Exploring the Benefits of Yoga for Fibromyalgia Relief
Fibromyalgia is a complex chronic pain condition characterised by widespread musculoskeletal pain, fatigue, sleep disturbances, and cognitive difficulties. It significantly impacts people’s quality of life and daily functioning. Because we support many students at Seed for one-on-one sessions through their NDIS plans, we’ve learned through our students just how challenging and painful it is to live with this condition. We’ve also seen that yoga can be helpful as a supportive modality to help alleviate symptoms and improve overall well-being.
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Healing Harmony: The Role of Yoga in Breast Cancer Recovery
Receiving a diagnosis of breast cancer can feel like being caught in a whirlwind of emotions, fears, and uncertainties. In the journey towards healing and recovery, patients often seek out complementary therapies to support their conventional treatments. Among these complementary approaches, yoga has emerged as a gentle yet powerful tool for promoting physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being. Let's explore the evidence behind yoga's benefits for breast cancer patients and how it can help navigate the challenges of diagnosis, treatment, and beyond. We have supported many, many women with breast cancer here at Seed, and while it’s not ever mentioned, except in confidential conversations between the teacher and student, there’s likely to be a pink sister in almost all of our classes.
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Finding Calm in Chaos: How Yoga Can Soothe Anxiety
In a world where stress seems to be the norm and worries lurk around every corner, anxiety has become an all too familiar companion for many. From the flutter of nervous butterflies to the relentless chatter of racing thoughts, anxiety can feel like a heavy burden to bear. Yet, amidst the chaos, there exists a gentle oasis of calm: yoga. This ancient practice, revered for its transformative powers, offers a beacon of hope for those seeking relief from the grip of anxiety. Let's explore how yoga, with its holistic approach to healing, can be a powerful ally in the battle against anxiety.
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Soothing the Sole: Yoga's Approach to Plantar Fasciitis
Imagine taking a step and feeling a sharp, stabbing pain in the bottom of your foot. This discomfort, often experienced in the heel, arch, or along the sole, could be a sign of plantar fasciitis. It's a pesky condition that causes discomfort and hinders mobility. It’s a condition we often see amongst our yoga students at Seed. But fear not, fellow sufferers, for there's hope on the horizon!
Yoga has emerged as a promising contender in the battle against plantar fasciitis. Let's dive in to explore what this condition is all about and how yoga might offer relief backed by evidence.
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Finding Relief: Yoga for Neck Pain
In our modern world, where screens dominate our daily lives and stress seems to be an ever-present companion, neck pain has become an unwelcome side effect to our daily grind. Whether it's from hunching over computers, craning our necks to peer at smartphones, or feeling like Atlas with the weight of the world on our shoulders, the tension and discomfort in our necks can be relentless. Every time I ask students if they’d like to request a yoga pose, it’s unanimous request: a little TLC for cranky necks and shoulders.
A yoga practice is helpful not only soothes the mind but also offers relief for the aches and strains that plague our necks.
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Namaste in Bed: How Yoga Can Help You Catch Those Z's
Ah, sleep. The elusive beauty that dances just out of reach for so many of us. If you toss and turn each night, desperately seeking the sweet embrace of slumber, perhaps yoga and breathing practices can help. So, roll out your mat, slip into your comfiest pjs, and let's explore how yoga can become your bedtime bestie.
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Yin Yoga: 10 Reasons Why It's a Game Changer
In the bustling world we live in, finding moments of tranquility can feel as elusive as chasing a rainbow's end. Yet, amidst the chaos, there’s a little oasis, yin yoga. Unlike its high-energy counterparts, yin whispers a different tune, inviting you to slow down, tune in, and discover stillness and silence.
Read on for 10 compelling reasons why yin yoga stands apart from the crowd.
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The Traveller's Essentials: 10 Items I Pack for Any Adventure
Traveling can be exhilarating, but it can also be a whirlwind of unexpected adventures and minor mishaps. Over the years of leading retreats to exotic international locations, I've honed my packing skills and have curated a list of essential items that never fail to come in handy, no matter where in this world my wanderlust takes me. Read on for the 10 things that always find their way into my suitcase…
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Erin left a piece of her heart in India
I asked Erin, who travelled to India with me in 2020 to write a little about her experiences. This is what she said:
"With its sprawling, sometimes overwhelming, always sumptuous mix of spices, soul and spirit, Mother India will welcome you home. I was lucky enough to travel through her with Seed Yoga in 2020 and I'm coming again next year.
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We're spilling to herbal tea: What you need to know about Yoga Retreats
Ever wondered if a yoga retreat is right for you? Did you watch Nine Perfect Strangers and get turned off retreats in case they're secretly cults run by Nicole Kidman in a bad wig? Are you worried that it'll be a week of woo woo? Or too intense?
We’re spilling the herbal tea on what happens on yoga and meditation retreats.
Jen has been to two Seed Bali retreats and has joined us in India. She's seen how the (lentil) sausage is made. And is here to spill the herbal tea.
I chatted with her to get a sense of what, from her perspective, makes a yoga retreat different from a normal holiday. And why it might just be exactly what you need in your life.
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Travel to Bali in a post-pandemic world
In early June i travelled to Bali. After a couple of years of being closed, I wanted to see for myself whether it would be feasible to run a retreat in October. I’m delighted to let you know that Bali is ready to receive us again. Journey along with me. The Bali Retreat will run from 8-13 October 2022 and I’m looking forward to facilitating a graceful and fun experience.
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Here's to already broken resolutions (and wrists)
Who would have thought 2021 could have any more surprises in store?
After closing-up the Seed studio, we decided to skip town to Mallacoota for some rest and relaxation after the hectic year that was 2021. We discovered incredible beaches and saw, first-hand, the regeneration of Mother Nature after the 2019 bush fires.
At Bittangabee Bay, while we were exploring the cliffs, I slipped from a rock-face and fell eight feet. While I was lucky to avoid bumping my noggin …I braced the fall with my wrist. Ouch.
My friend said, “Whatever you do, don't look.”
So, of course I did.
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Ayurveda: An Ancient Holistic Healing System
When I first leaned about ayurveda, having studied the ‘usual’ medical model, I had a big ‘ah ha’ moment: It addresses much of what is missing in our western framework. Ayurveda is based on the belief that health and wellness depend on a balance between the mind, body and spirit. Ayurveda uses diet, biorhythms, herbal medicine, psychology, lifestyle, movement and bodywork to address the root causes of ill-health. Establishing rituals and tuning into the cycles of nature are key. By understanding our individual constitution -our dosha - we can support ourselves to feel sparkly and well.
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The Subtle Power of Breath
Breath has the power to subtly shift mood. It is the breadcrumb trail that can take you back to the source of life, light and energy within. Breath practices, called pranayama, can be energising and vitalising or soft and gentle. They are capable of creating powerful shifts in mood and attitude. Read on, and try a practice used by Navy Seals to cultivate calm before they move into the field. Spoiler alert: they leaned it from the yogis.
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Overcoming Fear
Overcoming Fear. Did anyone else read the news about the long and winding road out of lockdown and feel a visceral reaction in the belly? When we feel anxious and overwhelmed, the way that we think changes. We develop a kind of tunnel vision that stops us from seeing the big picture. Read on for some practices to support you to reset your nervous system.
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Are Yoga Props a Cop Out?
Every yoga studio in the land has a jenga style stack of blocks, a nest of blankets and a tangle of straps in the corner of the room. (It’s likely that they start out stacked tidy, but that’s a story for another day.) What are they for? Are they ‘just’ for beginners. If you use props does it mean you are terminally inflexible? How can you use props to enhance your yoga practice? Find out here.
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Tips for Teaching Yoga Online
Teaching Yoga Online: An Open Letter to Yoga Teachers
We know how challenging it is to be facing weeks of lockdown and we are sending you a big virtual hug from across the border. Over the past 18 months, we’ve learned a thing or two about how to teach yoga online and we wanted to share our experience. There’s some practical advice and tips to follow, but the main thing we learned is that our students are incredibly loyal to their own yoga practice and to us as their teachers and guides. As we pivoted from face-to-face classes to the brave new world of online, our students told us that it was yoga that got them through. (You’ll find out!)
Read on for some fresh insight for teaching yoga online in this Brave New World.
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Create Your Own Sacred Space
It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the durm and strang, the storm and stress, of moving in and out of lockdowns. We know the drill now, of working at home, supporting our kid’s schooling and managing the isolation from our friends. It doesn’t get easier, but it is familiar. And while we cant change our external circumstances, we can find ways to support ourselves with kindness and care. To take some time away from the news cycle to turn within and reflect on what is truly important. One way we can do this is by carving out a little area to create a sacred space. A space where you can come home to yourself.
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Digital Detox: Tune Out from the World and in to YOU
Have you found yourself glued to the news cycle as the daily COVID-19 case load numbers are tallied and the State Premiers shuffle in for their daily presser? Have you ditched footy tipping for guessing the daily count? Has it has been helpful for you to listen experts rake over the analysis coals, arguing about the best strategy? Read on for 7 tips and tricks to detox from digital overload, to help you tune in to what’s really important…you!
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Anxiety + Overwhelm in Lockdown
When we feel anxious and overwhelmed, the way that we think changes. Yogic science has proven strategies to help us to to rewire our brain using techniques that work with our own physiology to induce calm. So we simply feel better. We cannot change our current external circumstances through lockdown, but we can find ways to respond that induces a little more clarity and ease. Yoga helps us to explore new ways to hit the reset button on our hard drive.
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