Happy New Year!

Hello! I hope this blog post finds you well? So, YAY! Whoop! 2022! Here is hoping it is a bit less complicated and weird than the rest of the twenties, however, I am still approaching it with a degree of trepidation!

Well, we are at the time of year when we suffer for our overindulgences and feel lethargic and drained and plumptious. Or….do we? Are we just used to the society we live in TELLING us that our rest, our vital down time, our mini mid winter hibernation has to be followed by guilt and a panicked rush to completely change? How many diet and fitness adverts are there? Is your social media feed stuffed with diet and exercise adverts? Boy oh boy! How could we have spent a couple of weeks resting, eating a bit too much and enjoying some well earnt down time with family and friends?! Get ye to the gym and repent ye terrible sinners!! Step away from the delicious treats immediately…Even the fact that this is traditionally the time for booking summer holidays is a bit harsh, immediately putting yourself (even just mentally) into a bikini just after Christmas?! That’s just inhumane!

It is an ancient instinct to stock up on food in mid winter, especially when we did not know how harsh it might be in January and February. It is something that our ancestors did for hundreds and hundreds of years. It is not just ok to stop, rest and indulge, it is a necessity. It is a time of the year where you can pause, look back, see what has worked, celebrate successes, learn from mistakes, mourn losses. A bit of quiet and space from the daily grind offers us so much perspective. And these are big things to focus on. And if that goes hand in hand with a blummin’ massive Baileys or an actual mountain of cake and chocolate, well so be it. I guess, what I am saying, is that there doesn’t need to be a great big New You with New Year. Change can be made at anytime, and pretty much anytime is better than the pressure cooker of New Year!

My yoga practice is very slow and low at the moment, lots of long restorative poses, lots of yoga nidra and guided meditations. Lots of sitting with a cup of tea quietly watching the weather some peaceful walks in nature. That is what my body (and mind and soul) needs at this time of year. Listen carefully, and your body will tell you what it needs. Sit quietly with yourself and notice, are the messages of suddenly needing to be bikini ready, the need to have salad for every meal and to take up a punitive and extreme exercise routine, are these messages coming from inside of you, or outside of you? Maybe your body is saying, hmmm, ok, maybe not Baileys and Quality Street for breakfast tomorrow? Maybe it is saying I want a massive walk and an equally massive lunch after it! Maybe it is saying, keep this up, I need more rest, I need more comfort, I need more quiet, I need another movie on the sofa, we don’t get this the rest of the year! I don’t know what your body needs, because I am not in your body, but listen, because our bodies have an innate wisdom way beyond that of our predictable, annual societal messages. We are so taken away from this wisdom on a day by day basis that pausing and sitting quietly, listening attentively to ourselves is a powerful, maybe even a radical, act of self-love and self-care.

Having said that I put my hands up and acknowledge, fully, that learning to listen to YOU rather than the huge clamour around you is hard. Guess what helps with that? Yep. You guessed it, yoga! Yoga helps guide you inwards instead of being pulled outwards all the time. With practice it can support you in learning to hear what your body is saying by putting your focus in your body, moving it out of your mind. And when you are not in your own head all the time, oddly that is when you can start to hear what is actually important beyond the brains endless chatter and all the external influences.

Self-love and self-care are the only things we should be focussing on as we ease ourselves into a new year, especially when the previous two years have been a wild ride of chaos, uncertainty and grief. So, if you fancy a bit of extra down time, a bit of time for yourself and to yourself, some practice in the art of tuning in to what your body, mind and soul actually need, try yourself a bit of quiet time, or yoga, or maybe come along to a yoga course of workshop at Emma’s Yoga Hut in 2022!

Wishing you the happiest of New Years!

With love

Emma xx

(Emma runs Emma’s Yoga Hut in Earley. A tiny garden studio for small group and 1:1 yoga tuition. She is a yoga student and yoga teacher and has practiced yoga for 25 years. She trained with the Traditional Yoga Association right here in Reading between 2016 and 2018 to achieve her 500 hour yoga teaching accreditation. She has additional teaching qualifications in Yin Yoga and Yoga Nidra which she subsequently undertook online during the great lockdown of 2020. Emma tries her best to practice yoga every day, in between eating all the festive cheese and red wine!)