A Yoga-versary!!

I can't quite believe it has been 3 years since I started the Thursday evening yoga class at Sale Moor Methodist Church.  I can remember going to the church to have a look at the room - not sure why I needed to, as I am so familiar with the church.  I went to playgroup and Brownies there and also both of my sons went to playgroup there.  I had my 9th Birthday party there, in the cellar with my Dad playing DJ!!  Anyway, right from the start it seemed like it was meant to be, round the corner from my house is so very convenient - especially as my youngest child was only about 18 months old and I still wanted to feed and put him to bed before leaving the house to teach the class!

The room is perfect for yoga, it has a calm and serene feel to it - some of the ladies of the congregation sew banners for the walls which change with the seasons and with the religious festivals and they are so beautiful to look at whether you're a spiritual or religious person or not.  I remember one evening when I was having a bit of a tough time as we all do - I looked up and the banner that was there said "Do not fear, I am always with you"  it really seemed like a message meant for me, I saw it as a message from all the friends and family I have lost over the years, but also a message from my Mum who I have a bit of a psychic connection with.  She often says "I was thinking of you...." if I am going through anything difficult, even back in my school days doing exams she would send me positive vibes and it really helped to know she was thinking of me!  ( I think she gets a bit embarrassed when I reference her in my blog - so sorry Mum!!)

So here we are, 3 years down the line and I hope I have gone some way to achieving what I set out to achieve, non-intimidating, community yoga classes which are affordable, where everyone feels welcome and where we all look out for each other.  No-one cares what clothes you wear, what mat you have, what job you do, or how far you go into a posture......we are all there just to do our yoga.  A coming together of like minded people.

Of course this is another excuse for me to bake!! So we will have some very rustic chocolate drizzled gingerbread yogis to take home from the class this evening - just my little thank you to everyone who supports the classes.  It is down to you and your dedication that the classes can keep running.

The Thursday class is one of several I teach in the area - see my website for details:  www.yogiclaire.com

Challenges, Backbends and Suffering......

Well it's been a rum old month so far - and we're only half way through, I feel like I have been sent some challenges to deal with and am doing my best with all the tools available to me.

I have already blogged about the return of the dreaded migraine - I won't bore you with more tales of that little incident!

I also tried to go dairy free for 3 weeks - that was about 2 weeks ago and have slipped up so many time I just can't tell you!  It is so much harder than I thought it would be.  It's fine having hazelnut milk on porridge and in coffee and I can manage without cheese, also discovered M&S walnut loaf is infinitely more delicious than the Cheese Boule.  But it's the hidden dairy that seems to be in everything that makes it so difficult, like milk in shop bought mayonnaise!  The key here really is not to eat any processed food at all - because chances are it contains dairy in some form or other.  Now it's not been the end of the world for me if I have something that contains dairy because I am not lactose intolerant, I have been trying to eliminate dairy to see if the hormones in the milk are what cause my acne (yes - another long-standing health issue)  Anyway it is back to square one on the dairy free diet and  I have a new found sympathy for anyone who is lactose intolerant.

I realise that these things are not major problems in the grand scheme of things.  Coincidentally I am coming to the end of my course in Buddhism and I feel I have a more complete understanding of the idea that being a human involves a fair bit of suffering and once we are awakened to this fact then paradoxically in the knowledge of that, we relieve our own suffering.  Having this understanding has made me more stoic in light of some recent challenges, some of which I have not blogged about!

On another note - I have been taking part in the Backbendmadness2014 challenge on social media, doing a different backbend every day.  I was so undecided whether to take part in this as I knew there would be some glamorous and amazing photos of lovely people in perfect postures probably on a beach somewhere.  But then I thought sod it, be the change you want to see, and have been doing the backbends and photographing them and posting on Twitter.  Most of the postures have been done straight after my own practice at home so no time to clear away the Lego and I think my youngest child's sick bowl has made it onto one of the pictures (empty you will be relieved to know)  So my pictures are quite clearly of a busy Mum on the wrong side of 40 trying her best to improve her yoga, in the hope that someone might see it and think 'If she can have a go then so can I!'  By the way, I think I missed day 3 crescent moon - as this was the day of the dreaded migraine!

So here is hoping that the second half of the month is fairly ordinary and uneventful.....and hopefully there is nothing much to blog about at the end of the month apart from how great tedium is!!

www.yogiclaire.com

Migraine time again......

Sometimes we tick along happily in our lives taking our health for granted, I certainly do anyway.  But then something will happen and make you stop and take stock.  For me it is migraines, these weird episodes can take on many forms and most people assume it is a 'bad' headache.  For me there is no headache and for that I am blessed, but I go dizzy and I am violently sick - this is usually preceded by a few weeks (sometimes months) of hearing loss and tinnitus.

My latest episode came as a bit of a surprise - I had not had a migraine for 2 years (almost to the day) and have been taking a small amount of medication to keep them under control, and it seemed to be working.  But I had been experiencing hearing loss and tinnitus for a few weeks and then suddenly yesterday - on a beautiful early spring afternoon I was struck down with a real hum dinger of a migraine.  The fact I was walking my boys home from school was slightly inconvenient but I managed to get us all safely back home.  My head was spinning and I could feel a heavy, cold feeling in the pit of my stomach - all I wanted to do was to lie down.....Then the vomiting begins, it's quite violent and my whole body feels like it's turning inside out (sorry if that is too graphic!)  So I lay down and proceeded to turn ice cold - my eyes burning with even the dimmest of lights.

My poor kids just left me to it - all the time I was worrying about my early evening yoga class which I was due to teach in less than 2 hours......a quick and slightly incoherent phone call to my Mum (also a yoga teacher) resulted in her coming to my rescue again and covering for me.  Another garbled phone call to my husband who valiantly dropped everything at work and came home and took charge.  I just kept thinking how lucky I am to have such a great support network to help me out.

Well true to form after 2 and half hours of lying completely still with my eyes closed I started to come out of it - feeling like I had run a marathon (migraines can leave you feeling incredibly tired)  Also feeling guilty about letting my class members down - although they were in the hands of an amazing teacher...

Then I remembered something I had read in a Yin Yoga book - it said something about our lives can sometimes become too Yang in nature and then something happens and the example they gave was that we may be sent the 'gift of a migraine'.  When I read that I thought "Ha - bloody gift - that has to be a joke".  But actually it was saying that these things may happen to us as a warning to slow down, to create more Yin in our lives.  It also made me reflect on the fact that I have had 2 whole years of being migraine free and how much I took that time for granted.  Not to mention being grateful for this amazing network of people I have around me to help me out, because when you run your own business it's simply not possible to ring in sick and I absolutely hate letting people down.

So while I struggle a bit to think of a migraine as a 'gift' - I can see it as a timely reminder to take time out, to slow down (both my actions and my thinking) 

www.yogiclaire.com