Wholesome Yoga Therapy & Acupuncture

29/09/2026

“When we practice mindfulness and concentration, we create moments of happiness, and when we are nourished by happiness, we nourish those around us. Then when suffering arises, we will have the capacity to recognize, embrace, transform, and heal it.”
-Thich Nhat Hanh (Interbeing)

29/09/2026

28/09/2026

Visit yogatherapy.co.za or WhatsApp me on 082 445 3310 for more info

28/09/2026

🎀Bow Tie Pose🎀

This yoga pose typically refers to a shoulder/thoracic stretch - also known as 'Criss Cross', 'Eagle Arms', or 'Double Thread the Needle' arms. It stretches the upper back and entire shoulder girdle and can be done on hands and knees, standing, seated, or (my favourite) lying on the belly.

👉How to do a passive Bow Tie yin-style:

Lie on your stomach on your mat with your legs extended. Criss-cross or thread your arms in front of you, bringing one arm under the other. Walk your hands as far apart from each other as comfortably possible while keeping the arms crossed, creating a wide "X" shape. Melt the weight of your upper torso down over your arms or onto a bolster. You can rest your palms up or down. Rest your forehead or chin on your arms or on a yoga block if your neck needs support. Hold the pose for 3 – 10 minutes while breathing slowly, feeling the stretch across your shoulder blades. Switch the crossing of your arms and repeat.

👉Benefits & Focus:

🎀Primary target: Shoulders, rhomboids, trapezius, and upper back
🎀Secondary target: neck, triceps, and deltoids
🎀Meridians: Lung, large intestine, heart, and small intestine meridians
🎀Chakras: Heart, Throat, and Solar Plexus
🎀Relieves upper body tension and stiffness
🎀Improves upper-body mobility
🎀Paired with deep breathing, it opens the back of the lungs
🎀Releases deeply stored tension and emotional blockages from the "back door" of the heart
🎀Creates a gentle traction along the back of the cervical spine
🎀Helps calm an overactive inner fire and relieves physical stress or anxiety held in the stomach
🎀Lying fully prone forces your upper abdomen and navel to press directly into the floor. This constant compression against the earth creates a grounding sensation

❗️Precautions & Modifications:

This pose involves scapular protraction (moving shoulder blades apart) so modify this pose (or in some cases avoid) if you have frozen shoulder, rotator cuff injuries, cervical spondylosis, acute arm/neck/shoulder pain, high blood pressure, painful rib rotation due to severe scoliosis, or abdominal conditions like a hernia. If you experience any numbness or pins and needles, gently come out of it and adjust or try a different variation. A ‘half bow tie’ or seated variation might be a better option in the case of tennis elbow, some cases of carpal tunnel syndrome, or irritated tendons in the forearms due to positional pinching or direct pressure to the areas. For neck injuries, avoid hyperextension and support the head in a neutral position.

25/09/2026

A calming, meditative yin practice on a cool misty morning 💙 What a way to end the week and start the weekend!

Join me every Friday for my group Yin Yoga Therapy class at 10h30 😊

👉What to expect:
Combining Yin yoga and yoga therapy applications. This class is a whole-body therapeutic approach to soothe the mind, harmonize the body, and uplift the spirit. Relieve stress, regulate the nervous system, improve organ function, clear energy blockages, and increase awareness through mindful observation, deep breathing, long passive holds, and meditation.

This is a great option for those looking to cultivate a deeper connection with themselves, those in need of rest or seeking a gentle pause, and anyone experiencing chronic pain, stress, burnout, anxiety, fatigue, or recovering from trauma.

Each class is customized to meet the needs of the individuals in attendance. Bookings essential.

Read more at yogatherapy.co.za

25/09/2026

Despite what your mind tells you, you are not your thoughts. Your thoughts come and go like clouds in the sky, waves on the ocean. When you take time to sit, you begin to differentiate who you truly are from who you think you are. You rest back into the ground of your being, kind, loving attention. 💙

22/09/2026

Getting ready for the week by building gentle energy, stretching, and setting a focused intention for the days ahead 💙

22/09/2026

Scholars and philosophers have linked the breath to thought for many thousands of years. Some of the early Upanishads, philosophical Sanskrit texts from Hinduism’s oldest scriptures, directly coupled stability of the mind to stability of the breath. And in the West, this connection was made explicit in Homeric epics, The Iliad and The Odyssey, as Ancient Greeks thought the lungs were the seat of thought, emotion, and deliberation.

Modern cognitive scientists have identified still more explicit links, finding that the breath can have profound impacts on memory, attention to sensory signals, and sensitivity to emotions such as anxiety. But new research suggests the relationship between breath and thought may be even more intimate and subtle than scientists had thought. A team of scientists found that the electrical signaling deep in the limbic and cortical parts of the brain may track the specific shape of each breath on a millisecond basis, like a fingerprint. They published their results in the Journal of Neuroscience.

The new work combines big questions from cognitive science, such as the nature of thought, with the methods of data science, says Bradley Voytek, coauthor of the study and chair of the University of California, San Diego, cognitive science department. “One of the cornerstones of cognitive science is that we’re not just brains in a vat,” says Voytek. “We’re not just transistors, like little binary signaling units. We are embodied. Our brains exist in a body that evolved in this complicated world that obeys certain laws of physics, and that embodiment affects our cognition.” What data science brings to the work is the perspective that the world is rich with signals, and everything is data that can be measured, including temporal variations in the breath.

Eena Kosik-Rose, a UC San Diego PhD student in the Department of Cognitive Science, led the study, together with Voytek, as well as scientists from Northwestern University, the George Washington University School of Medicine, the University of Iowa, and Children’s National Hospital.

Nautilus spoke with Voytek about what features of the breath they measured, why they worked with epilepsy patients, and how much of our breathing is under our conscious control.

https://nautil.us/the-rhythm-of-your-breath-leaves-a-fingerprint-on-your-thoughts-1285059

21/09/2026

While this sounds like a “magical” manifestation technique, this idea is actually rooted in real neuroscience and cognitive psychology, often tied to how our brain’s filtering systems work. When you shift your mindset and decide that things are going to work out, you activate a natural loop involving your brain’s Reticular Activating System (RAS), prefrontal cortex and hippocampus.

To elaborate, the world is filled with an overwhelming amount of sensory data. To keep your brain from frying, it constantly filters out information it deems irrelevant. If you constantly repeat the story that “nothing ever works out for me”, your brain treats that as a instruction. It actively filters out opportunities, positive angles, and solutions because they don’t match your internal map.

The moment you genuinely decide things WILL work out, you give your brain a new directive. Suddenly, your attention shifts. You begin noticing opportunities, connections, and resources that you previously would have scrolled past or ignored like spam. This shift in perception leads to a shift in behavior. Because you expect a positive outcome, you are more likely to take decisive action, hold focus, and stay resilient through setbacks.

This psychological shift fundamentally changes how your body handles stress. When you stop feeling trapped by circumstances and instead reclaim your power of choice, your biological response changes from high stress to a sense of freedom and control. It isn’t mysticism, it is neuroplasticity—rewriting your internal neural map so your actions align with a better storyline.

Check out the comments section for tips on truly believing everything will work out for you as well as the references for this information 🫶