"I've really enjoyed prioritising myself the past few weeks" "I come to yoga for me" "My yoga is the only time I have that's for myself" These are things students tell me all the time - and that's absolutely amazing. Yoga helps people feel happier, healthier, better able to manage the other areas of their lives. I see it every day on the mat, when we chat after class, I see your body language change over weeks with me, your personality shine and can see the shift in how you feel. Then there's one mistake that I see all too often. You start to feel better and then immediately deprioritise that ..read more

Vertigo is dizziness at heights, right? Honestly, I wish it was that simple. My name is Jade, and it turns out I've had Visual Vertigo my entire life, and haven't had a clu until it came to bite me on the backside in my about 12 months ago. Last May, I was deep in the lead up to my book being launched globally with lots of work going on, speaking engagements plus juggling with my yoga business, business coaching work. I was pretty stressed, under a lot of pressure. One night, I rolled over in bed and my world started spinning. And it's been at it off and on since then. (Technically, now it's a ..read more

You might have heard yoga is great for managing stress. Maybe you're like "how does that work?", "how does a few shapes on a mat make a difference?" Well... it's to do with how yoga interacts with our brains! It's science! Yoga is about WAY more than flexibility. What happens in the brain Stress begins in the brain in Amygdala where stressor (traffic, tight deadline etc) is interpreted Distress signal sent to Hypothalamus Hypothalamus communicates with Autonomic Nervous System (ANS). 2 branches: Sympathetic Nervous System - fight or flight mode to respond to stressor. Racing heart, sweaty pa ..read more

Given studios and community places are shut currently, we don't have any other choice to take our practice into our homes. This brings a whole set of other challenges and a totally different feel to our practice too. Here's my tips for getting started with a home practice. THE BASICS THE SPACE You really don't need tons of space to practice at home - a space around 21 sq ft is more than sufficient, that's a few inches longer than a standard mat and about 1.5 times the width of your mat. The main criteria is you just want a few inches space around your mat so you're not going to bash your feet ..read more

One of the most common things students ask me about is pain in the wrists and heel of the hand in weight bearing poses like downward facing dog, plank, tabletop. This can be a real barrier to enjoying your class because all you can think about is the soreness in your wrists. "Is it normal to have painful wrists?" It's important to discuss the difference between discomfort and pain here - discomfort is something that is tolerable; we put ourselves in some strange positions in our yoga practice so sometimes we come across areas that are tight and tough, but not pain. Pain is something that is sh ..read more

Cultivating a positive mindset can make a world of difference to your happiness, resilience and general outlook on life. When shit happens in our lives; we can view things through different perspectives or lenses. If we’re already in a positive mindset it can make it easier for us to process and tackle issues, rather than a negative mindset which can lead to catastrophic thoughts, additional stress or anxiety making the situation more challenging. Productive Positivity & Toxic Positivity I think it’s important to make the distinction between productive positivity and toxic positivity. Tox ..read more

Wondering how to get your downdog tip-top? Here’s how: Downward facing dog (Adho Mukha Svanasana) is one of yoga’s most recognisable yoga poses, and one of the trickiest asanas (poses) to get right for you - and to feel good in. How do I know if I’m doing it right? It’s all about coming back to the intention of the asana and how it feels in your body. Downdog is an inversion, where we end up in a rough upside down V shape with the tailbone being the bottom point of the V. The pose stretches the back side of the body by folding at the hips with a neutral spine, letting the tailbone flick up to ..read more

"I can't do yoga, I wouldn't be any good at it" "Sorry, I'm not good at that pose" "I'm rubbish at that pose, I'm really wobbly" Are three common sentences I hear in social situations when someone finds out I'm a Yoga Educator, and also in my classes and 1:1s. I'm gonna say it loud and clear: Good ISN'T A THING IN YOGA. Really. It isn't. Why? Everybody's body is totally different We all have different length limbs (or might even be missing some) in relation to our torsos, our joint sockets can be totally different, even left side to right side. And all of that means a specific shape, like a yo ..read more

Asana & Pranayama are the third and fourth limbs of yoga and probably the two parts of yoga you'll be most familiar with. Asana is the practice of physical poses... but not necessarily as this translates today. Today we think of an Asana practice as all the poses we do in a movement based class. Asana translates from Sanskrit as meaning seat. Originally, the only yoga pose that existed was seated and the origin here refers specifically to the seated position used for meditation. In the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, the only specification referred to for Asana is "sthira sukham asanam" - meanin ..read more

Continuing our journey through the Eight Limbs of Yoga into the Niyamas. You can think of the Niyamas as the practices around the self. Yamas are concerned with the outside world and how we interact with it, and Niyamas can be thought of as our inside world and how we interact with our inner selfs. The Niyamas are quite nuanced. Each person's practice and experience is multifaceted, and there are many different ways to practice each of these Niyamas. This is because we are working with our own internal worlds and each person's inner world and experience is different. There are 5 Niyamas: Sauch ..read more