Moving with the seasons: Our guide to Autumn yoga

Autumn is the season of transformation. We can see this all around us in nature: the leaves are falling, the air is changing and we welcome our new season’s fruit and vegetables.

It is important that we change with the seasons — just as nature does — by adapting our daily habits, yoga practice and food choices.

Ironically, it is only through change that was can stay grounded during this shifting season.

AN AYURVEDIC APPROACH TO AUTUMN

According to Ayurveda, there are three primary doshas, or energies. Just as each person has a dosha that predominates, each season is also dominated by one of the three doshas.

The vata dosha is most prevalent during autumn. Vata governs movement in the body, as well as activating the nervous system and the processes of elimination. The qualities of vata are cold, dry, rough, light, changeable, irregular, and moving. Vata is composed of the elements of air and space. Because of vata’s association with the nervous system, its state is often reflected in our mental health.

With the abundance of vata energy circulating during the autumn season, our bodies and minds can become overwhelmed and out of balance. During this time of year, you may feel unsettled, ungrounded and unstable. But while we cannot change the seasonal weather shifts, we can maintain internal balance by adjusting our lifestyles to counter the predominant vata energy in nature. We do this by incorporating yoga poses, food, and lifestyle choices that naturally hold the opposite qualities of the vata dosha.

5 Autumn YOGA POSES

During autumn, try to schedule your yoga practice at the same time every day and for the same length of time. This will help to build a routine and calm the chaotic vata energy. Do yoga poses that focus on the lungs and large intestines, as these are the two organs associated with the autumn season.

1. Twists: Half Lord of the Fishes Pose, Noose Pose, Revolved Triangle Pose

2. Side Stretches: Revolved Head-to-Knee Pose

3. Backbends: Bow Pose, Bridge Pose, Camel Pose

4. Warrior I Pose and Warrior II Pose

5. Sun Salutations will also warm the body during the chill of autumn

After your practice, enjoy a long Savasana (Corpse Pose) to stabilise the moving energy of vata.

Autumn FOODS AND HERBS

It is important to eat three meals a day, preferably at the same time each day. Try to avoid skipping meals and sporadic grazing, and be sure to sit down while enjoying your food. Like all other lifestyle choices around this time, set a routine around eating.  Here are some insights to help guide your autumn meal plan.

• Eat lots of warm soups.

• Choose foods that are warm, cooked, and moist. Avoid raw veggies and salads, as these are vata provoking.

• Eat two apples a day to aid with elimination.

• Drink warm tea of fresh ginger, cardamom, and cinnamon. This will warm the body and enhance circulation and digestion. If not this tea, aim to drink some kind of warm beverage.

• Eat root vegetables to enhance your connection to the Earth.

• Sweet, salty and sour tastes are calming to vata.

LIFESTYLE CHOICES

• Lights out for bed at 10:00 p.m. Try to get a full eight hours of sleep and awake when the sun rises.

• Consistent, moderate exercise regulates vata’s mobile nature, so make sure to schedule time for physical activity.

• Curb your tendency to talk unnecessarily, and settle into the rejuvenation of silence whenever possible.

• Use a neti pot to help keeps the lungs clear of congestion.

• Apply oils to the skin to keep it moist. This practice, called oleation, reduces the vata emotions of anxiety, depression, fear, and nervousness.

• Commit to a regular meditation practice to assist in quieting, centering and grounding the active vata mind.

• Practice right nostril breathing: Close your left nostril using the ring finger on your right hand. Inhale through your right nostril for 6-8 seconds, then exhale through the same nostril for 5-7 seconds. Repeat for 7-10 rounds, a few times a day. This will enhance the sun energy that helps keep the body warm as the temperature drops.

a New Moon Ritual for you

If connecting to the elemental flow of nature isn’t enough to shift your perspective, our ever present luna moon has her unique cyclical rhythms of influence that she bestows upon us all. Being lovers of ritual coupled with intention, we’d like to share with you how you can harness the power of the New Moon.

The new moon is the birthing phase of the lunar cycle. This metaphysical energy of “new birth” that surrounds us as each new moon darkens the sky, hands us an opportunity to focus our attention on fresh new ideas, ways of being and manifestations we would like to call into our lives.

You might be feeling a void, a space or a gap in your life and you’re not quite sure how to fill it

Maybe you are beginning a new project or path for yourself and you’d like a little say in the vibe it carries

Perhaps you’ve discovered some new ideas or philosophies and you’re not sure how they fit into your life just yet

This is the time to ask our Luna New Moon for some guidance or support.

Setting the scene

A couple of days out leading into the new moon, begin to use your moments in between moments to be with yourself (instead of scrolling) and notice the emotional quality of your life. Naturally, desires and wishes for yourself may begin to surface. If and when they do, notice the emotional quality behind your desires. You might feel the calling to discover a new business idea, but at the core of this desire is to find a sense of purpose and creativity.

This is your New Moon offering or intention.

Basking in the energy of the New Moon

As the new moon arrives (in this case on Saturday) plan to spend some time where you can connect with her. Most people find being in nature the easiest conduit of connection, but do what resonates with you. If being outside in nature isn’t possible due to little humans (who you can absolutely include in this ritual!) or due to other limitations, some ideas could include;

• Having a warm bath with essential oils – our moon is deeply connected to the element of water.

• Reading your kids a story about the moon as they go to bed, holding your New Moon intention in your heart as you do.

• Making a warm cup of tea, with 5 minutes carved out just to focus on your New Moon intention as you lovingly consume it.

Wherever your circumstances find you, allow yourself to firstly come into a state of reverence towards the moon. Physically look up towards her direction if you can to take in the majesty of the night sky. Find yourself coming into a state of gratitude and awe of her magnitude, her influence on the rhythms of natural life – take her all in. 

Next, allow the energy of her to move through you, in whatever shape or form that takes for you in the moment. The new moon holds the qualities of possibility, potential, limitlessness, freshness, opening & wonder, so ask your body to open up to and accept these qualities. You may find yourself simply being in still presence with her, moving your body, crying, laughing or breathing deeply… there really are no limitations.

Handing over your offering to her

From this place of deeper connection with her, bring your offering or intention for this phase of the lunar cycle to mind and heart. Visualise your offering floating out of you and up up up towards the moon till it reaches her and is lovingly held by her. Allow yourself to feel a sense of trust, knowing that your intention may manifest itself in limitless ways, which will be for your highest good. With full surrender, we then say thank you.

During this ritual, include any other rituals that feel like home to you. This could be lighting a candle, lighting incense, sage or using essential oils, moving your body to rhythmic music, singing, repeating a mantra, saying a prayer and so on.

Tools for becoming more in sync with the lunar cycles

By far, the best way to become more in sync with the cycles of the moon is to pay attention to how you feel during her different phases. You can do this easily by downloading a free moon cycle and journaling your thoughts and feelings daily, with a little note next to each journal entry for the corresponding moon phase.

How to cultivate work life balance

The concept of work life balance has shot to glory in recent years, as society moves away from hustle-at-all-costs culture and closer towards something resembling the hallowed concept of balance.

While work life balance is an idyllic goal, we like to keep things realistic and dedicate ourselves towards life juggling—meaning we keep track of what balls we have in the air at once, what ones we can afford to drop and what ones need particular attention.

Here are our top tips to help you juggle it all.

GLASS VS RUBBER BALLS

On the subject of balls in the air, it might be construed as slightly cliché to talk about ex Coca Cola CEO Brian Dyson’s infamous speech on glass vs rubber balls in this context—but we reckon it’s exactly how the ever-important words were intended to be received, and absolutely fundamental to the work-life juggle.

He very famously said “Imagine life as a game in which you are juggling some five balls in the air. You name them – work, family, health, friends and spirit – and you’re keeping all of these in the air. You will soon understand that work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. But the other four balls – family, health, friends and spirit – are made of glass. If you drop one of these, they will be irrevocably scuffed, marked, nicked, damaged or even shattered. They will never be the same. You must understand that and strive for balance in your life.”

So, on that note, perhaps the first question to ask yourself when striving for more balance in your life is, do you treat work as a rubber ball? Or do you treat it as a glass one? We’ll leave that with you…

HAVE DEDICATED TIME OFF

It becomes all-too easy when you’re committed to your career to set flexible boundaries that quickly give way to answering the odd email here, or taking a phone call during family time there.

Having non-negotiable time off is one of the most important ways to juggle work with life, as it keeps work from controlling (read: consuming) your schedule. At Gill & Hooper, we enforce a ‘no emails from 7pm until 7am and on weekends’ rule, where we silence the app from our phones. That means we have to be super intentional if we want to check in on anything. This prevents it becoming habitual and a major drain on our time and energy.

MAKE TIME FOR THINGS THAT FILL YOUR CUP

Whether it’s yoga, a standing coffee date with friends, a gym class or swimming lessons with your little one, it’s so important to set aside plenty of times that refresh and revive you—and bring you back to who you are as a person. Not as a Property Manager, or Sales Associate, or whatever your job is, but as a human with a family and interests and goals that extend beyond the day-to-day workings of your career.

You’ll undoubtedly have heard the saying “you can’t pour from an empty cup”—and understanding this is central to carving out balance in your life. Schedule these cup-filling joys as you would a work meeting, and notice how you begin to feel less overwhelmed as a result.

DEFINE WHAT “ENOUGH” LOOKS LIKE FOR YOU

One of the major realisations that hits when you reach adulthood is that there is always more that can be done. Whether it’s work emails, housework, planning for your side hustle or life admin, the list really, truly never ends.

So getting clear on what constitutes “good enough” for you will help you spend your time wisely—leaving you with more time for variety and balance in your day-to-day. Adding a “must-do” section to your to-do list is a great way of implementing this on a granular level; as it defines your non-negotiable and maps out what your “enough” looks like for that day.

What tips and tricks do you use to juggle the many balls that are life—work, family, friends, interests, hobbies and the rest? Let us know in the comments below!

Yoga whatever the weather

Over the past months, I have noticed a direct correlation between the weather & the number of yoga classes attended. When the rain is coming down by the bucket load the footfall drops dramatically.

How can we take better care of ourselves?

Experience has taught me that these practices do not just magically happen. This is where planning & resolve come into play.

At the very minimum, my daily self-care ritual includes two of the following practices. These are the things that help to keep me on an even keel.

• Meditation

• Yoga movement practice

• Walking

A daily walk is the newest addition.  Not having a car meant that I walked to teach, to the supermarket & for pleasure. On returning to Manchester earlier this year, the switch to driving more & walking less happened immediately. It was only when I stopped that I realised how much I enjoy walking. The fresh air. The exercise. The time to think. The time not to think.

“There’s no such thing as bad weather, only unsuitable clothing.” – Alfred Wainwright, A Coast to Coast Walk –

As I type, my jeans are damp & my hair is wet. I have just returned from a walk. It was raining when I left & raining when I got back. I can (& have) used weather as an excuse not to go out but I know I will feel better for it. The benefits will be felt long after I have dried out.

Resistance comes in all shapes & forms

Too tired. Too wet. Too hungry. Too busy. Too cold. Needed by a partner/children/friend/dog/cat. Valid reasons perhaps but most likely they are driven by the pressure to be busy & purposeful. Taking time for ourselves is not a priority.

“We hold those who are on the tightest of schedules in reverence; the busier you are, the higher your status as a human being.” – Ruby Wax, Sane New World: Taming the Mind –

Contrary to common belief, busyness is not a virtue. Overwork and the accompanying stress and exhaustion can make us less productive, disorganised, and emotionally depleted. Self-care habits can reduce the toxic effects of stress by improving our mood and boosting our energy and confidence levels. This is what we need to remind ourselves of when the excuse gremlin tries to sabotage our wellbeing plans!

Life has a habit of getting in the way of yoga

I never tire of students telling me how good they feel after a class. This happens most frequently when they return to yoga after a hiatus of a few weeks or months. There is a renewed impetus to attend regular classes, to go on a retreat, or to begin a self-led practice. The buzz is tangible, yet the momentum can be lost when the bar is raised too high.

My advice is to start small and a quick Google search revealed that all the experts say this too! If you want to have a regular yoga practice, begin with one session per week. Sow the seed of intention and find a class at a time & location that works for you. Set the intention in black & white by adding it to your schedule. If possible, book or pay for a class in advance and strengthen your intention. Prepare for the class the evening before so you have everything ready, renew your resolve to go whatever the weather.

5 Ways Meditation Makes Us Better at Yoga

Meditation. Yoga. The two go together like Batman & Robin (though with less capes… usually).

As spiritual health practices that have both found popularity in the West over the past 50 years, we tend to lump yoga and meditation together. Whenever we read of one, the other usually isn’t far behind. And when we’re shopping for yoga pants it’s no surprise to see a meditation mala in the vicinity. 

Yet despite the obvious correlation between yoga and meditation, there are still countless people who do one or the other and not both.

Big mistake. 

Yoga makes you better at meditation because it creates a relaxed body that is conducive to a relaxed mind. Not to mention, it also makes it far easier to get into lotus position without feeling like your legs are going to snap in two. And meditation makes us better at yoga in five key ways. Let’s take a look.

How meditation makes us better at yoga

1. Meditation helps us focus on asanas

When we’re practicing yoga, we are, of course, exercising the body. But we ought to be exercising the mind at the same time.

Every time we place the body in an asana (pose), we should be focusing on that pose. By focusing the mind on the body while in a pose, we experience the asana in full. Yoga asanas offer many mental health benefits, but in order to glean those benefits, we have to actually focus on what we are doing. 

Sadly, many people don’t leave their thoughts and distractions at the yoga studio door. And so they are not able to focus on the yoga.  Meditation is well known to improve focus and concentration. And because of this, it makes it easier to focus the mind on the body when we enter a yoga pose. The result is complete mind-body immersion in the asana.

2. Meditation lowers oxygen consumption

One of the lesser-known benefits of meditation is that it changes the way the body uses oxygen.

Scientific research shows that meditation lowers oxygen consumption rate by 10%. This means that we are more able to control the breath during and after meditation. This is a game-changer for anyone who gets short of breath when practicing yoga. If that’s you, try meditating before doing yoga, and during your yoga session, take a few moments here and there to practice mindful breathing. This will help regulate the breath.

Not only does this help us practice yoga for longer, it also gives us more control of pranayama. 

3. Meditation helps you to discover the philosophical aspects of yoga

While most yoga studios these days are more concerned with physical exercise than philosophy, historically yoga has been about both. If you want to truly embrace the yogic lifestyle, you have to get in touch with the philosophical side. Meditation can help.

The yogic system itself includes many meditations, such as Trataka (Still Gazing), chakra meditations mantras, and sound meditations (Nada Yoga). Not only do these meditation techniques help train the mind, they also prepare the mind-body for more advanced stages of yoga. After all, it’s hard to truly experience Pungu Mayurasana  (Wounded Peacock Posture) while you’re worrying about that business meeting.

4. Get too sweaty doing hot yoga? Meditation will help

Anyone who practices Bikram (hot yoga) knows what it’s like to sweat a little too much. But meditation can change that.

We get sweaty when our body temperature rises. But meditation reduces heart rate and blood pressure, and this cools down the body and thereby reduces sweating.So if you’re worried you might be a little hot, sweaty and, yes, smelly when you’re doing hot yoga, try meditating.

5. Meditation improves balance 

Feel a little wobbly in Warrior III? Meditation will change that, at least according to one scientific study. 

Ying Kee, PhD, and his colleagues at the Nanyang Technological University’s National Institute of Education took 32 men and split them into two groups. Kee made both groups stand on one leg while holding a basin of water.   While they were doing this, Kee asked one group to be mindful of their hands, while the other group were allowed to think of anything they liked. Kee then tested the balance of members of both groups.

The results showed that being mindful of the body increases balance, where thinking about something other than what we’re doing will actually lower our balance.

So, if you want to stay in an asana for longer, be mindful of your body while you’re in the pose.

Anyone who is serious about getting better at yoga should embrace both the physical and the mental exercises. And of the latter, meditation is the most important.

By practicing meditation not only do we embrace more of the yogic lifestyle, we also prepare the mind for success in the yoga studio. The benefits of meditation are significant, and they are invaluable when it comes to improving our yoga practice.

If you’ve been doing the physical side of yoga without practicing meditation, perhaps it’s time for that to change.

How to Build Strength with Your Yoga Practice

When people think about yoga, strength isn’t always the first thing that comes to mind. But this doesn’t mean it can’t or shouldn’t be a part of your practice!

Traditional asana practices often feature long holds (which build endurance) and passive stretching (which increases passive flexibility). However, as yoga evolves we’re seeing a shift towards building power and increasing active flexibility through dynamic movement. Perhaps the most distinct shift is the strength that yogis are now cultivating. This is partly spearheaded by yogi’s bringing in lessons and knowledge from other athletic disciplines such as dance, martial arts, and calisthenics. 

The physical practice of yoga is actually quite well-suited for strength building for two reasons. The first is that it utilises repetition  When we repeat a motion, whether it be a Chaturanga or Warrior II, we progressively fatigue our muscles which allows them to grow back stronger. Secondly, each posture in yoga has numerous modifications that allow us to make it easier or more difficult. Therefore, as yogis build strength, it’s easy to find more demanding and difficult progressions that will allow us to continue that growth. By utilising reputation and adaptation, we’re able to achieve the principal of progressive overhead (i.e. increasing demand on the musculoskeletal system to gain strength, size, and endurance) just as we would in any other athletic discipline.

However, gaining strength in yoga requires us to actually incorporate principles from exercise science into our approach to structuring our yoga practice. So let’s discuss how learnings from gymnastics and strength training can help us create yoga flows that build strength (and allow us to master fun new skills). 

The Science

To very quickly summarise (before we get into what it all actually means) –– to gain strength with yoga, we first need to think about how strength is built. Let’s try and simplify this as much as possible. 

Exercise science tells us that strength is equal to neural adaptations –– how our body responds to stimulus, plus cross sectional muscle growth –– the size of our muscles. The former is more influential on our overall strength. When talking about neural adaptations, we can think in terms of motor units (motor neurons sent by the brain to the muscles), and the type of muscle fibers being activated. The two ends of the motor unit spectrum are Low Threshold Motor Units (LTMUs) and High Threshold Motor Units (HTMUs). LTMUs correspond with slow twitch, endurance focused muscle fibers and take a weaker electrochemical brain signal to activate. HTMUs correspond with strength and power. These innervate fast twitch muscle fibers and are activated by a higher-intensity electrical impulse in the brain. Put simply, this means that if we want to gain strength (and nail that press to handstand), we need enough stress to activate HTMUs and fast twitch muscle fibers. Still with me? Great, let’s get started!

Putting this into practice

First, let’s get this out of the way–-building strength will not make you overly muscular or necessarily decrease your flexibility (unless you’re exclusively tossing barbells overhead in the weight room). So get that powerlifter image out of your head, and think more about the lean and muscular physique of a gymnast or circus performer. 

So how do we do it? And how will this be different than how yoga is usually practiced? Here are a few ideas? 

1) Begin with a warm-up.

The idea behind this approach is that part of your strength-based yoga practice is going to be putting a heavier-than-usual stress on the body, which means it’s essential to warm up thoroughly without wasting energy or exhausting yourself.

2) Do some skill-based work first.

Trying to nail Eka Pada Bakasana (one-legged crow) or a freestanding handstand? Do it after your warm-up. This is going to be the time when you have the most energy and focus to work on skill-based movements. In yoga, we often put these challenging positions as peak poses at the end of a practice. While not necessarily harmful, this doesn’t allow us to approach them with our full ability since we’re often already exhausted. 

Please note that there are two exceptions to this approach. Firstly, if you’re working on drills to support difficult postures (i.e. handstand holds against the wall, etc.), do that after your skill work. Secondly, if you’re working on positions that mainly require flexibility (as opposed to strength or balance), place these later in practice once you’ve spent more time opening up.

3) Add some strength-based work early on.

After warming up and working skills, now is the time for your strength work. One of the best ways to do this is with a short but challenging (think very challenging) flow that you can repeat 1-3 times. After each repetition of the flow, take a long rest in Childs pose. Make the difficulty of this mini-flow match your (or your students) level, while throwing in one or two “reach” movements or postures. You/they will eventually adapt to the challenge.

4) Move through the rest of your regular practice AFTER strength work.

After having used your maximum strength in your mini-flow, feel free to move through the rest of your practice as you usually would. This could focus on more dynamic movement, slow endurance-focused postures, breath work, or whatever other priorities you have. 

5) End with additional mobility and flexibility work.

Since you’re putting an extra level of stress on the body during your difficult strength-focused flow, be sure to end by giving those parts of the body a little extra love. If you were hand-balancing, open up the wrist joints. If you were working the core, take some time in Sphinx pose. The extra work means you’ll need a little extra cool down to assure that you’re able to avoid injury and keep up with your practice. 

Yogi’s are able to accomplish some amazing feats. But to do so, we have to be experimental and scientific about our approach to practice. Part of this should be drawing on what we know from other disciplines. Gaining strength in yoga isn’t difficult. However, it does require us to structure our flows so that we explicitly perform strength-focused movement at the right times, while using repetition, and adapting to use progressively harder variations of each posture as we grow.