Health Articles

How and why did you get into yoga and meditation?

I began practising yoga when I was 15. My mum took me to my first ever class in a small town in Hertfordshire, and I fell in love with the magic of yoga straight away. I continued practising and in my early 20s I had the privilege of travelling around India for four months, deepening my knowledge and learning its ancient roots; yogic philosophy and Buddhist and Hindu traditions have always fascinated me.

After years of practice, I decided to do my initial yoga teacher training - this was with my first ever yoga teacher, Bridget Wood Kramer, who runs training, workshops, retreats and classes all over the world.

How has meditation changed your life?

Yoga and meditation have had a huge impact on my physical, emotional and spiritual wellbeing. It has been a form of therapy for me for so many years, which is the reason I'm now training as a yoga therapist.

I believe that yoga and meditation have supported me through challenging times in my life, acting as an anchor to bring me back into myself and my body. I've noticed when my practice is less consistent, I feel the emotional and physical impact of this - I'm less present, I find it harder to act intuitively, my anxiety can increase and I start to hold my body in negative habitual patterns. Of course, there are times when this happens - we're all humans living in a busy time with busy lives - but the practice of yoga and meditation allows me to develop an awareness of this, and provides me with the tools to manage and work with any challenges. 

Lots of us really struggle to concentrate when we’re meditating. Does that mean we’re doing it wrong? 

Absolutely not. There's a universal misconception that meditation is the practice of 'clearing the mind' and if we cannot master that, we're not successfully meditating. That might have been truer in ancient times where our brains were less active and minds less stimulated, but in today's world, it's a very tall order to accomplish this state of being.

There are many forms of meditation which suit how we live as a society in current times, but I personally find mindfulness meditation - derived from Zen Buddhism using tools to bring complete awareness to the body and mind - or conscious breath connection valuable ways to meditate as someone who can be prone to an overactive mind and imagination. 

How can you get better at staying on track/concentrating?

Practice. And to not put pressure on yourself to meditate for too long.

Practice in places and times you'd not usually choose - on public transport, or in the middle of the working day when you're 'too busy' to meditate. People often save practices for the 'best time' to do them (myself included), but the best learnings and insights often arise in those most challenging moments.

How does meditation help with depression and anxiety?

So many ways! Without going into too much detail, both yoga and meditation have been proven to support and reduce anxiety and depression disorders. There are many different practices and some precautions for specific anxiety disorders and forms of depression but a lot of meditation especially using breathwork along with regulation, can really help people to manage their symptoms.

Regulation is key because it allows anyone suffering to work with their tolerance levels depending on their needs. For example, mindfulness-based meditation practices can bring someone's awareness to 'what is' - what is currently going on in the body, what is currently going on in the mind. But, this can be quite triggering for some people - some anxiety sufferers may find they busy themselves with tasks, practices and activities as a form of avoidance, so when bringing a higher level of awareness to themselves without these tasks and activities, feelings and emotions could surface and become overwhelming.

Starting small and building up is a useful method of regulating a practice, alongside self-reflective practices such as journalling. Also, breathwork practices are one of the most profound ways to support anxiety and depression. Slow, controlled and conscious diaphragmatic breathing activates our vagus nerve which is directly linked to the parasympathetic strand of our autonomic nervous system; even doing this breathing practice for five minutes a day can dramatically calm the system and help to reduce symptoms of anxiety and anxiety-based depression. 

Can meditation help with more physical issues such as stress-induced bloating?

Of course. A lot of yoga therapy and research on yoga therapy focuses on using practices such as mindfulness-based stress reduction and meditation for stress with people who have physical impairments or disorders, chronic pain conditions or terminal illness.

Targeting stress will inevitably help any physical issue, including stress-induced bloating or digestive issues. Meditation along with breathwork and mindfulness practices helps to curtail the stress response and balance levels of cortisol in the body, which in chronic stress can further perpetuate physical symptoms.  

We know that yoga and meditation is good for our mental health but what are your tips for the days when it feels like an impossible act of self-care to achieve?

Walking meditation. Sometimes when anxiety levels are high, or we're feeling unstable, sitting in traditional meditation can exacerbate this. A walking meditation can release energy and increase dopamine from getting exercise, and reduce levels of rumination if the focus is shifted and we're spending time noticing our surroundings - birds and clouds in the sky, the sensation of the earth under our feet, our breath when we're walking, the colour of the leaves on the trees.

Yoga nidra is also another great tool for when you're struggling. It's a recorded guided meditation which you practice laying on your back - it brings you in and out of consciousness, often feeling like you're between a sleep and wake-like state - fully relaxing the nervous system.

What are your top tips for getting started with meditation?

Try different practices and see what you get on with.

Just because you know someone who meditates in a certain way, at a certain time of day, it doesn't mean that suits you. Something guided can often help; start with 5 or 10 minutes and increase it as you want to. I personally find it most beneficial to do before I go to sleep - I can have an overactive mind at this time and feel it guides me to sleep. I'll often have a notebook beside my bed for any thoughts or insights that arise so I can pull them out of my mind.

Make yourself comfortable. Move away from the idea that meditation has to be practised sitting on the floor with your legs crossed - it can of course, and if you're doing that, make sure your sit bones are raised either in line with or higher than your knees, your thighs are supported and you're not rounding too much in the spine and shoulders. There's never any harm in sitting in a chair, laying down, or as I mentioned earlier, mindfully walking.

Meditation and yoga, should be accessible for every single person regardless of their demographic or ability and I'd love to see a shift in perception of this. Practices can be modified for all people and can be so healing. 

Do you have a daily meditation routine?

I try to meditate at least once a day, even if for five minutes - but like anyone else, I also have a life that can get in the way or times when I feel a resistance to it. As I mentioned, these are generally the times I know I need my meditation practice the most; I'll try to practice but try not to force it.

I usually do a yoga practice first thing in the morning so will often take at least five minutes to meditate at the end to set myself up for the day. For this, I'll usually focus more on my breath so I'm more conscious of it throughout the day. If I have the opportunity to meditate outside I will; nature grounds me in a way like nothing else and fresh air immediately helps my mental state. Towards the end of the day, I'll check in with myself and decide what kind of meditation I want to practice before I go to bed - I'll often sit up in bed, turn the lights down or off, light a few candles, close my eyes, and just sit, breathe and observe. 

I might sometimes put on relaxing music or Tibetan singing bowls if I'm struggling to relax or focus, or this might turn into a yoga nidra meditation to help me ease into a restful night's sleep.

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