Perhaps like you, I’ve been listening with interest to Michael Mosely’s health advice on the BBC Radio 4 series “just one thing” and “just one long thing”. The advice from several experts about healthy ageing, preventing inflammation, diet and exercise is compelling. I would just add one more, long thing and say, do everything you can to prevent back pain! Back pain is draining and debilitating and makes you feel older than you need to be. The restricted movement and potential lack of activity due to back pain will lead to other health problems. Bad posture as in a rounded upper back, impacts your health and mood negatively and even makes you look old. In this blog I elaborate on the five pillars of back health, and explain how you can prevent back pain to support healthy ageing.

One of the major causes of neck pain and shoulder tightness is bad posture. Everywhere around us we can see people bent over a mobile phone, laptop or book. I worry about the repercussions of this daily activity for most of us. Our head is very heavy and the weight carried by the neck increases the more the head is held forward. Also hunching the shoulders forward brings the neck out of its healthy alignment and tightens the shoulder and neck muscles. I’ve often written about this topic, and struggled with neck pain myself before paying more attention to my posture and neck muscles. While some of my other blogs address posture and emotional holding, this blog is concerned with practical ways of releasing neck and shoulder tightness. To feel more relaxed and free in the upper part of the body, practise these yoga movements every day.

Before the end-of-year activities become too overwhelming, it’s good to establish a short daily practice to support yourself. If you have lower back pain or tightness, this could well increase during the stress of the festive season. A soothing practice of just 10 to 20 minutes a day can help you ease lower back tightness. Here are some easy and manageable self-care practices.

Have you ever wondered why your back is more painful when you are stressed or going through a tough time emotionally? Our physical health and mental health go hand in hand. In yoga therapy for back care, physical practices never work without relaxation and breath work. Together, these yoga tools look after the whole person. Because of the close relationship between back health and peace of mind, this blog focuses on a body part that is relevant to both, our feet! The aim of the different practices below is to help you feel healthier, happier, focused and calm. If you’re interested in back care, this blog is for you. If you’re finding it hard to feel inner peace with what’s going on in the world right now, this blog is definitely for you too.

Autumn is one of my favourite seasons. I love the food, the warm colours, the earthy smells. Where I live, the days are getting shorter, the nights cooler and we savour the last warm days. As we prepare the last quarter of the year and gear up for the festive season, this time of year can be very hectic and self-care too often forgotten. Nevertheless, September is a little like January: the new school year gives us an opportunity to make fresh resolutions. It may be tempting to just dive into the autumn activities, but how can we better support our wellbeing and avoid burnout towards the end of the year? This blog about back care and wellbeing helps you choose simple daily practices to manage your back health and your emotional wellbeing. Devoting at least 10 minutes a day to self-care can be the support we need to keep living a full life. The aim is to maintain our mobility, flexibility, strength and peace of mind.

Waking up with a painful back can be common when you sleep on unfamiliar, old or overly soft mattresses. I’ve had my fair share of sleeping on uncomfortable mattresses this summer and felt how essential it was to stretch those tight muscles as soon as possible. When you ease muscle tightness immediately after getting up, you may prevent the pain from intensifying during the day. In this blog, I discuss some of the yoga practices that have helped me. I hope they can help you too when you find yourself waking up with a painful back.

(more…)

If you find that the best space to do your yoga practice is very small, you’re not alone. Sometimes the only place where we find peace and quiet is the bedroom, study, or just a small living area. Alternatively, you can find yourself in a popular holiday stay such as a shepherd’s hut, converted rail carriage, tree house, or like me, a narrow boat. They are all fabulous ways to go on UK staycations, but none of them are very spacious. Even so, it’s still important to look after our body, and our back in particular. This blog about yoga for small spaces gives you ideas to practise yoga wherever you are.

(more…)

I’ve moved home, left my lovely family home of 14 years and my main place of work. Sifting through the gathered memories and releasing them was at once freeing and sad. As I was trying to pack my home into tiny boxes, I was wondering why moving is categorised as one of the most stressful life events. In intensity it comes right after the traumatic and emotional upheavals of bereavement and divorce. However, moving home usually happens under time pressure, so could it not be more similar to a big deadline in a stressful job? Naturally, moving is also about leaving the safety of the familiar and being uprooted. In any case, I needed all my yoga tools to stay calm and focused. However much work was left to empty the entire home in a few weeks, it was essential to take some time every day to connect to my inner peace. It was necessary to remove my attention and rest my mind so it wouldn’t become buried under boxes and to-do lists. If you find yourself in a stressful time in your life, I hope my yoga tools for acute stress can help you too.

(more…)

Not many people find long periods of standing easy. If you have to stand while listening to a long speech, for example, does your back start aching? Pain and muscle strain arise when we don’t align our body with the line of gravity. When we manage to find this straight downward pull of gravity, standing becomes more natural and effortless. It can even allow us to experience a deep sense of peace.  This blog considers two common types of misalignment and examines ways of improving our standing posture.

If you feel unstable or uncomfortable in standing yoga poses and balances, it is possible that your abdominal muscles are not engaging properly. Weak abdominals will fail to hold the trunk steady in static or dynamic yoga poses. As a result, you may feel wobbly and tire quickly. Even if you have done many abdominal workouts, your strong abs may have become too rigid to freely release and contract during movements. This blog shows how using core muscles correctly can improve your stability in yoga poses.