On the Sunny Side Up

I was teaching a class of year 4s when I stopped by one boy's desk to refocus him on his task. It wasn't the first time that lesson that he was looking for distraction. When I gave him a next step to follow in his task, he seemed sullen, and when his classmate tried to advise him and help, he snapped at her. 'I know. Stop telling me what to do!'. The sharp and enraged reaction, though tame by standards of school yard aggression, nevertheless spoke of an underlying sense of shame. When our faults are pointed out to us, and we see it as a negative remark on who we are, it invokes shame. If we have high levels of self-confidence, you're more likely to take that feedback as a comment on your behaviour, and assess it as helpful or unhelpful and then discard it or use it to improve your task. Such an emotional reaction was one of shame. "So what does he have to be ashamed about?" I wondered. "Whose voice is in his head telling him that he's a disappoint...

Everyone’s journey with yoga is unique. The state of your body changes from day to day, hour to hour. Some days you feel more flexible and other days savasana is the best you’ve got. To be honest, although yoga changed my life and continues to bring me joy and health, sometimes it can be a real challenge to get onto my mat. Even more so when you're just starting off your yoga habit and you have no idea what to expect! Here are some of the reasons for that challenge. 1. Sit all day? Hunch forward in your seat that’s become perfectly moulded to your bum and thighs? With working life restricting our movement to wheeling across the cubicle in our chairs, your body gets stuck in positions that it is used to. Muscles, tendons and fascia get tight and you end up feeling like a dried out clay sculpture - brittle and hard. When you start to stretch them, it may feel like you are super stiff, uncoordinated, off-balance, weak, painful. You’re effectively having to tease apart those muscle str...