Online Meditation Options

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calming yoga, free online meditation, guided meditation, guided meditation YouTube, meditation, mental health, mindfulness, online meditation, Yoga With Paul

Whether you already have a meditation practice, or want to begin one, there is an abundance of online mediation options.

Joining a live online meditation session can help you focus and enhance your practice, while gaining an all-important connection with others.

If you prefer recorded meditations, or simply like to meditate solo, then there are lots of guided practices you can use.

Here are half a dozen options to explore.

Photo by Sabine Schulte on Unsplash

Live online meditations

InnerSpace

This London centre offers free live meditations, as well as seminars and talks. Schedule and details here.

Tricycle

The well-known Buddhist publication Tricycle is offering free online meditations with a focus on managing the anxiety and isolation associated with Covid-19 and lockdown. Sign up for upcoming sessions here.

Mindful Leader

For meditation when you need it most, drop into the free 30 minute session, any hour of night or day, with Meditate Together. The website says it aims “to help keep us connected in a time of great isolation, to help us stay calm during a time of great anxiety, and to give us an opportunity to support one another”. Sign up here.

Photo by Hans Vivek on Unsplash

Recorded guided meditations

Positive Magazine Meditation

This YouTube channel offers dozens of guided meditations. The creator has a wonderfully soothing voice and writes, “The meditations are ORIGINAL CONTENT and are NOT scripted; these healing words have traveled with me along my journey to arrive at this moment – they come directly from my heart to yours.” Listen and subscribe here.

Calm

Calm’s mission is to help people learn to “maintain moment-to-moment awareness [so] we can make the choices that best serve us in life.” It offers short guided meditations called ‘Daily Calm’ that you can dip into to rejuvenate and refresh your mind. Listen and subscribe here.

Great Meditation

This channel offers loads of guided 10-minute meditations, focusing on love, affirmation, healing and positive focus. Its goal is simply to “make a difference in this world, one view at a time.” Listen and subscribe here.

Recommend your favourite guided meditation, channel or teacher
— share in the comments or Tweet @YogaWithPaul

3 Ways to Keep Your Cool in August

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calming yoga, home yoga practice, hot yoga, London lakes, London summer, restorative yoga, sleep, yoga summer, Yoga With Paul

Londoners usually welcomes hot weather with enthusiasm, enjoying the opportunity to get out to the park or lido, go for a picnic, or wander through a gallery to cool off.

Weathering a heat wave is more complicated, now, with social and outdoor options curtailed due to Covid-19, and the imperative to prioritise health and safety.

This means we have to do things a little differently this summer, with utmost mindfulness for how our actions and activities might affect those around us.

It doesn’t mean we have to give up everything that is enjoyable about summer though!

Here are three ways to keep your cool in August.

Photo by Scott Webb on Unsplash

Seek out London’s lakes

Fresh air, sunshine and water are incredible healers and mood-lifters. Boost your well-being by visiting some of London’s many ponds and lakes. These outdoor spaces are ideal for meditation, Pranayama, or simply taking the time to disconnect and immerse yourself in the restorative power of nature.

Protect yourself and others with a mask, appropriate hygiene and social distancing.

Read about six beautiful London lakes

Create a summer yoga routine

During the heat it can be tempting to neglect your usual routine, but maintaining your yoga practice has abundant benefits. Slow down and focus on gentler, more meditative sessions if you like. For example, you might decide to focus on a particular part of the practice such as breathing or inversions; or you might choose to do fewer poses but hold them for longer; or you might enjoy restorative yoga to help your body relax after a hot, hectic day. You will feel better for it — mentally and physically.

Try these three holiday yoga sessions.

Rest up

Hot weather can throw off your sleep cycle. On a hot night, it can be harder to relax, and the familiar comfort of cuddling under your duvet is downright unpleasant. Even if you turn on the A/C the change can affect your rest, cause your sinuses to dry out, etc.

Now, more than ever, it is important to stay well-rested to support our immune systems and mental health. It is much harder to stay healthy and happy when you’re run down!

Try these tips for how to sleep through the heat.

What’s your top keep-cool tip? Share in the comments!

 

 

One Small Step

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calming yoga, goals, journeys, meditation, mental health, mind-body connection, mindfulness, stress yoga, yoga goals, Yoga With Paul

You know the saying, a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, but have you thought about what that really means?

We tend to think and plan in terms of goals, that is to say, destinations.

This week I’ll do this, next month that, by the end of the year I’ll have done… 

And so it goes. We plan, plan, plan for the end of those journeys but rarely stop to consider the ‘single step’ we need to begin.

Standing bow pulling pose

Let’s take an example from yoga. Say you want to perfect your standing bow pulling pose (Dandayamana Dhanurasana). You go online and read some how-to articles. You watch some YouTube videos. Maybe you close your eyes and do a little meditation, envisioning yourself in the full expression of the pose, body limber, practically floating. You go to yoga class and watch and listen. You know what you have to do.

Then you square up, lock your knee, reach for your leg, start to kick and … kapow! Your standing leg is wobbling all over, your foot is flying out at an angle, your shoulders are here and there, your breathing is ragged, your hair’s in your face.

You get the picture.

Even though you’ve prepared, planned and studied your goal is not within reach. Why?

Because you haven’t started your journey. You need to take one small step. Not as a springboard for a huge leap but for the sake of the step.

If it’s standing bow pulling pose you want to do the first step is learning to stand still. No grabbing, kicking, balancing, nothing. Just learn to stand there. Let your body settle and align. Learn to be in your own skin and let gravity teach you how to stand.

This same principle applies to any goal. We need to find the moment of stillness that will allow us to focus on where we want to go.

If you’re constantly running after things, stop. Breathe. Then take one small step.

Photo by Conor Samuel on Unsplash

 

Keep Calm…

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calming yoga, healing yoga, home yoga, peaceful yoga, yoga mental health, yoga relax, yoga stress, Yoga With Paul

Hands up if you’re stressed/anxious/worried/uncertain/confused or just tired.

I expect a lot of us are feeling some or all of these emotions right now. Which is 100% natural, normal and okay. We are experiencing a difficult, unprecedented time. We don’t have to enjoy it.

Photo by Faye Cornish on Unsplash

Nevertheless, it is better to be calm than anxious so — in aid of that — I wanted to share a few classic Yoga With Paul posts that focus on peacefulness and mindfulness.

Yoga for a quiet mind

A mind that is at peace, accepting, aware of the moment without judgement. It means a mind that is able to acknowledge pain, confusion or difficulty without getting swept into those emotions. Yoga gives us this capacity by teaching us to breath — thereby calming our nervous system.

Wishes for a peaceful mind

Happy, sad, confused, joyous — the key to our experiences is in our mind and attitude. Yoga is one of the ways we can hold ourselves in the space of a pure and peaceful mind. Let’s embrace that mindfulness, and share it with others this season.

Increase your inner peace

Yoga isn’t just about the the physical postures you do in the studio. It is creating an awareness and attitude that carries over into the rest of your life.

Small actions = big changes

We try to do too much at once and get overwhelmed; or we set our goals so high we can’t find a way to reach them. Then we get discouraged and frustrated. To avoid this cycle, and to achieve real change, we need to focus on the things we can do — the manageable, realistic, small-scale stuff.

Share your inspirations, questions or thoughts in the comments
— or Tweet @YogaWithPaul.

 

 

Yoga for a Quiet Mind

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calming yoga, Matthew Nisbet, meditation, mental health, pranayama, quiet mind, The Science of Yoga, William Broad, yoga benefits, yoga breathing, Yoga With Paul

Though often we focus on the physical aspect of yoga is as much a mental practice. Regular sessions, whether at home or in the studio, can help us achieve a quiet mind.

What does that mean? It means a mind that is at peace, accepting, aware of the moment without judgement. It means a mind that is able to acknowledge pain, confusion or difficulty without getting swept into those emotions. Yoga gives us this capacity by teaching us to breath — thereby calming our nervous system.

University professor Matthew C Nisbet wrote a great article on the science of yoga and how it quiets our mind. Breathing is key:

Compared to running, lifting weights, or other forms of exercise, it is yoga’s focus on controlled breathing that makes the practice unique, writes New York Times science journalist William Broad (2012) in The Science of Yoga. The focus on the breath is one reason studies consistently indicate that yoga in comparison to conventional exercise is more effective at managing feelings of stress, depression, and anxiety. Almost all forms of yoga emphasize Ujjayi pranayama, a style of slow breathing. When we breathe quickly, which often occurs when we experience stress or anxiety, carbon dioxide levels in our blood-stream decrease while oxygen levels stay the same. The imbalance produced by faster than normal breathing boosts the excitability of our nerves and muscles, producing muscle spasms and tingling in our extremities, which can trigger greater feelings of anxiety.

In contrast, the slow breathing emphasized in yoga practice increases carbon dioxide levels. In response, blood vessels in the brain dilate, sending more oxygen to the brain. By enabling our brains to absorb more oxygen, the slow breathing of yoga increases calmness and alertness, writes Broad.

Regular practice — especially daily pranayama — is a simple, holistic way to find peace in every day life.

 

How to Be Fearless

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anxiety, calming yoga, detachment, meditation, mindfulness, non-attachement, philosophy of yoga, Sri Dharma Mittra, stress, Yoga With Paul

“What are your fears? Your fears are all a result of your attachments”
~Sri Dharma Mittra

It is easy to worry, to be anxious and afraid. How do we resist and stay brave?

The quote from Sri Dharma Mittra above is not an answer, but it is a light that illuminate one potential path.

What does it mean that our fears are the results of our attachments?

If we’re attached to financial status, we fear losing our jobs. If we are attached to relationships, we fear losing loved ones. If we are attached to health, we fear sickness.

Everything we cling to can cause fear, because we know we cannot hold onto it. Ultimately, life happens. Sometimes that means losing a loved one, a job, or one’s health.

Fearing these situations does not prevent them, but it does mean that we often spend a lot of time worrying about things that may never come to pass.

Non-attachment doesn’t mean not caring, but it means taking a different attitude towards the things we love and value. It means cultivating our awareness that fear and worry do not actually make life better for anyone.

Loving without attachment 

When we acknowledge that our attachment is non-constructive, we free up our energy to do something other than worry. If work is important, we can dedicate positive effort to doing it well and joyfully. Instead of infecting our relationships with anxiety, we can focus on being present, loving and compassionate during the precious time we have. If health is our preoccupation, we can invest time in yoga, eating well, and other things that actually make us healthier.

We can love better, and live better, when we stop clinging to the things we love and embrace the beauty of enjoying them in the present moment.

5 Anti-Allergy Yoga Poses

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calming yoga, yoga allergies, yoga allergy relief, yoga benefits, yoga breathing, yoga healing, yoga immune system, yoga seasonal allergies, Yoga With Paul

Breathing easy in a big city is a challenge at the best of times. Allergy season can aggravate our bodies, turning the joys of spring into miserable marathon of itchy eyes, aching heads and painful sinuses.

Yoga is a great tool for calming inflammation, including allergies, and keeping our bodies and immune responses functioning properly.

Here are five anti-allergy yoga poses to help you survive spring.

Pranayama (Deep breathing)

Breath-work has many benefits for allergy sufferers. First, regular pranayama practice increases your lung capacity and flexibility. This helps if you get short of breath or suffer asthma related to allergies. Second, it eliminates stale air and toxins to cleanse and rejuvenate the body. Third, yogic breathing calms the body and mind, reducing stress and inflammation due to allergies.

Hitting the beach-also a good way to fight allergies!

Adho Mukha Shvanasana (Downward facing dog)

This is a partial inversion that helps balance the body, stretch the spine, and open up the back, creating more space through the chest and lungs. It also builds strength and stamina, helping you achieve a greater overall sense of well-being.

Dandayamana-Bibhaktapata-Janushirasana (Standing separate leg head to knee pose)

This posture compresses and massages your thyroid, which is a tremendous benefit to your immune system. Touch your forehead to your knee, not your nose or chin. Tuck in your chin as you move toward the knee, and keep your eyes on your stomach. Your throat will feel choked but keep breathing calmly in and out through your nose.

Right way round, upside down

Sarvangasana (Shoulder stand)

Inversions offer a range of benefits to your  body and your mind. Shoulderstand is a good tool to help decompress and drain the sinuses, and it improves blood flow into your lungs, helping fight inflammation.

Setu Bandha Sarvangasana (Bridge pose)

This asana activates expands your chest and lungs to increase your lung capacity and your ease breathing. To begin, lie on your back and draw your knees up with your feet flat on the floor, about hip width apart. Press up from the four corners of your feet, engaging the legs and buttocks to lift the hips higher. Press your arms and shoulders into the mat to lift the chest up and toward the chin.

Questions or tips for surviving seasonal allergies? Share in the comments!

3 Ways to be Patient

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calming yoga, changing habits, mindfulness, patience, philosophy of yoga, yoga patience, Yoga With Paul

We all need to be patient, sometimes. But modern live seems to demand constant action and movement. We are bombarded with advice on how to be switched on, go for the goal and give 110%. There is so much to do, it is easy to forget the importance of patience.

Learning to be patient is part of the path to developing perspective, calm, and acceptance. It probably doesn’t come naturally though. Patience, like anything else worth doing, requires practice. Here are three ways to cultivate patience in your life.

Breathe

When we get stressed or impatient the first thing that happens is our cardiovascular system revs up. Our heart pumps, our breath comes faster. If we want to stop reacting with irritation, the first thing to do is calm the physical response by controlling the breath. Use your knowledge from yoga and consciously focus on breathing in and out at an equal tempo. You can count to four on the in-breath and four on the out-breath, or choose some other cadence. Breathe calmly and evenly to tell your body there is no cause for alarm.

Imagine

It is human impulse to find targets for our impatience. Sometimes it is something inanimate, like a ticket machine, other times we take our frustration out on the people around us. This not only fuels our bad feeling, it creates a cycle of negativity. To break it, imagine what lies behind the situation. Maybe the person who cut the queue is a parent with a sick child, struggling to get through the day. Maybe the person who squeezes into the Underground and steps on your toes is a future friend (or lover). Sure, it’s a long shot, but we all imagine how things could be. Why not imagine something positive?

Appreciate 

When life seems to conspire against you, take a minute to think of all the way life conspires for you. We are surrounded by so many blessings: materially, emotionally, physically, and spiritually. Yet somehow, it is easier to focus on what we don’t have. That is part of consumer culture, of the culture of “aspiration”. If that works for you, good. If it doesn’t (and I suspect, for many of us, it doesn’t) let it go. Let go of what doesn’t serve you. Instead, genuinely and sincerely embrace and appreciate the gifts in your life.

What is your best tip for being patient? Share in the comments!

 

 

 

Yoga for Lawyers (and Everyone)

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Bikram yoga, calming yoga, City Solicitor, clean eating, hot yoga, London yoga studios, London yoga teacher, vinyasa yoga, wellness, Yoga Holiday With Paul, yoga lawyers, yoga professionals, yoga stress, Yoga With Paul

Journalist and yoga regular Maroulla Paul wrote a piece about YogaWithPaul for City Solicitor — a magazine for lawyers.

In it, I talked about how yoga teaches us to focus and helps clear our mind.

I see daily the positive impact yoga has on those who practise it. It seems really beneficial for lawyers. It gives them greater clarity, a quality that is essential in their work. In the time they are in a class they have to focus on listening to me, and doing their practice. They can’t think about anything else other than being in the room on the mat. And that means cutting off from their cases and all the decisions they have to make. But they come out strong, refreshed, and more capable of clear thinking.

This is true no matter what you do. Whether arguing legal cases or chasing kids around the house, we all have stress and strain in our lives. Yoga is a healing, energising tool that helps put things in perspective and keep us in balance.

You can read the whole article online at City Solicitor.

How does yoga help you cope with work? Share your thoughts in the comments!

7 Steps to Better Sleep

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better sleep, calming yoga, mindfulness, relaxation, savasana, wellness, yoga, yoga nidra, Yoga With Paul

Last week I blogged about signs it’s time to slow down. If you’re like me, though, it’s hard to slow down when you need to the most. The buzz of being busy can be addictive!

So, for those of us who struggle to slow down… here is some expert advice on seven steps to better sleep…

1. Stick to a sleep schedule of the same bedtime and wake up time, even on the weekends. This helps to regulate your body’s clock and could help you fall asleep and stay asleep for the night.
2. Practice a relaxing bedtime ritual. A relaxing, routine activity right before bedtime conducted away from bright lights helps separate your sleep time from activities that can cause excitement, stress or anxiety which can make it more difficult to fall asleep, get sound and deep sleep or remain asleep.
3. If you have trouble sleeping, avoid naps, especially in the afternoon. Power napping may help you get through the day, but if you find that you can’t fall asleep at bedtime, eliminating even short catnaps may help.
4. Exercise daily. Vigorous exercise is best, but even light exercise is better than no activity. Exercise at any time of day, but not at the expense of your sleep.
5. Evaluate your room. Design your sleep environment to establish the conditions you need for sleep. Your bedroom should be cool – around 15-18C. Your bedroom should also be free from any noise that can disturb your sleep. Finally, your bedroom should be free from any light. Check your room for noises or other distractions. This includes a bed partner’s sleep disruptions such as snoring. Consider using blackout curtains, eye shades, ear plugs, “white noise” machines, humidifiers, fans and other devices.
6. Sleep on a comfortable mattress and pillows. Make sure your mattress is comfortable and supportive. The one you have been using for years may have exceeded its life expectancy – about 9 or 10 years for most good quality mattresses. Have comfortable pillows and make the room attractive and inviting for sleep but also free of allergens that might affect you and objects that might cause you to slip or fall if you have to get up
7. Practice yoga nidra. This type of guided meditation that takes you into deep into the mind. You do the practice in savasana, so it is a great way to transition from quiet meditation to deep, restful sleep.

What’s your best tip for getting a good night’s sleep? Share in the comments!