I love the opening text that goes with this clip-Santina looks to be really in her yoga practise, and not performing solely for the camera.

There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will. Epictetus

A person is a person because he recognises others as persons. Bishop Desmond Tutu

Eka Pada Adho Mukha Svanasana Tri-pod down dog , originally uploaded by yogamama.co.uk . Down dog variation.

Festive dog 031 , originally uploaded by yogamama.co.uk . My dog was well and truly in the festive spirit.

Down dog variation in my beautiful yoga space :-)

I came across this item by the Dali Lama which I found to be so spot on-We are in a quick fix society and transformation of any kind takes time...the path to transformation is a long one, with twists and turns all the way..better to be on it than not in my humble opinion. One thing that you should remember is that mental transformations take time and are not easy. I think some people from the West, where technology is so good think that everything is automatic. You should not expect this spiritual transformation to take place within a short time; keep it in your mind and make a constant effort, then after 1 year, 5years 10 years, 15 years you will eventually find some change. I still sometimes find it very difficult to practise these things. However, I do believe these practises are extremely useful. Dali Lama

Here is a short clip from my prenatal Iphone application. To view more clips go to yogamama at youtube or to purchase the application see the link below, App Store -  Yogamama itunes .apple.com/gb/app/ yogamama /id417941285?mt=8  5 votes - £1.99 Read reviews, get customer ratings, see screenshots and learn more about  Yogamama on the App Store. Download  Yogamama  and enjoy it on your iPhone,  .. All clothes from Sweaty Betty

For all you lovers of coconut water-Zico which is currently available in the US, are launching their wares in London " ZICO  is green  coconut  water blended for a consistently delicious, isotonic, low calorie way to stay refreshed and replenished throughout your active day. As an isotonic, and with high levels of potassium (569mg potassium per 414ml bottle),  ZICO  is ideal replenishment during or after exercise, but makes for perfect all-day refreshment whenever you’re on-the-go." Basically it's a great way to hydrate during and after yoga and is low in calories, isotonic and a natural source of potassium. Coming to London soon. For more information go to the Zico website http://uk.zico.com/

TATRA STHITAU YATNO,BHYASAH Of these two, effort towards steadiness of mind is practise. Here Patanjali means continuous practise, not just for one or two days. You have to always be at it, not just a few minutes a day and then allowing the mind to have its own free time all the other hours.It means you become eternally watchful, scrutinizing every thought, every word and every action. Book one 13. Translation Sri Swami Satchiddananda

I understand  there is some controversy around this third series dvd by Kino-I personally would like to see it

Runners Knee / Ilio-Tibial Band Friction Syndrome (ITBFS) The Iliotibial Band is a long band of fascia that runs from the outside of the hip, along the outer thigh and to the side of the knee. Ilio-Tibial Band Friction Syndrome (ITBFS) occurs when an overly tight Iliotibial Band rubs on the outer part of the knee and causes the fascial band to become inflamed through over-friction. Also, between the IT Band and the bony outer knee lies a bursa, (a lubricated pad which is there to help prevent over-friction of the IT Band as mentioned above), which can become entrapped by the IT Band and become inflamed itself. Symptoms ITBFS is characterised by pain, tenderness and swelling on the outer part of the knee and thigh. It is generally aggravated by movement of the knee, and relieved by knee inactivity. Causes ITBFS is generally considered to be an overuse condition; so a repetitive activity like running is commonly related. Repetitive loading of the knee, e.g. running or cycli...

Always be kind, for everyone is fighting a hard battle. Plato

A Funny tongue in cheek yoga video from  Eco-Snobbery Sucks-by Jeffrey Davies http://ecosnobberysucks.com/about/

The girl child at my yoga studio in Putney-she is currently unable to practice yoga because of her broken wrist :-(

This guy contacted me recently about running this class to our staff -Not entirely sure if this yoga? or if I could persuade our team to do it? but it look like fun what ever you want to call it! www.yogawithkush.com 

Yoga , originally uploaded by yogamama.co.uk . Upavista Konasana variation.

My local park and I too have a dog who thought chasing deer might be fun ;-)

When my daughter, who had just turned 20, started this beautiful button knit, she was a happy and healthy textile student at Central St Martins College in London. She had just started to specialize in knit, when she was struck down with glandular fever. At the same time a close friend died suddenly, in tragic circumstances, and the combination of the two had a drastic effect on her health. She had to put her university life on hold, give up her East End student home and return to live with us to recover. She spent most of the past winter in bed and was diagnosed as having ME symptoms and a gluten/wheat intolerance. This was the turning point on her slow road to recovery. This knit piece was created using two mop handles. The buttons were from a collection my own mum had gathered over the years. So many childhood memories in the button tin, my mum left behind when she died 17 years ago. At times my daughter was so unwell she couldn’t lift the knitting needles; there were m...

After an exhausting few months and the official opening of our new clinic The Putney Clinic of Physical Therapy, my husband and I headed off to Wiltshire for some rest and relaxation. I have stayed at Bishopstrow House before and find it so relaxing. In its previous life, it was a country manor house, set in amazing grounds behind an old stone wall. It has the feel of another era, without the pretentiousness that some hotels of this ilk have. The staff at Bishopstrow House are fantastic. When the room we had booked wasn't quite right for us, we were promptly relocated without any fuss to the most beautiful Shaftesbury Suite, room service and 10 hours of the most refreshing sleep I have ever had. I headed over to the Halcyon Spa, while my husband swam for an hour in the outdoor swimming pool. Running a very busy clinic, and teaching yoga in London doesn't allow for much “pampering” time, so I booked myself an Elemis facial with the lovely Rachael in the Halcyon Spa. T...

It's getting crowded on the road to enlightment...  This is the title of third item in three weeks that the Times has written about yoga and "enlightenment". This is obviously a good selling tactic at the moment, but it might be useful if they got their story straight. In the first item they wrote "how wonderful yoga is for you". Item two said the opposite "yoga is not good for you". Item three mixes up yoga, Buddhism and Kabbalah and how many people are rushing off to India in search of enlightenment, and how much it's all costing us gullible Westerners. The item then goes on to say Julia Roberts converted to Hinduism after appearing in Eat, Pray, Love;  Demi Moore, Britney Spears and Madonna are all followers of Kabbalah; Tiger Woods said his Buddhist Faith would help him recover from sex scandals;  Steven Segal announced in 1997 that he was the reincarnation of a Buddhist lama... Is the Times therefore using the above statements to reassur...

"Encouraging Words" by Zen Master Guishan  Some day you will die. Lying on your sick bed about to breathe your last, you will be assailed by every kind of pain, Your mind will be filled with fears and anxieties and you will not know where to go or what to do, Only then you will realize you have not practiced well.  The skandhas/aggregates (matter, sensations, conceptions, impulses and consciousness) and the four elements in you will quickly disintegrate, and your consciousness will be pulled wherever your ancient, twisted karma leads it.  Impermanence does not hesitate. Death will not wait.  You will not be able to extend you life by even a second.  How many thousands times more will you have to pass through the gates of birth and death. If these words are challenging, even insulting, let them be an encouragement for you to change Practice heroically.  Do not accumulate unnecessary possessions.  Don't give up. Still your mind, end wrong pe...

It must be said that genuine compassion is not like pity or a feeling that others are somehow lower than you. Rather, with genuine compassion you view others as more important than yourself. Dalai lama

Supta Padangusthasana (Reclining hand-to-big-toe pose) - © Yoga Mama Yoga pose of the day: Supta Padangusthasana, otherwise known as the Reclining hand-to-big-toe pose.

I always take a yoga mat with me where ever I go- so on recent trips to Manchester (where my son is at  university) my mat came with me. I stayed in the city centres Crown plaza which is in a fantastic location for wandering around the city centre...The beds in this hotel are AMAZING as are the staff, and they have a great Sunday night deal should you ever find yourself in Manchester on a Sunday night... Wouldn't it be fantastic if hotel rooms provided yoga mats along side the mini bar-thus catering for all needs ;-) I definitely will always pick this hotel over the others I have stayed in-in Manchester 70 SHUDEHILL    MANCHESTER  ,      M4 4AF   ENGLAND

Anger and hatred are two of our closest friends. When I was young I had quite a close relationship with anger. Then eventually I found a lot of disagreement with anger. By using common sense, with the help of compassion and wisdom, I now have a more powerful argument with which to defeat anger. Dalai Lama

We have some great Pilates kit in one of our studios-I clearly don't know how to use it but doest stop me having a go... some things got to help move my stiff upper back alongside my yoga.

Here is another great recipe form Adam and Theresa over at The yogi Kitchen , which is soon to be called "Keen on food".  Adam and Theresa are currently practising yoga in Mysore India so follow their food journey at the above link. This particular item was posted during their stay in Tarifa, Spain, where they taught yoga and hosted international yoga teachers. Chickpeas are the ubiquitous bean of a vegetarian diet, but here in Andalucía, we are still amazed at the freshness, plumpness and largeness of the ones here.  Vindaloo is a Goan dish, originating when the Portugese brought chillis to the area and introduced cooking with wine, traditionally it is served with pork, but here we have used chickpeas and vinegar instead of the meat and wine, to an effect that I have to say is one of my new favourite dishes.  It has been a bit of a chilly week here in Tarifa, with temperatures dipping to 10 C, and I was craving the combination of chickpeas with p...

Let the Sunshine in              Dynamic Surya Namaskar This is a dynamic, flowing variation on the classic sun salutation. This particular sequence has an emphasis on stretching the psoas or hip flexor muscle at the top of the thigh. You can change the pace of this yoga sequence by staying in each pose for 5 breaths or by using the one breath one movement principle in order to to flow through the practice. This warming, heat-producing sequence can be used as a stand-alone short yoga session or, alternatively, as a warm-up to a longer yoga class. Building the number of rounds up over time will enable you to gain strength.  Connecting to your breath in each movement, allows this sequence to feel like a moving meditation. You should always rest in savanasana at the end of your yoga session.             . Tadasana (Mountain pose ) Stand with your feet together-hands i...

The smile is a very important feature of the human face. But because of human intelligence, even that good part of human nature can be used in the wrong way, such as sarcastic smiles or diplomatic smiles, which only serve to create suspicion. I feel that a genuine affectionate smile largely depends on ones own attitude. It is illogical to expect smiles from others if one does not smile oneself. Therefore, one can see that many things depend on ones own behaviour. Dalai Lama

Interesting article about practising yoga in order to relieve back pain in The Times today by Hannah Devlin. Got a pain in the back? Then try yoga instead of a trip to the doctor By Hannah Devlin (The Times) After a 12-week course of yoga, patients with long-term back pain reported less discomfort, performed better physically and were more confident in performing everyday tasks than those offered conventional GP care. While improvements were most pronounced at three months, immediately after the yoga course, people who were assigned to the yoga group still had less pain a year after the start of the study. David Torgerson, director of the Trials Unit at the University of York, said: "Doctors should be able to suggest yoga classes as an approach that could help." The study, published today in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine, assigned 156 patients to yoga classes and a control group of 157 patients to standard GP care. Those in the control group received a range o...

Some amazing old footage from Mysore with Sri K Pattabhi Jois.

Our experiences and feelings are mainly related to our bodies and minds. We know from our daily experiences that mental happiness is beneficial. For instance, though two people may face the same kind of tragedy, one person may face it more easily than the other due to his or her mental attitude. Dalai Lama

Taking time out to focus on yourself and your yoga practice can really recharge the batteries, and can often take you to another level with your yoga. Rachel is running a yoga weekend at the beautiful Morley Old Hall in Norfolk in May 2012; all details listed below. Made me smile to see cake is also available. All about the balance ;-) Yoga Holiday in Norfolk, May 2012 Come and join us at Morley Old Hall, Wymondham (nr Norwich), Norfolk for 3 days (2 nights) of yoga, relaxation and delicious food! The weekend will include: 5 yoga sessions + 2-3 meditation sessions One-to-one work during breaks (optional) bed, breakfast, lunch, dinner, all refreshments (dietary requirements catered for) and housekeeping (oh and cake of course!) Pick-ups from and to local station Plenty of chill-out time to read, write, go for walks or anything else you fancy doing For those of us who can't live without it, we'll even have free wi-fi!! All of the yoga sessions are multi-level...

This book written by Astanga yoga teacher Lino Miele is now in its 8th edition. It was was written by Lino under the guidance and direction of Sri K. Patthabi Jois and records the exact number of vinyasa (breath-movement sequencing) for each posture in both the primary and second series. I personally have never practised the coming to stand at the end of each vinyasa, but most of the breath counts are very familiar to me. Although I think it would be interesting to see how (and why) some of this has changed over the years. Perhaps the new directer of the Ashtanga yoga institute (KPJAYI) in Mysore, Sharath Jois, who is continuing the lineage of ashtanga yoga (handed down from his grandfather Patthabi Jois), will revise this count sometime in the future?! It is a great guide for anyone practising ashtanga yoga and a fantastic reference book for accurate breath in this wonderful system.

By Genevra Pittman NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Weekly yoga classes eased pain and improved functioning in a study of patients with chronic lower back pain; but the yoga sessions weren't any better than regular stretching classes. Participants in both types of classes had better functioning and fewer symptoms after three months than patients in a control group. "We've known for a while that exercise is good for back pain," said Dr. Timothy Carey, from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, who wrote a commentary published with the study. Yoga, he told Reuters Health, "seems to be a perfectly good option for people with back pain, but it is not a preferred option." Finding that yoga and stretching had about equal effects means it was probably the stretching involved in yoga, and not the relaxation or breathing components of the practice, that helped improve functioning and pain symptoms, researchers said today in Archives of Internal Medicine. The stud...

Truth resides in the heart of every man. And it is there that he must seek it, in order to be guided by it so that, at the least, it will appear to him. But we do not have the right to force others to see the truth in our way. Mahatma Gandhi

Uttanasana-Forward fold , originally uploaded by yogamama.co.uk . Uttanasana (Forward fold)

The wonderful ashtanga yoga teacher David Swenson will be in London from the 18th - 27th November 2011. As mentioned in previous posts, David was my first yoga teacher many years ago. I was able to catch up with him again at a Triyoga workshop last year. Despite a 16 year gap, he was just the same; funny, generous and with a mountain of knowledge to share. It was in this workshop that I came to a standing position from a backbend for the first (and last) time, well almost... I would recommend getting along to one of the many workshops on offer. They range from led classes to teacher training, so choose wisely. Many of my students feel slightly intimidated by practising with someone like David, but there really is no need to be. Triyoga soho London: 2nd floor, Kingly Court, Soho, London W1B 5PW. Nearest Tube: Oxford Circus, Tottenham Court Road and Piccadilly Circus Website: www.triyoga.co.uk/soho

So my son has gone off to university, leaving a bit of a gap in our household. Gone are the football boots strewn around the floor, the smoke alarm blaring when he cooks any food, late night worrying “is he home?”, the random chanting that he sometimes does, drum and base music blaring from the top of the house... This has been replaced with discussions on the telephone about his course, student life and the never changing topic “can I have some money?” He did a marvellous job on Skype recently showing me his ribs and telling me all about his lack of nutritious food. So a quick online payment into his bank account settled this and - judging by his facebook status - this nutrition came via a Manchester night club. Little darling! Looking forward to having his smiley home for a few days soon. (Oops, maybe we look a bit too happy in the photograph?!)

"Who hasn’t been to the lovely Mum & Baby Beauty Morning at Melvita in The Exchange Centre yet? It’s every Tuesday from 9.30 am where Craig and his team will welcome you with refreshments as well as delightful organic pampering treatments! Also don’t miss out on their current offer on their hypoallergenic and paediatrician approved baby range: Free Full Size Nappy Change Milk when you buy 2 Mum or Baby products (excluding soap)*. What’s not to love? Not only does Melvita have the most gorgeous range of organic products- they are fully active in community life in Putney-Pop along for a treat and to meet other mums and babies. Melvita Putney – Unit 22 The Exchange Shopping Centre Putney High Street London SW15 1TW – Tel: 020 8704 1670

I just spent a wonderful weekend facilitating a yoga retreat at Littleton Mill in Wiltshire. Littleton Mill is an Eco house and everything about it has been sourced this way. It is a working mill and the house is powered by the mill, so it feels almost like the house has a heartbeat when you lie on your mat in Savasana. The food is all home made on-site and was fabulous; organic vegetarian food and plenty of it. There were 10 of us on the retreat weekend and the group dynamics worked perfectly. 9 busy women taking some time out to practice yoga and "just be" or, as I like to think of it, a bit of "spiritual banking". During our Sunday morning yoga practice, two swans with their 5 babies swam up to the window to look at us. Everyone carried on with their practice, but it was with big smiles that they did so. Feel a spring retreat might be in the air.

The first condition of humanness is a little humility and a little diffidence about the correctness of ones conduct and a little receptiveness. Gandhi

I am trying out my beautiful Polka dot yoga mat bag from DevonRed. DevonRed is a small independent business based in Exeter, making handmade yoga bags and products. The yoga bag is bright and sunny and has enough room inside it for me to place my keys and lipstick should I need to. I am loving my bag and eye pillow. To view all products go to www.devonred.com or to follow  DevonRed on Twitter