Indian adventures and springtime similarities

I have just returned from an Easter break to Kerala with my family. We could only stay for four nights, but it was the perfect introduction for my 7 year old son and husband to this amazing, beautiful and crazy country.  It makes me smile that India is an affordable mini-break destination for us now that we are based in the Middle East, and I already have another trip booked to explore Jaipur in May.  It's certainly not somewhere I could imagine us ever considering as a destination for a family holiday when we lived in the UK but I'm so glad we have been given the opportunity to explore and learn from our experiences travelling here.

Kerala is a gorgeous part of the country, filled with coconut palms, rice paddies and peaceful backwater canals.  It is also heavily influenced by its long history of 'visitors' from foreign fields.  Fort Kochi in Cochin is a unique blend of crumbling Dutch warehouses, Christian churches, Shrines, Mosques, Jewish synagogues, Chinese fishing nets and shops filled with Hindu antiques and local fabrics and treasures.  It hadn't occurred to me that Easter would be being observed there, so it was with some surprise that we discovered on Good Friday that the churches were packed but the palaces, museums and many of the shops were closed and there was no cooling beer to be had anywhere!  This unique melting pot, known as "God's Own Country' may have developed with many struggles and difficulties on the way, but it has left something quite beautiful and inspiring in its place.

We are very lucky to be able to take our son to a place which not only highlights how privileged he is, but also that no matter how many differences he can perceive in how people look and live, what's really important are the similarities.  The children who waved at him from the side of the river or played cricket with him in the park may not have a room full of expensive gadgets and books like him, but they have the same smile and the same dreams and ambitions.  We live our lives in a protected and affluent part of the Middle East, but what is important to me is that he goes to school with people from around the world with different backgrounds, languages, cultures and beliefs.  He has many friends, and when they fall out it is not because of where they are from, the colour of their skin or who they worship.  With everything that has happened across the world so far this year, and the fear and anger that is generated on all sides by such terrible actions, my main hope remains that my son will grow up to see a world where there will always be more similarities then differences.

Yesterday when I was contemplating about what to write in my blog this month, I opened a book of daily meditations by Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov which was gifted to me by my teachers at the end of my yoga training. The entry for 30th March inspired me to share these thoughts and the words seemed so appropriate for the difficult world we live in, that I decided I would share them here too:

"If some people do not want to make the effort to be in harmony with others, it is because they fear being absorbed by the community.  No, every person is a separate individual, but while still maintaining their own character, their particular way of being, they must work for unity.  Look at the cells of the body: they are not identical, and they do not fulfil the same functions.  A cell of the heart is not a cell of the stomach; each retains its individual nature.  But the similarities and connections between them create a state of harmony we call health. Is that so difficult to understand?

We do not have to ask a black person to become white, a Muslim or a Buddhist to become a Christian.  In the past, Christianity sent missionaries to convert people all over the world, and with what violent and tragic consequences! All believers, like all human beings, must keep their particular characteristics, their differences, but at the same time establish fraternal links, through which they create unity."

Me with my new Keralan friends outside the Jewish synagogue in Cochin on Good Friday.

Jamie being taught how to play cricket by the locals. The Indian cricket team has nothing to fear for the future!

An Annual Review

This month I have been lucky enough to put the intentions I laid out in my last blog post into practice and spend some time away from home for a week of ashtanga yoga with Mark Robberds in Dubai.  Every time I make the space in my life to focus on my own practice and personal development I wonder why I left it so long since the last time.  The answer is obviously because life doesn't really work that way and before you blink you are back into the old routine, racing along on the same treadmill.  This time, however, I've taken precautions to try and make sure that things work out differently.

Whilst I was away, I read a book that was recommended to me during my teacher training, but which I then totally ignored for a couple of years.  It's called 'Your Best Year Yet' by Jinny Ditzle and it outlines a programme, made up of 10 simple questions, to help you review the achievements and disappointments of your last 12 months and put a simple plan in place with targets for the year ahead.  I'm not a big 'self-help' book fan, but I really enjoyed this process and would highly recommend it.

The premise is that you could carry out the plan in just 3 hours, but I chose to do it over a couple of afternoons (since I was lucky enough to have that luxury). As I worked through the questions, it reminded me of the apprasisal process you go through at work each year, and I thought it made perfect sense to apply that model to our personal lives, with the added benefit that your 'appraisal' will only be used to make the business of being 'you' more profitable.  I wondered, why we don't monitor and reflect on our performance in life each year, bask in our glories and learn from our mistakes, rather than rushing headlong into another 12 months of stress and frustration?  We know it helps to keep us motivated and improve our performance at work, so of course we should do it with the things in our lives which are of more importance.

By working through the questions you end up with a one page plan, that gives you a set of guidelines reflecting your beliefs and 10 clear 'goals' for the year ahead linked to your priorities for personal change and development.  Ditzle recommends that when you are finished, you should pin it up somewhere and read it every week to remind you of your focus.  Better yet, you should share your plan with your loved ones or a friend, so you have the motivation to keep on track (hence this blog post!). You then spend a little time each week breaking those big goals into smaller tasks and activities, so that when you get to the end of the year and look back, all of those things that seemed like impossible dreams have at least been attempted or moved towards, rather than growing dusty in the back of our minds.

I complained in my last blog that I was feeling a bit directionless and this process has really helped me.  If nothing else, making the effort to look back on what you have achieved, is an uplifting process which I am trying to apply to my yoga practice too.  So often we get caught up in what we can't do, believing that things are impossible for us for one reason or another, but failing to recognise how far we have come.  If I never do the perfect backbend, or bind in kurmasana will it really matter? Of course not, but every time I get on the mat and create a millimetere more space, I am opening myself up to more change and improvement in my body and mind and I should be proud of the distance I have travelled, not comparing my progress to everyone else.  The week of yoga taught me that, as I huffed and puffed and cursed in a room full of talented yogis who all seemed so much stronger, flexible and 'together' than me, but of course I know nothing of their journey and how far they have come.

I'm ready to get back on with the next stage of my own life adventure, and I have a rough idea now of what steps I'm going to put in place to help me along the way in 2016. There will no doubt be many curveballs ahead to make me swerve off my path, but as in the business world, I'm hoping that my annual self-appraisal will make me better equipped to deal with them.

Me and the Ashtanga Yoga Dubai crew with the amazingly talented Mark Robberds.

2016 already?

It appears that another year has passed by and we are already racing through a new one. It doesn't really seem possible and I am left with a slightly dazed and confused feeling about what I actually achieved in 2015.  I certainly didn't manage to find any time in the last 6 months to update my blog! Before the same happens in 2016, I'm trying to take a little time out for planning and reflection before diving back in to the daily routine, but this only seems to be creating a slight sense of anxiety that I've been muddling through life without focus for too long. I'm also trying to find some time to renew my inspiration for yoga. Don't get me wrong, I still love it every time I step on the mat, but it's been 2 years since I qualified now and I am feeling in need of a boost. I guess I'm sharing this because it highlights to me that yoga, like life, is a journey that has ups and downs, moments of triumph, moments of failure, laughter, tears, pain and pleasure. It is not perfect, even if the carefully selected pictures on Instagram make it seem that way! 

Perhaps I am spoilt, and need to live more in the moment. I am certainly aware of how lucky I am, and how churlish it seems to find things to complain about in my life. When I was at university a boyfriend told me once during an argument that I would never be happy, because the minute I had achieved something, I was dissatisfied with it and looking forward to the next problem, predicting a set-back or setting out to achieve something new. It hurt at the time, sometimes it still does, but it is a part of myself that I try to manage positively now. Without goals and without taking action every day to achieve them, I feel flat, dissatisfied and unfocused, so I know it is important for me to take the time to address this. However, it needs to be balanced with enjoying the moment and forcing myself not to constantly push on to the next idea or project the moment that it occurs to me. 

Yoga has helped me a great deal with this, and I am committed to keeping it that way. I live in fear of slipping back entirely into self-destructive old habits, rather than keeping sight of what makes me tick and how to manage it. The space for reflection and self-realisation that yoga gives you, can be the first step towards accepting who you are and expose both the confines and potential of your personality, enabling you to get the best out of life. That's why I need to make sure further study and the development of my own practice remains a priority. 

That said, I fully expect to make the same mistakes as last year and end up over-committing, rushing around, saying yes to everything, being constantly late and ending up stressed and frazzled, feeling disappointed when it all goes wrong and taking these frustrations out on others. But just maybe, if I can continue working on finding the positives out of these traits and finding ways to use them to my advantage, 2016 will turn into the happiest year yet.

Homeward bound

So I am just about to pack up and head home to the UK for the summer.  It has been over 40 degrees for the last week of the school run, so it is safe to say that I am more than ready to go back to Blighty for a little light drizzle.  I honestly can't wait to spend some time with friends and family, take advantage of the long hours of sunlight, drop in to some of my favourite yoga classes, browse the aisles of familiar supermarkets and slowly eat my way through all the food I have missed.  However, I will also miss my new home from home here and know I will be glad to return. 

I have learnt a lot in the past 12 months about my practice, my values and my preconceptions which have been challenged on a daily basis.  Living in a multi cultural society opens up your eyes to so many new worlds.  I have met some wonderful people, made many firm friends and have already had to say goodbye to some of them.  The life of an ex pat is a transient one, but I will have to learn to be happy for the time we have spent together and not be too sad when people leave again.  

It has also been a joy to build up my yoga classes here and share my love of the practice with people from so many different backgrounds.  I have grown a lot as a teacher and had many laughs along the way.  I have also met some very inspiring and lovely teachers and I feel very blessed to be part of this growing community of awesome Abu Dhabi yogis. 

Namaste to each and every one of you.  You are all amazing.

Keep practising over the summer and I look forward to rolling out our mats again together in September.

X

The Heat Is On!

Welcome to the season of fire! With temperatures set to peak in the high 40s here this week it certainly feels like a furnace.  I have now been in Abu Dhabi for a full year, and whereas in Scotland, June was filled with anticipation for some long, warm days ahead, here it feels like we are all waiting for a chance to escape. There are just a few more weeks until Ramadan, then it's the school holidays, and then all the talk is about what jet plane we are leaving on.  Of course, some of my fellow economic migrants will not be as lucky as me and my heart goes out to anyone who has to work outside all summer in this baking heat, especially if they are fasting.  Even with shorter working hours this would be an extreme test of human endurance. So over the next few weeks, as I try and keep my internal fire (tapas) under control, and keep a lid on my frayed temper after a long year of living in this beautiful, challenging, strange world, I will open up my heart and send out some gratitude to all the people that make it possible for me to be here.

So how can we use our seasonal yoga practice to help with this? Cardio-vascular exercise is great in the summertime to get the heart pumping, but try to avoid burn out and exhaustion by doing your exercise in the morning when the internal and external temperature is cooler.  A practice with order or routine is good for keeping us calm and grounded, so the balance of discipline and power that you get with Ashtanga yoga is ideal. Try to include lots of heart opening poses and back bends in your practice too, as well as arm balances to stimulate the heart and small intestine meridians that run up and down the arms and shoulders.  Ustrasana (camel), Camatkarasana (wild thing, see below), Anahatasana (puppy), Threading the needle, Upward Facing Dog, Dhanurasana (bow) and Bakasana (crow) variations are all ideal challenging, energising and fun postures to get you laughing and sweating.  At the end of each session, take your hands to your heart centre (Anahata chakra) in Namaste and spend a few moments focused on letting in love and light, then send that love out to your friends, family, neighbours and the wider world.

Take rest in the day time when you can and cool the bodies internal temperature by including as much raw food in the diet as possible. Seasonal salads and juices with heat reducing foods like celery, lettuce, kale, cucumber, lemon, watermelon, mint and aubergine are ideal. All sounds pretty Middle Eastern to me - suddenly that Fattoush and Babaganoush makes sense! I am also currently obsessed with my new nutri-bullet which makes awesome raw smoothies and fills my tummy when I know I need energy but don't feel like eating in the heat.

If you're trapped inside in the air conditioning, nip to the nearest mall and buy an oil diffuser and some oils like rose, rosemary & ylang ylang to calm, balance and fill the heart with joy. The steam from the diffuser will also help humidify the dry air.

Finally, live like a local and save your socialising for the evening!  Summer is a time for laughter, joy, friends and family. Don't lock yourself away waiting for that plane, but wait till the sun sets, gather the people you won't see again until the autumn and laugh about all your adventures over the last few months. Then when we do leave we will do so with a full heart, looking forward to our return almost as much as we are looking forward to our departure.

Key Seasonal Points:

Season - Summer
Dates -  21st June -20th August
Organs - Heart & Small Intestine
Colour - Red
Element - Fire

Chakra - Anahata (heart)

Pranayama - Kapalabati (to build heat) or Shitalli/Seetkarin (to cool)

For more information on Seasonal Yoga check out Energy in Season: 5 Keys to Vitality by the amazing and inspirational Susan Woodd and Julie Hanson.

Early summer already?

So the first school run after the spring holiday here this week was in 42 degree heat, which made me think that perhaps I had better hurry the whole seasonal yoga thing on a bit and take the spring flow forward into early summer before we all melt away entirely. I've spent the last few days cleaning up my act on a mini detox, taking part in an Instagram April detoxing posture challenge and ignoring the leftover Easter chocolate, and now I feel ready to get started with the new challenges of the season, even if it is a little too much too soon for my liking.

Soak up the early summer heat.

This transitional time of year builds on the spring stretches and twists, holding them for longer, and bringing in more repetition to develop flexibility and work deeper into the muscles and connective tissues (fascia).  It also starts the preparations for summer by introducing more movement and back bending to the flow in order to build heat and stimulate the heart.  Finally, we focus on hip openers (pigeon variations, fire log pose, lizard, happy baby etc.) to help us connect with our emotions and release any tensions we have been storing away down there.  In each posture we focus on taking the stretch from the centre, right out to the tips of our fingers before re-gathering our energy back in.  For example, try flowing from Garudasana (eagle pose) to Virabadrasana (Warrior) 2 then back to Samastitihi.  Like this movement, the season should be a beautiful balance of energising effort and gathering in, using the internal strength we have cultivated to help us to put all the plans we have made for the year into action.

You can see a short video of some of these postures that you could combine with a few sun salutations each morning for the perfect mini early summer flow here:

MLH Yoga - early summer

Diet should continue to focus on detoxing, building in more raw foods and juices and keeping meals crisp and light. As always look for what is seasonal, even if it has been flown in from afar.

Early summer is also a time for socialising, joy and laughter, which suits the outgoing side of my personality perfectly.  In Abu Dhabi there is a real feeling of making hay whilst the sun shines (but not too much) as we are all aware that our days outside are numbered and soon the stifling desert heat will trap us back in a state of air conditioned exhaustion.  In the mean time stretch, flex, breathe & smile! 

Key Seasonal Points:

Season - early summer
Dates - 21st May - 21st June
Organs - Pericardium, Triple Heater & Connective Tissue (Fascia)
Colour - pink
Element - early fire

For more information on Seasonal Yoga check out Energy in Season: 5 Keys to Vitality by the amazing and inspirational Susan Woodd and Julie Hanson.

An Arabic Spring

Things have been feeling spring-like here for the last couple of weeks, so although officially the grass doesn't riz till the 21st March I've decided to get started early.  It actually reminds me of springtime at home.  There is a cool breeze blowing and there have even been a couple of showers here and there. In between the dusty sandstorms that signal the change of season the sun is shining, the air is clean and fresh and it's lovely, but I know that the days are warming up and it won't be long now before the brain melting heat returns so it's time to stretch out my limbs and detoxify as much of my life as possible whilst the going is good.  Here's my plan...

My spring yoga practice will be focused on grounding through the feet but keeping things flexible in the upper body with lots of side stretches and twists. In spring seasonal yoga focuses on cleansing out the liver and the gall-bladder.  The meridians for these organs run up and down the side of the body and inner leg.  Great postures to build into the practice to stimulate these channels include horse stance, side plank, triangle, revolved triangle, half lord of the fishes pose and wide angled forward fold to stretch the legs, wring out the internal organs and narrow the waist.  The liver and gall-bladder also connect to the eyes, so pay attention to your dristi points and build more balances into your practice.  Tree pose (vikrasana) is the perfect asana for connecting with the wood energy of Spring - grounding the standing leg for strong roots, stimulating the liver meridian by pushing the foot into the side of the leg, engaging uddiyana bandha to narrow the waist, lifting the chest to keep the upper body light, long and flexible and fixing your gaze to stimulate the eyes (and stop yourself from falling over!)

Time to make like a tree.

I'm also spending as much time as possible outside whilst I can and making an effort to try new things.  A walk along the sea-front, yoga on the balcony, camping, I've even tried my hand, or rather balance, at stand-up paddle boarding which I absolutely loved.  Whatever you do, set yourself a new challenge, feel the wind in your hair and the sun on your face and enjoy the rewards.

The other big theme of spring is detox, so I'll be focusing on a different area of my life each week to try and de-clutter and clean up my act as follows:

Week 1: the physical body. Have a home spa day with a detoxing bath and body scrub. Light some candles, burn some cleansing essential oils - grapefruit is a great one. Book a massage to get rid of your toxins and enjoy yourself. Spend some time in a steam room or sauna, use natural paraben-free beauty products on your skin. Remind yourself that detoxing can actually be quite nice!

Week 2: your surroundings. Don't fight the urge to spring clean, embrace it! Your Granny was right, a tidy house does equal a tidy mind.  I've already cleaned out my wardrobe, and by next week hope to be strong enough to tackle the kitchen cupboards! Do it bit by bit and it's not too awful and you will automatically feel less cluttered and stressed ready to get started on all your plans.  

Week 3: goal setting.  What do you want to achieve this year? Write a list, create a mood board, start a journal to track your progress, whatever works for you. Dream big or think small, whatever you would like to change in your life spend time pondering it and put some steps in place that will help you get a little bit closer to your goals in the year ahead.

Week 4: diet.  Throughout the month I will be trying to cut back on all things toxic and eating more vegetarian meals with plenty of spring greens. Caffeine, refined sugar, alcohol are all on my list of things to have less of and at the end of the month I'll go the extra mile and fully clean up my act for the whole week.  There are plenty of detox plans out there that you can follow but my advice would be build up to it, be sensible, don't expect miracles, and pick a regime that you will have a hope of enjoying.  You may feel rubbish for the first couple of days, but by the end you will feel great.  

Easy peasy.  By the end of the season I hope to be eating better, feeling better, looking better, sleeping better and generally have more energy and focus.  What's not to love about spring-time?

Key Seasonal Points:

Season - spring
Dates - 21st March - 21st May
Organs - Liver & gall-bladder
Colour - green
Element - wood

For more information on Seasonal Yoga check out Energy in Season: 5 Keys to Vitality by the amazing and inspirational Susan Woodd and Julie Hanson.