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Children’s Bedtime Meditation

Close your eyes and let yourself totally relax. Make sure you are nice and comfy and your body is in a really cosy place, lying on your mat under a blanket, nicely stretched out. Totally calm and relaxed. You are now going to focus on relaxing your whole body.

Relax your jaw, your chin,… your teeth, your throat,… the back of your neck, your whole head. Feel your whole head becoming heavy and dripping into the mat.

Now I’d like you to imagine that your mat is turning into a White Fluffy Cloud. Wobbly and soft, like a big delicious marshmallow. Let’s stay there a while…

Take a deep breath in and a deep breath out.

I want you to imagine and to feel that your body is becoming lighter. Your legs, your body, your head is getting lighter and lighter almost lifting of the mat…. almost floating now… Now you are going to become heavier, really use your mind. let your body become like a big stone, heave. Now let’s go again make your body lighter and lighter and lighter, this is easy isn’t it, lighter and lighter, floating off the mat, just with your mind…… and hover here a while…. and now land back on the mat. And there you are, keep your eyes closed, notice the back of the head touching the mat, your shoulders, your hips, and your legs. Notice where you are, right here and right now. The space you occupy. Your space, your place, here and now…. Keep your eyes closed… stretch your arms up over head big breath in….. and as you breathe out bring your knees into your body and come back to sitting.

Gently open your eyes.

Namaste

Photo by Gabby K on Pexels.com

Welcome to our Health, Wealth and Self Channel!

We’ve been talking to all sorts of you out there, goyogis, coaches, healers psychics and we have created some amazing conversations videos, we have been shooting our little show Chat on the Mat which comes out this week with our first episode with coach and radio DJ Ruth Owen. We also this month begin our Online Yoga Training. If you are keen on joining us let us know. And here to start it off is a little daily practise video from our training to get you feeling refreshed today!

40 Day Challenge – No 1

Our Kundalini Module begins this month and we begin by practising 40 days of exercises to create more base chakra energy. This energy is connected to the Chakra situated in the base of the spine.

The Muladhara Chakra

This is associated with the colour red, so wear something red or have something red near you when you practise. The base chakra is connected to your survival on this planet. The way you protect yourself is with your home, your wealth, your income, your close friends and of course your family. This chakra helps you look at how you are connected to this world and to rediscover links with the world in which we live.

Here is the warm up for this Chakra, which is then followed by the Chakra Exercises or Kriyas as we say in yoga.

Warm Up

Kundalini Kriya – First Chakra

Kundalini Chant – Wahe Guru

 

So here is the Kriya in three parts. Warm Up, Kriya and Chant. You can take your chants with you through the day, pop them on in the car, learn to play them, or hum them as you go about your work. They are designed to ‘infect’ your brain to calmness and peace. Enjoy. 40 Days off we go….

 

 

Yesterday I turned off my phone and it felt good…

Incredible. This week facebook loses 1000000 users, fake news is everywhere, and I feel like I’m constantly being interrupted by social media, by news, by mails, by talk and incessant chatter and interest, and much as my basic human need is to talk to people, I need some space.

I realise our minds (outside of the yoga class) is being infiltrated by so many demands on our attention. It’s important to stay in touch but there needs to be a balance. A phone switch off felt like a totally brave move for me. Why? What on earth would I miss?

The moments where it was switched off, I felt relaxed, I found myself bragging that my phone was switched off like it was some sort of act of insane radicalness. It felt good. Try it!

Tony Robbins calls the Blackberry ‘the Crackberry’, the addiction to being always there, always standing to attention. This affects us in ways we don’t realise, we feel we are always having to be awake and ready for action. Reacting to whatever comes at us. This has the effect of letting us run round in circles.

He suggests taking some deep breaths and working out what you really want in your day. Working out what you really want can over-ride all that information that’s coming at you. Whatever you decide make it a big sentence and see it coming at you throughout the day. One positive idea or thought can affect your whole day and can help you take back control.1

Off you go! Switch off your phone control it.

 

How To Respect Your Body

We all know it but we don’t do it….Vanda Scaravelli lived practising yoga until she was 91.

A beautiful soul who devoted her life to yoga.

She wrote:-

“The way we live is destructive to the body; there is no respect towards its needs and demands. We destroy little by little, that precious, complex, vital vessel of life we received at birth. Why? For Ambition? For a final cause? For the sake of our children, family, for the ‘superior’ mind, the ‘higher’ self, the glorification of the brain, enlightenment…? All religions encourage self-sacrifice, but when we are ill we pray to God to heal us. How inconsistent we are! To be simple, to appreciate what has been given to us, and to take care of our body, is an act of humility. A group of people after a seminar asked me about death. To die is natural. We all have to die sooner or later, but what we must not do is allow the body to degenerate while living. By doing yoga in the proper way, we should be able to maintain its purity until the end.

Do not fight your body. Do not carry the world on your shoulders like Atlas. Drop that heavy load of unnecessary baggage and you will feel better. While practising yoga do not kill the instinct of the body for the glory of the pose. Do not look at your body like a stranger, but adopt a friendly approach towards it. Watch it, listen to it, observe its needs, its requests, and even have fun. Play with it as children do, sometimes it becomes very alert and swift. To be sensitive is to be alive.” Vanda Scaravelli

 

What a beautiful sentiment and what a thought to take with us through the day. Listen to your body, respect it and it will respect you. Come practise with us. Try our Summer Offers 30 days for £24, or get an extra pass on your 10 class pass , and get into the spirit of yoga, goyoga, just keep on going.

Namaste

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It’s hip to be square…or triangular…or round

Here’s a little bit of fun from my friend Helen Lehan.

Check out which shape you need today!

5 shape inspired confidence & self-care hacks for parents – that we can so easily pass onto our kids and help them feel great about themselves too.

 

  1. Circles 🔘Surround yourself and your family with people who inspire, challenge, uplift, listen, make you laugh and love you for who you are.

 

  1. Square ⏹It’s cool to be square. Geek out on what you are passionate about. Music, art, comedy, science, Thor….. the choice is yours. Find your passion & study it.

 

  1. Triangle 🚩Strong base. Keep self-care a priority as when we are healthy in mind & body things fall into place more easily with the family. Yoga keeps me balanced. For my husband it’s all about the bike.

 

  1. Diamond 💎Diamonds in the sky. Take time to marvel at nature, the stars in the sky, the crunch of the snow underfoot. Follow nature’s rhythms, she is a marvellous guide.

 

  1. Splats 💥Life is messy, we make mistakes, though things happen. How we deal with events, can make us stronger.  Be reflective, creative, playful & connect to your breath. Learn the practice of Pranayama. Breath control it is amazing medicine & self-regulation.

 

Helen is a yoga teacher at Goyogaharrogate.com. She teaches Children’s Yoga alongside Sophie, bring more and more yoga into schools. Namaste….

 

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