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…

How to begin Postnatal Exercise

Your pregnancy and birth may have been pretty smooth sailing and you want to begin to explore your new postnatal body and how to find your way back to fitness. Your pregnancy and birth may have been hugely challenging physically and mentally and you don't feel very much like you any more, or really connected to your body. Or you may be somewhere between the two. The important thing is to be where you are right now and start there.

Postnatal fitness classes are a good way to meet other parents and do something for you now that life seems to be all about baby.

Find out more about how postnatal yoga can help you and how to choose the best postnatal exercise for you.

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

Rest and Digest

I love the autumn time, the leaves turning, the cosiness of the darker evenings where lights twinkle in warm homes and we can begin to hibernate. But autumn for me also comes with some challenges.

There’s a cycle to this rhythm of challenge and back to ease for me which I can observe. A cycle that usually lasts for a few weeks at time (but I sometimes notice it over days or longer over months). There’s usually a beginning, a growth phase, some status quo and then a challenge. Then back to the start again. I notice it in my activities, my nervous system, and particularly in my body and mind in the form of anxiety or overwhelm or tiredness. You may also recognise this in your own day to day life.

In this blog post I talk about what this cycle looks like for me, how I let go of challenges and the tools and techniques of rest and digest that work for me to get back to the beginning, to feel brighter and stay well. I also offer you a downloadable Yoga Nidra Practice – created in collaboration with my teacher Barrie Risman – to help you to let go of challenges this autumn and enjoy some rest.

A relaxation especially for new parents

In this blog post I invite you to take a moment to be with the miracle of being a parent, this is especially for new parents, but if you are a parent of any age child you may enjoy this practice too and you can adapt my words to suit. You can read the relaxation and follow my guidance as you read, or you can listen to the 5 minute MP3 link on the blog page and follow my voice.

How to find the right yoga class.

In this blog post I guide you through the types of yoga class you might find in your local area. There's a real spectrum of yoga, like music or dance there are many styles, some you will like and some you won't be so keen on. Depending on where and who a class teacher has trained with will influence how they teach.

I will guide you through some of the considerations you might like to make whilst deciding what class to try, what you should expect from a good yoga teacher, and when you know you’ve found the right class for your body and mind.

Yoga Practice, Yoga for Pregnancy, Postnatal Yoga, Baby YogaSarah CloverSeptember 27, 2021yoga class, yoga practice, top tips, yoga tips

Emerging

Our way of emerging from Covid restrictions is all so dependent on our individual circumstances, how Covid has affected our working and family lives and our daily activities over the past 18 months. Our health and mental well-being has been tested sometimes to extremes.

For me personally, I've taken a slow and steady approach to the lifting of restrictions in July and August. We've seen family, finally had grandparents staying over again and met a few friends. We've been to a few events, camping, to a family wedding and more recently on holiday to our family cottage in Scotland. I'll be honest the amount of people at a few events and places was a little overwhelming at first, even outside. But I'm slowly getting used to being closer to more people I don't know.

In this blog post, I talk about what I've been doing these past few weeks, how I'm preparing for classes from September and what you can expect to find if you join us this September as I ensure that our yoga community feels safe and comfortable in class as we move forwards together, enjoy reconnecting to our weekly yoga class and minimise the risk of spreading infection as best we can.

Yoga and WellbeingSarah CloverAugust 30, 2021mental health, yoga class

4 books you should read if you are expecting a baby (and I wish I had read when I was pregnant)

Knowledge is power. If you are expecting a baby there is a wealth of information out there to support your pregnancy and birth, as you have no doubt discovered.

You've probably read some blogs, joined some apps and booked a pregnancy yoga class, new parent class or NCT class. You may have been given information by your midwife, or at antenatal appointments. Friends and family may have offered you advice.

Through all of this information is threaded the medical model of pregnancy, labour and birth, this is the basis for how we learn about pregnancy and birth.

Whilst the development of medicine and technology has supported the labour and birth process, in other ways it can get in the way. We have replaced handed down knowledge from generations of women, with medical rules and systems that makes pregnancy and birth appear to be a hospital procedure, something done to a woman, rather than a process led by and owned by the woman herself.

Here are 4 books that will give you wider information and help you to have an active labour and birth. They include tools and techniques to help your labour progress positively and even joyfully; how to ensure both mother and baby are well supported, empowered and able to make confident choices whether in hospital or at home. Everyone expecting a baby should read at least one of these – mother, partner and anyone supporting a mother and baby.

Yoga for Pregnancy, Pregnancy YogaSarah CloverJuly 13, 2021Pregnancy Yoga

My Meditation Journey

Today, 22nd May , is World Meditation Day. I wanted to share with you my meditation journey, how meditation is simple and effective and maybe inspire you to try it!

15 years ago in a California yoga studio, a shift in my yoga practice happened. One day on the mat I experienced a deep resonance as I moved in a sun salutation, like I had become one with the movement and the space around me. It felt amazing and I realised that yoga was not just a physical movement experience.

As I journeyed through my practice, widened my knowledge and trained to teach yoga I came to realise that what I had experienced in that California yoga studio was a meditative state through movement.

Meditation was something I was intrigued by, had sat and done guided by teachers and using recordings. But I didn't really understand what meditation was supposed to feel like, where it was supposed to take me or if I was doing it right. Recordings were lovely and relaxing, but there must be more to it than just following them and feeling rested. I wanted to really know how to meditate.

Four years ago I joined a meditation teacher training with Mick Timpson at Beanddo, Manchester. I didn't plan to teach meditation, just deepen my understanding of it. The accessible meditation tools I learned underpin every meditation I do, and actually everything I do in daily life. Read on to find out more about my meditation journey, why I teach meditation and how meditation might help you too.

Cautious or Can't Wait?

It's almost time for yoga classes to return to in-person. We await the next level of restrictions lifting on 17th May, and government confirmation that we can get back to practicing in a room together in England.

But how are you feeling about this? The reality is that we're not all ready to plunge back into closer proximity to others, and that's ok.

I spent a lot of time last autumn, working out a comprehensive covid policy and procedure for in-person classes. When we were not in lockdown, we came together safely and I felt confident hosting and teaching classes because this was in place and we all adhered to it. We could still chat, make social connections and enjoy being together. Mums and babies, and pregnant ladies could make those important networks and share experiences. Students commented that they felt safe and it was joyful to practice together.

In this blog post I talk about how I am feeling as we go back to class and how my covid policy and procedures can help you feel reassured. Whatever the individual journey we have had to navigate and wherever we are on the scale of cautious to can't wait I welcome you to class whenever you feel ready.

Occasional Thoughts Blog

07977093373• sarah@breathingspace-yoga.com