, SOCIAL!! Not you must run five hours a day that makes you healthy ….. simple terms, be happy, eat what you can burn off, energy in, energy out!

What is YOUR GOAL? Not what the girls in spin want, not what your bestie wants, what is it that you are trying to achieve. It could be weight loss, weight maintenance, a bigger bum, to meet like-minded people, I feel this quote sums it up quite nicely …. Thanks Martin J “there are many ways up the mountain but each of us must choose a practice that feels true to his own heart. It is not necessary for you to evaluate the practices chosen by others” (source unknown).

Next question is it achievable? We are all built differently and sometimes genetics get involved, also we’ve been hard wired in a way that may need some retraining. Basically our ancestors were hunter gatherers they worked for their meals that they ate and lived a more rigorous lifestyle, WE ARE NOT. We live in a world of convenience and luxurious choices. We don’t need to think or work for our food if we don’t want to, everything is available to us at the click of a button and delivered to our door. Apparently we have been over eating calories for years, do you want to do that for another ten years? I’m guessing no! Can you live comfortably with this chosen diet for the rest of your life? and when we do make that choice is it sustainable?  You may need some will power, but we can’t live on will power alone and we don’t want to say no to ourselves.

So a few things to look at amongst the many that are out there;

1.       What is your realistic goal … shedding a stone in a week is unrealistic and by no means necessary. Don’t set yourself up to fail, start small and progress from there. Go veggie one night, have a few nights of alcohol free whatever the goal make it yours, make peace with it and be patient. Consume the calories that you know you can realistically burn off. Talk to someone who knows their stuff, like actual research, science and shit! Don’t listen to that celeb who had an injection and made herself thin, that shit ain’t real! Be happy with what you have chosen.

2.       Fewer processed foods – because we live in a world of convenience, always on the go sometimes we don’t always make the most appropriate choices. Make the choices you know you will be able to maintain an energy balance. Again, with the realistic goals if you live a life where this is your only option, just swap a night out start there and see how it goes.

3.       Stress and sleep – disturbances of sleep and circadian rhythms have adverse impact on our food choices, hunger and appetite. This is evident if you are a shift work, your sleep pattern is all out of whack, and you eat at weird times. Sometimes you are so tired you don’t even know what to do, sleep eat or even cry, I’m pretty sure I have done all of those at the same time and probably whilst on shift!! Also I know what it is like you shovel anything in your mouth to keep awake and you even have wine for breakfast, don’t judge yes that did happen after a night shift so technically it was my evening.

4.       Breakfast – get this if you’re not a breakfast person that is ok!! We are all wired differently it’s about figuring out what works best for you, it really is about energy balance and if you are forcing in a meal because you have been told it is the most important one of the day.

5.       Control your food environment – take temptation out of the way. It’s not about denying yourself of the stuff you love or ever having a dessert again, it’s about making yourself work for it and then you may have a moment where you think do I really need/want this. Jog to the shop to go and get the chocolate bar (I repeat ENERGY IN ENERGY OUT it’s that simple). By not having the cupboards full of the tempting foods removing the convenience may lessen the amount you eat it. Fill your cupboards with satisfying and filling produce. This isn’t a process that will happen overnight but will soon become so naturally to you.

This list could go on but to follow my own advice, start small, be realistic and be patient. Look at one of these choices, choose your words, maybe don’t use the word diet, say lifestyle pattern, pick your own word, make one up. I always find the word ‘diet’ has a massive association with dieting and weight loss so I don’t use it that often. So back to the elephant in the room, the answer is …. No, there is no one size that fits all, there is no one diet that can fix everyone! Much like the notes of a song, you can mix them all up and to someone that may sound like a beautiful song but to someone else it’s the sound of a cat being strangled. You may have to go on a little journey to find what best suits you. Be kind to yourselves and have fun along the way .

Online yoga over at patreon

SOOOOOOOOO then guys and gals. What can we say, it’s a rum old time isn’t it? Well as we all know by now we are all locked in our houses (well kind of) and so all yoga has gone online.

Now there is a million different yoga teachers all moving online to try and bring their classes to their current students and hopefully beyond. Now I am no different, I have been doing daily live feed yoga classes every day this week and also have been recording further videos to up load to YouTube for you all as well…..BUT I have made the majority of them only available via a website called patreon. The weblink for this site is www.patreon.com/mandukyayoga.

Now, this site is basically somewhere I can charge you all for my lovely company hahah. unlike the majority of teachers, I am not charging per class but rather per month. The reason for this is two fold;

1) We are all hard up right now and especially us self employed people so making the most of it for you guys who want to get plenty of yoga in but don’t have much you can easily get your normal weekly fix for as little as £3 a month..YES £3 A MONTH. this goes all the way up through £10/£25 to £55 a month if you would like 3 classes a week, a tote bag with my logo printed on it and a 1-1 with me via the online medium. Now I have been told this week that when you go to join you get charged VAT, which was not made clear to me when I signed up originally, so for that I apologise, I don’t see that from what I can work out. So if you would like to join for the £55 then maybe that would be worth contacting me directly. Included in these classes will be a variety of styles, from Hatha to vinyasa to yin and then sessions on breath work and the feet and everything I know about live in this human shell of ours.

2) I am hoping that this will become a resource that you all view as interesting and hopefully important, as it grows. There will be yoga classes, yes, but I also hope to bring you all education about a myriad of subjects that will prove to help you improve your health through better physical movement and better awareness of the importance of the breath. I am hoping that as you find a benefit to this “product” you might want to keep it going after all this fiasco is over and continue to support me in bringing these things to you without needing to kill my self by teaching/working 30+ hours and driving another 15+ a week. Anyway I wanted to be upfront about it all here and now and ask if you could all come join me over at patreon.com/mandukyayoga for continued fun.

oh and one side note, if you find that joining up isn’t possible right now, please head over to my YouTube page at www.youtube.com/wibbsyoga and subscribe to my channel to get free videos and to help me out, the more subscribers I have the more I actually look like im legit hahaha.

any way come join me over at patreon and il see you on your mat

BAM!!!!!!!! (no, not batman Bam, but BAMBOO clothing Bam)

skandasana in Bamboo yoga hoody and Bamboo Balance pants - https://bambooclothing.co.uk/shop/bamboo-yoga-hoody/

https://bambooclothing.co.uk/shop/bamboo-balance-pants/

Well what can i say, except that i am super excited to say that, having been harassing you all with my early morning videos of yoga in just my BAM boxer shorts, i am now an ambassador (or you might like to say a BAMbassador.)

I have been extolling the wonders of the super soft and comfortable underwear produced by BAM for about a year now but of late i have also been getting to wear the super cozy yoga hoody too. Not only do you get to keep your head warm (and if you have a beard look a bit like the knight at the end of Indiana Jones and the las crusade…if you are old enough to know, you will know) but it also has thumb holes and hand covers to keep the hands covered and sorted in the cold english mornings too.

Whats been lovely to is to find that while they make amazingly soft and easy to move in clothes for yoga/climbing/generally active lives, they also make some great day to day clothes too. The fleece covered over shirt has been lived in since i first got it. so warm, soft and damn cozy….seems that those three words just keep coming up again and again but they really do just hit the nail on the head with these cloths.

Fleece Lined bamboo overshirt - https://bambooclothing.co.uk/shop/fleeced-lined-bamboo-overshirt-2/

I am super excited to say that i will be working with BAM to bring some yoga content and some education on the importance of movement in general, especially in regards to how the feet can play huge rolls, in moving and feeling better in and about our selves. So keep an eye out on their pages and mine for more details.

Being a yogi, brings with it the ever nagging feeling of Ahimsa, or the idea of non-harm. I have to say i have been a bit concerned about the whole “fast fashion” problems blighting the world and how it affects the environment…from over irrigation/watering of plants, drawing water away from the life bloods of rivers and lakes to how plant material is turned into the fibres which make up the clothes we wear. I was pretty happy to find out from talking to the guys at BAM, that the factories which makes the bamboo viscose where spending millions on becoming world leaders in waste treatment and sustainable production techniques in regards to the chemicals that are used.

I honestly believe that if we are going to buy new clothing, we should be buying as sustainably and conscientiously as possible and with an eye to giving that item of clothing as long a life as possible, hence if you look in my cupboard basically everything from t-shirts to trousers to shirts and jumpers are nearly all AT LEAST 5-6 years old and still going strong. i have found that the Bam clothing i have been wearing for the last 2 years just keep on going and is still as soft and comfortable despite many washes (and sometimes some of those were not in line with the makers washing suggestions ;-) haha im so bad at laundry, just ask Jen.)

So whether you are looking for sports wear (that’s right, we all love to live in our yoga leggings as much as possible) or everyday clothing (including those ever needed undies and socks….we all know that people always need them at christmas and that is just now around the corner) why not go use my code WIBBS10 to get yourself a bit of a discount on them and give yourself or a family member a BAMtastic christmas (hahaha, i know how many times can i make a word work with BAM in front of it hahaha)

Trigeminal neuralgia is a pain in the arse…or should I say face??

Try if you can to imagine a fear of swallowing? try and imagine a fear of chewing? Trying and imagine that you are super tired and feel the urge to yawn but have an overwhelming fear that if you do yo will be smashed round the side of the face with Thor’s electric hammer!! Then try and go to sleep feeling that tired but having that same pain wake you 3-4 times a night.

Well currently, that’s what life if feeling like for me. About this time last year, out of the blue I started getting a shock of pain in the right side of my face. As with most things I just ignored it thinking it would go away on its own. I continued to teach about 25hrs a week throughout, often just having to stop mid sentence to allow this sudden, short sharp burst of pain dissipate.

Eventually jen said enough was enough and on a particularly bad day went up to see a Dr who confirmed that it did seem to be trigeminal neuralgia, he Gave me gabapentin and off I went. Well ask jen about being on that and she’ll tell you I was in as much pain as before only I was a gibbering, stoned mess. An MRI was had, which showed nothing of any concern which as always is that double edged sword…you never want it to show something of concern as that means you probably have a tumour or something equally nasty but then you kinda wish it showed something so it could be just sorted out.

anyway come the beginning of December, as quickly as it came, it disappeared. I kinda forgot all about it for the most part. There was the occasional little flair but nothing more than a little reminder it had been there. Fast forward to last week and it’s back, the exhaustion, the fear, the pain, the CONSTANT anxiety and feeling that any second I’m guna be kinda rendered in pain again. To me this is the worst part, that constant fear/anxiety/worry/feeling that it’s there, that maybe the next cough, the next swallow, next chew, next kiss will set it off. When you read certain parts of the internet (don’t bother, as I nurse I would say don’t do it and as a patient I would say the same hahah) one of the names it seems to get given is “suicide disease”. Now I am not of the disposition where that kinda thing would ever be an option but I can understand how for others that might be. It’s not the pain so much as the constant exhaustion, constant fear and anxiety that it will go off, that it will stop you doing the things you love doing.

I do feel as if I have a small light at the end of the tunnel, which is the movement work I do. Through working with a chap called Gary ward, I have begun to understand how the structures of the body work through the gait cycle and how in the “flow motion model” (his genius contribution to the understanding of the human body) the shapes we hold in our body effect our ability to let our bodies ever experience effortless living. For me, I am stuck in a place which leaves the right side of my neck and shoulders stuck in a long position. I am unable to actually move my spine in a left flexion (side bend it). All of which means that those tissues don’t get to glide effortlessly. Without the ability of tissues to glide, things begin to rub, they cause some frictions (see some of the chats between a guy called John Sharkey and Jo Avison for talk on the importance of gliding tissues) they cause some inflammations in tissues, a lack of movement of bones brings a lack of movement of blood/lymph which means less clearing of waste and less fresh bloody to areas, all these things (inflammation/lymph etc) press onto and compress nerves which then results in them saying…OI SORT THIS SHIT THE FUCK OUT WILL YOU.

so here I am on this little personal movement journey to try and figure out which injuries/insults I have inflicted on my body has led to this shit and how I can give my body some time and space to let it move it’s self better. In the mean time if you come to class with me, please excuse any random stops mid sentance, any tired grumpiness (that goes from jen too, as I’m sure I will be exhausting to be around) but here’s to figuring this shit out and learning from it so maybe it can be of benefit to others.

A day in a tree with stour valley creative

While I sit here enjoying the sun with my two spotty dogs I contemplate going out and walking them and climbing some tree’s. It’s my main form of non yoga movement. The dogs go crazy and I find a cool looking tree to mooch around, climb and ​swing in.

Vaulting over a 4” high cut off limb

A couple of weeks back I went and met up with Rebecca Robinson from the stour valley creative, who was interested in asking me some questions about how I went from being an uniformed nurse working in a&e to a barefoot yoga teacher with a keen interest in natural movement and climbing trees. I shall let you read the piece she has written in the link attached but it was an absolute pleasure and she got some awesome photos of me climbing/balancing/squatting and generally being a bit of dick (see pictures for evidence.) 

For me, Becca totally captured silliness of me and this form of “exercise”. I do not, and doubt I ever will, understand why people go to a gym...go and walk on a machine and simulated stairs...that to me is insanity and all while being under sterile air conditioned conditions. Give me a bit of dirt and bark and roughness on the arms and legs any day. 

If you are looking for a photographer for a family portrait, business or event photography or you want to get some nice little action shots of you doing something outdoorsy, head over to 

https://www.stourvalleycreative.com/wibbs-coulson

to read the piece she has written about me and also to check out some of the other work they do. They are an up and coming local business and I am all about supporting that type of thing...as you should be too!

And you should go climb a tree...don’t climb for height just scramble around. 

The oxygen advantage Pt 2

So I figured it’s time to start writing part two of my little experiment into taping my mouth shut when I go to bed. You are going to see a lot of pictures of me with my mouth taped up haha

As a quick reminder the idea behind what all this about. It is taken from the bukeyko method and perfected to be called the ocygen advantage. It’s the brain child of Patrick Mckeown a guy who suffered with all kinda sleep and concentration issues as well as breathing issues as a kid all of which is pretty much down to mouth breathing. 

Now I am not really a mouth breather, my time doing yoga has taught me to breath through my nose quite well.....but at night I don’t know, I wake up in the morning drowsy and with a dry mouth quite often, both things being a sign that you have been mouth breathing. So here it is, my little take on mouth taping at night. 

After 9 days of sleeping with my mouth taped up I am honestly noticing a massive difference in my breath rate, how quickly I am having to breath in and out and not just while my mouth is taped but in general Day to Day living. I notice that while I am in bed and reading and getting ready to sleep that I really must normally sigh quite a lot as the tape is stopping me from doing so, so I have to swallow that starvation sensation down and actually deal with that feeling that an increasing Co2 causes.  I feel that I am waking up at 6am and I AWAKE, I am ready to get onto doing my yoga practice straight away. This hasn’t been the case for a while, where I always just crawl back to bed after feeding the pups. 

so I’m not going to go on much more because I’ve bored you all enough already but this is something that I honestly believe some of you should try, especially if you wake up with that dry mouth, those feelings of exhaustion and lethargy, just feeling as if you are walking around with your head in the clouds all day. 

Breifly what is happening is kinda called the Bohr effect. So when you breath hold/challenge your self with HIIT or high altitude you end up increasing the levels of CO2 in your blood and if you can learn to not blow that off straight away but yawning and sighing etc then the increased levels help to contract the spleen (our bodies own blood bank) and release more red blood cells (hello better oxygenation). The increased Co2 level will decrease the blood Ph and causes the oxygen to be offloaded from the haemoglobin into your tissue cells. 

So that she kinda where we are going with this. I have signed up for the teacher training in the oxygen advantage technique and will be looking forward to helping people with breathing issues, athletes who want to get fitter, general people who want to experience and clearer headed way of living.   

So go on maybe try taping your mouth up for a week of sleeps and see how you get on, make sure you tag me in any pictures you take. Make them silly (I have tried to with a chunk of mine.) Also go buy the book the oxygen advantage it’s well worth your time. 

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The Oxygen advantage

So recently I have been reading a book by an author and teacher Patrick McKeown, called “the oxygen advantage”. In the book he posits that by using some simple techniques we can improve our metal clarity, our lethargy that we maybe feel when we wake up, our aerobic exercise tolerance Along with quite a few other benefits. How? Just breath through your nose. Simple right?!

1st night mouth taped

well I have been practicing this simple idea for a little while now while I practice my yoga and my exercise (I know, I have started actual exercise now). I found that not stressing the shit out of my self and feeling like I am suffercating while exercising and still breathing through my nose was much harder than I thought it would have been. Walking up hills with mouth firmly closed?!? Definitely makes the body feel as if there is something wrong. 

So what is it?!? Why is it so hard?!? Basically it comes down to carbon dioxide in our body. Our bodies dont tell us when there isn’t enough oxygen in our bodies, it tells us when the levels of Co2 are rising. In our modern lives we pretty much ALL chronically hyperventilate and blow off all our Co2 (which is key to help with the usage of the O2 that is in our bloody stream) due to the fact that we are unable to relax, unable to switch from sympathetic to parasympathetic nervous system. This create a viscous cycle as the carbon dioxide play a part in switching our nervous systems. 

So last night I decided to try out what Patrick Mckeown suggests to ensure you nose breath throughout the night and don’t snore and mouth breath (causing a dry mouth and feelings of lethargy/feeling of sleeping badly) which was to tape your mouth shut. 

1st thing - having a tache meant that I had some real issues getting the tape to stick and the. When I woke up it was PROPER stuck and I was scared I wouldn’t have a moustache left after wards haha. 

2nd thing - there are a couple of effects that come from learning to nose breath and relax, one of these is that you will feel warmer...now it’s about 25 degrees here or something and there wasn’t much air moving last night so I felt as if my body was on fire hahaha. Should have tried this pre heat wave me thinks haha. 

So this is post 1 nights sleep with tape, I am going to re-blog in a few days after I have done it a bit longer. I had no worries at all with doing it for the 1st night and my only real downside was the sticky moustache so I am pretty excited to re-teach myself to sleep just through my nose and see if it can help with my something foggy/forgetful head.   

Mums and Dads, play time with kids is playtime for you too.

So here we are again, what appears to be a kinda tricky annual blog because i am terrible at thinking of things to write about and then writing them. 

I have been playing with this idea for a while but finally i am getting round to putting the whole thing into effect. Some of you who have followed me for a while will know that i enjoy climbing trees and playing on the kids playground, Well this is the way that i get my movement time in outside of my yoga practice. Many people i teach and talk to always complain about finding time to exercise ESPECIALLY parents. So why not "stack your life". This is an idea that Katy Bowman talks about in her book Move your DNA.

When you are at the park with your children do you - A) Sit down and look at your phone while they play. B) Sit there with your friend while your kid plays with their kid and you both drink coffee? or C) Get in the park with your kid and climb an crawl and swing and climb like a good'n????

This is the first video i recorded this week and added to my youtube channel explaining ways in which you can bring some more strength, mobility and movement into your life ALLLLLL while you are just giving your kids their play time. Killing two birds with one stone. Your children will probably also love the fact that you are actually getting involved and partaking in their playtime too. You can watch how they skilfully and easily swing the whole length of the monkey bars while you just get the hang of hanging and letting your shoulders and elbows, wrists and palms get used to the weight of your body...it will take longer than you think as they have COMPLETELY forgotten how to. It will come back but just give it some time

As well as swinging and climbing, hanging and swinging, why not practice balancing and crawling. Your feet are itching to be used more and find life by having to balance over things. It will also make your core muscles fire up and support you without you needing to do all those sit ups you are struggling to find time to do and which are giving to tension headaches from clenching and tensing through your jaw and neck so much. The crawling with also really get your core working as well are teaching you a greater level of proprioception (understanding where your body is in space) when you go forwards and backwards.

Anyway thats about it, There is a couple of minutes of chat at the end of each video with some information about the benefits to what these movements will bring into your life. please share this with your other parent friends and let me know what you think. If you do go play in the park i would love to see your efforts, please share them on my instagram channel www.instagram.com/wib_yoga or on my facebook page. 

On being a male yoga teacher (and doing yoga while being a man)

Kapotasana in my home studio

So i was pushed to write this blog post after chatting with one of my fellow yoga teachers who i am also pretty lucky to have as a student too. As a male yoga teacher i have found that over the last couple of years of teaching i have been pretty torn at times as to what sort of teacher i should be. This sounds pretty silly right? just teach yoga, thats all i have to do. 

As a yoga teacher for one, everyone just expects you to have all your shit together and be the most relaxed and organised person ever (i would just like to say that the majority of yoga teachers i know are anything but hahaha...yes i know a couple of you are super organised). As a male yoga teacher, for 2, I have always taught a pretty strong Vinyayasa flow with its roots in the ashtanga system but even from day 1 found that teaching Yin and getting that slow relaxing part to be totally for me. I am also completely into the more traditional aspects of yoga such as Japa and mantra chanting, performing kriyas to help purify the cleanse the body. 

sutra neti cleansing the nasal passage and sinuses. 

As a teacher i have felt i am stuck doing what i do and then not wanting to frightening off those stridently suddenly by bringing in deeper elements of philosophy and yogic practice because I'm "the male yoga teacher who gives you a really good work out". Bringing in and discussing elements of love, peace, chanting deity names and other things which people might see as airy fairy and hippy have been things i have ended up shying away from for nearly 3 years due to the fear that this has become as "career" for me. I am managing to survive from just teaching yoga having given up my full time jobs as a nurse in A&E last December. 

The end of 2017 has brought sometime to a head though, Yoga feels like it is my dharma, it is the path i am suppose to tread. It feels as if nursing has led me to a place in which i am able to help people only it has led me to yoga. I am hoping 2018 will be the start of me being truer to what it is i wish to impart and impact on my students and the society around me. I am trying to plan my own studio space working along side an osteopath to allow the therapy side of what i wish to do take flight but i also plan on doing more workshops on chanting and meditation, philosophy and pranayama to show that yoga isn't just about the fact that you can bend your back in half (see kapotasana picture at the top) or can balance around on your hands doing funny calisthenics type movements...after all without everything else, the deep introspective searching and questioning, the breath (always the breath) the vibrations of the names that we chant and the thousands of years of philosophy to give some point of context, thats all we are doing...jumping around on our expensive rubber mats. 

To my male friends who don't practice yoga, we can often find we bury things away which, apparently, we aren't suppose to really show (according to societal norms). Yoga allows us to get in touch with our selfs and have a greater understanding of our selfs. Suicide is the biggest killer of men under the age of 45....that says something about how much we do not know how to cope and deal with the thoughts/feelings and emotions that go around our heads and bodies. I am not saying yoga has all the answers, hell I'm a teacher of it and here i am saying that i am struggling to live and teach honestly to what i truly believe, but giving your self the time and space to just breath, move and be without the judgement of others is a really a good space to be.

This barefoot life

So blog time about being barefoot. As a lot, if not all, of you know i have been completely barefoot for the last 7 months. This seems to get a whole lot of weird looks and constant questions as to why. I write this blog from the perspective of a yoga teacher and nurse who spends their life dealing with people with maybe some sort of knee valgus/varus issues, pain in the feet, hips, back. Tension and cramping in the feet and shins and hips, with a lack of mobility to even find the most basic of movements such as a hindi squat (the resting pose of pretty much 3/4 of the world population.) allowing the base of our body, the foundation of the structure we call "us" to do its job properly can have a massive impact of all sorts of pain and structure issues.

While there is probably about enough material for a book rather than a blog to be written on this subject, i while keep this fairly basic and short....(Psssst there are actually books written about this very subject, and written much more concisely than i ever could, hence me not writing one.....see in particular Katy Bowmans whole body barefoot and simple steps to foot pain relief) 

The feet and ankles make up 1/4 of the moving body

So as the picture above shows, there is a hell of a lot going on with each foot. 33 joints per side, so even without a decent maths GCSE (i did it 4 times haha) thats 66 joints JUST IN THE FEET ALONE. Your spine has also 33 but only 24 actually move, while 9 fuse as we become adults. Now just think about how important it is all those spinal facets are moving and gliding over each other as they should. As soon as they stop there is all sorts of pain and discomfort felt through out the whole body, not just the back. Well guess what, your feet are no different, in fact in many ways they are almost more important as they are your foundations, they are what your entire Bipedal structure is built off just them. This doesn't even account for the 200,000+ nerve ending that are in the feet.

So briefly, i have been transitioning to being barefoot since around 2012 when i got my first pair of vibrato 5 fingers and since that time have just gotten to the stage where it just seemed a lot of work to put shoes on to just go to the shops, so now i have stopped. A lot of the questions i get asked are...Q: doesn't it hurt to ask on stones/concrete/acorns/whatever, just insert word there. A: is no....your feet are pretty amazing things, and the more you use them as they were designed to be used the more they get used to it. All those 66 joints suddenly start to find life that has been lost through wearing shoes (to use Katy Bowman's expression, shoes act as plater casts for our feet) al those nerves suddenly being to understand how lumps and bumps and digits and acorns are suppose to feel and so your feet begin to mould around the environment your are you. you begin to walk and step lighter, using your feet to feel your away through your walk. below is a video of me running barefoot across walberswick beach with my pups a couple of weeks back.

A few other questions i get asked would be things like Q: What Happens if you stand on something sharp and it gets infected? A: I look where i am going and i don't stand on anything so nothing gets infected. Q: What if you stand in dog poo (always ALWAYS the favourite to ask) A:i wipe and wash it off. exactly as you would do if you were wearing shoes, only it comes off that much easier...those waffle grip Vans are a bastard to get it out of. Q:Dont you care what other people think of you being barefoot??  A: If you know me at all then thats a simple one...No, people only care about how other people perceive them...if all you are worrying about is "will Fred and Jane think i am weird if i don't wear shoes" than your concerns are clearly aimed in the wrong place with the world as it is right now. Learn to be happy as you are in your self...maybe thats wearing shoes, but also make sure you learn and understand the issues that comes from wearing shoes/heels and the problems they can create (hello bunions)

Working with the Ipswich Town football players over the last 10 weeks has been a real eye opener as to what feet look like, even at a young ages, when you live in boots with a tight toe box. Toes squished together, metatarsal phalangeal joint enlargement (evening causing bunions) and toes which don't want to move as they should. The video above was filmed and shows Adam webster, Tom Adeyemi and Tommy Smith all playing with lifting the big toe and keeping the others on the floor and then web lifting the 3 middle toes and keeping the big one down. Great exercises to bring some of that neuro-plasticity back and remind those feet what they are capable of. Using th tennis balls to roll your feet on is also a great way to re-awaken the tissues in the nerves in the feet without beating the crap out of them like you would do if you used a golf ball...you aren't trying to "break down" any tissues or anything but just remind your feet what it is like to be awake, to be alive.

So if you are looking for shoes to wear there are a growing number of them on the market that make barefoot stuff shoes, the main two I've used and can vouch for are Vibram (they make the "crazy" 5 finger style glove shoes which you need to be happy with your self and not care about being seen as even weirder than being barefoot) and Vivobarefoot who make some pretty stylish nice shoes. like i say there are many brands these days and they are all trying to make the idea of wearing a shoe as close to being barefoot as possible. They have A wide toe box, a thin sole and a neutral heel rise. Traditional shoes pretty much constantly have a raised heel, and no i don't just mean girls and your high heels (or guys if you like). Your running shoe has a raised and padded heel to "take out the impact" that running causes through heel plant running. Go for a run barefoot and your body will not allow that style of running cos it bloody hurts so you shift to a mid foot running technique without even trying, your body just knows how it should run in nature. i wont go into the depths of running shod/barefoot and actually your body is great at adapting either way but if you are struggling with pain and injuries maybe its something you should think about. 

So to conclude, Whilst i am at the extreme end of the whole barefoot thing and i wouldn't expect, though i would love, people to suddenly start walking everywhere barefoot, i do hope that maybe you might look at the ideas behind being barefoot and trying to do it more often. The reason i do it is to find a greater understanding and comfort in my own body.  One of the reasons for this could be so that tescos don't kick up a stink when ever i walk in there (apparently its unhygienic being in there barefoot...even more so than the shoes that have never been washed) There are said to be calming benefits to walking on grass barefoot so maybe even just start there and slowly try to build up walking on your pea shingle drive, i shouldn't use these words as tescos quite often try to kick me out, but every little helps. You won't end up with super hard feet the whole soul of the foot adapts and just becomes harder wearing. If you have any questions about such things, feel free to drop me a line, this has already been WAY to long, but i will leave you with a clip of what your feet can be capable of if you used them like they can be used everyday 

Championship football Yoga

So recently i have taken on the task of helping to get and then keep match fit a bunch of the Ipswich Town Football Club players. The 13 year old in me would be unable to control himself thinking that he would one day be hanging out at Portman road and the training ground.

Working with a bunch of guys a fair few years younger than me but who seem to have spent their lives running and doing a whole heap of strength training, its super fun to lead them through yoga sessions aiming to open up their hips/thighs/chests and shoulders....really its the whole bodies. 

Looking at them from the Biotensegrity viewpoint of the fascial body, we are working whole body movements from the soles of the feet up to the forehead and the crown of the head. Adam Webster, a defender, has been working through various ankle injuries while NZ international defender Tommy Smith, towns longest serving player, a longstanding back issue and recently a hamstring niggle. these guys have been open to new ways of moving and exploring the limits of their bodies while working through traditional yoga flows and into more functional mobility movements, always keeping the breath at the forefront. 

Both these guys are super keen to get back on the pitch and get that backline back to its best so town can continue their amazing start to the season. look forward to the seeing more of these guys to keep them at the top of their game. As Ryan Giggs used to answer when asked How are you still playing at 37? How are you still playing for United?

" I say that one of the main reasons is the yoga, keeping me as strong and flexible as possible." 

Keep an eye out for these guys back on the pitch in no time helping take ITFC from the championship to premiership football next year.  

Mandukya yoga goes to croatia

So jenny and I have booked a retreat on the beautiful Dalmatian coast in Croatia. The venue is a short transfer away from the airport at split.  

   The retreat will be Friday morning to Monday evening, with the oppertunity to arrive on the Thursday and leave on the Tuesday. As you can see from the pictures below it's a stunning venue with just about everything we need, from swimming pools to tennis courts and garden space to relax. 

a poolside view at the venue  

The final itinerary is still being confirmed at present but there will be morning and evening yoga classes, some meditation sessions and workshops to further aspects of your practice such as inversions and also plenty of time for acro yoga playtime too. 

gardens to relax in and yoga practice spot

The cost of the retreat will be £200 plus an additional cost for transfers to and from the airport if required! 

evening spot for some clean healthy meals

More space to relax than you can shake a stick at

and a god damn tennis court....WTF!!!

The venue is only 8km from the beach as well so there will be plenty of chances for down time to go and explore the local village and head to the beach as well as just hang out pool side.  

The accommodation is all shared, some with single beds, some with double.  

contact myself or jenny via www.mandukyayoga.com or Facebook.com/mandukyayoga

Life, death and life.

So today I said goodbye to my grandfather. This man has been like a father figure to me, not that I don't have such an amazing family unit and an amazing real father, but Julian (my grandfather) has been like an oricle to many.

    I was fortunate enough to live with Joan and Julian for 8 years of my life and got to spend many an evening sitting around the dinning room table discussing everything from politics to poetry, current news to nursing. The two of them (by the way Joan is still very much alive and kicking at 92) have such a knowledge of everything from current affairs to the history of the Britain empire and the world. 

   Julian was a royal engineer from about 1943/4-1976(ish). He was fortunate enough to see more of the world than most of us will ever do and was also pretty much the last of the English officers to leave so much of the British empire, from Indian to Burma. He loved so much of the world he saw, spending Large parts of his life in India and Singapore. One of the main reasons that I really was interested in going to India to do my yoga training was to head to the areas of India which I had grown up hearing all about....mount Abu, nainital or roorkee. I ensured I did find these places and mount Abu was truely one of the most inspiring places I have ever been, it was stunning, welcoming and beautifully quiet. 

This picture shows a present I was given by this amazing man. This was his fathers pocket watch which I have worn on many occasion any time I have found the need to put on a 3 piece suit. I wore this watch today at his funeral and looked at it many times....each time it brought to mind the times I had sat discussing life and its many funny ways and also death and who whether or not the afterlife is real or not!

I have been fortunate enough to have grandparents who view death from the view of agnostics, both sceptical of the afterlife but also with a respect for the church and an open mind to something that can't be certain of.  

   My life moving into a yoga practice and into the views of life in a different view point really has also opened me to "the afterlife"...Now I'm not sure quite how this works. Part of me does believe that Julian as a soul was an incredibly good and will totally still be around, but also part of me feels that he will be living on. Living on in both me, my brother, my cousin (all 3 of us lived with them) or any of the other 7 grandchildren. His wit and humour, His intelligence and willing to share it and also His smile and welcoming attitude to just about anyone who walked through his front door.  

     So much of my relaxed, welcoming and inquisitive mindset come from spending so much of my life with Julian and Joan. They are my heroes and my inspiration, they are why have allowed me to be so open to both science and faith. They have been two of the most encouraging people to this career that I am pursuing, even though they may not have fully understood quite what and where I am coming from. 

   Time comes and goes, family come and go. But in our hearts, really, time and family can stay forever. We don't have to find attachment to the physical person but what they are/were and what the teach/taught us can be with us forever and beyond. 

Julian, I will forever miss you and the encouraging nature of your being but I will also take your life's lessons forward into the rest of my life.  I finish this post with a little ditty (as he called them...most others would say a poem) written by the man himself. I was sitting with him looking out over the valley from the garden at broome hill with Julian in silence enjoying the sunset, where I spent so much of my life growing up and as an adult living with them, when a pheasant broke the silence and he started forming this poem. It sums up the beautiful spot in which we lived and the amazing Suffolk countryside that we as a family love and treasure. 

  The golden orb which was the sun

dropped slowly behind the trees

and as I sat in the garden

i felt the evening breeze

on my face and hands

There was silence

no sound of voice, no noise

'twas that the world was poised

between coming and going

Then suddenly the roosting pheasants called

the silence shattered and i, with great reluctance, 

returned to an actual world.  

But as I listened and waited

inheard the other sounds,  

the sounds of the bat and the owl

and was that a scampering rat? 

Then I listened but now i looked

and slowly the sky changed

and evening turned to night. 

The clouds were gone and slowly the sight  

of evening stars appeared.  

So here ends 2016...2017 here i come

So, as we come to the end of 2016, I have taken what feels like maybe the biggest decision of my working life.....I have handed my notice in at the hospital, in A&E. I have spent the last 9 years working (mostly) full time as a nurse and have certainly at times loved it, other maybe hated it, but its certainly set me up to hopefully be a well rounded (again mostly) caring person. Since i started my yoga journey more seriously 2 years ago, i started to see the advantages of yoga..yes the physical asana but more importantly the meditation, the stillness and most importantly of all the mindfulness that comes with all aspects of it. I started wanting to be able to look after people a bit more holistically, not just at the point that they have had to come to A&E or the cardiology department etc etc. 

So here it is, 2017...the year i try to make this crazy little thing become a reality...take that lifestyle and hopefully turn it into a living. I have been the luckiest guy going so far with all my amazing yoga students. Many have been with me since day one, many of them have brought their friends and families along and many of them have then stayed to be my students too.

2016 has seen me take on a second night a week in Martlesham on a tuesday evening and then take on more and more classes around ipswich and Hadleigh. Teaching at the beautiful kersey Mill, Suffolk yoga, with the spirit fitness girls in Hadlegh and most recently taking on the class at stoke by nayland golf club. All this growth with basically no advertising, just you guys awesome word of mouth work. i feel pretty humbled to have been taken so far by you guys. 2017 is going to be bigger and better...My beautiful wife has started to take on this crazy little journey with me and is starting to learn acroyoga with me, so you can look forward to some workshops with us where we can all have a good laugh, stretch and find new boundaries of ourselves all while playing with our partners :-). I have also started an advanced Asana class on a tuesday which has seen a few of you guys all develop your arm balances and inversions

Looking forward to 2017 i Am starting 2 new classes in january, both at a beautiful new studio just built in needham market. The classes will be on a monday and friday evening at 19:45 (that could be subject to change haha) and it will be hot yoga. I won't be teaching the Bikram series, just be doing some hot flow classes....Who knows i may even attempt one of those crazy hot yin classes (though not sure thats something i really think should be a thing hahah) i will also be aiming to find some more classes in and around the place, with hopefully another one in the ipswich area for all you long term students who have been asking for another class. I will also be looking at putting my prices up just a little bit to hopefully try to cover my costs and make this crazy little dream a long term reality (i know, i know...money grabbing bastard)...so the cost of a class will go up to £8 and £7 for the parkinson class. I am sorry to have to have to do this, but i just wanna make sure i can pay my mortgage hahah. I am setting up an App that you can all download from either google play or the app store called Mindbody, this allows you to book onto classes and pay in by bank transfer/electronically rather than paying in cash. I am hoping to move payment much more to this method over the next few months too. 

the final thing, Christmas is coming up pretty quickly, So what better to get your loved ones than a love gift voucher for either 1-1 lessons or for a bunch of group classes. If you book group classes there will be a buy 4 and get the 5th free. Bargain right!!! so get in touch if you would like one of these really snazzy vouchers to put in your loved ones stocking

So every one, Merry Christmas and i hope you all have a bloody marvellous new year. I still have a few classes left of 2016, so go check out my website and come long for a last few classes. You know it will make you feel better about eating that extra bit of turkey ;-)

light and love, wibbs mandukya yoga

Honeymoon Myofascial release and a bit of a romcom

So all has been a bit quiet on the mandukya yoga front for the last few weeks. That's cos I went to Croatia with my BEAUTIFUL fiancée and became her husband. Since then we have been doing the whole thing again in the UK one week later and then running away to northern France (where I currently write this from) for our honeymoon

Obviously when in France eat cheese and drink wine.  

So having been away for the last 3 weeks I have to admit that my yoga practice has also gone! I have taken time away from work, from teaching and yes as bad and unbelievable as it sounds I've done no yoga for two weeks (since the morning of my wedding in the beautiful sunny sky's of Croatia)  

Wedding morning headstands are normal right? 

Now while I have to say that the not getting myself up at 5am has been marvellous and I have truly felt as if I needed the break from physical activity I can now say that I am also starting to miss it and those tight spots I had been working on are starting to come back (see I'm now coming to the title of the blog)

So tight spots...."muscle knots".....trigger points, what ever you wish to call them, are something that at some point we all deal with. Now I've rearly, if ever, found that a sports massage does more than limber me up and make me feel a bit looser for more than half and hour. That is until I recently discovered a guy in ipswich called John Reynolds. He is a sorts and remedial massage guy. All the runners in ipswich go to see him to help sort out their knee problems and so I thought, maybe he can help me out with mine. Well my massage couldn't have been more different to what I am used to, no excessive use of oils, hardly any rubbing me down, just assessment of my posture and gait and then long held pressure into trigger points to release the bundling of myofascia that were building up in my glute min/med along with a muscle very close to my arse that I can't remember the name of. 

Now this isn't going to be a lesson on what fascia is or how it works etc (il maybe try and do one of those in the next couple of week) but this stuff is the missing link from all of your anatomy text books. This stuff is like a net that binds every cell in your body together and so when you feel pain somewhere in the left knee it could well be tightness in the right side of the body causing compression issues twisting your posture out of alignment. There are obviously many many causes and issues that don't necessarily get covered by this but more and more, causes of pain can be looked at being treated through release of these deep connective tissues and then using functional movements and strengthening patterns to help keep the body in the improved/corrected posture. 

For me on my honeymoon, this involves starting with my feet to keep me occupied while my wife watches the classic "in her shoes". The small ball in the first picture rolls around my sole to help break up the bundles of forming tightness around the muscle fibres. The large tennis ball helps to target those trigger points in my hamstrings as it's big enough to hit all 3. That leaves the hockey ball, this can be pretty brutal to begin with but after a bit of practice is like heaven in the outside of hip/bum and deep in the actually bum cheek (glutes and deeper).

so by this time Cameron Diaz has moved out of her sisters after sleeping with her man and stealing a dog from somewhere...Toni collet is obviously upset so leaves the law firm to go and walk dogs for a living....as you obviously would (good rocky type moment up some monument steps though with 4 dogs)

That funny shaped green thing is called a Thera Caine. This is where myofascial release is at...foam rollers have always seemed a weird invention that I can never seem to access the right spot with as they are just the wrong shape. This little beauty can be bought for £25 online and just hits the spot. My whole back and under scapula, into my QL, my glutes and calfs all targeted with it, and if you look online at function patterns (check out their Instagram) you can get your abs and chest wall too.. Now from my yoga point of view, I honestly think anything is yoga if done with attention/intention and with the breath and that's how I try to approach this sort of work. The breath especially the exhale isnused to relax and let go of the tension that is being held in those deep tight tissues. Yoga doesn't have to be a headstand/handstand/warrior or lotus. It can be taking 5 minutes to sit on a hockey ball and breathing until you feel that release that we look for in our body's when we hold long yin poses. 

Anyway, that's enough of a ramble for tonight, it turns out Cameron Diaz wasn't such a prick and that Toni Collette got the nice guy and everyone lived happily ever after....THANK GOD!!!!!!!! 

(P.s. I know this isn't referenced and I make statements/claims etc but il put together a blog that goes into further details very soon. You can always message me for further details/reading or people you can contact.)

A&E nursing, yoga teaching and the art of zen

So as a yoga teacher and someone who practices yoga everyday i am totally chilled out and fully "zenned" out all the time right?!?! As much as i would love that to be the case it is not. You can ask just about anyone from my fiancee to the porters at work and they will tell you that i am a very laid back (kinda horizontal or maybe worse at times) and i can pretty much be found with a a little dance in my set or a sing to whistle on my lips, but of late i have found that all my daily yoga practice and regular teaching isn't really helping me remain all that chilled and laid back.

I am exhausted, i have found that there appears to be a very large wall in front of me of late and i have hit it and continue to hit most days. I am currently working near on 40 hours a week of mixed shifts including nights, weekends, 10am-10pm etc etc and on top of this my yoga teaching life as picked up to the stage that i am teaching 10-12 classes a week in and around ipswich and suffolk with more potential classes coming. Now don't get me wrong, this is the best news i could possibly ask for. In under 18 months i have taken my little classes from 1 a week with 6-10 people to sometimes 12 a week with numbers of up to 24 in a class. But life is coming to the stage where something has to give

I was working in accident and emergency a few days ago and was told that i really needed to learn to smile and not let things bother me so much. i was about 8 or 9 hours into a 12 hour day and it had been BUSY. This kinda got me thinking about peoples perception of the chilled out yogi/yogini. Whilst i was in india and was meditating for 60-90 minutes a morning on the beach with my guruji, Upendra, and my dear dear friend Cathe (i still miss you and wish i could have got to head to the himalayas with you), and had not a worry in the world then yes i honestly cannot say i could have been more chilled out and relaxed, but unfortunately this "real" world that us westerners have built for ourselves in which work is placed so high in importance and being happy and humane with those people we interact with either daily or in one off meetings is seen less important has totally drained it from me.

I have been looking at the important things in my life over the last few months as i have become busier and tireder and have come to the conclusion that something has to give. I am so busy right now that to get in my own practice time (which i see as being totally key if i am going to ever be a remotely half decent teacher) i have to get up at at least 5am and then sometimes be up and awake until 10-11pm, so i feel i am having to choose between yoga practice (and yes that is meditation/pranayama and asana) and having time to actually sleep. So after my wedding in October i am going to attempt to re-find my zen and my happier more cheerful self (i'm pretty certain my soon to be wife will also be happy with this too) and cut my hours at work to two days a week in A&E and double down my focus to be the best yoga teacher i can. More time to dedicate to my self and my students and my family and friends. 

So next time you are feeling stressed at home or work or anywhere you find your self, please remind your self that even us yoga lot who spend their loves trying to practice non-attachment and to stay present with their mindful breath, that we all fail at it on a daily basis, we are lucky that maybe we remind ourselves to notice when we fail at it, but we still get exhausted, grumpy, short and told to cheer up and smile while at work.

If you're all about the destination then take a f@*king flight......

ARRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH IM GOING DOWN

So here i am.........Falling with all the grace and elegance of a heard of giraffes and elephants out of a handstand. Yoga is a funny old game, we practice it to become more aware of our true selves, yet we try to put ourselves in weirder and weirder postures and quite often get annoyed with ourselves when we are unable to do them. I know that as much as some days i am able to not allow my ego and my competitive side of life to get the better of me, there are days when i just keep throwing my self up into the air and getting more and more frustrated by it. How very un-yogic of me i hear you all say and yes...i would probably agree EXCEPT.... how do we go about dealing with this frustration in the immediate moments after we feel them. 

The picture above was taken this morning whilst trying to get a video of my handstands, so i could look back at it from an outside perspective and see if i could see what i was doing wrong. Whilst watching it i said to my self out loud (and two my to spotty dogs who were joining me) "Well these handstands are certainly showing me the meaning of what a journey is". At which point the title of this blog came to mind. They are lyrics from a song by frank turner and have always come to my mind when anyone has stated they cant understand why i go off travelling or have not been keen to settle or even just tried to just push to their end goal in their job and completely missed the whole of the bit leading up to it. The whole verse goes 

"But if you're all about the destination, then take a fucking flight
We're going nowhere slowly, but we're seeing all the sights
And we're definitely going to hell
But we'll have all the best stories to tell"

This again totally resonates with me and how my yoga journey is progressing, infact its how i feel my whole life is progressing. In yoga, for a man, i am maybe more flexible than the average man but certainly compared to alot of woman i am still a man with some tight hips and shoulders. I can also look at the progress of my many amazing yoginis and yogis who are totally stomping and mastering all sorts of hanstands and inversions that i am not. Now at times i ask myself why is that...again, as a man i am certainly stronger than they are and here i am stuck firmly to the ground. I then also ask myself.....WHO BLOODY CARES. i look at my yoga journey which started about 8 years ago and i think how exciting it was to start learning new poses and go further into those poses. As someone who is now fairly (i hope at least) competent in my asana there are less poses that i get that same feeling for. Handstands while not the only part of my practice are something that do get worked on regularly and actually the length of time it takes me to get them just mean i see a whole lot more of the sights. By that i mean i get to spend more understanding how my body moves and works, i get to spend more time learning how the hands, which arent designed to hold our weight can be taught to do so. I get to practice NOT HOLDING MY BREATH while moving. These are all things which we should all be looking for in all our postures and as a beginner a downward facing dog totally does that job. Sometimes its nice to be humbled by your own body, by your own mind and reminded that it really isn't all about the destination and that if you enjoy the journey, as slowly as that may be, you are actually getting far closer to the point of us getting on our mats in the first place (enjoying that weird feeling of sitting for long periods of time with just ourselves, no one else hahaha. weird right.)

So that enough of ramble, Whether in yoga or in life just try to remember that the goal is very rarely the bit that you will look back at and remember, but all the fun you had falling, stumbling, getting up, laughing, crying and laughing again will be the bit you remember.