10 Reasons to Try Yoga Nidra

Yoga nidra means ‘yogic sleep’. It is an effortless yoga relaxation and meditation practice that anyone can do, by themselves with an audio recording or with the guidance of a teacher in person.

Yoga nidra brings you to a deeply relaxed state of mind and body, whilst you are still awake. This is the state between sleep and wakefulness (called the hypnogogic state in psychology), where you float between consciousness and unconsciousness, being aware of the resting state of the body and mind as it is happening in the moment.

Yoga nidra has been shown to be effective in supporting and healing many areas of body and mind including stress, tension, anxiety, insomnia, pain, trauma, addiction and PTSD.

I have found yoga nidra to be one of the best ways to relax and release my body completely, and one of the easiest ways to enter the meditative space. It really is effortless.

In this blog I offer ten reasons why you should try yoga nidra, and a link to ten free yoga nidra practices on my website.

10 Ways to Use a Yoga Brick

In this blog post I continue to celebrate 10 years of teaching with the first in a series of ‘Ten Ways to use...’

This blog is about yoga bricks. After yoga mats, they are probably the most widely found yoga prop.

If you are new to yoga and got a yoga brick with your first yoga mat, you might have been wondering what it is for. If you are a more experienced yoga student you may be familiar with ways to use a brick in your practice.

In this blog I share a few ideas on how to use your brick for ten common yoga poses.

Ten Years, Yoga and Wellbeing, Yoga Practice, Yoga TipsSarah CloverMarch 17, 2023yoga tips, yoga class, Ten Years

Ten things I've learned from ten years of teaching yoga

Ten years ago I completed my first Yoga Teacher Training. I decided to share my love of yoga with my community and build a business to support my family after many years working in the arts.

Starting with mum and baby yoga, then adult classes and then pregnancy, my classes and timetable have grown organically and luckily I've succeeded in making yoga teaching my full time job.

Over the years I’ve learned so much about myself, about teaching yoga and how to run a yoga business. In this blog I reflect on ten of the many things I’ve learned as I look forward to the next ten years…

Yoga Tips, Ten YearsSarah CloverFebruary 10, 2023Ten Years, yoga class, yoga tips

Meno -PAUSE

I’m delighted to have qualified as a Menopause Yoga Teacher just as we celebrate World Menopause Day in October. I’m looking forward to sharing my new skills with you soon on the mat. Read my latest post where I share some key menopause resources with you and a little of my menopause story so far.

Yoga Tips, Yoga for MenopauseSarah CloverOctober 18, 2022menopause, mental, yoga for menopause, yoga tips

Pelvic stability in pregnancy - 4 top tips

It's really important to have an understanding of your pelvis in pregnancy, how to keep it healthy and stable and how best to use it during labour and birth.

The female pelvis is designed with childbirth in mind, it is an amazing structure. The down side to the amazing ability of the female pelvis to not only be flexible, but also to house a growing baby, placenta, and all its usual organs and systems is that a lot of pressure is put on both the bony pelvis and the muscles and ligaments such as the sacroiliac, symphysis pubis and pelvic floor.

Read on to find out more about how to keep your pelvis stable and healthy during your pregnancy…

Yoga for Pregnancy, Yoga TipsSarah CloverJuly 13, 2022Pregnancy Yoga

Moon Salutation - 3 ways

I'm sure you've heard of the yoga Sun salutation. If you are a yoga student you've probably done a few of them in your yoga practice. But have you heard of the moon salutation?

Find out more about the moon salutation in this blog post and there’s a free 40 minute class where you can try out 3 variations!

50 Ways to Meditate

I've recently started to swim a couple of times a week. I've always loved swimming, but never made it a regular hobby. I took my boys to baby swimming classes from about 6 months old as I know how important it is as a life saving skill, and also how much fun children (and adults!) have splashing around, jumping in and generally mucking about in the water once they are competent swimmers.

But there's something else that I notice when I swim, it's a quietness, a focus and an ease. When I swim it takes me to that quiet space of being that happens in meditation or deep relaxation. My mind quietens and I can just be with the action of 'swimming', of being in the present moment.

In this blog I talk about how we can use the hobbies and activities we lobe to drop into meditation, we can all do it, find out how…

Yoga is not about touching your toes

What I have always known is that yoga is not about touching your toes, despite the images we see of yoga in the media. There's a famous quote 'yoga is not about touching your toes, but what you learn on the way down'. Being flexible is not what yoga is about (although you might become more flexible in time) you might never be able to touch your toes (and it's fine whether you can or you can't) but yoga will teach you about where you are in your body. With each pose/position (done in the way that suits you best) you learn more about what your body can do, what it can't do, what it likes to do, what is a challenge to do, what is calming, what is energising, what feels good, what doesn't feel good.

In this blog post I talk about how I study, practice and teach yoga to suit each individual and why you don't need to be able to touch your toes to do yoga.

Yoga and Wellbeing, Yoga Practice, Yoga TipsSarah CloverJanuary 12, 2022yoga quotes, yoga practice, yoga tips

Occasional Thoughts Blog

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