Yoga and mindfulness can be total game-changers for kids with autism and ADHD. Spoiler alert: They’re not just about sitting still and breathing ..read more

We recently had the pleasure of being part of an inspiring event hosted by The Shift Movement, an organization dedicated to bringing yoga to schools across Gloucester. This unique day was more than just a conference; it was a celebration of yoga, entirely led by the students who love it. Special Yoga’s advanced Practitioner Jaz Wall was invited to share SY practices at this event, and the experience was truly uplifting. The Students’ Vision “The children had asked for a conference day that celebrated yoga because they saw their peers in school going to various sports days, like football tourna ..read more

I’d like to share a little bit about thoughts I've been having about what service is. In all the spiritual and yoga worlds, there's a lot of discussion about service and serving others. Of course, that's what we do as parents, it's what we do as educators, it's what we do as therapists. But what we don't do in all of those situations is serve ourselves. Over the years of being a parent—my children are significantly older now than they were when they were very little—I knew somewhere in me that I needed to take care of me. Although I had a daily practice, there were still things in my mindset ..read more

I am currently on a big journey around mindset abundance and vulnerability. One of the things that I realize as I start to watch my mind is that we've all got these corners, these pockets of the mind where it sabotages us and that prevents us from really standing in our full light and our full power. It takes a huge amount of courage and vulnerability, to even go and meet these pockets, to go and touch them, to go and say hello to them, to acknowledge they're even there. Recently the pockets that that have been coming up for me have been shame. So I’ve begun to explore what shame is. At some ..read more

For those who’ve not experienced it first hand, we wanted to share an overview of the what, why and how of Chair Yoga. Many people – due to disability, injury, mental health concerns, or simply aging – find traditional yoga classes challenging. Also, for the less-abled the act of getting down to the mat or back up can be difficult. Working with a chair, and sometimes props, allows yoga's therapeutic practices to be accessible for people with limited mobility or those lacking confidence. Simple adaptations mean that it opens a whole new level of inclusivity, providing a safe way to exercise and ..read more

This week is Neurodiversity Week . As someone who's worked with neurodiverse populations for many years (and may even be neurodivergent myself), I'm excited to celebrate the upcoming week. Neurodiversity Celebration Week is a time to recognize and appreciate the incredible value of the neurodiverse brain, mind and being! I've often thought that if we could see the world through the eyes of the neurodiverse children Special Yoga has been supporting, we'd be gifted with something extraordinary. The neurodiverse spectrum is vast, but one thing is certain: the children and young people I've had t ..read more

March the 17th is the launch of Neurodiversity Week . There's a lot of information popping up on social media, and as someone who's worked with neurodiverse populations for many years (and may even be neurodivergent myself!), I'm excited to celebrate the upcoming week. Neurodiversity Celebration Week is a time to recognize and appreciate the incredible value of the neurodiverse brain, mind and being! I've often thought that if we could see the world through the eyes of the neurodiverse children Special Yoga has been supporting, we'd be gifted with something extraordinary. The neurodiverse spe ..read more

Dropping expectations to find acceptance and freedom. I’ve had time to explore expectations recently and in particular have been considering how easy it is to carry them, often without being aware that’s what is happening. These expectations can be subtle. For example, the expectation to practice self-care, or the expectation to behave in a certain way towards others. They can also be about ourselves, like the expectation to control our thoughts or reactions. Just yesterday, I was working with a child with complex autism for the first time. As always, I approached the session with no expecta ..read more

Nicole Schnackenberg “I am different, not less.” -Dr. Temple Grandin ASD & Anxiety Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) affect the ways in which an individual communicates and interacts with others, and experiences the world around them. Individuals with ASD can also experience co-occurring difficulties with anxiety and low-mood, with a significant subgroup presenting with anxiety disorders or high levels of anxiety traits (White, Oswald, Ollendick and Scahill, 2009). The presence of such anxiety has been associated with, and even proposed to be caused by, sensory hyper-reactivity (Green ..read more

As we head into 2024, there are unsurprisingly a lot of talk about intentions. New year, new start, right? But what if instead of striving for the "new," we focused on the fundamental: deep rest? We live in a pressure cooker world, piling expectations on ourselves; "Be this, do that," they whisper. But the more I navigate life, the more I understand that the best approach is simply to trust and relax. On the way out here I misread my ticket, and after a long queue got to the counter to find that I’d missed my correct flight! I could feel the anxiety rising, but then though ‘You don’t need to ..read more