October 2020

RITUAL.

As someone who’s struggled a lot with sleep, I feel like I am beginning to experience a bit of a breakthrough recently. It may be due to the cumulative effects of ‘slowing down’ -which I mention in some way most months.. and also experimenting with herbs and remedies. If you’re not sleeping well then you’re just not going to function as well as possible, so I feel like it’s worth putting in the effort to find what helps you sleep, over the remedies that will boost your energy in the day. With good sleep that should be unnecessary. I’ve been consuming medicinal mushrooms for some time now and noticed that as well as calming me in the day, drinking reishi before bed has helped me to experience deep sleep that I almost don’t remember since childhood! I also like to listen to guided meditations in bed if I know that I need to wind down a little. Also the boring obvious things like not scrolling on your phone when you’re in bed- read a book :) Life is a lot easier to enjoy when you’re not exhausted.

NOURISH.

As it gets colder here, making fresh green juice isn’t so appealing. But I make sure to get the green in everyday somehow. So I make up my own concoction of herbs and powders and take it with breakfast. Although I have wide array of natural antibiotic/viral/fungal remedies I go to this time of year, it’s taken me a long time to accept how sensitive my body is, so even the natural remedies can throw off my system if I take too much. I now keep my immune system boosted with highly dense foods and supplements, also anti-inflammatory (green things do it all…) This mixture is:

barley grass- extremely high in vitamins and minerals and enzymes, baobab- a highly absorbable source of vitamin c, tocotrienols- natural vitamin e ‘antioxidant master’, gotu kola- brilliant for hair, nails and collagen production, I added this in because with all the other nutrients it doubles as a bit of a beauty remedy which I need in the winter and now that I’m in my 30s….

SELF PRACTICE.

I’m not sure if this counts as self practice exactly, but I have been spending a lot of my time contemplating what I can do as an individual to help decrease climate change or at the very least reduce my personal contribution to this terrifying matter. If you haven’t already you must watch David Attenborough’s ‘Extinction’, which is available on BBC iPlayer. This is very different to a relaxing nature documentary which might come to mind when you think of him. For me this just adds to the tragic message delivered here. It was almost a little overwhelming, which for some of us might leave us thinking what’s the point?, it’s too late now anyway, or feeling helpless as to what we can do. A couple of days after watching that ‘Kiss the Ground’ appeared on Netflix. This explains in detail the effects of the farming methods commonly used are one of (if not the top) contributors to the environmental and health issues we are facing now. It states bluntly that carrying on as we are, we are looking at just 60 more harvest left, thats 60 years of fertile soil to grow food.

Narrated by Woody Harrelson, I think it’s brilliantly put together to gain a good understanding of the importance of our soil and how we can actually help by educating ourselves to make more conscious choices about where our food comes from and support those methods just through what we are choosing to buy.

SELF STUDY.

Alongside teaching, I am fascinated with continuing to study yoga’s history and philosophy. To continue to deepen my understanding of what yoga really is, to me personally, and to the world. A lot of what I picked up through the years just didn’t quite fit together for me, I assumed I just hadn’t understood it enough yet, but more recently coming across the work by The Hatha Yoga Project has been eye opening. I mentioned the book Yoga Body by Mark Singleton in my July post, he is part of this project and his book, again shook the ground beneath me of what we are really trying to find from a spiritual practice, let alone its insights and theories into yoga’s recent history.

The Women of Yoga is another project I’m following…

“In 1955, yoga teacher and practitioner Labanya Palit of Kolkata, wrote and published Shariram Adyam, 11 years before Iyengar's Light On Yoga was released. Her book contains over 40 postures and instructions, an introduction from her teacher Bishnu Charan Ghosh, photographs and explanations of yoga asana practice. This book has been completely forgotten... until now.”

From ghoshyoga.org/women-of-yoga where you can subscribe for updates on this research project.

It’s a shame that this information isn’t surprising to me. Also, alongside the stories that continue to come out about some of yoga most well known teachers abusing their powers, I’m very interested to dig deeper into the history of female teachers and students in yogas history.