 How And Why This Yoga Journey Started ...Hello and welcome to the website launch! I thought I'd start by explaining a little bit of the journey behind how Thankful Flow Yoga and the online yoga membership came about. You may have already got a feel for me, my yoga teaching and practice by looking through other pages on my website www.thankfulflow.com or coming to classes.
However I wanted to let you in to some of the story behind how and why my teaching and this online offering came about and the meaning behind it. Ultimately my aim as a yoga teacher is to guide and support you in your yoga practice and journey of reconnecting and rediscovering more about yourself. I have personally experienced this benefit me profoundly on many levels throughout life and hope to share this with you. II have been practising yoga for many years now, but my first experience of online yoga was during the Covid 19 lockdown. Like many others I used exercise and movement as a way to regulate myself and find a positive focus during such a challenging and difficult time. For the last 6 years I had consistently exercised in the gym and maintained my personal yoga practice squeezing in my sessions wherever I could. Suddenly I found myself with lots of extra time but no childcare and no gym to go too. This is where I started my practice online and it didn't take long before it became my rock and I started to learn more about myself than ever before. My 6 year old son started to join me sometimes in my practice, I felt stronger physically and mentally and I had the freedom to access little pockets of time whenever I could and recenter while the world around me seemed the most uncertain it had ever been. As a single working parent I generally always found that giving time to myself was more of a luxury than a necessity and I know many other people whether parents or not feel this way. We live in a busy world and lead busy live's jumping from one task to the next on a daily basis. Through my yoga practice becoming more accessible to me I started to see the profound effects within myself that I'd created through yoga asana, breathwork, meditation and to put it simply time for stillness and reflection. I felt more present with son than ever, and there was a feeling of space that wasn't there before. As a result i noticed my ideas and creativity started to increase and I began to realise there was a different way to contribute to others through my 'work'. I started to think of a way I could create a community for other people to join and practice yoga knowing the value it could have. As part of the Thankful Flow Membership I offer a library of classes accessible for anyone whether you are new to yoga or experienced. There's a mixture to chose from of everything from restorative flows to more challenging ones and I've included a live class every Sunday via Zoom for those who want to come together live and connect. The membership is ever evolving and there will be more added and I'm always keen to hear requests and feedback of what you want in future videos and content as I believe you are as much the creators of this community and experience as I am! As a celebration of this Launch I am offering a FREE live Zoom Class for all this Sunday the 5th of September at 9:30am for all levels. Please contact me [email protected] to receive the link and flow with me. I also thoroughly enjoy offering in person yoga classes in Peacehaven and East Sussex alongside 1-2-1s and separate yoga zoom classes. I hope I can assist you in your practice through the connection of body, mind and breath bringing a holistic approach to your well-being and health. With Love Elly x Director- Thankful Flow Yoga
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Brilliant article with some great tips here. I especially like the part regarding the fact that Neuroscience shows we can lower the stress hormone in our body by focusing on our breath rising and falling for even as little as 60 seconds. However I think it's important to note that connecting to your own breath for some of us is a skill that needs practice, patience and guidance. In the modern world relaxing and just 'breathing' can be considered a luxury more than a necessity and for many is not something we are used to accessing.  To say the past year has been unprecedented is by now a cliché, and yet, it’s also true. And women might be feeling the strain most of all: According to a recent study, 53 percent of women report that their mental health suffers to the point of burnout due to their job. Burnout can manifest in so many ways: There are, of course, the more obvious signs of burnout, like being exhausted, or even sick, more frequently. But there are more subtle symptoms as well, such as the inability to focus and be fully present with others. One of the most insidious things about burnout is that it compromises our judgment, including our judgment about ourselves. So you might think you’re doing fine, but if you’re not getting the sleep you need, or if you’re spending day after day in back-to-back virtual meetings and in front of screens, it’s very likely you’re not doing as well as you might think you are. Even before the coronavirus pandemic began, women were already shouldering extra responsibilities, including housework. And whether we're still working from home or going back into the office, that disproportionate burden on women has only gotten worse. A study from LeanIn.org found that in 2020, women experienced the symptoms of burnout at twice the level of men. That could be one reason why we're seeing a mass exodus of women from the workplace. When everything about how we live our lives has been turned upside down, just getting through the day can be stressful. But there are steps we can take to beat burnout and even thrive during this historically difficult moment. It might sound like a paradox, but the way to navigate uncertainty and stress during times of change on a massive scale is to make very small adjustments in your own life—what I call microsteps. This allows us to control what we can control...and it turns out, we can control quite a bit about our immediate world. When we go small enough, these changes allow us to make big improvements to our physical and mental well-being. That’s the foundation of Thrive Global’s new book, Your Time To Thrive. It’s a guide based on a whole-human life plan and behavior change system that will help you enhance every aspect of your physical and mental well-being, performance, resilience, and relationships. By making microsteps too small to fail, we can incorporate them into our daily work and home lives right away. Even—and especially—during times of stress and uncertainty, it's important to take charge of your well-being and mental resilience. Below, are five microsteps you can use to beat burnout right now. Just BreatheNeuroscience shows that we can course-correct from stress in as little as 60 to 90 seconds. That’s why one of my favorite microsteps is to simply focus on the rising and falling of your breath, even for 60 seconds. This activates the parasympathetic nervous system, lowering levels of the stress hormone cortisol. This is one I use as a reset throughout the day— before meetings, after meetings, or even during me Habit Stack Your GratitudeOne way to create a new healthy habit is through what researchers call “habit stacking,” which is to attach a new habit onto an existing one. This is how I do my favorite combo-microstep: Every time I brush my teeth, I think of three things I'm grateful for. Gratitude is one of our most powerful emotions, and the science shows it helps lower stress and anxiety. Doing it while brushing your teeth is an easy way to bring the amazing benefits of gratitude into your life without requiring any more from an already busy day. Stop Doomscrolling Of course we all want to be informed—we’re still living with a public health crisis and being knowledgeable and up to date can help us feel more prepared. But as many of us found out during the 2020 election, doomscrolling through the 24/7 news cycle can just add to our stress. We can break this by setting a news cutoff time for ourselves. This allows us to unplug and recharge by connecting with friends or loved ones, or have some downtime to connect with ourselves. It also helps us get a better night’s sleep, which in turn helps us put stressful news into perspective. And don’t worry—if you want to know what you missed, the news will still be there in the morning. Schedule Active TimePut time on your calendar for exercise. We don’t miss meetings—even if they’re on Zoom—that we consider important in our lives, and we should give the same priority to getting some kind of movement throughout the day. Research shows that even just a few minutes of movement can have a big impact on our physical and mental health. It's easy for the day to fill up unless we block out that time ahead of time, so at the beginning of the week, in the mornings, or whenever you're filling out your calendar, don’t forget to pencil-in your time for exercise. Don't Use Your Phone Right Before BedWe all love our phones. We know where they are, and how much they’re charged all day long. But our phones are repositories of everything we need to put away to allow us to sleep—our to-do lists, our inboxes, the never-ending demands of the day. Plus, the blue light they emit suppresses melatonin, the hormone connected to sleep regulation. So pick a time at night to turn off devices—and remove them from your bedroom—to wake up as fully charged as our beloved phones. See full article |
AuthorI am someone with a curiosity and thirst for life, movement and exploration. Ever since moving my yoga and mediation teaching and practice into a more embodied realm, I feel I can never go back. I believe our body holds vast wisdom and knowledge and that we can tap into this through sensing and feeling , which is ultimately done through the body. Whether I am facilitating a yoga class, retreat or embodied coaching container at the core of my offerings is you and your bodies truth. I have walked my own path of embodiment and disembodiment over the years and in my work I strive to help others recapture their own truth. Archives
February 2025
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