It’s no secret that the body’s inner clock is affected by the rhythms of the year, with changes in food availability, sun exposure and even amount of precipitation all weighing in on your health and wellbeing. Yoga’s sister science Ayurveda has recognized the influence of seasonality for thousands of years, and in response offers up Ritucharya, seasonal routines, to keep you balanced and healthy twelve months a year!

In a results-driven lightning speed world where more is being asked of us than ever before, it’s no longer about “finding time” to recover, but recognizing that without preemptive rest we’ll get less done, fall further behind, and feel more overwhelmed than ever.

We are creatures of memory and anticipation, continually storing the memories of our experiences in the Hippocampus for later access. This ongoing cycle of psychological impressions (called "Samskaras" in Buddhism) is the very nature of the human mind, and believed to be the root of all suffering. Unless we're aware of this self-fulfilling prophecy, the older we get, the less new experiences we have. This is nature's way of conserving energy; if you have had this experience before, your nervous system doesn't have to figure out a new way to react to it.

Did you know that in the UK we throw away 227,000 miles of wrapping paper and one billion Christmas cards each year? Increasing the amount of waste in our landfills increases harmful chemicals and greenhouse gases into the air that we breathe. Keeping our planet healthy is an act of self-care.

Archaeologists have found evidence of early cosmetic regimes practiced by Egyptians dating back six thousand years, and the Roman Philosopher Pliney the Elder extolled the benefits of almond oil to fight wrinkles in his first century text Natural History.

Loving Kindness or "Metta" meditation comes from the Buddhist tradition and is a powerful tool for cultivating forgiveness, goodwill and compassion for all beings. According to Psychology Today, its benefits include increased positive emotions and social connections, slowed biological aging and decreased chronic pain and bias against others.

Forming new, healthy habits can be challenging: We’re busy, hard-wired towards instant gratification, and healthy habits don’t always have as immediate results as unhealthy ones. For help with overcoming this hurdle, we can turn to James Clear, author of Atomic Habits, and these five helpful tips of his:

Are you feeling frazzled, anxious or overwhelmed? Experts agree that the time is now to practice stress reduction strategies to preserve your health and wellbeing. The ongoing financial and social uncertainty surrounding the pandemic has us all on edge, and it’s more important than ever for our health to make time for stress-reduction and self care.

A University of Auckland study identified a direct correlation between modern posture and increasing emotional stress. The book Breath in Action asserts that simply paying more attention to your breath can help. In Yoga, we take it one step further with practices to deepen, extend or conserve the breath, known as “Pranayama”.

Discovered around 1970, the mechanism of your internal “clock” is called the Circadian Rhythm. It keeps your body functioning on a 24-hour schedule when photoreceptors in the retina of your eyes communicate the brightness of your surroundings to your brain. Your brain then dictates an ongoing cycle of physiological changes in your cells; for example, your blood pressure is usually highest around 6:30 p.m. and your body temperature is lowest around 4 a.m.

Many of us have experienced greater mobility through stretching, but as it turns out, that is mostly your nervous system adapting to larger ranges of motion through repetition. The sensation that we call a “stretch” is your nervous system detecting unfamiliar ranges of motion and bracing against potential injury. But go there again and again and your nervous system will start to detect it as familiar, and may allow for more range of motion through what is called increased muscle extensibility.

Studies suggest that the more regularly you practice yoga, the greater the benefits, so it’s worth taking the time to make it a regular part of your week. Even practicing once a week can improve your physical health and sense of mental wellbeing.

Restorative Yoga uses supported positions to invoke deep relaxation to settle your mind and harmonize your physiology, relieving stress, pain and improving emotional wellbeing.