healthy lifestyle Archives - Surrey Yoga Therapy

July 16, 2019July 16, 2019 by Vicky Arundel

My Top 5 Summer Yoga-Related Reads

Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

This is a must-read for anyone who is interested in improving the quality of their life. It is essentially a book about how to create more meaningful experiences by accessing a state of ‘flow’, or complete absorption, with what one is doing in any given moment.

Csikszentmihalyi’s research suggests that our happiest moments in life are those in which we are completely present and immersed in what we are doing. Moments where the demands of the task in front of us are perfectly matched to our capabilities, and all sense of time and self-consciousness recede into the background.

I love this book, because I feel it beautifully encapsulates the experience we try to create when we step onto the yoga mat – the breath, sensations and movements of the body all working to bring us into the immediacy of the moment. Although not a yoga book per se, it is a lovely reminder of how we might bring the yogic qualities of mindfulness, attention and intention into the greater context of our lives.

The Stress Solution by Dr Rangan Chatterjee.

We know that stress is one of the biggest issues when it comes to undermining our physical and mental health. It is an oft-reported fact that up to 80% of doctor’s visits are related to the negative physiological and psychological effects of stress.

Dr Chatterjee has written a wonderfully practical book, packed full of tips about how to reduce your own stress levels. What I find particularly inspiring and encouraging is his emphasis on the often overlooked but incredibly important emotional side to stress management. How we manage our stress can depend a lot on how strong our levels of social support are, or whether we have a strong sense of meaning and purpose in our lives. These two factors alone can help us us to re-frame potentially stressful events, putting them into better perspective thereby reducing their insidious negative impact.

Ancient Wisdom for Modern Health by Mark Bunn

This is such a lovely, practical, common-sense guide to optimal health and wellbeing. The fact it’s written by an Australian ex-AFL player somehow makes it even more appealing!

Working in the health and wellness sector, I know how easy it is to become overwhelmed by the sheer volume of information about health. Amidst the noise, I think we often forget that many of the keys to good health are both simple, common-sense and timeless. He offers simple guidance around the importance of eating real food, getting enough sunlight and fresh air, prioritising rest and finding ways of moving that you enjoy.

Every time I read this I feel like a huge burden is lifted. We already intuitively know the answers to what makes us feel like we’re functioning at our best. We just need to get quiet enough to listen, trust, and ultimately reconnect with what we already know.

Bringing Yoga to Life by Donna Farhi

Probably one of my favourite yoga books judging by the amount of underlining and annotations throughout it!

Donna Farhi’s considerable experience and passion shines through every page. This is a yoga book about bringing the wisdom and learnings gained from our yoga practice off the mat and into our lives.

Farhi explores the yamas and niyamas – philosophical tenets that are designed to act as a framework for good living. She also discusses the inevitable ups and downs of any long-term spiritual endeavour like yoga. It’s a beautifully written, honest book that you’ll definitely want to read a few times through.

The Slow Down Diet by Mac David

This is a love letter for anyone who has ever struggled with their weight, food-related issues and/or just sheer confusion about what it means to eat for health and happiness.

This and Marc David’s other great book Nourishing Wisdom is about the yoga of eating well – putting pleasure and mindfulness at the heart of decisions we make about what, how and when to eat. It’s a beautiful, gentle exploration into how we can be kinder and more intuitive towards ourselves in relationship to food.

What I particularly like is the avoidance of any dietary dogma and instead lots of suggestions for developing greater self-confidence in trusting your body and finding out what works for you.

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July 4, 2017October 31, 2017 by Vicky Arundel

Yoga – The Ultimate Keystone Habit

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act but a habit” ~ Aristotle

There has been a surge in recent years exploring the science and psychology behind habits – how we build new habits and how we extinguish unhealthy ones. One of the most interesting books to come out of the research is Charles Duhigg’s book ‘The Power of Habit’, in which he introduces the fascinating concept of ‘Keystone Habits’.

Keystone habits are habits with super-power transformative capabilities. They are habits that once integrated into our day tend to have a powerful positive ripple effect into all other, often seemingly unrelated, areas of our lives. One of the examples he gives is the keystone habit of exercise:

“Typically people who exercise, start eating better and becoming more productive at work. They smoke less and show more patience with colleagues and family. They use their credit cards less frequently and say they feel less stressed. Exercise is a keystone habit that triggers widespread change.” ~ Charles Duhigg

This sounds very similar to the kind of positive impact that I have seen a regular yoga practice have on my students’ lives.

I remember one student saying to me after one of their first yoga classes ‘Yoga has reminded me how good it’s possible to feel.’ The more removed and disconnected we get from ourselves and our bodies the more we get used to feeling less than brilliant. It’s almost like we forget what it feels like to be well. However, once we get a sneak peak into what it feels like to be healthy and vital again, we’ll often do anything to retain that feeling, which is why yoga can be such a catalyst for positive change and transformation. Yoga it would seem is most definitely a keystone habit.

I’ve been privileged to witness many of these personal transformations in my students over the years, and below are just some of the many amazing knock-on benefits I’ve seen from practicing yoga.

Adopted a healthier diet

When people start practicing yoga they begin to often unconsciously change their way of eating. For some that may mean cutting down on their alcohol intake, eating less processed foods and takeaways, for others it might be the conscious decision to reduce or cut out the amount of animal products they consume. A regular yoga practice brings you into a more direct understanding of the relationship between what you eat and how you feel. After all it’s much harder to ignore bloating or discomfort when you’re trying to move your way through Sun Salutations. Over time this renewed awareness can lead to a more sensitive and intuitive approach to your unique dietary needs and a more mindful approach to the process of eating generally.

Stopped smoking/excessive alcohol-intake/drugs

Yoga has this uncanny effect of highlighting our less than optimal habits and behaviours. Particularly in the early days, our yoga practice can sometimes be a fairly uncomfortable wake-up call to what happens when we neglect our health. As we breathe, and stretch, and ask our bodies to do things we may not have asked of them in a long time, we begin to see the honest impact of the decisions we make. For many, the realisation of how much the body is suffering is enough to kick-start a resolution to take better care of ourselves.

Left an unhappy or unhealthy relationship

There seems to be a bit of a pattern of relationship break-ups straight after a yoga retreat or teacher training and I don’t think this is just a coincidence. When we dive into a yoga practice we start to see things from a different perspective and we may find ourselves questioning the status quo. The more contemplative aspects of the yoga practice invite us to ask questions of ourselves that we were previously too busy, distracted or fearful to ask. What makes you happy? Where do you see yourself going in life? The answers to these questions may invite us to see that the person we are in a relationship with is no longer part of our journey moving forwards. Our practice and the community that surrounds us can give us the courage and conviction to move on from relationships that no longer serve us, or that hold us back in old patterns of behaviour that we are slowly moving away from.

Improved body image and self-esteem

Yoga can be an incredible tool for helping us to make peace with our bodies and to practice greater compassion and respect for this incredible body we carry around with us all day every day. So many of us struggle with a disordered body image and a yoga practice can give us the tools to practice more gratitude for the body we currently have, whilst also developing a greater sense of confidence as we see our bodies getting healthier and stronger. Learning to arm balance was one of those pivotal moments for me. Having always considered myself a bit of a weakling, to then learn that I could do some pretty extraordinary things whilst balancing on my hands, gave me an enormous sense of strength and empowerment. It was the beginning of a much kinder relationship with my body which has over time developed irrespective of my physical capabilities on the mat.

Change a job or career path to something more meaningful

Yoga’s emphasis on becoming more present and awake has the ability to snap us out of autopilot and to question whether we are really making the most of our lives. I have seen many yoga students eventually leave jobs that sacrificed their physical and mental health, and take a leap of faith into new careers that are more aligned with their core beliefs. Just like the earlier student who remarked that yoga makes us realise how good it’s possible to feel, the shadow side is that we become less tolerant of anything that saps our energy, burns us out, or is no longer in line with our deepest values. For many, this realisation is the beginning of an incredible journey into what makes us feel alive, passionate and engaged.