Should Yoga be Competitive?

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competitive yoga, philosophy yoga, positive yoga, yoga competition, yoga habit change, yoga mindfulness, Yoga With Paul

I read an interesting blog the other day about competitive yoga: “Oxymoron, abomination, or just a thing?” it asked.

Strive for unity, not competion

The competitive side of yoga

It got me thinking about what yoga means, what competition means and whether the two are compatible.

Yoga, literally, means unity — which doesn’t sound very competitive. In fact, it sounds like the opposite of competition, which is a struggle between two opposites.

On the other hand, when two contrasting things meet and engage — or compete — there is an opportunity for them to influence each other. Perhaps, in the end, for unity.

Without getting too philosophical, I think there is a way in which yoga guides, or encourages us to compete with certain aspects of ourselves. If our natural inclination is to sleep in till the last minute, then rush frantically to work, without breakfast, yoga encourages us to challenge that behaviour with a more positive set of actions.

When negative thought patterns or habits emerge, yoga is a tool to compete with those impulses, to help us get back on track.

When not to compete

However, there are definitely areas in which yoga should not be a competition.

First, it should not be a competition about looks, flexibility, or how long you’ve been practicing. Everyone’s journey is unique, and comparison or competition in this respect is counter to the true spirit of yoga.

Second, yoga should not be used as a tool for self-judgement or deprecation. We often compete internally, constantly measuring ourselves in terms of outside markers. This is not the purpose of yoga. It should open us to greater awareness and self-compassion, not an attitude of impatience or pressure.

There are no winners or losers in yoga. The achievement is the practice. 

Chill! 6 Tips to Cool Off

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cool yoga tips, healthy summer eating, hot weather yoga, hydration, London events, summer recipes, summer yoga, Yoga With Paul

Apparently, July is on track to be the hottest month ever recorded on earth.

With August around the corner, it is definitely time to think about strategies to keep from boiling over. Start with these six tips to cool off.

Divide your day

Other parts of the world have long embraced the afternoon siesta. While the UK might not be quite ready for that, it makes sense to be strategic about your routine. If you’re out and about, hit the shops early, or wait till evening, rather than bustling around in the heat of the day. If you’re working, timetable your day so you can work at a more relaxed pace during the hottest part.

Dress for success

Now is the time to break out the light, cool, natural fabrics and colours. Tightly woven cotton, linen, hemp and even silk are great options. Think loose tops, trousers and skirt.

Photo by Jose Soriano on Unsplash

Drink up!

Hydration is absolutely key to getting through a hot day. Be sure to increase your water consumption but also add some beverages with electrolytes, such as coconut water or diluted natural fruit juice with a pinch of salt. Beware excess caffeine and alcohol.

Dine wisely

Lost your appetite to the temperature? Remember, it is important to get the nutrients your body needs. If you can’t face a big meal try a glass of chilled soup, whiz up a smoothie, or a meal-in-a-bowl salad. Eating veg and fruit helps you stay hydrated.

Photo by Form on Unsplash

Decompress with yoga

Heat can be physically and mentally stressful so don’t skip yoga! If your practice is vigorous, perhaps choose a more meditative class that will calm your mind and body. Or, simply get in and do your regular class, gathering all its energising and uplifting benefits. Even doing some sun salutations or pranayama is a good way to restore your vitality.

Dive into your city

It might be tempting to hide at home with the air-con on (assuming you have it) but there are better ways to ride out a heatwave. There are loads of sociable, eco-friendly activities in our great city, so get out there! Grab your cossie and get to the lido for a cooling swim, visit the library, go to a gallery, or meet a friend for an iced coffee.

Read more: How to Sleep Through the Heat, Four Ways to Beat Heat Bloat

 

Yoga for Memory

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integrative medicine, pranayama, sun salutations, yoga attention, yoga memory, yoga research, yoga well-being, Yoga With Paul

We know from experience that yoga can improve our concentration and mindfulness in the moment. Can it also improve our memory?

Photo by Ben Mullins on Unsplash

A recent study published in Integrative Medicine, suggests it can. The research involved 43 people who attended a six-week yoga class.

The participants did five tests of working memory and a mindfulness questionnaire, the study found that “four of five memory tests showed a statistically significant… improvement; mindfulness scores also improved.”

Other research shows how yoga enhances kids’ attention and visual-motor precision.

Taken together, this suggests something we yogis already feel: yoga is a tool that can sharpen our mind and strengthen our body at any age, no matter where we begin.

Activate your mind

Tapping into the mental benefits of yoga can be as simple as doing sun salutations in the morning, or practicing Pranayama during your lunch break. The key is to connect with your mind and body in a deliberate, mindful way.

Here are two great practices to get you started:

Sun Salutations

 

Pranayama

In yoga we use Pranayama to warm up our bodies, expand our lungs and prepare for practice. It puts us into a mindful rhythm with the body and helps us focus.

 

Read more: 5 Yoga Poses for Kids, Mindfulness for the Greater Good

4 Thigh-power Yoga Poses

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awkward pose, bow pose, crescent lunge, leg yoga poses, quads yoga poses, standing bow pulling pose, thigh yoga poses, yoga power poses, Yoga With Paul

Thighs are powerhouses. They keep us balanced, mobile and on track in daily life — and in yoga. The quadriceps, like any big muscle groups, work best when we challenge them.

Yoga is a low-impact way to use our own body-weight and tension to power up our thighs without damaging our joints, or needing bulky equipment.

These 4 thigh-power yoga poses will get your legs strong, flexible and ready for action.

Awkward pose (Utkatasana)

This is probably the first pose you think of when you think of thighs — and with good reason. Utkatasna is a great pose to strengthen quadriceps, activate the core, improve balance, and build strength to protect the knees. For this posture: keep you feet parallel in the shape of an 11 (don’t let them turn in or out), keep your thighs parallel to the floor and keep your abdominals tight throughout.

Crescent Lunge (Anjaneyssana)

For a full-body workout focused on your thigh, you can’t beat Anjaneyssana. This energising pose activates all the large muscles of your lower body, with an emphasis on the quads and glutes. To protect your knee, make sure it stays above the ankle on the front leg; straighten your back leg, tuck the pelvis, tighten the abs, and reach for the sky.

Standing bow pulling pose (Dandayamana Dhanurasana)

This posture builds strength, flexibility and overall balance. To get the maximum thigh workout you must remember, the kick drives the posture. Grasp your foot firmly at the ankle and kick, letting your upper body and raised arm tilt in response to the driving force of your thigh. This should be a push, not a lunge! Done properly, you will really feel the burn in your thighs.

Bow pose (Dhanurasana)

Rounding out your thigh session with Dhanurasana is a great way to build stamina. Though we often think of it as a back-strengthening pose (which it is) it is also a terrific challenge to the quads. The key is to maintain good form — keeping your knees and feet six inches apart, and performing the pose very slowly. Don’t rush to your maximum expression then flop down. Work gently to the point you can maintain the posture and hold it. Start with 10 seconds, or even five. Work up till you can hold it for 30-45 seconds and you will notice a difference!

Read more: 3 energetic yoga poses,  Awkward pose – tips for strong legs

Summer Reset: Check in With Yourself

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daily yoga, mind-body, mindfulness, wellness, yoga holiday abroad, yoga holiday Algarve, Yoga Holiday With Paul

July is here!

We welcomed summer with an amazing week at Yoga Holiday With Paul in the Algarve. Once again, it was an opportunity to grow your yoga practice, strengthen old friendships, strike up new ones, and enjoy some glorious beach weather.

Getting home is an opportunity to carry what we experienced on holiday over into our daily routine. Whether you’ve been away or not, this is the perfect time for a summer reset — a chance to focus on wellness and set your intention for the coming months.

Yoga Holiday With Paul crew 🙂

For your summer reset, take some time to think about the following things, then decide what areas to focus on to increase your well-being and peace of mind:

Physical body

How do you feel right now? What health concerns do you have? How would you like to feel in the coming months? What can you do to enhance or refresh your yoga practice?

Mind

What is your mental state? Do you feel happy, positive, stressed, uncertain? What factors are affecting your mood? How can you incorporate more mindfulness into your life?

Relationships

What are your relationships like right now? How can you deepen your communication? Is there a relationship that needs nurture or healing?

Work

Are you feeling good about your professional life? What aspects would you like to change or improve? How can you achieve the work/life balance you want?

Goals

Where do you want to be by the end of the summer? How can you accomplish these goals? Are there goals you need to let go because they no longer serve you?

Taking the time to think about these aspects of your life can help you spot unhealthy patterns, reinforce good habits, and enjoy a healthful, emotionally rewarding summer.

 

Mindfulness for the Greater Good

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8 limbs yoga, compassion, ethical yoga, mindfulness, Mindfulness Conspiracy, Ronald Purser, volunteering, Yoga With Paul

Mindfulness is key to yoga, which in turn helps us cultivate mindfulness. This virtuous circle can help us combat stress and anxiety, feel positive, and live fully in the moment.

Those of us who are committed to developing a life-altering practice, however, shouldn’t stop there — as an article by Ronald Purser in the Guardian argues

Photo by Indian Yogi (Yogi Madhav) on Unsplash

When mindfulness isn’t the answer

His longread, called “The mindfulness conspiracy” makes an important point: unless mindfulness is grounded in ethics, it runs the risk of becoming a selfish exercise.

How does this work? Purser points out that divorced from any ethical basis mindfulness becomes just another way to make ourselves feel good.

Feeling good is not bad, but it shouldn’t be pursued at the expense of being an engaged, aware human being. As he notes, there are a lot of real problems in the world: poverty, injustice, inequality, violence. If people use “mindfulness” to help them ignore these issues then nothing will change.

In other words, there are some things we shouldn’t be comfortable with and accept. Mindfulness that helps us be aware of our own mental and emotional processes can be a powerful force for personal and social change. “Mindfulness” whose only aim is to insulate us from discomfort stops us from making positive changes.

Photo by Nina Strehl on Unsplash

Active mindfulness

The good news is that the practice of yoga cultivates what I like to think of as “active mindfulness.” When we are in the studio, using our bodies, we are learning to shape our physical and mental reality. As we experience the temporary discomfort of a tough posture we learn to accommodate and move through difficulties.

Yoga, above all, gives us an ethical foundation. The first of the eight limbs of yoga is Yama: respect for others. This basic principle requires us to be mindful of how our actions affect the well-being of other people. That can be on the daily level, by simple acts of courtesy, or direct efforts such as volunteering.

Mindfulness, at its best, helps us achieve greater insight, compassion and wisdom for the benefit of ourselves and others.

 

Read more: The 8-word guide to yoga, Yoga = CommUnity

Your Unique Well-Being Journey

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health and fitness, mindfulness, self-help, well-being, wellness, yoga and wellness, Yoga With Paul

The past few years have brought us a huge amount of information about health and wellness. If you Google you can literally find hundreds or thousands of articles, posts and pieces of advice – some of them right here on Yoga With Paul.

This abundance of information has made it easy to find things out, but sometimes makes it decide what is relevant and reliable to your own well-being.

Photo by Lindsay Henwood on Unsplash

Being yourself

I take the responsibility of having a blog and social media presence very seriously. They are spaces to share my personal experience, and what I’ve learned from years of yoga study and practice, but they are not meant to prescribe what is right for someone else.

Everyone’s experience is different. Even if someone did the exact same training I did, attended the same workshops, ate the same food, studied with the same teachers, their mind and body would process it in a unique way. The results would be different.

This is tremendously important to keep in mind, whether we’re browsing social media or in the yoga studio. Our culture is competitive and prescriptive: there is a plan or programme that is “guaranteed” to help you reach any goal. The problem is, we aren’t machines.

The combination of exercise and lifestyle that makes one person feel wonderful, strong and alive can make someone else frustrated, annoyed, or even sick.

Photo by Audi Nissen on Unsplash

Health, your way

Health and well-being are not monopolies. Look at the range in elite athletes: a champion swimmer wouldn’t last five minutes in an elite running race, and a world-class cyclist would look pretty foolish on ice skates.

Media and social media have a tendency to flatten the range of human experience and possibility by presenting a limited array of ideals. Scrolling through an amazing Instagram yoga feed can be inspiring, but remember, it is just perspective among infinite ones.

When it comes to figuring out what works for us there are some obvious basics: eat wholesome food, stay hydrated, get plenty of sleep, make time for relaxation and fun, surround yourself with caring people, be kind…

The fine-tuning of these principles is down to each of us. Information and guidance from the internet, teachers and experts are great tools to help us identify our own well-being patterns and needs. Ultimately, we should aim to be our best self – not somebody else.

What’s your well-being secret? Share in the comments!

5 Benefits of Hitting the Beach

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beach fitness, beach health benefits, yoga abroad, yoga Algarve, yoga beach holiday, yoga detox, Yoga Holiday With Paul, Yoga With Paul

The first Yoga Holiday With Paul Yoga Holiday With Paul 2019 is coming up, 21-28 June in the Algarve. In addition to dedicating ourselves to yoga practice we will enjoy the chance to relax and rejuvenate our minds and bodies at the beach.

Spending time at the beach offers physical and mental perks to help you feel stronger, healthier and happier. Here are five health benefits of hitting the beach.

Photo by Lopez Robin on Unsplash

Stress relief

Our hectic lives and busy days create a lot of stress. Going to the beach removes us from the stress cues of our normal environment and replaces it with a scene designed to promote peace and calm. From the soothing lap of waves on the sand, to the chatter of birds, to the soft texture of the sand, the beach is a sensory experience that helps us relax both physically and mentally.

Detoxification

Sun and salt water are a potent detoxifying mix. The sun heats us so we sweat, releasing toxins while salt water flushes away surface dirt. When you spend an hour or two at the beach, enjoying the sun and cooling off by splashing in the sea, you are basically giving yourself a free spa-treatment!

Vitamin D

Our bodies need sunlight to produce Vitamin D and it isn’t always easy to get enough, especially living in the UK! Those of us with darker skin also need more sun exposure for optimum vitamin D production, so you can think of your time at the beach as an essential part of staying strong and healthy.

 

Cross-training

The beach offers lots of opportunities for expanding your fitness. Even a simple walk in the sand is offers your body a challenge, thanks to the shifting grains underfoot. If you choose to jog, it ramps up the benefits even more. Swimming, of course, is a wonderful total-body workout. Yoga and beaches are a perfect fit too: you can use soft sand to practice inversions like headstand, or to do sun salutations in the sun!

Photo by Ash Edmonds on Unsplash

Mindfulness

The beach is a perfect place to cultivate mindfulness. Walking, chanting, or sitting meditation amidst the serenity and natural beauty of the beach will help you clear your mind of every-day distractions. The is also rich in objects and views that inspire contemplation. Simply studying the infinite variation in a handful of sand is a chance to be inspired and uplifted

Read more: Yoga Holiday – 3 Ways to Get Ready, Do You Get Enough Vitamin D?

3 Ways to Free Yourself from Frustration

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daily yoga, empathy, every day yoga, frustration, patience, yoga endurance, yoga mindfulness, Yoga With Paul

Frustration is a part of life. Daily life is full of irritations large and small: being cut off in a queue, put on hold, or realising you overpaid for an item, clashing with a boss or friend. Like water behind a dam, they can build up until we reach breaking point and use unhealthy coping mechanisms – like yelling, or eating a whole bar of chocolate.

We can’t avoid everything that causes frustration, but we can find positive ways to deal with it – and transform our experience of daily life. These three practices are not about “building a better dam” to suppress your feelings but about transforming your perspective to truly free yourself from frustration.

Let it go! Photo by Ankush Minda on Unsplash

Appreciate what you have

The philosopher Epictetus said a person can only lose what he or she has – in other words, even our frustrations are grounded in blessings. If you come back to your car to find a parking ticket, take a moment to consider that you are fortunate to own a car, and have the health and ability to drive it. This mindset is especially helpful in relationships. When (inevitably) you are annoyed with your partner, friend or child, think about how blessed you are to have that person in your life.

Practice constructive empathy

Empathy is being able to see things from another person’s perspective. Unfortunately, it tends to dissipate in situations where we feel wronged or short-changed. This is why the discipline of constructive empathy is so important. The next time someone – whether a stranger, shop assistant, or colleague – bugs you, stop and put yourself in his or her shoes. Really think about how they feel and how they might perceive the interaction. This is a profound way of acknowledging someone as a fellow human, and even if it doesn’t solve the situation, it will free you to experience it with compassion and understanding.

Cultivate endurance

The stronger you are physically, the stronger you become mentally. As yoga builds endurance and stamina in the body, it strengthens our mental and emotional fortitude. Every time you step into a yoga studio, you are developing discipline and patience. Every time you hold that posture a half-second longer, you are training yourself to withstand difficulties. Every time you fall out of a posture and get back in, you are reminding yourself that setbacks are temporary. Not only that, the regenerating, energising, calming effects of yoga make you more resilient to frustration in the first place!

Read more: 3 Ways to Be Patient, Yoga With a Sense of Humor,

New Sloppy Tunas Shorts!

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men's fashion, recycled fashion, recycled plastic clothing, Sloppy Tunas, Sloppy Tunas all-terrain shorts, sustainable fashion, swimwear, yoga wear, Yoga With Paul

Sloppy Tunas, the brand that makes cool, colourful swimwear out of recycled plastic rubbish, has brand news shorts up its sleeve.

Photo via SloppyTunas

Right now it is taking orders for its first all-terrain short, designed for men and women!

Created for dry land, but equally at home in the water, the new shorts have loads of great features to make travel and every day living that little bit easier.

They are water resistant, with a waterproof zip pocket to hold your phone and wallet; they are light, fast-drying, and odour resistant; like the swimmers, they are made from 100% recycled plastic, making them environmentally sound and vegan friendly.

Whether you’re hanging out at the lake, hiking, hitting the beach or on a yoga holiday, these shorts are a practical, comfortable, stylish option you can feel good about wearing.

Pre-order yours now!