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#MAKEMENOPAUSEMATTER Part 1

Last week everyone has been talking about #MentalHealth, and this week it is #menopause. It’s time to talk about it and really #makemenopausematter! I decided to start talking about my experience with #menopause and as it’s impossible to tell all four years in one page, this will happen over few weeks and more than one #blog. Part 1 I am 45 years old and have been suffering with menopause symptoms for the past 3-4 years; possibly longer, now I think about it. Although it is thought that daughters should generally follow their mothers’ menstrual cycle and inherit the same patterns, I entered perimenopausal stage of my life 10 years earlier than my mum entered hers. Possibly, as I suffer from epilepsy and my medication may have affected the hormonal balance. Possibly because of different way of life. Either way, I have been suffering for few years and have been trying to deal with it in many ways; not yet trying #HRT. Menopause is a natural condition and should be embraced and acc
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Benefits of Yoga - Holistic Connection to the Body, Self and Community (Part 3)

In the last few blogs on #benefits of #Yoga, I talked about #Pranayama and #physical benefits. As the benefits of Yoga are numerous, and I’ve experienced them more on a #psychological level, here the article #continues. Yoga encourages you and helps you #relax, slows your #breath, and increases your #focus on the #present, shifting the #balance from the #sympathetic #nervous #system (or the #fight-or-flight response) to the #parasympathetic nervous system which is calming and #restorative. It also lowers #cortisol levels (chronically high levels may lead to #permanent #changes in the #brain and #memory and are linked with #depression, #osteoporosis, #highbloodpressure, and #insulin resistance). In my previous blog on physical benefits of yoga   https://headandheartchild.blogspot.com/2018/11/benefits-of-yoga-holistic-connection-to.html I talked about the research done on #rats and #food-seeking behaviours. These are all linked to #mental behaviours and depression. What I have
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Benefits of Yoga - Holistic Connection to the Body, Self and Community (Part 2)

In the last blog on #benefits of yoga, I outlined some of the numerous physical #benefits of #yoga practice. This one deals with #Pranayama or the #breath awareness or #breath #control. Although I have been practicing yoga for over 20 years, it’s only in the last three that I really found my #breath. Which is weird – because if I wasn’t #breathing, I would have been dead. Well, there’s breathing and there’s breathing properly. Prana in Sanskrit means ‘vital energy’ or ‘life force’. Prana is the force that exist in all things. It is more than air that we breath. Pranayama is therefore explained as breathing exercises aimed at introducing extra oxygen into the lungs – which in everyday western terms means breathing properly and deeper.   ‘yana’ means control. But in #pranayama the word ‘#ayama’ is used which means ‘extension’ or ‘#expansion’. Therefore, the yogic breathing techniques or pranayama are used to extend the life force and go: ‘beyond one’s normal boundaries or limita
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Benefits of Yoga - Holistic Connection to the Body, Self and Community (Part 1)

Following on from my last blog on #mentalhealth in the next few blogs I will outline the numerous #benefits of #yoga. I’ve been practicing yoga for over 20 and #studying it for the last three years. 20 years ago, yoga practice was not the same as #today – it certainly wasn’t something everyone was talking about.   If you were interested in having #biceps like #Madonna, then you would have perhaps heard of #Ashtanga yoga and would have pursued the same road to gaining biceps and more #muscle #tone. My first class I attempted to do an impossible. I wanted everything – the #flexibility and the strength (although I was already quite strong), I wanted to come out of that #class and be Madonna! And I was very #proud with myself for being able to get into #Tittibhasana or the #Firefly #pose Bearing in mind that this was my first class, and knowing what I know now, I should have never been allowed to even attempt that pose without a proper preparation.   20 yeas on and several #preg
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Mental Health and Yoga

Coinciding with #Navaratri, today is the #WorldMentalHealthDay, an #international day when everyone talks about #mental #health. Should we not talk do (something) about it? Enough talking! But having one day devoted to the #mental #health at least will turn everyone's attention to it and maybe the #governments will #issue their stance on it. But that isn't enough! In England, #therapies such as #yoga and #meditation, are still considered as "alternative" and not suitable for national health or part-funded cost. However, the effects of #yoga, #meditation and #mindfulness on #mental #health #illnesses are far much better than those of some #medication. Don't get me wrong! I don't advocate stopping medication, I am merely in favour of some 'alternative' solutions to solving the problems, since the #mentalhealth problems can be very deep and very complicated. One size never fits all - therefore why doesn't the government explore these #alternativ
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Location: Saffron Walden CB10, UK
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The power of Yoga... and learning to deal with physical limitations

I’ve been practicing #yoga for years but it wasn’t until I did my #teacher #training that I finally embraced yoga. And not just as a way of #strengthening my #body through the #physical #training and all the asanas (physical poses) but also as my #lifestyle. For years I have been suffering with #migraines and #lower #back #pain. Two years ago, my lower back pain disabled me for the whole month – I got diagnosed with a #degenerative #spinal #canal #stenosis (lumbar). This happened just before I was due to start my #200 YTT course. Over the years, my regular daily asana practice has improved my flexibility. And, although I still find forward bends easier to do (common with people suffering from lower back pain), I am now able to launch into back bends like #Chakrasana/Wheel pose, something that I couldn’t do before my training. Yoga is now generally #prescribed amongst the medical practitioners as a treatment for lower back pain sufferers - although still considered as an alternativ
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Location: Saffron Walden, UK
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Anahata Chakra - Meditation and Feeling of Love and Loss

I wrote this last year, but being a full-time mum, with no time for internet and leaving the whole blogging community to my children, I never fully published it.... Leo, my beautiful, black 19-year-old cat died in February this year. We buried him in the garden and planted a rose on his grave, which is now known as Leo's rose. He was part of the family – he was the family. He was my first baby – I had no children when my sister and I adopted him and his brother Tiger at only three weeks old. I still miss him. My youngest keeps asking "Where's Leo?" "Has he got food?" It's difficult to explain to a two-year old the concept of death - she wouldn't understand even if I tried. At the same time, I'm not sure I can explain it to myself either! Yoga prepares us for death – after all, Savasana is a "corpse” pose! Yet I'm still learning to cope with the loss of a loved one - a grandparent, a friend, a pet or death in general! Meditating on He
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