Category Archives: General advice

Building our confidence

Inside Yoga 81 (8/7/13) Confidence, or to put it more precisely, the lack of confidence is a major obstacle for many of us seeking a better quality of life. It represents a barrier that perhaps holds us back from realising our potential or simply enjoying our life. Yoga can help redress this. Yoga represents a [...]

Living with restlessness

Inside Yoga 80 (28/6/13) “I can’t seem to face up to the facts; I’m tense and nervous and I can’t relax; I can’t sleep ’cause my bed’s on fire; don’t touch me I’m a real live wire.” When I was a teenager this song by the Talking Heads, “Psycho Killer”, resonated with me so much [...]

Sabbatical from social media

Inside Yoga 79 (21/6/13) “I feel that I’m getting too dependent on phones, on Twitter,” said Neil Gaiman. “It’s a symbiotic relationship – that instant ability to find things out, to share. I want to see what happens when I take some time off.” Author Neil Gaiman announced last week, in the Guardian newspaper, that [...]

In simplicity we trust

Inside Yoga 78 (10/6/13) Henry David Thoreau, author of Walden, wrote:  “As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler; solitude will not be solitude, poverty will not be poverty, nor weakness weakness.” Last week I was thinking about the idea of simplicity and how important it is to our well-being [...]

Being here and not there

Inside Yoga 77 (20/5/2013) “Are you stressed? Are you so busy getting to the future that the present is reduced to a means of getting there? Stress is caused by being “here” but wanting to be “there”, or being in the present but wanting to be in the future. It’s a split that tears you [...]

Enjoy the silence

Inside Yoga 76 (9/5/13) The Buddha taught: “When a (person) knows the solitude of silence, and feels the joy of quietness, he is then free from fear and he feels the joy of the dharma.” Silence is an important feature of life, but it is often squeezed out by our busy lifestyles, which seeks to [...]

Inhabiting ourselves through yoga

Inside Yoga 75 (26/4/2013) I have been reading Coming To Our Senses by Jon Kabat-Zinn which is about “healing ourselves and the world through mindfulness”.  In it he has a short chapter about yoga, an overview, which I thought encapsulates the practice of yoga so well I want to share it. In his book, he [...]

Solution to restlessness

Inside Yoga 74 (19/4/2013) Restless, according to the Oxford English Dictionary states, defines it is as being  unable to rest as a result of anxiety or boredom; offering no physical or emotional rest; or involving constant activity. Most of us experience this at some point in our life while a few of us find that [...]

Freedom through control

Inside Yoga 73 (5/4/13) How can freedom and control work together? It seems to be a contradiction, but if we are to free ourselves of negative mind states through meditation and yoga we need to exercise a level of control in what we do. For example, our breath is so important in so many ways. [...]

Meditation helps reduce exam stress

Inside Yoga 72 (25/3/13) Most of will remember the stress of doing school exams, but how many of us were aware that mindfulness meditation would help us cope and even do better? Even today not many school pupils are aware of how meditation can help them, and for that matter, most teachers are not aware [...]