As Timonthy McCall, the author of “Yoga as Medicine: The Yogic Prescription for Health and Healing”, reminds us in his Foreward to the recently-published “Yoga for Mental Health”, the ancient formula for success in yoga, is regular practice without interruption over a long period of time. And the best way to encourage improvements in health and well-being is to practice yoga daily, even if it is just for a few minutes. Longer yoga sessions of one or two hours for once or twice a week just do not seem to have the same effect at bringing lasting change to our bodies and minds. The way we think and negative thoughts can become deeply entrenched in our minds, like grooves made by wheels on a muddy track ….. These deeply seated patterns of thought and habits are called samskaras in yoga and the wonderful thing that research has shown, is that the neuroplasticity of the brain allows us to change these habits, whether they be things we do or the thought patterns that we have – and yoga practices can help us to do just this, along with giving us a stronger and more flexible body!!

I find that not thinking too deeply about which postures to do works the best. Just getting myself onto the mat on a daily basis, no matter for how long, and then feeling into my body and just moving intuitively works well. Having a routine to follow that is generally the same each day helps and then if I have a back or shoulder that is telling me it needs a little more attention, then I can just throw a suitable posture into the flow.

In the classes I teach each week, I tend to follow the same flow of postures for several sessions, so that we don’t have to think about what we are doing …. So that we can let go of our thoughts and minds and just move with the breath in a meditative way. We can begin, over time, to lose the fluctuations of the mind … the patterns of thought and behaviour that so often challenge us in our everyday lives and we can allow ourselves to find a stillness and peace which comes more readily, the more we practice.

This week there are sessions tomorrow at 10 am and Thursday at 5.50pm with drop-in spaces available…. Just send me a text or email if you would like to join us ….