All of Yoga

Interoception is a term that came up in last week's episode about understanding what slow breathing actually does to brain and body.

Interoception is your nervous system sensing, interpreting, and responding to signals coming from inside your body. 

For example, this can be as simple as knowing that you're hungry, that that sensation in your tummy is your digestive system communicating that it's time for some more food. 

So why is this a thing? Why is it relevant? 

Well, if you have the ability, the available time, and the mental bandwidth to pay attention to these signals and to understand what they mean, then you can do something about them. 

Maybe you notice, hmm, my shoulders are tense and tight. Hmm. This might then lead you to realise you've actually been pretty tense about this impending deadline, and so then you can take action. Maybe you go for a calming walk or even just do some mindful shoulder rolls at your desk. 

Ultimately it allows you to do something about improving the situation 💛

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🫶 Your free resources

✏️ Journal prompts for building interoception

Distraction (including doom-scrolling!), can sometimes offer short-term relief, and there’s no need to judge yourself for doing it. But when it takes you away from what matters to you, noticing earlier, might just open up another choice. 

That’s the invitation in these gorgeous journal prompts - to notice, pause, respond… Grab yours here

🎧Nervous System Regulation: A Practice of Listening

If you’d like to practise rather than just learn about interoception, this free guided practice on Insight Timer invites you to notice signals of activation and settling without trying to force yourself into a particular state.

Listen free on Insight Timer here

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👋 work with me

☀️ lunchtime yoga reset 

Step away from your desk and join me for 45 minutes of online yoga to release tension, stretch and find a little calm for the afternoon ahead.

Beginners welcome. Camera on or off - it’s up to you.

🗓️ starts fri 2 October, save your spot here

💤 free challenge: 7 days of yoga nidra

I love Yoga Nidra! Come and practise it with me for seven days. Each day, I'll send you a guided Yoga Nidra to practise - different lengths, different focuses, different intentions.

🗓️ starts mon 19 October, online & self-paced, save your spot here

💛 1:1 therapeutic yoga

Personalised support for anxiety, sleep issues, stress or back pain. Take a look here

🦋 200 hour yoga teacher training

A welcoming, practical, neuroscience-informed training for people who want to teach yoga, or just learn more about it. Dive in, here

"Take a deep breath."

It's one of the most common pieces of advice we're given when we're stressed. And  so, intuitively,  we know that changing the way we breathe can change the way we feel.

But why does slowing your breathing actually calm you down?

Breathing is unusual because most of the time your nervous system takes care of it without any conscious effort from you. But unlike many other automatic processes in the body, you can also deliberately change it - which gives us an interesting way of influencing some of the physiological processes associated with stress and regulation.

In this episode, we'll explore:

• why breathing is both automatic and under voluntary control
• what happens to your heart rate as you breathe in and out
• respiratory sinus arrhythmia and why your heart doesn't beat at one perfectly steady rate
• what the baroreflex has to do with breathing and blood pressure
• why "a long exhale activates the vagus nerve" doesn't tell the whole story
• why slower breathing isn't always better
• what to do if breathwork makes you feel anxious or uncomfortable
• interoception, your ability to sense what's happening inside your body
• why practising with your breath when you're already relatively calm can help you develop a skill to draw upon when you're stressed

Most importantly, this isn't an invitation to breathe as slowly as you possibly can. Your breathing rate *should* change. You *need* to breathe faster when your metabolic demands increase, such as during exercise. And different breathing practices will suit different people at different times.

Ok, so why can slow breathing feel calming?

When you deliberately slow your breathing, you're affecting much more than the movement of air into and out of your lungs - breathing interacts with your heart rate, blood-pressure and the flow of information between your brain and body.

And when you consciously pay attention to your breath, you're also practising interoception: noticing and interpreting signals coming from inside your body.

Over time, that may help you become better at noticing how you're actually doing before you reach the point where your head feels ready to explode.

Try it yourself...

If you'd like to practise listening to your body rather than immediately trying to change it, try my free Nervous System Regulation: A Practice of Listening meditation on Insight Timer - a short practice designed to help you check in with what's happening internally and begin developing that ability to listen. Try it here

As always, happy practising.

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👋 work with me

☀️ lunchtime yoga reset 

Step away from your desk and join me for 45 minutes of online yoga to release tension, stretch and find a little calm for the afternoon ahead.

Beginners welcome. Camera on or off - it’s up to you.

🗓️ starts fri 2 October, save your spot here

💤 free challenge: 7 days of yoga nidra

I love Yoga Nidra! Come and practise it with me for seven days. Each day, I'll send you a guided Yoga Nidra to practise - different lengths, different focuses, different intentions.

🗓️ starts mon 19 October, online & self-paced, save your spot here

💛 1:1 therapeutic yoga

Personalised support for anxiety, sleep issues, stress or back pain. Take a look here

🦋 200 hour yoga teacher training

A welcoming, practical, neuroscience-informed training for people who want to teach yoga, or just learn more about it. Dive in, here

Ok, so this is where we are. You've spent all day thinking, "Well, I can't wait to get home. I can't wait to sit down. I can't wait until everyone just stops needing things from me."

And then finally, nobody needs anything from you. You sit down, you choose something to watch (or to read or to listen to), but then two seconds later, you're up and doing a task, or you've got hold of your phone and you're scrolling, or you're tapping your foot, and you just cannot seem to switch off.

This podcast episode explores why it’s so hard to switch off, and what we can do to make it (much) easier. 

We cover:

• Why stopping what you’re doing doesn’t automatically switch off the stress response
• What might be happening when you feel "wired but tired"
• Why scrolling, watching TV or replaying your day might not give your brain the cues you hoped they would
• Why lying down and trying to relax can sometimes leave you feeling even more restless
• How movement after a stressful day may help you transition out of a period of activation
• Why your yoga practice doesn’t always need to start with being still
• A simple question to ask yourself when you notice you can’t switch off: do I need to move first?

I’ve recorded a short practice specifically for *that* moment when the doing is finished, but your brain and body haven’t got the flipping message, called Switching Off - Your Transition Into Rest, on Insight Timer, listen here

It combines movement, breath and mindfulness to help you make the transition from doing to switching off.

Use it after work, before bed, after a night shift, or anytime you’ve stopped doing all the doing, but you still feel switched on.

Try the practice here 🥳

Enjoy!

---

👋 work with me

☀️ lunchtime yoga reset 

Step away from your desk and join me for 45 minutes of online yoga to release tension, stretch and find a little calm for the afternoon ahead.

Beginners welcome. Camera on or off - it’s up to you.

🗓️ starts fri 2 October, save your spot here

💤 free challenge: 7 days of yoga nidra

I love Yoga Nidra! Come and practise it with me for seven days. Each day, I'll send you a guided Yoga Nidra to practise - different lengths, different focuses, different intentions.

🗓️ starts mon 19 October, online & self-paced, save your spot here

💛 1:1 therapeutic yoga

Personalised support for anxiety, sleep issues, stress or back pain. Take a look here

🦋 200 hour yoga teacher training

A welcoming, practical, neuroscience-informed training for people who want to teach yoga, or just learn more about it. Dive in, here

😴 I love Yoga Nidra! Join my free 7-day Yoga Nidra challenge, starting 19 October. A different guided practice each day, in your own time. Save your spot here 

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Cortisol is a baddy of the wellness world.

"Lower your cortisol… Balance your cortisol… Avoid foods that spike your cortisol." But cortisol isn't simply a "stress hormone" that we need to get rid of. It's an essential hormone involved in energy availability, metabolism, immune and inflammatory activity, and it follows its own daily circadian rhythm.

So what should cortisol be doing at bedtime? And if you're lying awake at 1am with a racing mind, does that mean your cortisol is 'too high'?

In this episode, we'll explore:

• what cortisol actually is and what the HPA axis has to do with it
• why high cortisol isn't automatically a sign that something is wrong
• the natural daily rhythm of cortisol
• fascinating newer research suggesting that the morning rise in cortisol begins before we wake up
• why cortisol would normally be lower towards bedtime
• what disrupted cortisol rhythms may have to do with sleep
• why trying to "control your cortisol" can be an unhelpful way to approach sleep
• how yoga can help create a deliberate transition from doing to resting

Rather than being a health metric measure (or worry about), I want to take some of the pressure off - if better sleep is the goal, you don't need to lie in bed wondering whether you've successfully lowered your cortisol. Instead, you can work with your brain and body to tell them:

The day is over. I don't need to keep doing. It's time to rest. 💤 💤💤 

If you'd like some help doing exactly that, try Sleep Deeply Tonight: A Bedtime Nervous System Reset.

It's a long sleep practice designed to be played when you're already tucked up in bed. I'll guide you through breathing, body awareness and nervous system relaxation, and there's absolutely no need to stay awake until the end. Listen here. Simply get snuggled up, press play and let me do the rest.

---

👋 work with me

☀️ lunchtime yoga reset 

Step away from your desk and join me for 45 minutes of online yoga to release tension, stretch and find a little calm for the afternoon ahead.

Beginners welcome. Camera on or off - it’s up to you.

🗓️ starts fri 2 October, save your spot here

💤 free challenge: 7 days of yoga nidra

I love Yoga Nidra! Come and practise it with me for seven days. Each day, I'll send you a guided Yoga Nidra to practise - different lengths, different focuses, different intentions.

🗓️ starts mon 19 October, online & self-paced, save your spot here

💛 1:1 therapeutic yoga

Personalised support for anxiety, sleep issues, stress or back pain. Take a look here

🦋 200 hour yoga teacher training

A welcoming, practical, neuroscience-informed training for people who want to teach yoga, or just learn more about it. Dive in, here

Ok, so this is where we are. 

From the outside, everything in your life 'looks fine'. But on the inside, your tummy is tense, you're gripping your jaw, and you've got this feeling that you've forgotten something... or that something is about to go wrong. 

This episode explores all of that through the lens of allostatic load... which is like this: 

👉 Homeostasis - stable internal environment

Allostasis - maintaining that stability through change

Allostatic load - getting towards the end of the ability to adapt. 

All your systems work through allostasis, including your nervous system. And when life just keeps on coming; even if there's nothing dramatically wrong (everything is fine!) if your systems don't have time to recover after adapting, it can take effect. 

So, give this episode a listen to understand more deeply, and then, ideally, take a moment to work out what your brain and body need to help recovery. 

In this episode I mention about how yoga philosophy has a similar view on this, too: The five layers (koshas) of you. Listen here or be guided through a yummy Yoga Nidra for the 5 layers of you here 💛

You've got this! 

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👋 work with me

☀️ lunchtime yoga reset 

Step away from your desk and join me for 45 minutes of online yoga to release tension, stretch and find a little calm for the afternoon ahead.

Beginners welcome. Camera on or off - it’s up to you.

🗓️ starts fri 2 October, save your spot here

💤 free challenge: 7 days of yoga nidra

I love Yoga Nidra! Come and practise it with me for seven days. Each day, I'll send you a guided Yoga Nidra to practise - different lengths, different focuses, different intentions.

🗓️ starts mon 19 October, online & self-paced, save your spot here

💛 1:1 therapeutic yoga

Personalised support for anxiety, sleep issues, stress or back pain. Take a look here

🦋 200 hour yoga teacher training

A welcoming, practical, neuroscience-informed training for people who want to teach yoga, or just learn more about it. Dive in, here

You're whizzing around the supermarket,  tense and I'm silently swearing at this slow person in front of you. Rushing to get home, to cook, to get on the phone, then to get off the phone, to put the laundry away.

Except... there isn't actually any urgency.

I've had several conversations recently, both personally and professionally, with people whose lives have become less busy because they've retired, changed jobs or deliberately created more space in their lives.

But. They still always feel like they're in a rush.

Sometimes our old habits take a minute to catch up with our shiny new circumstances. So, if you're used to whizzing about, thinking about the next task and always squeezing more into the day - slowing down doesn't automatically happen when life is a little more spacious.

That phrase "old habits die hard" is popular because it's true, it describes this quite brilliantly.

If you'd like to be guided through taking a beat to stop rushing, I have a two-minute meditation on Insight Timer to guide you to slow down. Bookmark it and pop it on whenever you feel that temptation to rush. You can find it here 💨 

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👋 work with me

☀️ lunchtime yoga reset 

Step away from your desk and join me for 45 minutes of online yoga to release tension, stretch and find a little calm for the afternoon ahead.

Beginners welcome. Camera on or off - it’s up to you.

🗓️ starts fri 2 October, save your spot here

💤 free challenge: 7 days of yoga nidra

I love Yoga Nidra! Come and practise it with me for seven days. Each day, I'll send you a guided Yoga Nidra to practise - different lengths, different focuses, different intentions.

🗓️ starts mon 19 October, online & self-paced, save your spot here

💛 1:1 therapeutic yoga

Personalised support for anxiety, sleep issues, stress or back pain. Take a look here

🦋 200 hour yoga teacher training

A welcoming, practical, neuroscience-informed training for people who want to teach yoga, or just learn more about it. Dive in, here

When life is life-y, it's common (and human) for our attention to be more on 'what's wrong'. 

The brain becomes busy scanning for problems, looking for what needs fixing and preparing for what might happen next. It's a normal part of being human, but, because the brain is so busy with this, it means we often overlook the small moments of joyfulness that exist in-and-amongst the challenges.

This gentle meditation is a step to undoing that a little.

Not to try to pretend 'everything is perfect!', but to take a moment to notice the small moments of something lovely, that's already there.

These moments may seem small, or insignificant in the face of the business of a modern life, but intentionally bringing your attention to them can help broaden your awareness beyond threat alone. 

I hope this short meditation is, in itself, a small moment of joy in your day. 

Enjoy. 

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👋 work with me

☀️ lunchtime yoga reset 

Step away from your desk and join me for 45 minutes of online yoga to release tension, stretch and find a little calm for the afternoon ahead.

Beginners welcome. Camera on or off - it’s up to you.

🗓️ starts fri 2 October, save your spot here

💤 free challenge: 7 days of yoga nidra

I love Yoga Nidra! Come and practise it with me for seven days. Each day, I'll send you a guided Yoga Nidra to practise - different lengths, different focuses, different intentions.

🗓️ starts mon 19 October, online & self-paced, save your spot here

💛 1:1 therapeutic yoga

Personalised support for anxiety, sleep issues, stress or back pain. Take a look here

🦋 200 hour yoga teacher training

A welcoming, practical, neuroscience-informed training for people who want to teach yoga, or just learn more about it. Dive in, here

In this episode of All of Yoga, we explore two simple words that can make a surprisingly big difference when you're worrying about the future: we'll see.

Drawing on the principles of Karma Yoga and non-attachment, we look at what is within our control and what isn't - and how much time, energy and mental bandwidth we can spend trying to control outcomes that are outside of our control.

We'll also explore why letting go of an outcome doesn't mean that you don't care about it and why difficult experiences can sometimes lead somewhere we could never have predicted, something we explore in yoga teacher training (it's a delight!). If you'd love to explore this more, get your free journal prompts for aspiring yoga teachers here. 

You'll come away from this short talk with a simple practice for those moments when your mind is racing ahead, trying to predict what will happen next - going from argh to ‘we’ll see’!

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👋 work with me

☀️ lunchtime yoga reset 

Step away from your desk and join me for 45 minutes of online yoga to release tension, stretch and find a little calm for the afternoon ahead.

Beginners welcome. Camera on or off - it’s up to you.

🗓️ starts fri 2 October, save your spot here

💤 free challenge: 7 days of yoga nidra

I love Yoga Nidra! Come and practise it with me for seven days. Each day, I'll send you a guided Yoga Nidra to practise - different lengths, different focuses, different intentions.

🗓️ starts mon 19 October, online & self-paced, save your spot here

💛 1:1 therapeutic yoga

Personalised support for anxiety, sleep issues, stress or back pain. Take a look here

🦋 200 hour yoga teacher training

A welcoming, practical, neuroscience-informed training for people who want to teach yoga, or just learn more about it. Dive in, here

Let me ask you, what is the kindest thing you can do right now? 

Let's use a bit of calm time, some yoga philosophy, and a little bit of neuroscience to find out, shall we? 

Be guided through a meditation to arrive, before exploring a super important concept from yoga philosophy: ahimsa - non-harm. But maybe not in the way you expect! (Kindness does not equal being a doormat!)

We'll finish by helping you choose, or decide, the kindest thing you can do, right now. 

Enjoy!

P.s. Research suggests that kindness is associated with:

• Greater happiness and wellbeing
• Higher life satisfaction
• Better social connection
• A healthier response to stress

P.p.s. Liked this? You'll love

🎧 Do the thing, even with fear, listen here

🎧 The other 7 limbs of yoga, listen here

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👋 work with me

☀️ lunchtime yoga reset 

Step away from your desk and join me for 45 minutes of online yoga to release tension, stretch and find a little calm for the afternoon ahead.

Beginners welcome. Camera on or off - it’s up to you.

🗓️ starts fri 2 October, save your spot here

💤 free challenge: 7 days of yoga nidra

I love Yoga Nidra! Come and practise it with me for seven days. Each day, I'll send you a guided Yoga Nidra to practise - different lengths, different focuses, different intentions.

🗓️ starts mon 19 October, online & self-paced, save your spot here

💛 1:1 therapeutic yoga

Personalised support for anxiety, sleep issues, stress or back pain. Take a look here

🦋 200 hour yoga teacher training

A welcoming, practical, neuroscience-informed training for people who want to teach yoga, or just learn more about it. Dive in, here

If you've been living with back pain for a few weeks or longer, you've probably been told that you need to strengthen something, stretch something, improve your posture. 

Sometimes those things help, certainly. But sometimes they don't.

In this episode, we explore what modern pain science tells us about persistent back pain, and why pain isn't always a direct measure of tissue damage.

You'll learn why pain is produced by the brain as a protective response, how stress, sleep and previous experiences can make the nervous system more protective, and why this doesn't mean your pain is "all in your head". 

Your pain is real. The question is why your brain believes you still need protecting.

We also look at why yoga can help. Not because it magically realigns your spine, but because mindful movement, breathing and awareness can gradually teach the nervous system that it is safe again. 

Plus, join me for an in-person workshop, dedicated to helping you find relief from pain:

Understanding your back pain: an evidence informed workshop

🗓️ Sunday 9th August 

📍 The Attic, Leeds

🙏 Spaces are limited, save your spot here

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👋 work with me

☀️ lunchtime yoga reset 

Step away from your desk and join me for 45 minutes of online yoga to release tension, stretch and find a little calm for the afternoon ahead.

Beginners welcome. Camera on or off - it’s up to you.

🗓️ starts fri 2 October, save your spot here

💤 free challenge: 7 days of yoga nidra

I love Yoga Nidra! Come and practise it with me for seven days. Each day, I'll send you a guided Yoga Nidra to practise - different lengths, different focuses, different intentions.

🗓️ starts mon 19 October, online & self-paced, save your spot here

💛 1:1 therapeutic yoga

Personalised support for anxiety, sleep issues, stress or back pain. Take a look here

🦋 200 hour yoga teacher training

A welcoming, practical, neuroscience-informed training for people who want to teach yoga, or just learn more about it. Dive in, here