Posted on

Bringing awareness to your emotions. With yoga.

For #mentalhealthawarenessweek this year I’m thinking about Yoga and how my yoga practice has helped me bring awareness to my own mental health.

So, a bit of a spin but stay with me.

I believe that I can use my yoga practice to bring awareness to my own mental health.

For example I may feel anxious as I practice certain poses or get angry and frustrated during poses I struggle with on certain days but on others could feel calm with the difficulty.

Some more examples:

  • If you can’t sit quietly in meditation then perhaps your mind is racing during day to day life at the moment.
  • If you judge yourself for how you are practicing your yoga, are you judging yourself in other areas of your life?
  • If you are frustrated or angered by the teacher or yourself, do you doing this with others in your life?

I see the process of a yoga practice in a similar way to life itself.

Yoga can bring joy but can also make you feel terrible. Its not usually on the teachers websites mind. There are certain poses that you will find suit you and certain poses you will find easier than the others around you. I’ve always found this hard, but in learning to deal with it in a yoga class you can learn to do it in the workplace and in life generally.

Does this help me?

Well, sometimes it doesn’t help at all. Sometimes my practice will simply tell me what I already knew.

But it can bring me aware or how I am feeling.

Other times my practice can slow me down. My brain may be in overdrive with positivity and ideas but just waiting to crash.

The awareness then brings me back into control. I can make my next move.

I believe in practicing yoga calmly, without judgement, knowing how far and when to push my body, by practicing with balance.

Perhaps the way to practice life…

If you are interested in seeing how Yoga could help you. Keep an eye out for one of my online practices or drop me a message for a chat.

Posted on

Wellbeing

Wellbeing could mean safety. It could mean calm. It could mean community.

It could be internal to you. It could be in the environment.

In my first post I wanted to put that thought out there and to talk about what it means to me and what its meant to me in the past.

When do you feel well?

For me, in the kitchen, a feeling of wellbeing is there when I feel like I am being my best self. When I feel safe in myself and safe in the environment that I am in.

For some I know it is in the midst of service. When adrenaline is flowing and they feel part of the team. The brigade. With a feeling of being in that moment.

It used to be the case for me. Not anymore. For me I enjoy a calmer, more balanced environment.

Which are you?

It can be a rhetorical question or one we talk about, but its invaluable to know. To know yourself. To know what wellbeing feels like. To know what you need in your life to feel it.

The Chefs Wellbeing program and the Chefs Union as a whole are here to say that this DOES matter.

The days of the hospitality industry being stoic and tough and putting up with a life without wellbeing are OVER.

Your Wellbeing MATTERS. And the wellbeing of your friends and colleagues matters.

Its in our hands.

I just want to leave this here.