Inhale. Expand. Exhale. Grow.

Today more than ever I just want to remind you your happiness is built within. Today more than ever I want us to remember that nobody else is responsible for our inner peace but ourselves. No other person, no body of power, no authority, no government.. not the most powerful corporation in the world has the ability to take away our inner light. Every one of us has the power to create our own world. Inside of each of us is a divine place which no other person has the ability to affect. Once we learn to connect deeply to our centre, our internal and eternal  happiness; everything that happens outside of us is just that. . . External. Momentary. Our happiness depends upon our love for ourself.. we have to prioritise ourselves and to learn to connect to our truest self. Once we do that we can easily establish that which brings us happiness and that which does not. The rest is simple... create space for more of the good and eliminate that which does not serve us. Just as I teach on t

'Life will break you. Nobody can protect you from that, and living alone won't either, for solitude will break you with its yearning.  You have to love. You have to feel. It is the reason you are here on earth. You are here to risk your heart. You are here to to be swallowed up. And when it happens that you are broken, or betrayed or left, or hurt, or death brushes you near, let yourself sit by an apple tree and listen to the apples falling all around you in heaps, wasting their sweetness. Tell yourself you tasted as many as you could.' - Louise Erdrich  - The Painted Drum  (Women Who Run With The Moon)

Since arriving back from training I have thrown myself into teaching head first, teaching and practicing daily.. I guess in a way it has softened the difficulty of 'leaving the yoga-bubble' we experienced at teacher training. Now I sit on one of my first real days off from teaching and am able to sit back and try to get perspective on where I'm at with everything. A  lot  of things are changing and evolving in my life right now.. Being at teacher training was life changing, in so many ways. I have come out the other side not a different person; but simply a clearer version of myself. In the hours of meditation and personal practice during training I have been able to find such clarity on myself. To learn to let go of the things which no longer serve me, the attachments I had made to things which really served no good purpose in my life; fears, self-judgement, perfection. To let go of the ideas I had about my life and direction and where I thought  I needed to be. To expe

Hello, So thats it, my first ever Hot 90 Bikram class completed! I returned back from Paris a couple of days ago, had a day to prepare and went straight in with my first full public class yesterday evening. I can't begin to explain how I feel following it... its quite an overwhelming experience. Finally beginning my teaching journey after all these months of preparation and hard work; the intense weeks I spent training in paris all leading me to this point, and now I'm there, I feel so so much energy surrounding this part of my life. My first class went better than I could ever have hoped... I felt confident, of course nervous (and pretty sick!) and concerned about my dialogue.. but actually, I knew that whatever happened, I KNOW that series, I have worked hard to study and understand the fundamental basics underpinning every posture.. and if I fumble over my words or mix up lefts and rights, I'm not going to beat myself up over that because I am  a new teacher and I ha

How to even know where to begin trying to put into words how it feels to have come to the end of my training here in Paris with Evolation Yoga is so difficult.. this experience has been so completely life changing, it seems impossible to sum it up in words. Its a feeling.. a deep feeling of honour, gratitude, overwhelming and all-encompassing love. 😌 I came here already very aware and open to this being a challenging experience, both emotionally and physically.. but I never dreamed such transformation was to happen. From day one, when we began with the "Who am I?' exercise; each of us surrendered to the process and bravely revealed our deepest vulnerabilities, our hopes and fears.. and then together, over the weeks we have learnt to face our demons, look fear in the eye, overcome exhaustion in the name of dedication to our dreams.. we have learnt how to transform our weaknesses into our strengths. How to turn our darkness into our light. Learning how to quieten the chat

Good morning! So today marks our final day of Teacher Training here in Paris with Evolation Yoga... Its early morning and I'm just preparing to go take our very last hot class altogether here this morning.. I can't even begin to explain how this feels... after all these intense weeks of training, the double classes per day, the exhaustion and the times I would have to dig deep down inside myself to find the energy to get myself into the second class of the day.. I find myself here, preparing for the last one and only wishing for more. The feeling I have this morning is so deeply heartfelt, over these weeks we have overcome and gone through so much together.. so much more than I think any of us prepared for..  and now, as it comes to an end it feels so incredibly momentous its difficult to put into words.  I knew teacher training would be a time of learning, of growth and expansion... but I never dreamt it would open me up in the way that it has. In order to teach o

Hello! Well today I have taken a beautiful big step into my journey as a teacher... I was first up from our group here at teacher training to teach the full series as a mock class. We treat this just as a real class, our 'students' are our fellow trainees and we go from start to finish just as we would when we get home and start teaching, then afterwards we receive feedback to discuss what served our students and what could serve better next time. (There is definitely a big difference here between this and 'you didn't do this, this could have been better' etc) I feel so grateful that here at this training we get so many opportunities to really put into practice everything we are studying by really teaching.. This hands on approach just makes stepping up to the podium so much easier and more comfortable when we get home. Pretty much from day one and through all these weeks here we have been up on that podium teaching each other most days and it has become to feel lik

Hello! Wowee, what to say... today has been another incredible day. I feel like every day is one where major transformations appear; but today really was amazing.. We started our day with group study and then went in for a morning in the hot room.. another 90 minute hot 90 class followed by an hours group meditation... Ive quickly grown to love the days where we have this schedule because the flow from the intense physical asana practice to the meditation is sooo powerful.  Today was one of the deepest meditations I've had here... Something took all my awareness to my third eye... I didn't go in intending to practice 3rd eye meditation, because usually when i do it takes a lot of focus; its not something I normally would tap into during guided meditation.. But as I say, somehow my focus was pulled centrally and I found myself in a really deep and beautiful place. Whenever I practice third eye meditation it always starts with the same visuals and colours; vivid purp

'Sometimes we have to have a breakdown to have a breakthrough.' ...these words of my teacher here at teacher training, Christian really hit home yesterday.. After the first two weeks of training having gone by pretty successfully, I really wasn't expecting to have the day I had yesterday... We had a really intense morning, 3 hours in the hot room including a 90 minute class and a long mediation.. I went really deep within myself during the meditation, Ive had some personal things going on from home that I've been trying to keep out of my time here... Ive been trying so hard to focus only on this experience, the present moment,  now.  But it all reared itself up, Ive exhausted myself by resisting letting it in, so this time I simply surrendered and let myself feel it all.. It was a very emotional, yet freeing meditation... It allowed a little clarity and for that I am grateful. But at the same time, it sucked so much from me that combined with trying to absorb all t

So this weekend marks the halfway stage of my teacher training here with Evolation Yoga. This week I feel like I've really found my footing.... My body is more used to the physical demands, my muscles are getting stronger and my mind is becoming better and better at shutting out the excuses as to why I'm tired/exhausted etc.  Mind over matter. It really is. My mind is focused, and no matter how tired my physical body is, how sleep deprived... I have learnt that I can overcome that when there is no choice not to.  When we  want  to, We can achieve anything.  Yes my eyes have been closing during lectures, and I've been having to physically shake my head to keep myself awake... Yes my body is sore Andy  drained. No I don't always feel like I want to practice for 3 hours every day in the hot-room... But I have learnt I can. This entire process is showing me how limitless we really are..  When we push beyond barriers (both physical and mental) we transcend... We realise out

So yesterday was a very intense day for us here at teacher training, it's reached a point where the pressure really is on to get the dialogue memorised quickly as we've moved on to teaching two postures per day in teaching clinic; yet we only have a few hours per day to study, that mainly being at night when sleep would be much preferred.. So by this point, we're all pretty physically exhausted, sleep deprived and generally brain-fried from all the other information we're receiving all day in lectures and posture mechanics. I also got my period which for most of the day I listened to my lower S self tell me I could use as an excuse to feel sorry for myself, 'oh woe is me, is that cramps I feel? Oh probably, oh poor me...' So on and so forth. It wasn't until nearly 9pm when I was faced with my second class of the day, and I was near breaking point... I'd been struggling to keep my eyes open in study period and the LAST thing my 'self' wanted to do

Wow wow wow.  What in incredible experience I have received today...  Today is Saturday and the last day of our first week here at teacher training, it was also our first 'expand' class here with Zefea. Expand class is a different type of class to the usual hot 90.. its 2 hours  long and incorporates lots of different elements, it has a lot of similarities to the intermediate and advanced bikram classes, but also has some flows and moon salutations which were really wonderful to do after a very intense and focused week. It felt a lot like playtime and it really allowed me to free myself up throughout the practice. Zefea is an incredible woman... her energy is earthly and supportive, I felt very safe and centred. So when it came to the end part of our practice we did a deep backbending series...  heart openers can often be very emotional for a lot of people and today it really came out.  Zefea led us into the backbending section with a very mindful approach; makin

Hello! So today marks the fourth day of teacher training here in beautiful Paris. Where to start... well first, I'm alive!! Just having survived 4 of the most intense days of my life so far in terms of physical, mental and spiritual input is a miracle... and its only just the beginning! Its tough, they didn't call it Bikram-bootcamp for nothing! Our days start very early, with either an early morning practice or group study, most days we practice two 90 or 60minute hot classes... and just trying to keep rehydrated after that amount of sweating is a huge challenge in itself, then theres the lectures, the Posture Mechanics, the Teaching Clinics and the personal study providing a constant stream of information which is mentally as exhausting equally to the time spent in the hot room. Some days we don't get home until after 10pm and then theres home study to be done and practical things like laundry (and believe me theres a lot of that when you're doing so many class

Arriving in Paris a few days prior to when my actual TT course begins has given me some much required time to settle, find my feet and of course, get them on my mat to help ground myself before we begin training. So yesterday I ventured to the studio, Bikram L'Espace, which will be home for the next month, to take a class. What an incredible start to my journey here!.. The studio is beautiful and calming, Frederick the owner is an  incredible  teacher, he took the class mainly in French but still, I learnt so much from him from just one class. Sometimes language is no barrier for the energy somebody transmits. 💫 It was a challenging, focused, hot and sweaty class that had me testing all my concentration - A new studio, new people, teachers and a dialogue that wasn't in English.. testing to say the least! (and lets not talk about the added sunburn-factor!) 🙈 I had to go inside, to find my focus, to remember my breathe. The fundamentals really - but a challenging cla

Hello! Im never quite sure where to start these posts when theres been a long gap since the last, I always feel theres so much to tell and finding a place to start seems impossible! However i've been prompted to begin writing regularly again as I begin my yoga teacher training journey with Evolation Yoga.. its a very welcomed prompt; Ive always loved writing and posting on my blog.. something magical always happens when I do, realities are realised before me and my mind speaks louder than my voice can ever do. And I'm sure with the very intense month of learning and physical training I have ahead of me; writing will be a welcomed solace. So I arrived two days ago to beautiful Paris, which is now home to me for the summer while I complete my training.. Ive always loved this city, I remember telling my parents how I would one day live in Paris.. my dance days brought me here for shows when I was younger, then working as a model I would hop from one city to another.. but ne