Life is right here, right now

This is something I most certainly need to contemplate at the moment!  Having been swept along by the vata season and doing a million and one things, with just as many possible outcomes and options, I am very much being drawn into the future and trying to work out what will happen.  In order to stay in action I have been doing exactly that – maybe being too much in action – busy, busy, busy!  If I am completely occupied (usually with work tasks) I can’t think about the future and what may happen and try to work it all out.  This is OK for a short time but, like any avoidance strategy, it can start to take over and create imbalance.

Moving through the hatha flow with Kirsty kept reminding me to be present, feel the body, stay with the sensations and at the same time not aim to be picture perfect, but accept what I bring to the mat today.  In this way each pose felt like a special gift to myself, I wanted to linger in the sensation and drink it in fully, rather than race through till it’s complete and already moving on to the next.

It is when life gets busy, stressful and you feel you may not have time for your practice, or your exercise, or your self care routine, then it is even more important to sanctify those parts of your day.  To keep filling yourself up, making yourself feel like you are worth it, to give you the best possible foundation for the day ahead at work, or give you the presence of mind you need to look after the kids on your own again.  I am still in the process of learning this too 🙂

Much love Gemma xxx

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Hard-core hour with Georgie!

Wow our Georgie is one strong lady!  This is a fabulous hour long core focused class which is certainly challenging, although she always offers modifications and emphasises listening to your body and not doing too much.  Obviously as a ‘yoga teacher’ I SHOULD do all the hardest variations and ALL of them!  This was my first thought realisation, so I worked to remove the dreaded SHOULD from my thought vocab and be mindful of Georgie’e encouragement not to do too much too soon.  Which was not difficult as I find Georgie has the lovely teacher quality about her that makes you want to please her and do everything she says just as perfectly as you can 🙂

The instructions are incredibly clear and it was refreshing, if not challenging, to bring the focus to such small, and at times tricky to connect to, areas such as the pelvic floor.  If ever a question popped into my head like; where exactly is the pelvic floor again?  Georgie was quick to answer it in full with examples.  Another realisation I made about my own practice is I use plank pose as a transition in the flow, rather than giving it space to be it’s own pose.  I struggled with holding plank and as soon as I was in it my mind said ‘What’s next?’.  I think this is reflected generally in my practice, and in my life.  I am a future thinker, always having ideas and planning for what is coming next, so to learn to hold a strong pose in stillness was an excellent practice for me.

I learned so much, lots of which I hope to incorporate into my practice and inspire my teaching, about how to effectively bring the core strengthening into the class and maintain centre and focus.  Thank you Georgie – much love xxx

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