Episodes

  • Demystifying Sound Baths - reasons to bathe in sound

    Demystifying Sound Baths - reasons to bathe in sound
    Mar 17 2024
    Here I take dismantle the mystery of Sound Bathing and explore the reasons why you may want to give it a go! Find me at https://www.eqyoga.co.uk/TranscriptVicky (00:00:10) Hi. Welcome to all Things Yoga with Vicky. A podcast about all things yoga. Hello.We're going to do some demystifying the 'woo-woo' sounding world of sound baths. If you've never been to one, they aren't quite as strange as they may seem!During a sound bath session. There are different instruments like singing bowls, gongs and chimes, perhaps even drums, and they're played in a way that creates soothing sounds and vibrations that generally wash over you, helping you to relax your body and also your mind. Now, because they're played gently, the sound waves resonate through the room and sometimes into your body - we'll talk about that in a moment - and it creates a very peaceful and meditative atmosphere, even for those people who aren't used to meditation in the traditional sense. So what can you expect when you attend a sound bath? Well, you're going to immerse yourself in a sensory experience. You'll usually be laying down for the session, but if that isn't accessible, you can always sit on a chair.Vicky (00:01:12) But however you are, it's important to feel comfortable and warm. So generally people will have bolsters or pillows underneath their knees in their heads, a blanket over the top of you so that you just stay nice and comfortable. Now, the sound bath may take you on a journey of sound from singing bowls which can be placed on the body so you feel the vibrations into the whole of your being to things like cactus rain sticks and seed shakers to recreate sounds from nature. The instruments may be moved around your body or moved around the room to create different parts of that journey. You'll also expect the twinkle of chimes and the warm, soft sounds of the Sansula, a little finger piano, and perhaps even some sung mantras, what happens is you just allow yourself to be bathed in these auditory delights. Now, whilst sound baths are suitable for almost everybody, regardless of age or fitness level, there are a few conditions that if you have, you may want to skip the sound baths. Things like epilepsy, heart conditions or anything related to, finding sounds stressful or overstimulating, tinnitus, migraines triggered by noise, anything like that.Vicky (00:02:23) Also, if you have metal plates in your body or hearing aids that might make sound uncomfortable, it's best to skip out. And additionally, if you are pregnant and in the first or third trimester, it's best to wait until after for your sound baths. Now, it's worth also noting that some people with mental health issues might found sound baths lead to a release of emotions. There's no reason not to have a sound bath, but just be aware of that so that you know what to expect. Now, if you do attend a sound bath, the benefits you might feel can be amazing. You may feel a deep sense of relaxation during and after the session. People often find that sound bathing leads to a reduced sense of stress and lowering of anxiety, and it may help to improve focus and even encourage a sense of balance and harmony within yourself as a whole. Now, while most of the benefits are generally anecdotal, there has been some research into the effects of sound breathing. In 2016, a study by Goldsby concluded that sound bath type meditation may be especially useful in decreasing tension in individuals.Vicky (00:03:36) Additionally, Cotoia in 2018, said it was found that playing patients who were about to have an operation relaxing singing bowl music might be a useful strategy to manage pre-operative anxiety. Much more research is needed in this relatively new area, though. However, an interesting article in 2019 by neuroscientist and biophysicist William Softky, gives a new and interesting take on why sound baths are so popular. He sees the electronic noise pollution, and also the artificial sounds that devices that we use in modern life give out as an assault on our vibration sensitive nervous system, which becomes recalibrated. He said the solution to mental misery created by a de-calibrating sonic environment is to return to a calibrating one, such as a sound bath. Sound baths are a fantastic way to unwind, de-stress and rejuvenate your body and mind and also apparently recalibrate. So next time you need a little self-care, why not give a sound bath a try?Remember to hit subscribe and if you'd like to contact me, you can through my website eqyoga.co.ukThank you so much for listening.ReferencesGoldsby, T.L., Goldsby, M.E., McWalters, M. and Mills, P.J. (2016). Effects of Singing Bowl Sound Meditation on Mood, Tension, and Well-being: An Observational Study. Journal of Evidence-Based Complementary & Alternative Medicine, [online] 22(3), pp.401–406. doi: https://doi.org/10.1177/2156587216668109.Cotoia, A., Dibello, F., Moscatelli, F., Sciusco, A., Polito, P., Modolo, A., Gallo, C., Cibelli, G. and ...
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    5 mins
  • Busting myths about yoga teachers

    Busting myths about yoga teachers
    Mar 9 2024
    What are yoga teachers really like? Do they never eat chocolate or swear? Find me at https://www.eqyoga.co.uk/E2S2 Transcript**Vicky** (00:00:10) - Hi. Welcome to all Things Yoga with Vicky. A podcast about all things yoga. Hello and welcome. So we're going to have a little think about busting myths about yoga teachers. The yoga teachers. They are a strange breed in their lycra. Bend in this way and that. But. Not all yoga teachers are your stereotypical Western yoga teacher, and there are a lot of myths about yoga teachers, such as they all wear Lycra. I certainly don't. But we are going to think about just a few of these things that actually could be quite,, shall we say, detrimental to people attending yoga classes. So the first thing I'm going to say is all yoga teachers are not really skinny and really fit. You do not have to be really skinny and really fit to teach yoga. That's not saying some aren't, because yes, quite a few are, but there are a lot that aren't. Yoga isn't necessarily for people who have a level of fitness, a level of flexibility, a certain body shape.**Vicky** (00:01:21) - Yoga is for everybody, and this is something which is really key. When we look on Instagram and other social media, there is a large contingent of things that represent yoga that aren't actually representing yoga. They are representing an interpretation of yoga, doing a headstand in your shorts and bikini and so on. Now this is really key as it puts people off coming to classes. It makes people think that yoga is exclusively for a certain type of person, a certain body shape, a certain skill or flexibility level or fitness level. That is not the case. So number one myth busted. Not all yoga teachers are super fit, super bendy and super slim. Okay, so let's move on to myth number two. Myth number two is that yoga teachers are all vegan. Now, interestingly, some yoga teachers are vegan and there are certain yogic principles to live by. One of these is ahimsa, which is non harm. Now ahimsa can extend to not eating animal products or using animal products, if that is your interpretation of it.**Vicky** (00:02:39) - But a lot of yoga teachers do not follow any specific diet. There is nothing to say that yoga teachers have to be vegan or vegetarian. Personally, I'm pescatarian and I have been for many years, but that was way before I was a yoga teacher, so perhaps we can stop thinking about our yoga teachers being these super healthy beings because quite frankly, I love ice cream. I have a pizza on Fridays. You know, there's nothing wrong with this. This is a human thing to do. Yoga teachers are human. Now, the next myth we're going to bust is the fact that yoga teachers never, ever get injuries. Now, this is quite an interesting one. I quite often go to the same shop, and the people in there who work in there kind of know me because I'm in my yoga gear. They know I'm a yoga teacher. And the other week one of the guys who works in there said, oh I have a really bad back are there any yoga stretches I can do for it now? I don't ever recommend things like that, but I recommended him to a book that he might want to look at because I don't prescribe.**Vicky** (00:03:53) - I'm not medically qualified, but it's a book that I used when I had a herniated disc. And I said, look, from my personal experience, this book could be really useful. You might want to look at this. And he said, but you're a yoga teacher. How could you have had a bad back? Now, this fascinated me., yoga teachers are not superhuman. We get injuries, my wrists hurt. Sometimes if I kneel on my knees for too long, they hurt. We have the same issues as everybody else, as a yoga teacher. And in fact, sometimes too much of certain things in yoga can actually cause injuries, which is why we need to be quite careful. But it's that idea of yoga teachers being completely and utterly superhuman. We are not Terminators. As yoga teachers, we get injuries, trust me. Now, the last thing I'm going to talk about as a yoga teacher, and this is the one that I absolutely love. My mum says this to me sometimes.**Vicky** (00:04:54) - Like, how come you're not calm and collected all the time? Now it makes me chuckle. The idea that yoga teachers, all yoga teachers, just walk around in this super Zen like state unaffected by traffic jams or, you know, something annoys them. Trust me, yoga teachers do get annoyed. Yoga teachers get sweary and angry sometimes. Not necessarily in yoga classes. But like I say, yoga teachers are human, so we don't all walk around in a Zen like state. I mean, okay, sometimes we do some yoga teachers may do. If those yoga teachers out there,, walk around in the Zen like state all the time. It must be very nice. But from my personal point of view, the yoga teachers I know and also myself, we are not. Zen like beans 100% of the time. So I hope this has given you an insight into the world of the truth of yoga teachers busting those myths., if there's...
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    7 mins
  • The One Constant is Change

    The One Constant is Change
    Feb 6 2024
    Here we examine how humans like to have predicitability and suggest how we can help deal with the inevitable changes in our lives. Find me at https://www.eqyoga.co.uk/TranscriptVicky (00:00:03) - Hi, welcome to All Things Yoga with Vicky, a podcast about all things yoga. Hello. So today we're going to talk about change, the ever constant change. Now there's a saying that says one thing is certain in life and that is that things are going to change. And this is very true. So even when we feel that we're on an even keel, everything's swimming along nicely, then everything can take a nosedive or vice versa. So what we need to think about really, is the fact that we need to really not expect things to remain constant. The sense of constant change can be quite uncomfortable, and this is something that humans don't tend to sit well with, or it doesn't sit well with us humans. We like to have predictability. We like routine. We like to know what is happening, when it's happening, how it's going to happen. It's that same thing as kids coming home from school and saying, oh, what's for dinner? They want to know when's dinner? What is dinner? And it's that sense of being able to have predictability.Vicky (00:01:25) - When we stop having that sense of predictability in our lives, what happens is our brains start to want to cling on to things that are predictable, the things that can actually remain a constant. Now. It's really interesting because I think during Covid there was a lot of uncertainty. We didn't know when we will be able to leave our houses, all of those different things. And that uncertainty really didn't sit well with a lot of people. However, on the flip side, the certainty of knowing that you were going to be in your house and what your routine was going to be, and maybe when your food was going to be delivered if you didn't venture out to the shops. That was actually something that some people did get on board with. So the sense of being able to predict our lives and predict what is going to happen really does make us mostly comfortable. However, if we stay in that same place, if we stay in the place where we know exactly what is going to happen, we will stay in that place and we will never try anything different.Vicky (00:02:37) - We will never change things up in some sense, is we may never, as some people refer to it, grow. Um, the growth zone. Now, when I was a psychology teacher, we looked at quite a lot of learning theories, and a lot of the learning theories say more or less, you have to take yourself outside your comfort zone to learn new things, to learn skills, to advance. Now, okay, I take it that, um, not everyone wants to advance and learn new skills, and that is absolutely fine. Some people are quite happy where they are and there is nothing wrong with that at all. However, what I'm going to say is we need to start to be able to get comfortable with change. Change is a constant in our lives, and one of the things that we can maybe use to help us deal with change different situations, things not remain in the same is to maybe have something else that is a constant. Now, one of the constants in life you can have is something like meditation.Vicky (00:03:45) - You can have a five minute meditation practice, maybe at the beginning of the day, the end of the day, maybe in lunch time. That doesn't matter when. But if we have that one thing that is constant, it allows us to possibly cope better with the other things that are constantly changing. Now, quite often I speak about meditation, and my preferred meditation is a breath guided meditation. Just watching the inhales and the exhales. Just simply observe in the breath and the thing that attracts me really about this, apart from the fact that it was the first kind of meditation I learned at the Buddhist Centre, was the fact that we always have our breath with us. We don't need anything in particular. We don't need any sounds. We don't need a cushion. We don't need anything special. Our constant is our breath. And if we want to, we can allow ourselves to just take a few breaths, observe in those breaths in a meditation to allow us to deal with that sense of everything changing.Vicky (00:04:58) - Now. Some changes in life are bigger than others sometimes. Changes happen when we least expect it. But if we have a regular meditation practice, this is something that can allow us to deal better with that change. Also, the other thing is to expect change and sometimes changes for the better, not for the worse. So this is something we need to bear in mind. Let's not dread things shifting. Sometimes the sand dunes shift on the beach to make an even more beautiful pattern. So this is something that we can bear in mind when something happens. Maybe we can say, okay, there's this. Not all negative. I guess it depends on what it is, but that sense of being able to actually perhaps make room for growth, make room for different activities, make room ...
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    7 mins
  • Are You Breathing Wrong?

    Are You Breathing Wrong?
    Mar 17 2022
    In this episode we examine how we tend to learn unhelpful breath patterns as adults and what we can do to help to bring us back to a more instinctive breath.You can practice with me at eqyoga.co.ukTranscriptVicky (00:00:03) - Hi, welcome to All Things Yoga with Vicky, a podcast about all things yoga. Today we're going to think about breath. And if you're breathing all wrong, well, are you breathing all wrong? The answer may well be yes. As strange as it may sound, as we get older, we forget how to breathe properly. If you watch a baby or child or even pet's breathing, you may notice that their tummy area expands on the inhale and then contracts on the exhale. Adults. Well, those that don't practice yoga anyway don't tend to breathe in the same way. Somewhere on our journey of growing up, we somehow start to think that breathing is all about getting air into our chest area with an expansion of the ribs as we inhale. Weirdly, if you ask an adult to take a deep breath, they're likely to expand their chest but suck in their tummy area. This is often referred to as reverse breathing, as it's the opposite of how natural breathing really should work. Using our chest area to breathe really reduces the capacity of air that we can intake to our lungs.Vicky (00:01:17) - This means that we're not getting as much oxygen into our bodies, which is needed for our brain and our muscles to function well. Additionally, shallow breathing is often linked to anxiety and panic, so short, shallow breaths can signal to our nervous system that we need to switch to fight or flight mode, which isn't ideal unless there is actually a real threat present. So when and why do we lose the ability to breathe properly? I have a theory about this, and as unlikely as it may sound, I suspect that it's down to fashion, vanity, and social pressures. Now bear with me. Let me explain. When we hit adolescence, we start to become more aware of our appearance. Social pressures to look a certain way start to creep in, and we worry about how we look and what other people think of us. I have a feeling that this is the point when we change from that intuitive, childlike breath to our adult reverse breathing pattern. We start to hold our bodies differently with pressure to look slim or trim no matter what our gender.Vicky (00:02:26) - We hold our tummy area, restricting that room that we have to breathe. Added to this, many items are clothing are fitted and require our bellies to be a little constricted. Culprits are present in clothing for everybody. Tight jeans, tights, fitted dresses and the dreaded support underwear like Spanx. Now all of these restrict our ability to breathe as tummies just don't have that freedom they need for a good deep breath. Now here I must explain that we don't actually breathe air into our bellies and tummies. There'd be a bit of a problem if we were doing that. What actually is happening is we are allowing for our lungs to expand now. Our lungs expand in all directions. They expand front to back, side to side and top to bottom. When we breathe in, the expansion at the bottom of the lungs pushes our organs down a little to make space for the air in the lung. And this is what we see happening in our tummy. That's why we get that feeling of our tummy poking out a little when we take a deep breath into that belly area.Vicky (00:03:38) - It works the other way around too. Have you ever eaten too much and felt that it was quite difficult to breathe afterwards? That regretful last piece of Christmas pudding? Maybe that was your organs encroaching on your lungs. Space to expand. Now you may be thinking, how can I change this habit of reverse breathing now that it's so ingrained in my breath pattern? Well, perhaps it's best not to aim for changing how we breathe all the time, but to practice how to breathe differently for short periods of time but regularly. Sometimes called yogic breath breathing with a focus on the whole of the lung, can be a great way to train your brain to use all of your lungs to full capacity again. There are various methods that can be used to achieve this, but the most simple and effective that I found is to focus on the movement just in one point of your body. That is the area just a few centimeters north of your navel, sometimes referred to in yoga as the solar plexus, although that's actually a bundle of nerves at the back of the body.Vicky (00:04:43) - I suggest wearing non restrictive clothing, finding a comfortable seated or lying position, and allow your attention to move to that solar plexus area. If it helps, you may want to gently place your hand on that area. Then all you do is start to breathe and allow your breath to gently move that area in and out with each inhale and exhale. It's great if you can let this breath happen in and out through your nose, as it lets the breath be a little bit longer than when we breathe through our mouth. It's important not to force the breath, but to keep the ...
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    7 mins
  • We are all Unique

    We are all Unique
    Mar 10 2022
    In this episode we explore the idea that bodies are all different and how learning about your own body is far more useful than we may realise.You can practice with me at eqyoga.co.ukVicky (00:00:03) - Hi, welcome to All Things Yoga with Vicky, a podcast about all things yoga. Today we're going to speak about different bodies and expectations of our bodies. Now, if you've been listening to my podcast, you may. By now I've got the idea that I'm very keen on fitting yoga poses to our bodies, rather than making our bodies fit the poses. Now, recently, actually for about a month, I've been seeing adverts on social media about stretching apps and stretching programmes that show these amazing photos of people struggling to touch their toes in May and then being folded forward so tightly they could fit in a suitcase in August. Now, these apps promised amazing improvements in flexibility in a really short time. And under the posts, there are a plethora of comments from people saying how amazing these programmes are and how well they've worked. Now, can this really be true? Can we go from zero to be in a stretch in a hero in three months? Let's explore why things may not be all they seem here.Vicky (00:01:17) - So, as you may be aware, part of yoga teacher training is looking at anatomy, how bodies work, and also the makeup of our bodies. And it becomes very apparent that the pictures that we see in books showing bones and muscles are not representative of everyone. In fact, very few bodies will look like the textbook diagrams. We are all unique. Genetics, bone formation, muscle structure, past injuries and daily habits ensure that we are. You are unique just like everybody else. Now these differences in each body mean that it may be possible for one person, but impossible for another person to get into a certain position.Vicky (00:02:08) - For example, the picture of the amazinging forward fold in the episode pic would only be possible if your bone structure in your hips allows for it. If you were to look at the X-ray of a few different people's hips, you would see massive variations in how the bones look, almost as if they were from different creatures. For some people, there will be nothing stopping a deep forward fold at the hips, but for others, bone will meet bone even with a small forward fold, and that means that they will never reach that nose to knee version that we can see in pictures.Vicky (00:02:44) - It's important to say that this is no reason to despair. There are no prizes for touching your toes or fitting yourself into a suitcase. So in light of this information and our physical differences, I feel that such programs and apps may be offering false expectations, especially as an app doesn't take into account how your particular body works. In fact, there's a very real risk of people pushing to achieve the results that they're expecting and causing injury in the process. Not to mention that feeling of being disheartened when they don't manage to fold themselves in half. Our bodies are amazing. No matter what their makeup or what they look like, it's time that we started taking more notice of our own bodies and how they work and how they feel comfortable. If sitting cross-legged doesn't feel good for you, don't do it. Find your own way of sitting comfortably. If a traditional child's pose feels more awkward than relaxing, practice your own version or something. That's an alternative. We can get to know our bodies better by experimenting. One simple idea of a place to start is thinking about our shoulders.Vicky (00:03:55) - Another area with huge variation from person to person. You may like to see how it feels when you lift your arms forwards and up. Notice if there's tightness or if it feels good and then try again, but this time taking your arms out to the sides and up. Does it feel different? Maybe better, maybe less comfortable. If we notice a preference, we can then take this into our practice of poses like warrior one or Dandasana, where we raise our arms. If we start paying more attention to which movements feel better than others, which positions allow us to find more ease, we'll be working towards getting to knowing our bodies better, and this will allow us to improve our connection with our bodies. The mind body connection, if you will. I believe that knowing our bodies is far more useful and important than being able to perform crazy stretches. Having that knowledge allows us to avoid injuries rather than fighting with the amazing machines in which we live. We can learn to work intuitively with our bodies. Please remember to hit subscribe and if you'd like to contact me, you can through my website eqyoga.co.uk. Thank you so much for listening.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/yoga-chat/donations
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    6 mins
  • What is Meditation?

    What is Meditation?
    Mar 6 2022

    In this episode I explore the idea that meditation can take many different forms.

    You can practice with me at eqyoga.co.uk

    Transcript

    Vicky (00:00:03) - Hi, welcome to All Things Yoga with Vicky, a podcast about all things yoga.


    Vicky (00:00:11) - Today we're going to think about meditation. Now, what exactly is meditation is a question I've been asked many times and meditation has a sort of mystical, almost magical connotation to a lot of people who only really see people practicing it by sitting for hours in a cross leg position, in perfect stillness and allegedly reaching different planes of consciousness From the outside, it appears inaccessible and only for people who are truly dedicated. Now the truth is that meditation is focus. It's not empty in your mind or thinking of nothing. Because as a psychologist, I can assure you that the brain isn't designed to reside in complete stillness or have no thoughts. I tend to describe meditation as focusing on one thing, such as the breath. When we take our focus to just one object or sensation, we may find that the volume is turned down on all the other thoughts and stuff that rattles round our heads. That mental noise is referred to in yoga as chitter gritty, a wonderfully onomatopoeic Sanskrit term. Now, while the traditional form of meditation we think of involves sitting crosslegged on the floor, we may choose to meditate in any position that we feel comfortable. Be aware that laying down does often lead to napping rather than meditating, though. Now the focus of our meditation can be the natural rhythm of our breath. We can use a mantra such as a sayin or a sound. So we may choose two words, like just be.


    Vicky (00:01:52) - We might visualize an object like a candle flame in our minds. The other thing that we could do is we could just focus on a sound. Now, if you find that sitting still isn't for you, perhaps you could try something like a barefoot walking meditation with your focus being on the sensation of the ground below your feet. With each step, we can even use food to meditate, closing our eyes and slowly and mindfully bringing our attention to the smell, the taste, and the texture of whatever we choose. Perhaps try chocolate as it changes, as it warms up in your mouth, giving you more to focus on. It may be that you are already practicing a form of meditation, but don't realize it. I have friends who find that running is the place where they find their chitter gritty volume decreases, and that's so far from sitting still, but it has similar effects for them in the mind. Gardening, crochet, or knitting, cooking, drawing or painting, DIYing, tinkering with vehicles, there are so many ways in which people do find their headspace.


    Vicky (00:03:09) - All of the activities where you become completely consumed by your focus, where time seems to fly and you realize when you finish that you haven't thought about anything else except that thing that you were engaged in can be seen as forms of meditation. Yoga is sometimes referred to as a move in meditation too, as focusing on the movements, poses and balances can help dial down the activity of the other thoughts. The key to meditation isn't any big magical secret. You don't have to sit in silence for hours. Sometimes it's just a case of recognizing what meditation means to us. Please remember to hit subscribe, and if you'd like to contact me, you can through my website, eqyoga.co.uk. Thank you so much for listening.




    Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/yoga-chat/donations
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    4 mins
  • Think Yoga isn't for You?

    Think Yoga isn't for You?
    Mar 3 2022

    This episode is for everyone who thinks they can't do yoga or those who tried one class and didn't go back.

    You can practice with me at eqyoga.co.uk

    Transcript

    Vicky (00:00:03) - Hi, welcome to All Things Yoga with Vicky, a podcast about all things yoga. Now, today is for the people who think yoga isn't for them. So if you think yoga isn't for you, then please carry on listening. Now, when people find out I'm a yoga teacher, invariably they'd say something like, I'd love to do yoga, but I'm just not flexible enough, or my balance is far too bad to do yoga. I'd fall over or I could never wear leggings in public. Now, if I had a pound for every time someone had said something along those lines to me, I wouldn't need to teach yoga. I probably still would, though. Now sometimes I just smile politely, and other times I explain that people who do yoga are flexible because they do yoga. They might not have started out that way. Often. Use the analogy saying you're too inflexible to do yoga is like saying you're too dirty to have a shower. There is no way we would not shower because we're too dirty.


    Vicky (00:01:13) - So why do we think we can't do yoga? Because we aren't flexible. I mean, I get it, yoga can seem like some sort of strange witchcraft that it involves impossible pretzel poses, balances, and lots of lycra. But yoga can take many forms now. Recently, I had a student say to me that the style of yoga I teach has enabled her to realize what yoga is really about. She'd attended a handful of fast paced flow classes in the past and thought that was yoga. Um, she thought all yoga was like that. Now I teach Hatha yoga, which focuses on each pose, taking time to find a version of the pose that feels good for each individual. And also, there's a lot of breathing involved with our poses. Now, the challenge in hatha yoga comes from maintaining poses for longer, which is very different to these fast paced vinyasa flow classes, but a little bit more like a dance. Now, our first experience of yoga can dictate what yoga is for us or what we think yoga is.


    Vicky (00:02:19) - And if your first experience isn't the practice that you're hoping for, then it's possible that you could just dismiss yoga as something that just isn't for you. So it's really important that if we're looking for a yoga class, maybe try out a few different yoga styles and teachers before consigning it to the hobbies I tried and didn't like much. Ben. Yoga can take many forms. For example, if you've got limited strength or mobility, then a chair based yoga practice could be what you're after. Lots of people think that chair yoga is just for the elderly. But and yes, a lot of older people do benefit from the practice. It is also great for anyone with injuries, limb differences, or if you have limited space in which to practice. I run a chair yoga training course for yoga teachers, and the teachers are always amazed that chair yoga isn't a lesser or easier form of yoga. You work just as hard. You get all the same benefits. The only difference is that you have a chair as a prop.


    Vicky (00:03:24) - Equally, if you're looking for a relaxing practice without any physical exertion, then perhaps try restorative yoga. Maybe that practice would be right for you. Where we use bolsters, cushions, blankets to support the body while you just really chill out for a while in each pose. Maybe even the practice of yoga nidra, sometimes known as yogic sleep, is what you're after, so you don't need to move and you just listen to a guided relaxation. Yoga is so varied. Some yoga styles have a set sequence of poses that don't vary and the same every time you attend the class. Others have completely different poses each class. Some have chanting. Some classes are in heated rooms. Some use loads of props. Some are really deeply rooted in spiritual practices. I could go on. There's a rich and varied range of yoga out there, so if you think yoga isn't for you, or you tried it once and it wasn't what you are after, please consider finding your type of yoga as I truly believe there's a form of yoga for everyone.


    Vicky (00:04:37) - Please remember to hit subscribe and if you'd like to contact me, you can through my website eqyoga.co.uk. Thank you so much for listening.




    Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/yoga-chat/donations
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    5 mins
  • How to Find Your Feet

    How to Find Your Feet
    Feb 27 2022

    In this episode we consider how an important part of the body is often neglected.

    You can practice with me at eqyoga.co.uk

    Transcript

    Vicky (00:00:03) - Hi, welcome to All Things Yoga with Vicky, a podcast about all things yoga. So today's episode is dedicated to our feet. My sound strange, but let's consider how often we spare a thought for our poor feet. Our feet carry the heaviest burden out of all our body parts. We expect them to walk or run us miles until we ache. We cage them in shoes, sometimes really uncomfortable ones. And on the whole they are really a neglected part of our bodies. I mean, okay, the occasional pedicure or foot rub can be a nice feet treat, but if we give our feet the attention that we gave, for example, our core strength or our face or hair, then we would attend to them regularly. Generally speaking, feet are low on our priority list until we experience foot discomfort. Whether this be from cracked heels, ingrown toenails, blisters, corns, fungal issues, or cramp and heel pain. It's then that we start to appreciate just how important our feet are to our everyday functioning.


    Vicky (00:01:20) - In my yoga practice and teaching, I like to bring attention to the feet. When we're standing in mountain pose. If we take our awareness to the feet and to how the weight is distributed, it can give us a little insight into how we habitually stand and give us the opportunity to find a different or more comfortable way. Bringing attention to the feet in contact with the earth below us allows us to feel grounded in the mind. The feet can be a key player in the practice of feeling centered and calm. Another personal, foot focused favorite practice of mine is foot stretching. Now this can be done on all fours, with your toes tucked under and gently bringing your weight back until that sensation of stretch in the sole of the foot becomes, shall we say, pleasantly intense. And the front of the foot can also get the same attention by sitting on a chair, curling your toes under toward the sole of the foot, and then allowing what I would refer to as the knuckles of your toes to gently press into the ground.


    Vicky (00:02:21) - Now, with both of these, the level of stretch can be really well controlled. Regular stretching can help us to avoid cramp in the feet, but be aware because some of these stretches can also trigger cramp. So go easy. If you don't fancy this, maybe just using a tennis ball to roll around underneath the sole of the foot is another way to get a little foot massage. Toe wiggling is also something that I'm a fan of. Perhaps I'm oversharing, but if I eat something delicious, my toes wiggle with joy. Maybe that's just me then, but we can give our toes a really good stretch. We do this by inserting our fingers in between each toe, almost like you're holding hands with your foot. Now, I know this sometimes freaks people out, and that's okay. Not everyone's happy about touching their own feet as I am. They weren't really designed to be in shoes. They're capable of walking on an almost infinite amount of different surfaces inclines, declines, rough, smooth surfaces. Now, by practicing barefoot, we can free our feet, whether on our mats or outdoors and uneven ground.


    Vicky (00:03:35) - We're feeding our feet with information that can be used to help us balance and move and develop those skills. Let's take a moment to send our tootsies, a little appreciation for all that they do for us, and perhaps build in a little bit more foot focus to our yoga practice and our everyday routine. Please remember to hit subscribe and if you'd like to contact me, you can through my website eqyoga.co.uk. Thank you so much for listening.




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