Restorative Yoga

Soothing your nervous system while resting deeply. “Learning to rest. to let go of the lure of constant busyness takes practice” – quote from my book, Rest + Calm This is an invitation to bring some physical rest into your day. In this practice I show you how to set yourself up in a supported restorative…

Restoring yoga to soothe your nervous system Have you tried my Restoring Flow class on EkhartYoga? Join me for a relaxing, flowing, low to the ground practice with a couple of supported postures included for good measure. This is perfect for when you want to slow down but still crave a little bit of movement.…

Next date: 8th September 2023 Join me on the first Friday of each month at Embody Wellness in Vauxhall for Rest + Restore, 90-minutes of contemplative practices to regulate your nervous system and restore your equilibrium. Grounded in restorative yoga, this special in-person monthly class also incorporates yin, breathing practices, meditation and guided relaxation. You’ll leave feeling rested,…

I’m on Substack! In March this year I moved my newsletter over from Mailchimp to Substack. If you’re currently subscribed to my newsletter, you’ll already have been regularly hearing from me at Slow Living in the Big City on Substack. Why move to a new newsletter platform? Being on Substack allows me to offer you…

Sunday 22nd May 2-4pm at Embody Wellness, Vauxhall “The clue is in the name – RESTorative yoga is excellent for facilitating proper rest and relaxation in both body and mind. Restorative yoga is a receptive practice where you are supported and held – how many of us could deeply benefit from more of that?”  (excerpt…

My new book Rest + Calm: Gentle yoga and mindful practices to nurture and restore yourself (Green Tree, Bloomsbury) is being published in the USA on 3rd May 2022. To celebrate its US publication please join Tracee Stanley (author of Radiant Rest) and I for an Instagram Live on Monday 2nd May at 9am MDT/11am EST…

My fifth class with EkhartYoga has been released. Release tension and stress in both your body and mind as you enjoy the experience of allowing your body to be completely supported by your props. This class is a nurturing restorative practice, ideal for when you are in need of some restoration. To practice with me at…

(Photo copyright Henry Hunt/Bloomsbury Publishing PLC) Saturday 23rd April 2-4.15 pm at Yoga on the Lane in Dalston Join me for an afternoon of contemplative practices designed to help bring you back home to yourself. Grounded in restorative yoga, and including meditation, guided relaxation and (optional) journaling, The Rest Sessions are a culmination of my…

The nurturing, practical guide to finding rest and calm – even when it feels impossible “This gem of a book is a guide to powerful practices for rest, reflection, self-care and the tending of community. The insight it contains is not a luxury, but a physical, emotional and spiritual imperative.” – Bo Forbes, Psy.D., psychologist,…

Savasana for 20 minutes. Every day. For 1 month. If I suggested that you put your lengthy to-do list to one side and lie down for twenty minutes right now, what would your response be? This September marks 5 years since I embarked on my #365Savasana Project (which I wrote about at the time for…

Restorative Yoga for Depression Workshop – Saturday 3rd February 2018 2.15-4.15pm at Embody Wellness After a number of requests I am repeating this workshop. If you missed it last time or think this may be of benefit to someone you know, here are the details. No previous yoga experience is necessary: Depression can impact our…

Restorative Yoga for Depression Workshop – Saturday 25th November 2017 2.15-4.15pm at Embody Wellness   Depression can impact our entire being. What we think about, how we feel, how we behave, all altered as dperession creates a state of dysrgeulation in the nervous system. On a physiological level, the whole body, including the respiratory, digestive,…

{WATCH} RESTORATIVE YOGA FOR ANXIETY AND DEPRESSION – WEIGHTING THE BODY Did you know that weighting poses has the capacity to be soothing for people with depression or lethargy, while for those with anxiety it can feel grounding? I first came across this during my first training with Judith Hanson Lasater in 2012. I have…

Saturday 27th May | 2pm to 4pm | Embody Wellness Widespread research has shown that relaxation practices such as restorative yoga have numerous benefits including the ability to lower levels of the stress hormone, cortisol. Related to this, restorative yoga also facilitates mindful awareness of the body which plays a part in our resilience to…

Weighting: Legs Up the Wall In this short video, filmed at Embody Wellness, I am using a bolster on my feet for weighting. If you have access to sandbags you can use those, but I have also practised this with the aid of blankets and blocks. We practised this version of Legs Up the Wall…

This is one of the restorative poses we regularly practice during the second half of SLOW FLOW YOGA – Mondays 6.30-7.30pm reCentre Health in Balham. In this short video filmed at reCentre I show you how to do this restorative inversion with the aid of a bolster and a yoga belt. Here, the sacrum (directly below…

Download my NEW complimentary eBook here Do you want to address your stress? Are you sleep deprived? Anxious? Then my new eBook is for You. As an experienced Restorative Yoga teacher (I am an Advanced Relax and Renew Trainer having studied with Judith Hanson Lasater) and dedicated student I am excited to share my new…

“Yoga Nidra can be understood as a total practice of yoga itself… a state of ‘awakened sleep’ … in this state (we encounter) auto-suggestive experience of the power of the unconscious mind and its linkage with the soul.” – Sri Ram Sharam Acharya. What is Yoga Nidra? The word ‘nidra’ translates as ‘sleep’, hence the…

If you’ve had a look around the U Can Yoga website recently you might have noticed a few changes. One of those is that you can now receive a free 15 minute Yoga Nidra (‘yogic’ sleep) Meditation. To receive your recording all you need to do is sign up to my mailing list here or via…

“We really need to challenge the assumption that if you take more rest, you are more lazy. The fact that people who are more rested seem to have better well-being is an endorsement for the need for the rest.” – Prof Felicity Callard of Durham University, director of Hubbub Yes, rest is good for you.…

Heard the one about the yoga teacher who’s tired and wired? Whilst chatting with a friend after our morning run, I burst into tears, out of the blue. I joked that I was just tired and emotional. Surprised? I shouldn’t have been. Yoga teachers get stressed too. Those tears were a sign that I’d not…