Holding space - the magic that is Ed Sheeran!

I attended Ed Sheeran's concert in Wembley on Thursday evening with my Dad. I wasn't sure it was for me as he's so "main stream" but it was AMAZING! It was also deeply inspiring as I watched and indeed felt him hold space for 85 thousand people.

I sat there, with Dad beside me, contemplating this, and the clouds above, and the energy in that stadium all evening. I'm not sure I was always entirely present to the music, as I felt into the whole experience and thought about what I was learning.

Ed kept going on about joining him in singing however bad your voice, and dancing however self conscious you may feel, and I watched as slowly around me, one by one people started to find their voices and their feet.

When it came to the penultimate song, I looked up to find my Dad on his feet dancing and singing. Then the last song was played and before I knew it, I was also on my feet dancing and singing at the top of my voice.  The whole stadium was dancing and singing and there was an incredible energy of loveliness pervading the space. I couldn't quite believe it!

Ed is very ordinary, totally authentic and very gifted. He naturally held space, him and his guitar, all on his own for a whole two hour set for 85 thousand people.  That's quite some feat.

Holding space is something that fascinates me.  How we can bring people together and something happens energetically, and someone often holds it so that this can happen.

We are all of us connected in a field of energy - us, the trees, the stones, the plants, the cats and the bird. Our every action has a consequence and will affect someone or something somewhere.

When we come together in space, something magical can happen, depending on the energy created.  

When women come together in circle, to talk or to practice yoga then something magical can happen.

When people come together on a yoga retreat to practice yoga, then if that space is held well, magical things can happen.

When a gifted singer takes to Wembley and is himself in front of 85 thousand people, sharing his  talent and gift with the world, then magical things happen.

The heart opens.

Ed Sheeran helped to open hearts. And as each of our hearts opened, so the energy of the art grew stronger in the auditorium and all of a sudden magical things started to happen.  The clouds looked like hearts as if they were awoken too.  People smiled and laughed and were considerate of one another and I felt an overwhelming sense of love for mankind, all will be well in the end.

In that moment it seemed so simple to me, and I thought that really, it is just a question of being real, and sharing whatever it is we have in our hearts to share with the world, because us sharing a bit of our heart will touch the hearts of others, so one by one we each awaken and the whole world becomes an increasing unified field of love, like a force field, spreading out.

Ed Sheeran, I aspire to hold space like you, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart to your heart for the manner in which it touches lives.

With gratitude.

The womb - is she calling you?

Probably because I have written a book about fertility, pregnancy and birth, I am often asked for insight into what might help women with their menstrual or fertility issues, or how to heal after suffering a miscarriage.

I’m certainly no expert, and while I am keen to share all I have learned, I am very aware that this is a result of listening to my body wisdom and honouring that inner guidance, and this may very well not work for other women who have their own body wisdom.

Plus, I am also very aware that menstrual and fertility issues, and the quest to conceive and give birth to new life, is a huge journey for us and often one of awakening, so there will be our own unique lessons to learn in the process.

Still, regardless of all our uniqueness, there is one commonality - something that I am keen to share with women, and it is this…honour your womb.

It wasn’t until I undertook our first round of IVF that I became aware of the significance of the womb in terms of growing new life and the need for this to be a super cosy and nourishing environment for a baby to grow.

I ended up with placenta previa during that first pregnancy, which means that the placenta (an organ attached to the lining of the womb, which keeps your unborn baby’s blood supply separate from your own and is connected to the baby by the umbilical cord) was totally covering the cervix (the narrow-neck like passage forming the lower end of the womb), which meant that I wouldn’t be able to birth vaginally.

I was very angry about this both during the pregnancy and beyond and it wasn’t until I met the wonderful Jo de Diepold Braham, that I realised the extent of the resentment that I was still carrying in my womb (let alone the scarring from the Caesarean Section) eighteen-months after the birth.

I’d gone to see Jo, an osteopath, to have my neck sorted, and instead ended up with her guiding me into my womb, which was dark and murky and most definitely not in a good state.  Given that E and I were thinking of going through another round of IVF, I had a sense that I needed to do some significant healing here.

I started seeing Jo regularly for Ki massage.  Jo is the most intuitive healer that I have had the pleasure to meet, and the way she works, by taking you into your body and helping to shift energy, resonates massively with my approach to healing. You can find Jo at the Natural Health Clinic twice a month in Guernsey and I strongly recommend you see her if you need any healing womb or otherwise.

Into my life at this time also arrived the wonderful Dr Uma Dinsmore-Tuli with her incredible book Yoni Shakti: A Woman’s Guide to Power and Freedom Through Yoga and Tantra, which all yoginis should have beside their mats. Also the inspiring Dr Christiane Northrup and her marvellous book Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom, which should be a reference book for all women at all stages of life.  A little later in came Lisa Lister too with Code Red, which absolutely every menstruating lady should be referring to for monthly menstrual insights.  

There was this whole new world that opened up to me and I started to see the womb in a whole different perspective.

The womb

The womb, or uterus as it is formally called, is a hollow muscular organ of the female reproductive system that is responsible for the development of the embryo and foetus during pregnancy.  It is approximately the shape and size of a pear and sits in an inverted position within the pelvis. 

An incredible distensible organ, the womb can expand during pregnancy from the size of a closed fist to become large enough to hold a full term baby. It is also incredibly strong, able to contract forcefully to propel a full term baby out of the body during childbirth. 

However, the womb is so much more than this!

It is also the seat of our creativity, not least in creating new life, but in helping us to create the life of our dreams, and connects us to our deepest knowing.

As Uma writes: “The very term yoni sakti locates the place of power [sakti] in our own bodies, in our yoni, a term that means both cunt or vulva, and womb or source. Yoni also means home, or place of rest. It is in and through the yoni that we encounter our connection to deeper knowledge, or blood wisdom. The term blood wisdom conveys a sense of the profound experience of ‘knowing already’, or recognising, sometimes not always so clearly, that this deep wisdom is present as a spirituality in our lifeblood. The understanding of blood wisdom is that in our very cells, in our wombs, this knowing has never really been absent, and all that has been denied is access to the living consciousness of the true wealth that this wisdom brings, not just for women but for the whole planet.  She is a deep and tender inner teacher. What she teaches is freedom.”

Certainly since honouring my womb with the greatest reverence for all she knows, and all she can reveal, my life has changed significantly. I started writing again, a passion which had lay dormant for many years, and I haven’t really stopped since, even managing to write a book (which you can purchase here).  I have also felt an incredible sense of freedom and have had a greater connection to my own wisdom and all that this needs to reveal. Of course there is always work to be done, but connecting with my womb has made a huge difference.

This is the reason, that when women are experiencing some issues with the womb space, in whatever way that may be, I am always keen to encourage them to begin their work here.

As Dr Northrup writes: “The uterus is related energetically to a woman’s innermost sense of self and her inner world. It is symbolic of her dreams and the selves to which she would like to give birth. Its state of health reflects her inner emotional reality and her belief in herself at the deepest level. The health of the uterus is at risk if a woman doesn’t believe in herself, is excessively self-critical or is putting too much of her energy into a dead-end job or relationship”.

So perhaps there is some change that occurs when we begin working with the womb, and perhaps this is confronting at times, but also a necessity.

As Dr Northrup further writes: “The health of the pelvic organs (ovaries, tubes and womb) depends upon a woman feeling able, competent, or powerful to create financial and emotional abundance and stability, and to express her creativity fully. She must be able to feel good about herself and about her relationships with other people in her life. Relationships that she finds stressful and limiting, and which she feels she has no control over, on the other hand, may adversely affect her internal pelvic organs. Thus, if a woman stays in an unhealthy relationship because she feels she cannot support herself economically, or emotionally, her internal pelvic organs may be at increased risk of disease”.

This is supported by Bri Maya Tiwari who writes in her wonderful book The Path of Practice: A Woman’s Book of Ayurvedic Healing: “Our Shakti-prana [the primordial feminine energies within) circulates through and around the womb, a woman’s area of greatest vulnerability…Too often, we do not recognise the sanctity of the womb, and the sacred prana that governs it. Herein lies the paradox of the Shakti-prana: this profound source of feminine power also makes us extremely susceptible to disease.  When you care for your womb, and thus honour your Shakti-prana, you heal your feminine life force and protect yourself from illness.”

Thus it is imperative that we do the work to heal the womb. We must celebrate her and all she can reveal to us. How do we do this? Well here are the ways that help me:

Womb yoga

In theory, all yoga should help us to heal and connect more fully with our body wisdom and increase our sense of wellbeing in the process, but womb yoga offers so much more than this. In practicing with deep reverence for the womb and womb space, and working with Shakti (the spirit of our primordial feminine energies within) and Shakti-prana (the body’s inherent life-force), we can effect significant transformation.

As Uma writes: “By greeting the womb with love we not only reconnect to the Sakti or life power in the womb or womb space, but also receive the loving energies of the heart by bringing them into conscious connection with the nourishment potential of the the womb space energies”.

There is a free yoni yoga video on our YouTube channel here, that focuses on bringing awareness and love into the womb space. You might also benefit from the free fertility video here and/or the free video for menstruation here. 

It could also be beneficial to you to join our Sunday morning yoga class (click here for our class timetable), which while not gender specific, does tend to attract just women and many of the practices are based around the heart and womb. You could also join one of our Yoni Yoga sessions that take place from time to time.

I would also highly recommend investing in Uma’s book, Yoni Shakti: A Woman’s Guide to Power and Freedom Through Yoga and Tantra, which you can purchase from Amazon here.  Please don’t be intimidated by the book – it is huge, but just follow the practices that are relevant to you at any stage on your cycle/life.

Yoga Nidra

I am a huge fan of Yoga Nidra.  It has supported me so much the last few years particularly.  I regularly practice Yoga Nidra as it helps me to rest and rejuvenate and can be incredibly healing too.

You can access our free Yoga Nidra for menstrual healing here.  You’ll find other Yoga Nidras on my website too. Otherwise I can highly recommend using the free ones that are available courtesy of Uma and her husband on the Yoga Nidra network at www.yoganidranetwork.org. I use these regularly – they were hugely supportive before, during and after the IVF process and for healing my womb post-natal too. I also accredit Yoga Nidra for helping to regulate my periods.

Ayurveda

I am a huge fan of Ayurveda because it is ancient, it works and it has roots in the Vedas like yoga! 

Ayurveda is the oldest authentically recorded health system in history, over 5,000 years old. It was created by yogis who spent their lives studying nature and the human condition.  

Meaning “the science of life” it is exactly that, viewing health in four dimensions of physical, sensory, mental and spiritual and is centred on preventative medicine and bringing a person back to balance.  It shows how an imbalance in one part of a person’s being will affect them in another, i.e. if a person isn’t being true to their life path (dharma) then physical and mental illnesses can arise which cannot be effectively treated with modern medicines but can be helped by Ayurveda.

Ayurveda has helped me lots in my life, not least to heal ovarian cysts and eliminate PMS, but also to support the IVF process (it is perhaps not surprising that I didn’t follow any Ayurvedic principles nor take any herbs prior to the failed IVF cycle, as I had done before the two successful cycles). Read more about this by reading my book Dancing with the Moon.

I follow Ayurvedic principles when I can and notice when I veer away, as I end up feeling depleted and out of balance. It really is amazing and I encourage any lady who is experiencing any sort of menstrual, hormonal, fertility or pelvic trauma to contact the Ayurvedic Clinic that I attend in Purley Oaks, not far from Gatwick Airport.

You can arrange a Skype appointment with one of the doctors and can be sent herbs and encouraged to follow an Ayurvedic diet plan for your type (diet in terms of what you should avoid eating for balance rather than weight loss). You might also attend the clinic itself if necessary for Panchakarma (treatments – these are amazing and I go whenever I feel depleted and completely out of balance and attended before IVF too). See http://www.theayurvedicclinic.com

Eating well

I know, I hear you, we all know about eating well these days, but it can be so important for the health of our womb.  If we eat really drying and acidic food then this may lead to a dry and acidic womb, which might lead to dis-ease and may also prevent an embryo growing. You need to nourish yourself with nourishing foods and those that are appropriate for your constitution and for what is going on for you. 

I’m absolutely not a fan of dieting in terms of losing weight.  I think it’s important that we follow a diet that supports our health and wellbeing and increases our vitality – this is the reason I try and follow an Ayurvedic diet that works for me and my constitution when I can, as it looks at the whole person. It’s so important that you nourish yourself and keep your digestive fire stoked.  Remember to drink plenty of water too.  

Reiki

I love Reiki! For me it has been truly life changing as it is so healing! If you are Reiki attuned then all the better as you can channel Reiki to your womb as often as you are able.  I channelled Reiki into my womb space a lot throughout IVF and pregnancy and was comforted by it (you can read all about this in my book Dancing with the Moon). 

If you aren’t Reiki attuned then you will need to arrange a treatment with a qualified Reiki practitioner (let me know if you need any recommendations). Reiki treatments are wonderful because not only do you get to relax, but you get to heal and have all your chakras balanced in the process! Definitely a great support for the womb.

So you see there are things that can be done. But you must trust in your own wisdom too.  What is your womb trying to tell you? Perhaps it’s trying to wake you up to your highest potential. 

As Bri Maya Tiwari writes: “The power of your Shakti goes beyond the space of the womb and its magic of bringing new life into the world.  Your womb also has a divine function, which is the cultivation of nurturing and healing powers of the Mother within. In working with your Shakti, you will discover profound physical and spiritual health. In so doing, you as a woman also affect and influence the well-being of all living things”.

If you find yourself reading this and something is resonating, then honour the calling. You are being called.  You’re being asked to do the work.  To heal the womb.  To come home to yourself. 

x

Returning to Avalon, the home of the Goddess

I struggle to find the words to explain how it feels when I see the sign to tell us that we are back again in Avalon, Glastonbury.  Just like I struggle to find the words to explain how it feels to stay at Lower Coxbridge House, three miles from Glastonbury.

There are many special places that I have  had the grace and fortune to experience in this lifetime, and both Glastonbury and Lower Coxbridge House are two very special ones for me.

For me, there's nothing more magical than practising yoga outside on the Earth in view of Glastonbury Tor, or lying on the bed in the yurt and looking through the open door to that magical view.

I don't know what it is about the Tor but it mesmerises me.  I watch it endlessly.  In the early morning I see it rising through the mist, the mist of Avalon.  In the day time, I stare at it, noticing how it changes with the changing light.  

In the evening I can barely keep my eyes off it as the sun sets to its left side, the sky lit up with oranges, purples and reds. In the middle of the night when I go to pee in the field, I am mesmerised again as I can see the gentle crescent of the new moon glowing in the sky to the left of the Tor, and the stars shining brightly overhead.

These are the moments when I feel I may have died and gone to heaven.  Let alone the moments  when I'm the only one awake, sitting writing in the early morning light, enjoying the birds' morning choruses and watching as one or two of them flutter around collecting material for their nests.

Then there's the moments when the children run wild with the freedom of this beautiful place, wired into the late evening as it must surely be located on a special energy line that heals and energises.

I am energised beyond belief.

It's a big deal sometimes to run a retreat with two small children who don't like to sleep, one of them hanging off any breast at any available opportunity.  But there is something about Lower Coxbridge House and Glastonbury that sustains me, all of us really. 

The yoga practiced in this space of healing energy is a joy. The place holds space all on its own and further sustains me. 

The beautiful healthy vegetarian food prepared and cooked with love by Olga sustains us all.

Glastonbury is the heart chakra of the world and my heart is always opened when I come here, as if it is the place that gives, and gives and gives.

It is also the home of the Goddess and certainly the Goddess within awakens a little more on each visitation. I can feel her. She's everywhere. It's hardly surprising that so many women flock here.

We trekked up the Tor and wound our way back down, this was metaphoric on some level, as we felt the energy shift into a gentler pace, and we spotted the line to Lower Coxbridge House.  

In Chalice Wells we drank the iron water and were treated to the beautiful sound of the vibrationally-aligned-heart crystal singing bowl of the beautiful soul who played her so beautifully by the open well. Even Eben was quiet for a good few minutes before he started shouting and was whisked away by E because this is a place of peace and tranquility,

This was actually the most stressful part of the weekend - my children running riot in Chalice Wells and being aware of the disapproving stares of those adults who had come to experience the quiet. We took them out as soon as we could and I carried Elijah with me to the White Spring, which he has grown to endure!

It's a cavern of darkness, as if retreating into the very womb of Avalon, and a relief from the early afternoon bright sunshine. Chris and I dipped naked in the cool and cleansing waters of the White Spring, revitalised and bonded by the experience.  I love this place for its quirkiness and for helping us step outside the comfort zone.  

The heart-singing-bowl lady was playing here too, her voice bringing shivers to my spine.  Not so to Elijah, who was keen to leave at this point!

We visited the Goddess Temple too, Elijah and I lighting a candle and making wishes. We visited the beautiful Abbey as well and I stood on the bleeding stone, wishing it was more obvious to the public - let's not be shamed by bleeding! There's so much power in giving our blood back to the Earth.

I did a lot of shopping too. For Goddesses and crystals and wands and chocolate brownies. Glastonbury is abundant in all of these amazing things. Bless E for being so patient throughout!

I could go on.  But really you have to come to this place for yourself.  If you are feeling the calling, then answer it.  there is something deeply profound about this place...but you need time to dig down to its depths...and still I have some digging to do because as I said earlier, it just keeps giving and giving.

With a deep bow of gratitude to the Goddesses who joined me to make the retreat possible and for their sharing and energy, to Olga and Sarah for their magic and to E and the boys for enabling this all to happen, and to my Mum and Dad for doing all our washing and preparing dinner for the boys so I could dash off to teach within an hour of our return to Guernsey...and to Lower Coxbridge House and Glastonbury, may you continue to light the lives of many.

x

A healing crisis

With all the recent healing work, a healing crisis was inevitable.  It was funny as I hadn't identified with it as such, I just knew something was "off" and was trying to figure out the reason for this.

In the back of my mind I had this thought that I needed to write about healing crises in my Reiki Level One Manual, because following a Reiki attunement (and each of the three levels) you go through a 21 day healing process.

The number 21 is very significant in spiritual fields as it means that new beginnings and change are coming in, and this should bring greater balance and harmony, and therefore should be positively embraced. However often this means that the old needs to break down to make space for the new to come in and this is not always an easy process.  

So there I was thinking about writing about a healing crisis but not having identified with it.  Then rather coincidentally (but of course there are no coincidences), a good friend asked me what a healing crisis meant. Suddenly it dawned on me, "ah ha, of course, yes, this is what I am going through, a healing crisis!".

They are never easy to go through at the best of times and this one lingered on for a good ten days, bringing up old anxious and sickness energy from my solar plexus and sacral chakras. I knew it wasn't how I felt now, but it was unsettling all the same. Obviously I just wanted it to go, but this is the thing about the healing process, you have to feel it for it to truly leave the body. That's often the reason that we need to do some healing work in the first place, because we never felt the emotion or whatever it may have been at the time, and stuffed it away, where it becomes a stagnant and stuck energy and subtly (and not so subtly) affects our lives.

So what is a healing crisis?  Let me try and explain.

Well as I've just mentioned energy gets stuck for a reason.  Often it’s because you can’t or don’t want to face something difficult. Thus energy can also get stuck from trauma, crises, numbness, or denial. Some part of you, whether it’s the ego, body wisdom or spirit, is trying to protect you. Rather than feeling everything in that moment and letting it pass through, thoughts and emotions (energy in motion) gets stuffed down into the energetic corners, so to speak. Stuck energy can lead to pain and disease. It’s protection and in the short term it has a place, but when numbing and holding on becomes a habit and a default coping method then it can lead to long term problems.

Healing work is essentially about releasing the stuck energy that no longer has a purpose and serves the individual. If it’s not acute or obvious, it could simply be a feeling of life being “off balance” or something just not feeling quite right. Whatever the reason for the healing work –receiving Reiki for example – the goal is generally to feel better, not worse.

Any type of cleansing or healing that you do will come with a release. This can happen on a physical, mental, emotional or spiritual level, and often happens on several levels simultaneously. When toxins and toxic energy are released, your body and mind have to deal with a sudden and powerful shift in balance. It’s impossible to have a release in any of your bodies (physical, emotional, mental, spiritual, energetic) and not have the others affected. 

The body is good at maintaining a balance, so the symptoms are usually mild. But symptoms are always unique and dependant on your sensitivity, your level of illness or disease, the extent of your denial, and/or your frame of mind during a session. This is referred to as a “healing crisis”. Essentially you are releasing the old stuck energy with new energy and your whole system has to adjust to the change and you may experience uncomfortable symptoms.

The healing crisis can be unpleasant and even take you a while to identify that this is what you’re experiencing - this is what happened to me!  It's always a relief when you recognise that you are simply going through a healing crisis. It’s all part of the healing process and essential to complete the healing – better out than in! Essentially you’re releasing all the stuck anger, hurt, broken heart, anxiety, depression, sadness, betrayal, unhealed trauma, unspoken feelings, resentment, frustration, rejection, loss etc. that you’ve been holding onto inside.

The thing is, you won’t be able to release it all without feeling some of it again. It’s like you have to feel it, to release it and let it move on. Sometimes the release is quick, e.g. an overwhelming sense of anger and need to run it off, or scream it out, momentary feelings of sadness and unexpected tears. There may be vomiting or diarrhoea, muscle ache, fatigue, the need to forgive a past situation or person, or make amends with someone, and/or a large emotional purge. Sometimes you might pick a fight with a partner or friend, simply as a way of releasing pent up frustration or anger. 

Sometimes the release might take a few days or a week or so, where you don’t feel quite right, to the extent that you might start wondering if your old anxiety, depression, resentment, sadness, grief, or whatever it might be, has come back again, and this might make you feel a little panicky. 

I've certainly gone through a combination of healing crises in the past.  When I was doing my Reiki training all those years ago, I got what I thought were a lot of vomiting bugs, but I later realised that these were healing crises, the old coming out. In these early days, especially with the yoga I had some sudden anger outbursts that came from nowhere and these too, I came to realise were healing crises too.

Please don’t worry of you too go through a healing crisis from yoga or a holistic treatment or practice. It’s just the old moving out to make way for the new, and your body needs time to find a new balance and adjust to the higher vibrational energy. It should be embraced rather than feared as it is a true sign of healing. Please don’t think that the practitioner or teacher did anything wrong or you did anything wrong, it’s simply the healing process. The deeper and more intense the healing crisis, the deeper and more intense the healing. 

You might find that after a healing crisis things change for you.  Your vibration has changed so situations and the people you attract into your life will also change.  This may mean that there will be some dis-resonance with people and situations already in your life, and some of these will adapt and morph with your own energy, and others will drop away. Please just trust the process, it is all for the higher good and may highlight to you, relationships and situations that are no longer serving you. You’ll shine lighter and brighter as a result. 

Try to drink lots of water during this time, and move your body, getting out into nature, getting your feet on the Earth, perhaps journaling, doing a guided relaxation, holding rose quartz or chakra balancing crystals and just trying to be super compassionate and kind to the self. 

I've found myself drawn to do all these things during the healing crisis, especially running, as if trying to sweat and move it out, running my life forward. I've also drawn on the yoga nidra network and listened to some lovely free and nourishing Yoga Nidras, while holding rose quartz. I've also played a lot with the children and swum in the sea, getting outside as much as possible. It's all helped!

As it happens a 21 day cleanse from the last Reiki attunement session I ran ends today, hoorah for that, it coincides with the weather shifting and my cycle shifting to the autumnal stage and no doubt things will shift during this moon phase.  Happy healing!!

The Aries New Moon and the Joy of Teaching Yoga (and giggling sitting bones!)

It's been a funny few days energetically as we transition to the new moon in Aries.  I've had this sensation going on in my solar plexus and a whirring almost in my sacral chakra.  The combination has felt a little bit like low level morning sickness, which in itself was unnerving!

There was also some anxious energy, without having anything to feel anxious about, just unsettling, perhaps a little ungrounding, and this overwhelming sense that life has to change, and that a big shift is about to come in.

I've sat with it and read about it, and conclude that there's lots going on up there, and down here (because of what's going on up there) and we're going through a process of realignment - as if (for me certainly) the solar plexus and sacral chakras are having a bit of a clean out so we can step more fully into our power and be the creative beings that we are, re-creating a new and lighter world for ourselves and humanity.

It was a coincidence, but not, because there is no such thing as a coincidence, that I was scheduled to go into the The Ladies College today, to help give the Lower Sixth some tools they may use to ease any feelings of anxiety, overwhelm and stress. So I had a sense of what might help, based on how I was feeling with the current moon energy heightening all of this.

I don't normally teach in schools anymore, and I was quickly reminded of the reason for this as it can be quite hard work, what with all the giggling and chattering.  The mere mention of "sitting bone" is enough to set them off, let alone "let go" and "soften". So imagine what happened when I mentioned the new moon and menstrual cycles and how the two are often linked.  Even I almost laughed out loud at the cacophony of giggling! I'd forgotten how taboo a subject menstruation still is, sigh.

I had planned the class and started out with what I thought may help, but I quickly realised that they needed a different approach.  Cat/cow may well be a lovely gentle movement to awaken the spine, but the mere thought of lifting the dreaded sitting bones with other girls behind them in rows, was enough to set them off into uncontrollable giggles of embarrassment again, so I realised that there was only one thing for it: standing balancing poses. This worked a treat.  Not only grounding and centering, but it is very difficult to think (or giggle) when one is trying to balance! I've never taught a first class with standing balancing poses being the main focus, but it did seem to work in calming the energy (a very useful insight as it happens!).

They responded very well to the chakra balancing guided mediation too, the use of colours is really marvellous for all age groups.  We were talking about this during the introduction to crystal course that I ran with my cousin, Yolande, on Saturday.  We got to do some colouring and everyone calmed with this, and noticing the colours of crystals we were drawn to was very revealing.  We used chakra crystals during a chakra balancing relaxation, and one day it would be lovely to share this with lower sixth form girls, but that would have been far too much to take in today, I can't even image the reaction that would have created!

They did so well though because it was new for so many of them, and it's not easy dropping the awareness into the body and noticing what's going on. It made me feel relieved not to be that age actually, and all the stress that it brings with it. I felt heartened by the manner in which they all settled into the relaxation and I was reminded how marvellous to have access to this thing called yoga!

Tonight further reminded me as it was the final class for two of the teenagers who started yoga for their Duke of Edinburgh bronze award.  They've been with me for three months now and have progressed amazingly during that time.  Not only are they much more confident in their practice, but their awareness has shifted too, and they are stronger in body and mind and so much more focused than when they began. It's been a real privilege to have them both in class, and I'm told they'd like to continue, which will be brilliant, as I will miss them otherwise!

I have to say I feel extremely blessed tonight to have yoga in my life. I am very grateful for the fact yoga is by far my deepest love and passion in life (other than the boys, obviously) and that I get to share this gift with others of all ages too (there were four 8-10 year old girls in class yesterday morning with their Mums, what a delight!).

I am at my most happiest when I am teaching yoga, because I am not aware of anything other than the moment and the students, and  trying to read the energy in the room (and out there in the ether) and facilitate what needs to awaken and what needs to calm down. It's a joy like no other and I'm so thankful to the Universe for bringing all so many marvellous students into my life and for providing me with the opportunities to share yoga where I can and do my bit to spread the love and light out into the world.  Thank you x