hristmas is a season to have fun, to, to spend time with loved ones, to indulge in delicious food, to party and have a well-deserved break and a good time.

Modern life can demand a lot of us, not only physically but also emotionally. Current society is moving fast and at times we feel like we have to catch up, finding ourselves in a swirl that can swallow us in, bringing us out of balance. Although Christmas is a fabulous time, it can also bring extra concerns, buying Christmas gifts, feeling the effect of being targeted by endless marketing campaigns from retailers inviting us to buy more, to acquire more, to give more… activities that can be distracting us from what Christmas is all about: Enjoying time with family and friends.
So, this year, for me, I am seeking to strike a balance between letting go and keep grounded. I don’t want to end up feeling I over did it in January, having to spend time trying to get myself back to center. So, I want to invite a kind of Yoga to my holidays, and I am not talking only about Asana, I am talking about Balance, about being present and fully enjoying the time with family and friends, it is about giving & receiving, instead of feeling un-grounded or begin dragged by too much consumption.
So here is my Yoga approach to Christmas:

1. Stress free Christmas – I will not allow little things to disturb my time. I always stress about cooking a high quality meal, instead, I am going to stay grounded, and have fun while cooking a simple dish for my friends to enjoy.
2. It is about appreciating people, not about buying them “stuff”. I always make candles for my friends, they are handmade by me and they reflect certain aspects of their personality that I appreciate. They always feel valued when they get this. Feels right to me… (not sure if this is right for them haha)
3. Twists – I will give in into nice food and drink, but I will help my body to cleanse from it, twists and yoga helps to stimulate the cleansing & digestive organs.. so I will get them to work even If for 20 min.
4. Time for reflection. I always take time to reflect, winter solstice represents for many a time to go inward, to reflect, to learn, so we can prepare for the next year to achieve our goals. So, I burn incense, play drum and do yoga. Also, I celebrate, reflection also brings the accomplishments done in the year past… I pat myself on the back for the good stuff too!

So, a quick reminder for those who are thinking, what is grounding?

To be ungrounded is to feel un-connected, feel spacey, think too much or feel too much anxiety. Therefore to be grounded is to re-connect ourselves to the earth, feel rooted to the ground, to be in our power, to become aware of the tension and consciously let it go, as a result, we feel “present here and now” in everything we do. 

So, with above in mind, have a very Happy  & “Grounded” Christmas!!
 
Thanks for reading
Namaste
Lourdes ​

I got recently diagnosed with a trapped nerve in my hip joint (yikes!). It is unclear how I got this! The GP guessed it was a sudden movement either sitting down or standing, it could have been my running or my Yoga, the dancing, sitting, etc.… whatever it was, it set me back and took me by surprise. I went from being very active to having to rest and nurse the pain. This was a temporary situation and the speed of the recovery was down to me, so I could either get frustrated by this, or dedicate my energy to make it better as soon as it was possible.
Injuries are part of life, it does not matter if we are a less adventurous sofa lover, or mad hyperactive gal, there will be times when we are going to hurt a part of our body. Now the important thing here is how we deal with it, and what we learn from it. this blog entry shares how I approached this:

1. I Accepted the injury. For a few days, I pretended I was ok, I kept thinking that it would go away. I kept running and kept my schedule as it was, the result was that the pain clearly got worse. Now this seems so obvious when you read it, but the sooner you accept something is wrong, the quicker you get to sort it.  Sometimes we get caught in the self-imposed automatic lifestyle of this modern world… keep going. “Motivational” slogans can be dangerous, here is a sample of some of the stuff going around in social media: “No pain no gain” (really? In Yoga Painmeans something is wrong, pain means you need to get out of the pose NOW!), here is another slogan: “Suffer the pain of discipline, or suffer the pain of regret”, and this last one is just one to pay attention to: “Pain is just weakness leaving your body”… (really?!).Sometimes it is needed to de-program our brain from Pain = gain to Pain = something is wrong, Pain is the way your body communicates that something is not going well, listen to it.
2. I became aware of my body. I stopped strong physical poses, but I did not stop doing Yoga, mostly because I wanted to keep the awareness of how I felt; I modified my personal practice to incorporate restorative/meditative poses, where I can really tune into my body, the discovery was interesting, I found the other side of my hip got much more tense, it was compensating for the pain of the opposite side, and this is how we perpetuate injuries, by the automatic unconscious way our body deals with issues, and if we lose touch with how our body is responding, we deepen the imbalances and we just end up potentially worse.
3. I modified my routine. I informed work so I could adapt my desk, I attended Physio, stopped running but kept the stretching routine. I did a lot more breathing exercises. Not surprisingly, I improved considerably in just 2 weeks. If in trouble, face it head on! Do something about it.
4. I was honest with my classes. I told my students I was injured and I would not be holding certain poses. Better to be honest than to limp around making them wonder what on earth is going on
5. I Kept a positive attitude. Injuries happen!, how we react after them is what matters.