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

I’ve been thinking a lot about how our state of being affects our world. I've been blown away by what I perceive to be miracles in my life and family recently. There are things I never thought would happen, or at least I didn't believe they would happen as quickly as they did. I had to let go of trying to figure out how things would happen. As soon as I go into that place of "how," I put myself back in control, trying to make things happen instead of allowing them to unfold naturally. Faith gives us the trust to say that things can change and miracles can happen, even though we don't have to b ..read more

While away in the Deven countryside, I had a strong insight about all the ‘doing’ i’ve been doing. I'm currently trying hard to balance my life at the moment with the combination of doing, not doing, and being. And I realized that all the doing has made my shoulders tight. We march through life, and I’ve been wondering whether there's a way we can learn to do without having to have our hearts protected. As I dropped my shoulders and softened them, this morning in meditation, I felt this weight off my heart lift. I realised that so often I’m not aware of how I experience life. Our bodies, our b ..read more

I've noticed how easily I can easily get lost in thoughts, making me unaware of my surroundings. I'm sure many of you can relate, and it's crucial to bring awareness to this tendency. I've also been pondering the power of spiritual connection and trust. Cultivating a deep trust that we are all held within a greater whole gives us a chance to let go, sit quietly, and embrace the stillness. In the past, I used to avoid stillness because it felt too challenging and painful; It often brought up old traumas. However, as I've started to embrace stillness, trust, and connect with my inner child, it ..read more