with Bernie Sheehan
CHANGE OF VENUE: From 5 September 2025, our Friday morning classes (9.30-10.30am) will be at St Luke’s Church Centre, 61 Aylsham Road, Norwich NR3 2HF.
Please note, I’m no longer teaching on Monday evenings. A big thank you to all of you who have come to the class over the last 20 or so years (and for my lovely card and gift). I have learnt so much from you!
UPDATE: Thanks to everyone who attended this fantastic fundraiser for HomeStart. It was lovely to meet you all and share a morning of yoga and relaxation in such a beautiful setting. Big thanks, too, to Caroline for her generous hospitality, and to the fantastic Home-Start team for their help!
I’m delighted to be supporting a mini yoga and wellbeing retreat in aid of Home-Start Norfolk on Saturday 5 October 2024.
The programme will include yoga, mindfulness and wellbeing practices in the grounds of Gowthorpe Manor, a beautiful rural location just a few miles from Norwich.
The morning runs from 10am-1pm and is suitable for all, aged 16+. Tickets cost £30pp (plus small booking fee) and include light refreshments.
Places are limited. If you are unsuccessful in booking a ticket, please email fundingteam@homestartnorfolk.org to join the waiting list.
All funds raised at this event will contribute to Home-Start Norfolk’s work supporting families facing challenging times.
I volunteer as a workplace Mental Health Champion and recently helped deliver a session on stress, anxiety and resilience.
Stress and anxiety trigger our natural ‘fight, flight or freeze’ response, which evolved to protect us from perceived threats. When we are stressed or anxious, the breath becomes constricted, fast, shallow or jagged.
I demonstrated simple breathing practices that can act as a quick fix for anxiety and overwhelm in the moment.
Slow, deep breathing counteracts the stress response, and it’s an essential part of yoga practice. It quickly grounds us and restores a sense of perspective in the situation, so we can see the bigger picture. Deep breathing tones the vagus nerve, stimulating our ‘rest and digest’ response when we feel safe, calm and connected.
Practising deep breathing in this way increases our resilience. However, it’s also important to look at the root causes of stress, such as relationship issues, workplace problems or structural inequality.
This is a simple breathing practice for anxiety. PLEASE NOTE: not everyone feels comfortable focusing on the breath, especially if they have a history of trauma. See below for an alternative.
Did you know that humming is a scientifically proven way to deepen the breath and stimulate the vagus nerve?
The box breath is also helpful for calming the mind and body. Many people use it if they are struggling to fall asleep.
*NB: do not hold the breath if you are pregnant, have high blood pressure, lung, heart, eye or ear problems. Practise instead equalising the length your inhalation and exhalation. If at any time you feel dizzy or lightheaded, stop and go back to a normal relaxed breathing pattern.
Try an alternative grounding practice, such as mindful movement (this can help discharge excessive agitation). Or 5-4-3-2-1, a technique where you notice and engage with your immediate environment to bring you back into the present moment.
Did you know…?
I came across these statistics on Dr Lauren Tober‘s training: Introduction to yoga & mental health.
Lauren is a clinical psychologist and senior yoga teacher, based in Byron Bay, Australia. The trauma-informed course helps teachers support yoga students experiencing depression, anxiety, stress and trauma.
I am particularly interested in how yoga can support mental health. I have completed training in
I am also a fully-trained mental health champion in my workplace.
Please contact me if you would like more information. I am always happy to suggest yoga and breathing practices that can support students’ mental health.
Menopause yoga
In China, a woman’s menopause is beautifully called the ‘second spring’. It’s viewed as a positive stage of life – a time to tap into new energy and opportunities as we wind down from fertility and reproduction.
Here in the west, menopause and women’s health issues are finally getting the attention they deserve. Davina McCall and other high-profile celebrities are helping to end the stigma around this natural stage of life that affects 50% of the population!
There is a growing body of evidence that yoga is helpful for women who are approaching or going through the menopause, and to thrive beyond it. To support my teaching, I recently joined Petra Coveney’s online menopause awareness training for BWY teachers.
I have also just finished a 4-week menopause masterclass with Norwich-based teacher Michelle Howard.
Each week Michelle created a safe, comfortable space for women at every stage of their menopause journey to share their wide range of symptoms and emotions.
Her yoga sessions were designed to balance the physical, mental and emotional impact of menopause. Michelle demonstrated helpful practices from simple breathwork to ease perimenopause and menopause symptoms, to strengthening yoga flows and poses to build muscle mass and bone density in post-menopause.
Michelle also shared some useful resources:
Michelle will be offering menopause yoga classes (£12) on the last Friday of every month, starting January 2023:
When teaching I include at least one balance in every class. Balancing poses are good for us on a physical, mental and emotional level. Practising a daily balance – using whatever support (a wall or chair) you need will align and strengthen your body. And developing a ‘one point focus’ as you navigate your balance helps calm a busy or agitated mind.
Balance can be affected by all sorts of factors – a pre-existing injury or medical condition, your energy levels, even the level of lighting (bright lights increase your range of peripheral vision and orientate you in space). ‘Losing’ your balance can be frustrating but yoga is not a competition to see who can balance the longest. When balancing you are in an ongoing negotiation with gravity. Notice what thoughts come into your mind before, during or after you wobble. It can be illuminating! Comparing or judging your sense of balance? Bring some kindness to yourself – everyone loses their footing from time to time! You always have the option to begin again. It’s also a practice in patience.
Remember, you don’t have to wait till your yoga class to balance. If it’s available to you, you can practise putting your socks on standing up, while brushing your teeth or as you wait for the kettle to boil!
This recent Guardian article: Can you stand on one leg for 10 seconds? Why balance could be a matter of life and death – and how to improve yours is worth a read. It discusses ‘bent leg balances’, where you push off from the bent leg. This can strengthen muscles and is also good for bone loading. But please take care if you have any knee issues and proceed very gently!
A recent online article compared the differences between yoga, tai chi and qi gong. The author described how all 3 mindful movement practices can improve our overall physical and mental health.
Moving mindfully (rather than automatically) allows us to check in with our body. We notice exactly where we have limited movement, or when our breath is tight or restricted. This can be an act of self-care – to acknowledge what is happening right now in our body. Then we can explore how to work gently with the body as it actually is – not as we would ideally want it to be!
Mindful movement strengthens our mind-body connection. In yoga, we focus on the messages we are receiving from our body and breath in that particular posture or flow sequence. We can then make the necessary adjustments – slow down, ease off, go deeper, etc – to avoid injury or to carefully explore the edge of our comfort zone.
And by paying attention to the breath and the body, we start to notice the thoughts and emotions as they arrive too. This is why it is important to practise with a teacher who has been trained in trauma sensitivity.
Mindful movement can be a formal mindfulness practice in itself. But it is also the basis for all yoga, qi gong and tai chi practice.
1. Enhances balance
Building balance is especially helpful for older adults, who are at higher risk of falls and fall-related injury.
As you age, practising yoga balances helps to build leg strength and keep joints healthy, making you steadier on your feet.
If you are not able to comfortably get down to the ground, chair yoga is always an option. Your yoga practice can endless adapt to meet your needs!
As the Live Strong article points out, tai chi and qi gong (which mainly involve standing movements) are good balance-building alternatives that move your entire body.
2. Decreases stress and anxiety
Yoga’s calming and restorative movements can also help decrease stress and promote relaxation.
Yoga encourages deep breathing, which lowers anxiety symptoms by activing the parasympathetic nervous system (‘rest and digest’). The article quotes a February 2018 study in the International Journal of Preventative Medicine, where women who did 3 sessions of Hatha yoga a week for 4 weeks significantly decreased their depression, stress and anxiety symptoms.
3. Builds muscle strength
Yoga postures and flow sequences can help build total-body strength. Standing yoga poses, along with floor poses such as plank and dog face down, work like resistance training to develop upper- and lower-body strength, and improve core strength.
The article quotes a June 2015 study in Evidence-Based Complementary Alternative Medicine, which found that after practising yoga for 12 weeks, participants improved their cardiovascular endurance and muscular strength and endurance.
4. Improves mobility and flexibility
Yoga also improves your flexibility. It gradually and gently builds your body’s range of motion. You work at your own pace. Responding mindfully to your body’s unique history and present-moment needs is a safe way to loosen a stiff neck, shoulders, hips etc.
5. Promotes good posture
For many of us, a sedentary lifestyle can cause a rounded back, jutting chin and poor hip mobility. Yoga practitioner Hayley Winter calls this slumpasana!
The ageing process (degeneration of the spine) can also affect posture.
Yoga helps to undo many of our everyday (unconscious) poor posture habits. For example, a simple standing mindful mountain posture can be practised anywhere, in a bus queue or waiting for the microwave to ding! It can also be practised sitting on a chair if you find standing difficult.
Find out more about my approach to teaching yoga.
Practising regular yoga strengthens your muscles – which lowers risk of death from all causes, a study in the British Journal of Sports Medicine shows.
If you spend 30-60 minutes a week of activities such as gardening, sit-ups or yoga, it could help reduce your risk of dying from any cause by a fifth! You can read the full article, published in The Guardian, here.
Last weekend I joined a ‘forest bathing‘ group organised by Norfolk and Waveney Mind for World Mental Health Day.
Ruth, our guide, gave us a brief introduction to the concept and then off we went into the woodland on Mousehold Heath to practise in silence. We were encouraged to focus on our senses, and to notice any thoughts and emotions that bubbled up. For me it was deeply soothing. Although at the start I was irritated by the sound of cars in the distance (the heath is close to the city), this soon melted away. I was became immersed in the patterns of nature, leaves, moss, raindrops and tree bark. Instead of cars I heard birdsong. Time expanded and yet I was aware of the community of the group nearby. I felt a sense of deep gratitude for nature.
Afterwards we drank our flasks of tea together and reflected on the experience. It was a chance to slow down and be more present, and re-appreciate this amazing resource on my doorstep. During lockdown, Mousehold had been my go-to green space in the city and my mental health was all the better for it.
Regular ‘bathing’ in woodland not only benefits our physical and mental health, it’s also a perfect opportunity to practise mindfulness.
Forest bathing (‘shrinrin-yoku’) originated in Japan. In the 1980s, studies showed that regular walking in forests could reduce blood pressure, lower cortisol levels and improve concentration and memory. The immune system was boosted by phytoncides, natural essential oils released by trees and plants. Although people have been walking in forests for centuries, the Japanese government have now officially recognised the wellbeing benefits, and incorporated it into the country’s health programme.
I have completed trauma-sensitive mindfulness (TSM) training with David Treleaven. With the TSM training principles and modifications I have learned, I can offer mindfulness practices that are safe, accessible and sensitive to the needs of those struggling with trauma.
Last year I completed the Trauma Center’s Trauma-Sensitive Yoga course. This and my latest training will equip me better to support my students. As David says, the first step of trauma-sensitive mindfulness is to acknowledge that there will ‘always be trauma in the room’ and given the challenges of the pandemic, this awareness is more important than ever.
