So I have completed my goal – I have blogged every day for 30 days. It’s actually been really interesting to sit down each day and think of something to write about – to watch my thoughts and focus on one particular thing and articulate how I feel about that thing. It’s another form of mindfulness and I’d like to be able to keep it up, although perhaps not daily! That’s been quite hard.

For my last post I’ll leave you with some photos.

Firstly the herbs I planted before Easter are beginning to grow (I hope to post more news on that later in the summer!)

And secondly, two fat kitty bums sitting on the sill.

Another month begins tomorrow, I hope the May weather in the UK is sunny and warm and I get to spend time outside. We’re due a good summer surely!

As we go through our daily life, many of us our not using our senses properly. We take in so much and we are so overstimulated by the energy of the world around us, but we never take the time to really process all the stimulus our senses soak up. When was the last time you stopped to smell a flower, or listen to birdsong, or taste the flavour of the food you are eating? I know for my part I have a tendency to live my life in a constant state of rush – from client to class to errand completely ignoring everything around me apart from the task I am focussing on.

Most of us our guilty of rushing through life in this way, thinking only of train timetables, email inboxes, telephone calls. We rarely stop to allow ourselves to be aware of the wonder that surrounds us and the things that our senses take in every day.

By being aware of our senses and what they take in, we can begin to have some measure of control over them and only then can we come to have any measure of control enough to steady the mind.

A good way to start is mindful eating. Next time you eat, be it a full meal or just an apple, begin to be aware of each mouthful, how it feels in your mouth, how it tastes in different parts of the mouth. Chew slowly and swallow with awareness and gratitude, taking time before the next mouthful.

Slowly over time we can begin to bring mindfulness into all the tasks in our daily routine!

Namaste!

When I first started to teach yoga I planned my lessons in the finest detail — what we would do, how we would do it and exactly how long it would take.

Gradually over the years my lesson plans have become less and less detailed. I have learned that there are times when certain postures/sequences are out of the question depending on who is in the class and what the energy feels like. I have learned to gauge what my students want to do rather than what I want to teach and so I lean more and more towards the stance of making lessons up on the spot.

Obviously left completely to my own devices things could get chaotic so I always have a theme and a central posture that we will work up to and down from. Vinyasa krama – step by step.

For example, last week my theme was legs and hips, my central posture was parsvakonasana – working on the energy from heel to fingertip. I teach two general level classes a week (my other classes are specialist; therapy or pregnancy), and the way we worked up to and down from these postures was quite different in each class. The energy was high on Wednesday and I could tell that the class needed a strong practice. On Thursday, however, the energy was quite different and I needed to work on a more restorative flow into the central posture with longer in savasana at the end.

It used to drive me wild when the randomness of life meant I couldn’t stick to my lessons plans, but over time I am beginning to cultivate the notion of flux. Just allowing myself to roll with whatever my students need. And with this knowledge I grow to love teaching more and more and more each day!