Summer in the Global Village

Sunshine on Loch Lomond

Time to settle back into life in Abu Dhabi after our third summer back home in the UK.  One of the strange parts of this semi-nomadic existence is never quite being sure where 'home' actually is.  At the start of the summer I was very downhearted about going back to a post-Brexit Britain.  I wanted to see my friends and family and shop in the M&S food hall, but the idea of living out of my suitcase again for five weeks in a country that seemed to bare no recognition to the one I had left behind, did not fill me with joy.  However, after spending all of July where the grass was literally if not figuratively greener, I did not want to come back to our Abu Dhabi 'home' again either.  We had so much fun catching up with people, sitting in sunny gardens, walking through rainy forests, playing on windy beaches, competing in endless rounds of crazy golf, catching crabs and eating our favourite foods in our favourite places.  It felt like there was a lot to leave behind.

Finding NEMO

To lessen the blow on the journey back, we decided to take advantage of having to change flights in Amsterdam and spent a lovely 24 hours, floating down the canals and sitting in pavement cafes watching the world go by.  We also decided to make a trip to the science museum NEMO which my son loved.  We only had an hour until closing time so we were on a mission to test as many of the exhibits as possible, but who should we bump into on the third floor then our neighbour from our apartment block in Abu Dhabi.  They had popped over from the UK to visit their sister and just happened to be in the same place as us at the same time.  Earlier in the holiday I had also run into one of the other Mum's from the Abu Dhabi school run whilst queueing up to get into a forest park in Norfolk.  This week I found out that someone I used to go to school with in Shropshire lives in the same northern seaside town as my old flatmate from Leeds and that their kids are in the same year at school.  The world is full of these strange co-incidences and when you open your eyes to them they occur with freakish regularity.

I don't know if it is the universe trying to tell me something, or if there is a fancy statistical calculation that can explain such seemingly random coincidences scientifically, but I do know that it reminded me about why I love living here and am grateful for the opportunity it has given me to explore a new part of the world and meet new people from all over the place.  You never know when you are going to bump into someone again, or how or why your paths may cross, but it makes me happy to think that the world is really just a big village and no matter where I am I'm not far away from someone who will make me a cup of tea, give me a hug or let me use their washing machine in an emergency situation!

We've been back for just over a week now, and I have restarted my yoga classes, put the suitcases away and re-filled the kitchen cupboards in an attempt to get back to normal life.  Then slowly other people have started to return and my feelings of being homesick have disappeared.  When I bumped into two friends in the mall on Saturday (I'd nipped into the Apple store to price something up in between breakfast with friends and a much needed trip to the hairdressers), I embraced the coincidence, stopped for a chat and reminded myself that it is people that make places and luckily there are always lots of lovely ones about if you keep an eye out for them.

Back to yoga business

10 ways to spring detox without going near a juicer!

Spring is the time for fresh starts and getting rid of anything toxic in our life. I love a good juice cleanse from time to time, but there are other, just as important and effective ways of clearing out the bad stuff and letting the good stuff in.  Here are some top tips on how to detox without stepping foot in the gym or blowing all your wages at the organic fruit and veg market:

1. Meditate for 5 minutes.  You don't need to get into lotus, or start chanting, unless of course that's your thing! Just sit quietly and comfortably, keeping your spine as straight as possible, and focus on the natural rhythm of your breathing. Clearing out the clutter in the mind, especially at the start and end of the day, is the best way to refocus on our intentions and set the tone for the day ahead.

2. Swap your morning cuppa for hot water & lemon.  This alkalises the body and kick starts your metabolism before you even get to the cereal cupboard.  I never thought I would be able to get out of bed without a cup of tea, but this does the trick for me and I no longer crave my morning caffeine fix.

3. Have a long soak in the tub.  Make your own detoxing soak by adding a cup of epsom salts or bicarbonate of soda to your bath water, with a few drops of your favourite essential oil. Lie back and relax until you start to turn wrinkly, then wash yourself with soap and step out of your pleasingly murky bath full of all the toxins you've released from the skin.

4. Get rid of parabens.  Swap your usual beauty products for brands that are paraben free and stop rubbing extra toxins into your hair and body.  My favourite brands are Dead Sea Spa Magik (available in Holland & Barrett), Doterra and Neil's Yard.

5. Make your exercise count and make it fun.  If you're feeling motivated to exercise, then do it in the morning when the liver is most receptive to working hard and flushing out those toxins.  Make it something you enjoy (I'm loving spending 5 minutes with my hula-hoop each day to slim the waistline, and whizzing about on my rollerblades or bike like a big kid) and if possible, get outside so you're getting some fresh air at the same time as your cardio too.

6. Make your home sweet smelling.  Fill a vase with some spring flowers or diffuse some detoxifying essential oils around the home. Grapefruit, lime and lavender are great.

7.  Have a good clean out.  Tidy house, tidy mind!  Get rid of all the old clothes that you no longer wear or no longer fit, and give them to someone who will appreciate them. Chuck out anything suspicious lying in the back of the fridge, tidy out a drawer or tackle the ever growing pile of paper on the side of the desk/chair/kitchen counter/bedside table etc. You'll feel instantly better and satisfyingly smug.

8. Scrape your tongue when you wake up. Love this one for getting rid of bacteria and morning breath. You can use the back of your toothbrush, the edge of a teaspoon, or even buy your very own specialised tongue scraping implement from the internet. Marvel at how gross your tongue is, feel pleased that you have done something about it, then get on with the rest of your day.

9. Bring in the new! Have something new that you've always wanted to try but never got round to it? Have a plan for a new business? Want to make friends with the nice person you keep bumping into on the school run? Now is the time to do it. Stop procrastinating, sit down and write down a few goals for your personal or professional life, and do something right away to get them started.

10. Walk past the biscuit aisle. If you don't see them, you won't buy them. If they're not in the cupboard you can't eat them. Simple. If you feel like doing more, then do. If you want to go full detox, now is the time. But if you haven't eaten a full packet of chocolate hobnobs* in front of Netflix the night before, you don't have to feel guilty about that tiny biscuit you get on the side of your coffee (sorry... herbal tea) when you meet up with that new friend you've made.

I'm no spring angel, but doing a few of these things over the course of the season, really helps me to stay motivated and feel a whole lot better in my body and mind.  Give them a go.

p.s. I bet you'll start eating healthier too!

*Please insert your own personal downfall here.

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.