Don't Suppress to Impress

Expressing emotions is unfortunately frowned upon in our stiff-upper-lipped society, but suppressing emotions can have serious consequences for our health and emotional well-being.

In order to feel at peace within ourselves, we need to be able to feel and release emotions. Emotions don’t like being ignored, so if there’s no natural way for them to be released, they will throw tantrums until they get our attention.

These ‘tantrums’ begin as energetic blocks, which manifest as pain or tension in the body and if ignored, can develop into more serious illnesses. These physical symptoms can also be accompanied by prolonged periods of low moods. When energy isn’t flowing freely through our bodies, we feel it on every level, but these symptoms are not our enemies; they are on our side because they know that if we address the issues in our lives, we will feel healthy, happy and whole.

The wonderful news is that yoga and meditation can help you to do this. Yoga uses movement and breath to break though energetic blocks and meditation uses the mind to make space for healing to take place.

With these practices, you are literally clearing away the debris from emotional experiences that have built up over the years and unearthing the pure essence of you. And when you rediscover who you really are, you can be true to yourself, which in itself brings about healing.

Letting go of who you think you should be and accepting who you really are, creates a natural flow in your life and when you are in the flow, your vibration raises and you experience life on a whole new level.

This month I’d like to share a very powerful healing meditation with you:

If you can feel it, you can heal it

When I first started practicing this meditation, I literally sobbed because once you give yourself permission to let go, a lifetime of emotions will come flooding through. But it actually felt great as I was experiencing immense relief.

By bringing my darkest moments into the light, I was forgiving myself and others for past hurts. To move forward in life, we have to let go of the past, as true contentment can only arise from freedom and flow.

If you would like to experience this wonderful meditation, please email me: info@yogaloveliness.co.uk

No Man is an Island

I remember one of my friends once describing me as ‘self-contained’. Although she didn’t mean it as an insult, her description was in fact very accurate.

Having always been fiercely independent, I was never comfortable reaching out for help practically or emotionally, and had subsequently built a life around myself that was solely in my control. But protecting myself by containing myself was not conducive to a healthy, balanced life where love can flow, relationships can grow and life can become expansive.

Luckily yoga helped me to understand that asking for help was not a sign of weakness. Allowing myself to feel vulnerable was actually a leap of faith and the more I asked, the more ideas I got, the more faith I had in people and myself, and the more my life began to expand in ways I never thought possible.

And recent proof of that is the accomplishment of building my own website.

5 months ago I didn’t know whether to employ a professional, pay a friend, or even build it myself, so I asked everyone. Not just people I thought would know, but absolutely everyone I came into contact with, because it's often the most unlikely people who have the best ideas. Along the way, I made contacts and friends with all kinds of people, learned so much, became inspired by so many and was then able to make an informed decision to build it myself.

It seemed like an impossible challenge at the time, as I had no confidence in my drawing skills or the ability to learn the software for building the site. But due to the inspiration I received from the people I reached out to, and the confidence I gained along the way, I was able to achieve something that I didn’t think possible.

So don’t be afraid to ask, because you never know who you’ll meet, what you’ll learn or what you’re capable of, until you try. So go for it!

And THANK YOU to all you lovely people who have helped me get to where I am today and here's to all you friends and comrades of the future....