The way we speak is so powerful.

In almost every culture there is a form of sacred speech. We have prayer, chanting, spells, mantra.

Using language to weave the world is innate to us as human beings, and has been used as part of religion, spirituality and ritual since records began.

But we don’t have to have an organised belief system to access it’s benefits.

I love affirmations; I love how flexible and empowering they are and how quickly they make a difference.

For me, affirmations are not about forcing myself to believe something or to deny reality but a way to shift the lens I am seeing the world through. A way to influence the landscape of my mind.

I hope you enjoy this session, you can do a formal relaxation and sit and listen to it or you can have it on in the background as you go about your morning.

Merry August everyone, I hope you’re having a wonderful summer whatever you’re up to (or winter, my southern hemisphere friends)

I’ve had lots of requests for a session you can do in a small space when you’re travelling, so your wish is my command: here’s a short routine for your whole body, for when you’re stretched on space but still need to stretch your body.

Enjoy!

Did you ever read a bed time story as a child?

Or maybe you listen to the radio, or have a comfort TV show that you watch before bed.

The human brain is primed to find stories comforting and relaxing. For millennia we have told tales in the evening in front of a fire. They remind us of safety, of belonging, of being part of a tribe.

A sleep story is an adult bedtime story, specifically picked for their gentle, cosy nature. They are interesting enough to stop your mind wandering but not so interesting you get involved in the plot.

I have wanted to record one for ages but it’s a little bit different to what I normally post so I haven’t had the confidence. So when someone in my zoom studio specifically asked for one, I jumped at the chance.

I have chosen the Wind in the Willows as this was a particular favourite of mine when I was a child, and if people enjoy it I will make it into a series.

So pop it on when you’re dropping off and let me know.

Did you know?

That you can now download substack videos so you can watch them offline. Just click the three dots and choose download so you can then listen without having to be connected to the internet.

That means you can listen without being distracted by other things.

Oh that little green eyed monster.

We all have one, and it can cause so much misery in our own minds and in our relationships.

Jealousy can be a destructive emotion if we let it fester or push it down or use it to lash out, but it can also be a message from our deeper wisdom guiding us on our desires and showing us our path towards a truthful life.For years I struggled to know what I wanted in life, I’d been living in survival mode just trying to be liked and fit in, and when I came out of it I didn’t know who I was or what I wanted.

And it wasn’t until I started turning with curiosity and compassion to the parts of myself that I had tried to push down that I realised they’d been showing me the way the whole time.Tapping into your intuition doesn’t just mean looking for positive signs but also listening the less socially acceptable parts of us too.Yoga teaches us that emotions are morally neutral, they are all part of being human, it’s what we do with them and how we act that matters.

What is your green eyed monster trying to tell you?

Coming up on Monday we have something a little bit different.It’s a bedtime story for helping you drift off to sleep. 💤I’ve recorded the first chapter of Wind in the Willows as a super relaxing sleepy story to make you feel comforted and put you in a slumber.This is an experiment and if people like it I’ll make a series. Look out for it in your inbox on Monday.

I’m a terrible tooth grinder, I’ve even chewed through the teeth grinding retainer they gave me (whoops) and when I’m stressed it’s so much worse.

But over the years I’ve learnt that if I do regular, simple, jaw releases throughout the day then the culmination of tension is way less and I grind far less too. (Though it’s never fully gone away).

This is the one minute session that I do, Enjoy!!

Could you do me a favour?

Gosh, that sentence is so hard to type isn’t it! Do you find it hard to ask for help too?

As you probably know (and can tell) Yoga for Tired People is made entirely by me, I don’t have a team or an ad budget, it’s just been me in my spare room with my laptop.

And yet it has grown into the most wonderful community of the best people on the internet (that’s you).

And I’m not afraid to admit that I would love it to grow even more, I have a secret dream of Yoga for Tired People becoming a household name, and it becomes normal for everyone to take short breaks throughout their day to stretch and relax.

So can you help me get the word out?

If you enjoy the sessions here can I ask you to share Yoga for Tired People with anyone you can think of that would also enjoy the sessions?

And let’s see if we can get everyone stretching, relaxing and grounding themselves.

One of the biggest misconceptions about yoga is that if you practice yoga, you should never feel irritated or angry again. That you should just be able to go through life above it all, removed from the ups and downs of being human.

And this is just not true. Yoga is not there to bypass our very real and valid emotions, it’s there to help us feel steady as we experience them fully.

So instead of feeling like a little boat being rocked and tumbled about, at the mercy of the waves and storms of our mind, we remember that we ARE the ocean and this weather is simply passing through.

Because at the end of the day, we can’t just go and live in a cave by ourselves. And personally I don’t think we should, we are social creatures and life is for living. For me, yoga has always been about living our life in the world rather than distancing yourself from it.

And the world will always include people we don’t get on with, stressful situations, and things that annoy us.

It’s so common to feel guilty for any negative emotion, like they make us a bad person, or mean we are ‘bad’ at yoga. But emotions don’t have any morality attached to them, they are simply data. There to be felt.

It is how you behave, not how you feel, that makes the biggest impact in the world. And yoga can create the space you need to make sure you are behaving in a way that aligns with your morals.

When we react out of anger, this is often when we lose integrity and do something we don’t feel proud of later. So taking a beat, returning back to ourselves and then responding means we are acting from a place of self power, and it usually means we get better results.

This is never about pushing away our emotions or making ourselves okay with other people’s not-okay actions. We are not putting ourselves in ‘time out’ for having a ‘bad’ emotion.

Instead, we are returning our nervous system back to a more steady state so we can decide how to act, and make the changes we need to make, to respond rather than react.

So next time you are activated by someone try this 5 minute session to bring you back.

Don’t forget to save it for when you need it.

Anxiety is so rubbish, it is one of the most deeply unpleasant experiences that anyone can have.

And because it’s so horrible, it’s very common to become anxious about getting anxious. Then you can get caught in a cycle of being anxious about your anxiety, which ironically makes you more anxious.

When I had my burnout in 2022 and was experiencing regular panic attacks, I found my world getting smaller and smaller as I was afraid I’d experience a panic attack somewhere public, so I started restricting where I felt ok to go. And of course, the places I felt ok got fewer and fewer until my world was tiny.

Also, everywhere I turned the advice was to breathe through my anxiety, but this wasn’t helping me, in fact when I was focusing on my breath I felt even more panicky!

Now, I love breath work. I am a yoga teacher and I do breath work every day, but when your body is in a heightened state of anxiety, and it thinks it’s in danger, sitting still and forcing yourself to concentrate on your breath is not always the best thing to do.

What helped me was seeing the distinction between the two types of anxiety:

* The original anxiety

* The anxiety about the anxiety

I didn’t have much control over the first type in the moment, but if I watched it, it had a beginning, a peak, and then it passed. It was really, indescribably unpleasant, but it wasn’t going to kill me, and it couldn’t be more powerful than me because it was me.

It was a sign from my body, not a moral failure.

The second type was a bit more tricky; this one could seep into everything, but this is the one I had a bit more control over.

It consisted of all the stories I was telling myself about the first type of anxiety, my reaction to it, and the way I kept pushing it away and trying to control it, and the way I was shrinking my life to try and avoid it.

Weirdly, it was by accepting my anxiety that I was able to move through it.

And part of accepting my anxiety was developing a toolkit for things to do when I can feel the physical symptoms of anxiety rear their head, and knowing that these might be different tools to the ones I need when I am in a calmer state.

Here are 3 things that aren’t breathwork that can help with the physical symptoms of anxiety:

* Eat a very sour sweet - this is a grounding body technique that helps move your attention away from ruminating and scanning and to a strong sensation.

* Splash your face with cold water, this stimulates the mammalian dive reflex and stops you spiralling.

* Do a simple but engrossing mind puzzle. I like to think of a band name for every letter of the alphabet. The key is that it needs to be hard enough to engross you but easy enough not to stress you, think something you’d play on a long car journey.

Please note that these tools might not work for you every time. It’s so important to experiment yourself and find what works for you, and to know that you are not a failure if certain tools that seem to work for others don’t work for you. And just because something doesn’t work now doesn’t mean it won’t be useful to you in the future.

Also, these techniques are never meant to be a replacement for therapy or medication.

Here is a short anxiety release that you might find useful

Did you know that Yoga for Tired People has a soft paywall. This means that the videos and relaxations are available to everyone, regardless of whether you’re a paying member or not.

This is because I trust that the people who can afford to and value what we do here will want to support the page and keep it accessible for all.

All of my colleagues I have spoken to about this have told me that I’m mad. That this isn’t how things work, that no one will pay for something that they don’t have to. That if I make it available to everyone I’ll tank my business, that I won’t grow, that people will take advantage and I need to put my own oxygen mask on first.

But I can’t help but have faith. I think so many of us are craving something new. We’re sick of big corporations and we yearn for a sense of community. And this is the world I want to live in so why not give it a try.

If you want to support me to continue to make the videos then an annual subscription is pay what you feel, with a minimum of £20 because anything less gets wiped out by fees. Pay more if you can, pay it forward if you’re able. And if you can’t afford it right now, please just enjoy the videos guilt free. That’s what this is for.

Yoga for Tired People is your permission slip to rest,To start where you are,And to stop waiting until life is less chaotic to take care of yourself.

Good news!!

I finally have some openings in the Zoom Studio coming up.

The Zoom Studio is the online studio where we meet to practise nourishing, restoring yoga together.

We have 3 live zoom classes a week, a library of on demand sessions and catch up on the live classes.

Spaces are limited in the studio so it can feel cosy and supportive in the zoom sessions.

There are only 10 spaces available and once they are gone, they are gone.

It’s £35 a month and you can cancel anytime.

If you’d like to join us you can sign up with this link and of course if you have any questions just let me know

Here we are—Day 7 of the Relaxation Reset.

If you’ve been with me each day this week, I hope these practices have brought something useful into your days—a bit of calm, a shift in pace, even just the reminder that you’re allowed to stop for a moment.

And if this is your first one, or the first one you’ve got to in a while—that’s fine too. These practices aren’t going anywhere. You can return to them anytime you like.

Today’s audio is a gentle closing practice. Nothing dramatic, just a final quiet pause—and maybe something new to weave into your day going forward.

If you’ve enjoyed the reset, I’d really love to know.The comments are open for your reflections, big or small. Whether something surprised you, stuck with you, or just helped you breathe a bit deeper—I’d love to hear.

Big love,Jo x

I can’t believe we’re already on Day 6.

You’ve made space for this all week—and whether you’ve listened every day or just caught a few, that’s something to celebrate. These short pauses can be so easy to skip, and you’ve kept showing up. That matters.

Today’s meditation is another short one, and you don’t need to bring anything but yourself. Let the words do the work. You’re allowed to just listen.

And if anything’s been quietly shifting—or even just becoming clearer—I’d love to know. The comments have been such a good part of this reset, and it’s always lovely seeing your reflections (or even just a quick wave to say you’re here).

One more to go tomorrow.

Big love,Jo x

How’s your week been?

If you’re in the groove and listening each day—amazing. If you’ve missed a few and just opened this thinking “oh yeah, that reset”—also amazing. You can jump back in any time.

Today’s meditation is short (as always), and it’s one of those ones that meets you right where you are. No pressure to feel a certain way. No deep insight required. Just take a few minutes, and see what happens.

If anything lands—or even if it doesn’t—you’re always welcome to share in the comments. There’s no right answer, and it doesn’t need to be a big emotional post. A line, a moment, a “still here” is more than enough.

See you tomorrow,Jo x