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...