Yoga with Helene

This young beauty is 18 today! 🎂. You make me so happy, so proud, so complete. You are clever, thoughtful, organised, funny, sorted, articulate. You have character and won’t let anyone stamp on your opinion. I am in awe. I love you so so much. Enjoy your life! Have soooo much fun this summer.

Prendre du temps pour soi, s’accorder quelques jours pour faire une pause, une vraie, parce que le yoga est juste une excuse et un moyen de s’arrêter et faire le point.
Faire le point sur ce que l’on a fait, accompli, faire le point sur ce que l’on veut pour les semaines ou mois à venir. Prendre soin de soi physiquement et mentalement.
Du samedi soir 24 octobre au lundi matin 26 octobre: 5 séances de yoga, des marches, des couchers de soleil, des baignades (pas obligatoires!), du farniente au bord de la piscine chauffée ou dans le salon… vous allez faire un véritable « reset ». Une remise à niveau des gauges d’énergie et d’amour pour vous-même. Pour plus d’info envoyez moi un message ou allez voir sur mon site.

Yesterday I went off line from about 1pm to 8pm. Airplane mode. Proper human connections with no digital interruption or notifications or even the wait, the expectation of receiving an answer or some news. Nothing. I suggested to the participants of the retreat to do the same and to put their phones offline for the whole time, if possible, even when we were not practicing yoga. The whole afternoon. And typically it is when you do not have something that you start missing it. Or realising the effect it has on you… when we came back from our silent walk in the gorgeous west gardens of Hatfield house, my body had a slight clenching at the thought of having to check my messages and thinking I would have to deal with them. And then my body did a little internal dance realising that I still had a good 2 hours offline. 2 hours to chat and give my undivided attention to the lovely ladies surrounding me. What a relief it was! Curious isn’t it how those phones can bring us so much stress and yet we use them more and more, we can’t seem to get rid of them! Or at least consume less! I felt spacious and calm and bit like the first 2 pictures of the carrousel. That spaciousness and calm is worth it. It is worth it because it allows our imagination to blossom, our thinking power to flourish, our mental health to get better and really that is worth an hour or two spent doom scrolling… therefore my intention for this summer is less scrolling, less time spent digitally and more real human connections. Will you follow me?

Are women really better than men?
I was watching the political news program “Have I got news for you”, last night and one of the guests said that we should remove all men from power.
Imagine if it had been said about women. Or about black people, or white, or Muslims…
Oh yes men have done and are still doing pretty horrible things. But if women had more power, were in power, would we be better? How can we say yes. Or no.
Some women have done amazing things when in power, others… not so much.
I am a woman, I am a feminist as in I defend women’s cause but not by putting down and attacking men. I am also a mother of a boy, and a wife. I know many “ordinary” men who are very decent. Most of them are, don’t you think?
So is it men who are bad or is it power that makes you bad?
But my point here today is that putting people against each other does not help our society. It does not help with our cohesion, our “vivre ensemble”.
The manosphere exists and is a terrible thing but I don’t think we will eradicate it by claiming we want to get rid of all men or by putting them down.
We need each other, don’t we? We need mutual respect, communication, exchange, real connections that can only help to understand each other. Blaming all men on national tv does not serve any purpose other than trying to be popular.
How is this post related to yoga you may wonder. It has everything to do with yoga. Ps: pictures absolutely random! 😚

I love teaching teenagers yoga. It gives them that little space where they can relax, be themselves with no pressure or judgement. Nothing to attain or achieve. And they get to learn about yoga philosophy they can then use in their life, like practising Ahimsa, non violence, or Santosha, gratitude. But many more concepts too. And they get to move their bodies in a safe way, sometimes strong, sometimes soft. They get to observe and notice. I am organising a session special exams in May for the 2nd year in a row. For teens doing their GCSE or ALevel but also young adults at university. A moment to learn techniques to destress, relax, focus, through strong postures, movement, breathing exercises. Open to all abilities and bodies.

A mat, a cat, a garden, blue sky and sun… practicing yoga : asanas, pranayama, meditation, relaxation and contentment / gratitude.

With end of year exams, worries about their future, stress about social media, Teenagers need a place where they feel safe, with no judgment, no competition. A place to rest, to feel healthy, to be themselves.

I am taking a few days off, from 1st to 8th April. No classes and hopefully very little social media! Mainly enjoying the south west of France, my son, my mum, my sister, … you get the idea. Real connections. Real people. Although to be honest, I am quite old school so there are many connections in my life, in my work, even when online. I speak to the people attending, I ask them how they are. I take an interest in their lives, their state of mind, their health. Because otherwise what is the point of teaching yoga, if there is no one in front of you? Teaching yoga is not just about making a living, it is also about all the human connections we make.

Such focus, such concentration for one hour! This week being the last class of term for the teens, I asked them what they wanted to do and mandala drawing had quite overwhelmingly the majority. In silence. To me this shows that our young people need calm, quiet, silence, peace. And given the right tools, and taking away the wrong tools, they are able to concentrate and achieve beautiful things. I have a couple of spaces in the Tuesday class at 5:30pm in .bymargot.