6 Lockdown Mental Health Boosters

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COVID-19, fitness, lockdown, mental health, mood boost, stress relief, wellness, yoga daily, Yoga With Paul

Here we are again, trying to get through a difficult, isolating, scary time. More than ever, we need to take care of ourselves so that we can be a source of strength and encouragement for those around us.

Mental and physical health go hand in hand. When we boost our mood we unleash positive changes in our body and support our immune system. This creates a virtuous circle of wellness that can help us overcome the toughest challenges.

These 6 lockdown mental health boosters are great ways to shore up your happiness in hard times.

Photo by jurien huggins on Unsplash

Cut a rug

Dancing is one of the most uplifting things you can do, hands down. It gets your heart pumping, your endorphins flowing and the energising music will put a smile on your face. Whether your jam is 80s pop tunes or powerhouse techno, put on a playlist and boogie on down.

Drink your greens

What we eat has a profound affect on mood and sense of well-being. Getting plenty of leafy green vegetables helps keep your system running smoothly during less active periods thanks to high quantities of fibre and water, plus they are rich in iron, vitamin A, vitamin C, antioxidants, fiber, folate, vitamin K, magnesium, calcium and potassium. Whip up some delicious smoothies and drink yourself happy.

Get crafty

During lockdown it’s easy to get into a routine of relying on the internet for entertainment. Streaming series and movies, or reading online, is fine in moderation but spending all day glued to a screen isn’t great for your eyes, posture, digestion or creativity. Replace some of that time non-stressful activities that require you to interact in three dimensions, like sketching, knitting, crocheting or re-potting your houseplants.

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

Join a group of people with shared interests

Have you always wanted to learn more about documentary film-making, or travelling in India, or vegan cooking? Now is a great time to find an online forum, club or group dedicated to that interest and start making friends. Building out your support network, even if it is something as casual as chatting with strangers about a shared hobby, will renew your sense of connection and improve your mood.

Try a new online exercise option

YouTube is a source of squillions of online workouts and fitness ideas. Freshen up your home yoga practice by trying a new move, class or teacher. Want something completely different? Look for a body-weight workout, a dance fitness class you can do in your living, or boot camp style workout that will get your heart pumping.

Give yourself a break

In times of stress and uncertainty it’s normal to be more irritable, impatient, anxious, sad and so forth. Allow yourself to feel how you feel, and give yourself a break when you’re having a tough time. It is okay to not be okay with what’s happening. The goal of self-care and positive mental health practices is not to be a shiny, happy person 24/7 but to be able to cope with circumstances even when you struggle.

Be kind to yourself. This will enable you to be kind to others.

Share your tips for surviving lockdown in the comments, or Tweet @YogaWithPaul

2017 Yoga Challenge

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2017 yoga, daily yoga, extreme yoga, fitness, flexibility, yoga challenge, yoga postures, yoga practice, yoga teaching, Yoga With Paul

Yoga challenges us to push boundaries and discover greater levels of mental and physical strength and flexibility. I loved this Yoga Journal post about “extreme yoga poses” — the photos are beautiful and inspiring and it reminded me that there is always something to work towards.

The point of “yoga challenge” isn’t necessarily to twist yourself like a pretzel (not all of us can, even if we want to!) The point is to go beyond our comfort zone. Daily practice is a wonderful way to stay strong and grounded but it can get routine.

Challenging ourselves to try a new class, learn a new pose, or meditate, are ways to increase the benefits of our practice. Only when we push ourselves can we discover our true capabilities.

Take a look at all the beautiful poses… Be inspired…

Picture your dreams for 2017… Set yourself a 2017 Yoga Challenge…  

Then share in the comments or Tweet @YogaWithPaul using #2017challenge…

Food for Yoga (and Life)

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diet, fitness, food, food for life, food for yoga, healthy eating, London yoga teacher, nutrition, Rio Olympics, weight-loss yoga, yoga, Yoga With Paul

What does food mean to you? Is it an indulgence? Necessity? Pleasure? Worry?

I recently read a great post about attitudes to food that reminded me of the many ways we think about food — and how those attitudes affect our strength and well-being. This paragraph really jumped out:

[I often] eat far less than I know I should, mostly because of poor time management. Now, this is a pretty common problem, and here’s some ways that people like me talk about it:

“I know I should have, I just didn’t have time to eat lunch today.”

“There just wasn’t a break between classes and things just had to get done, so I just couldn’t eat before training.”

The problem, though, isn’t just the skipped meals. It’s the fact that secretly I’m proud of having skipped them. This pride is a holdover from a mentality that calories are bad (they aren’t). But being secretly proud of your skipped lunch should make as little sense as being secretly proud of your skipped workout, because both types of activity (eating and exercising) are important.

As a dancer and now a yoga teacher I am very aware of the pressure towards and pursuit of the “perfect body”, which is reinforced by media and marketing. We see so many images of slimness that are equated to health we subconsciously absorb the message that thinner = fitter. If you stop to think about this, it makes no sense. Strength, fitness, and flexibility are independent of body mass. While extreme overweight or thinness can be dangerous there is a vast range of perfectly healthy body shapes, types and sizes.

One great thing about the Rio Olympics was the diversity of athletic bodies on display. Shot-putters look nothing like gymnasts; distance runners would never pass for swimmers; boxers and equestrians have totally different forms. Yet despite this positive reality, it is easy to get caught in the fiction that you’re not really fit unless you’re slim.

This thought process leads to an unhealthy relationship to food. It becomes an enemy or, at best, a grudging necessity. The fact is, food is fuel. When your car needs petrol you don’t mutter and criticise, you just fill it up. We need to have a similarly practical approach to our bodies. We need to eat regular meals of mostly whole foods. We need to enjoy food and appreciate its role in our well-being.

How do you view food? Share your thoughts in the comments!

 

Andy Murray, Gyrotonic and good health

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Andy Murray, athletes, cross-training, fitness, Gyrotonic, healing, health, London Gyrotonic studio, Pilates, sport injuries, supplementary training., yoga, Yoga With Paul

News is out: Andy Murray uses one of my favourite forms of supplementary training, Gyrotonic, to stay in top shape for tournaments.

“I used to train extremely hard. I don’t think I looked after my body as well as I should have done. Now that I have been looking after it, doing way more different types of stretching, sort of injury prevention work, my back is no issue whatsoever. Whereas for two years I was in a lot of pain because I was training hard but not doing the right stuff to get it better.”

This raises an important point about training and exercise generally. A lot of people have the “more is better” mindset, or “no pain no gain” but that can be very damaging. Our bodies are not machines. They are delicately balanced and every part is interconnected. Over-training or ignoring injuries doesn’t make them stronger, it breaks them down.

That’s why I’m a firm believer in yoga (of course) and supplementary exercises like Gyrotonic, which uses specially designed machines to work your muscles in a specific fashion. Like Pilates, it was created by a dancer and is designed to increase flexibility and range of motion, build core strength, ease joints and more.

Before Wimbledon Andy Murray told The Guardian Gyrotonic was, “something I started doing a lot more of when I had my back surgery. I can’t afford any more surgeries like this. I need to start looking after my body much better than what I was.”

Regardless of our age, health or fitness, we should all take the time to consider how our exercise and lifestyle affect our overall health, and make sure we are caring for our bodies. After all, we only get one!

Questions? Thoughts on supplementary training? Share in the comments!

More on Gyrotonic from Studio Seventy Four, Bermondsey.

About Gyrotonic

Gyrotonic exercise, which involves exercising with pulleys, was invented by Juliu Horvath, a Romanian-born ethnic Hungarian gymnast and dancer, who defected to the US. The technique evolved from an earlier system called “yoga for dancers” that he came up with in a one-roomed mountain hut on St Thomas in the Virgin Islands in the 1970s to rehabilitate his own torn Achilles tendon and herniated vertebral disc.

It embraces the key principles in swimming, dance, yoga, tai chi and gymnastics, and emphasises continuous flowing movements synchronised with corresponding breath patterns. Horvath based his Gyrotonic expansion system on the octopus, monkey and cat “because they can move in any direction at any given time with strength and control”.

 

Putting Yoga into Practice

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26 postures, beginner yoga, Bikram hot yoga, Bikram London, Bikram poses, Bikram studio London, Bikram yoga, detox, diet, fitness, New Years Resolutions, yoga tips, Yoga With Paul

Happy first week of January!

Now we’re done with the annual season of indulgence and festivity it’s a great time to refocus on your yoga practice. Getting your yoga groove back on doesn’t mean going crazy. Unfortunately all the ads and media that were pushing you to eat, drink and be merry last week are now busy hectoring you to go to the gym, buy the latest fitness DVD or start some crazy diet. Don’t believe the hype.

By all means, set a goal. Invest in your practice physically and mentally. Add an extra class per week, try a new style, or pledge to do a challenge, but don’t push yourself to where you get bored or injured. Many people come to class in January for the first time, or after a break, and hurt themselves by rushing into postures, trying to do too much, not listening to their bodies.

Yoga is not just for New Year, it’s for all year, every year. Take it easy when you get back into the studio this month. Take your time. Be mindful. Be receptive. Remember, yoga is not a competition!

What’s one thing you’re doing to honour your practice this month? Share in the comments.

Yoga With Paul December Newsletter

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Bikram hot yoga, Bikram London, Bikram postures, Bikram studio London, Bikram Yoga holiday, clean eating, fitness, mindfulness, New Years Resolutions, yoga news

The final YWP newsletter of 2014. Enjoy!

Yoga With Paul newsletter DEC 2014

Peace & love & happy new year to all.

Bikram Yoga Tips: Take It Slow

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26 postures, Bikram hot yoga, Bikram London, Bikram poses, Bikram postures, Bikram studio London, Bikram yoga, Bikram yoga tips, fitness

One of the fundamental principles of yoga is to take it slow. We improve step by step, by making small changes and minor adjustments as we work towards the complete expression of a posture.

You might be thinking: “I know this!” but next time you’re in the hot yoga studio bring your awareness to how you approach the postures. I see beginners and experienced yogis alike hurrying into poses and rushing through transitions. I swear, I can read your minds sometimes! You’re in one pose but you’re already thinking or worrying about the next one (this is especially true for some of you in the balancing series!)

What happens when you do this is you are not focusing on the present moment and posture. You never achieve as much as you could because your mind is somewhere else.

In your next class — whether it is your 2nd or your 700th — be mindful in every single posture. Pay 100% attention to the dialogue and your own breathing. Nothing else matters. Move slowly, word by word. I promise, you will have a completely different experience than if you hurry ahead in your mind!

Do you find it hard to slow down? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Yoga for Better Bones

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26 postures, Bikram hot yoga, Bikram London, Bikram postures, Bikram yoga, Bikram yoga tips, bone health, detox, fitness, skeletal system, yoga bone density

The season of Halloween skeletons is a good time to consider our bone health.

We know that weight-bearing exercise such as running or weight-lifting can improve bone mass and density, protecting from things like osteoporosis and breaks, but did you know yoga builds better bones too?

A study comparing a group who did yoga versus a non-yoga control group found that after two years the people who practiced yoga had a dramatic rise in the bone density. The people who didn’t do yoga lost bone density.

Not only that, but you have less risk of injury from yoga than from, say, running or pumping iron. Practicing Bikram and other forms of yoga with an experienced teacher is very safe and – in addition to improving your skeletal system – helps with circulation, respiration, muscle tone, detox, fat-burning and state of mind.

It’s worth remembering these benefits as it can really help motivate us and deepen our practice. Sometimes going to yoga studio can feel like another chore, something to tick off the list, but it is one of the best things we can do for ourselves, in so many ways.

What improvements have you experienced doing yoga? Share in the comments.

Yoga With Paul September Newsletter

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Bikram yoga, Dharma Mittra yoga, fitness, hot yoga, London yoga, mediation, vegan recipe, yoga blog, yoga inspiration, yoga teacher training, yoga tips, Yoga With Paul

This month’s round-up of recipes, inspiration, and all the best of the blog. Enjoy!

Yoga With Paul Sept 2014

Sri Dharma Mittra

Walk London

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cross-training, fitness, free London events, London, outdoor, Walk London, walking, yoga tips, Yoga With Paul

If only only ever walk from your flat to the Tube or bus stop, why not go for a proper walk? It’s nice to get some fresh air after working up a sweat in the Bikram studio and I know from cycling everywhere that you see London differently when you move under your own steam. Also, it reminds you how much you miss if you just dash from work to yoga studio to home and so on in a perpetual loop.

Walk London has maps, info and suggestions for anyone wanting to explore the city on foot. Weather permitting of course…

What’s your favourite London walk?