There's a yoga teacher in the room!

When I was in the Royal Air Force, we joked that you always know when a pilot enters a room, because they would tell everyone they're a pilot...

Well this is my opportunity to blow my own trumpet and put it out there that I have passed a significant threshold of over 2000 hours yoga instruction. I am particularly pleased that this is recognised by Yoga Alliance Professionals who have elevated my status to that of an 'Experienced Yoga Teacher', and I get a gong!

I am hugely appreciative of the many people that have attended my classes over the years and practiced yoga with me, thank you if you are one of those yogis and reading this.

Looking forward, this new status empowers me to give something back as well and I am now looking at the next phase. I will be putting together some workshops to go deeper into the yoga I teach, hopefully mentoring and supporting other teachers as well as continuing my intention to bring yoga to more people and bring more people to yoga, particularly men!

2000 hours of teaching barely scratches the surface of yoga practice, there is so much to this wonderful thing of yoga. I am just pleased to have the opportunity to help people to improve their lives through yoga and long may this continue.

Yoga for swimmers

Check out my video, yoga for swimmers which covers some of the great postures that can really help improve your strength and conditioning if you are a front crawler! Yoga is perfect for swimmers, my own experience of a regular yoga practice has vastly improved my technique. It is only a 30 min video and I don't get to cover off breath work which is just as beneficial. I'm looking forward to getting back into triathlons and the open water this year. Yoga is a big part of my training and if you are looking for marginal gains, you should consider yoga!

See some of my other sport shorts on the channel and I will post more in the coming months. If your sport isn't yet covered, please drop me a line.

Calm your busy mind.....

Meditation has become extremely popular in western society in the recent years; however, it has existed for thousands of years and has obviously passed the test of time in various other cultures.

The benefits of meditation are numerous, in general, it will enhance your life, one way or another, but it takes time, patience and effort to develop the practice. It is a worthwhile journey.

There are many forms of meditation although I will focus on the single point meditation technique in this article. This is a simple form of meditation, where we train attention to aim at a single object, like the breath, continually bringing our awareness the breath.

This is not as easy as it sounds.

Set a timer for 5-15 minutes, depending on how long you want to meditate for. You should not meditate for longer than 15 minutes for your first few times. The timer will keep you from being distracted and worrying about the passage of time.

Start your timer, and then get comfortable.

Begin by focusing on your breath. Become aware of how it moves smoothly in and out of your body. Focus on it, and the points where it switches from inhale to exhale. Feel the coolness of the breath entering the nostrils and warm breath leaving the body. Feel the passage through the nasal cavities, throat and windpipe, feel the movement of the chest, rising and falling effortlessly, not controlling the breath.

You will notice thoughts pop into your head now and again, perhaps quite often at first. These could be to-do lists, recent conversations, future concerns, an itch, a memory, anything, the mind will want to fill the void and take you away on a journey of distraction.

Accept this and accept yourself. Your mind and body both know what they're doing. Acknowledge the distractions, and then bring your focus back to your breath, the distractions will diminish.

If you like, you may count your breath, count each inhale and exhale together as just one count.

Try and get to five If your mind wanders off, start back at one after you've focused back on your breath. When you get to five, start again at one.

When the timer goes and you come to the end, breath more consciously, deeper breath and gently move the body at first.

That's it! You might feel like your mind was continually taking you off track and you that you don’t feel any particular benefit, it’s ok, this is normal. Even if you managed to calm your thoughts and bring the mind onto the breath, just once, this is already progress.

The more you meditate, the sooner you will notice its benefits. You will notice that after a short time, you can easily maintain the single point focus. You might then expand your practice by focusing on a word or mantra of some sort. Anything you find inspirational or motivational is a great mantra to use. Repeat the mantra silently in your head for the duration of your practice.

Yoga classes provide the opportunity for guided meditation, or perhaps try the excellent free app, ‘Insight Timer’ for a wealth of meditations. Practice, be patient, and become the ‘watcher of your thoughts’, and you will live a better life.