Category: Personal

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Don’t Haggle With Self-Employed People

Human nature is a strange thing. We live in this capitalist reality, where people buy things they don’t need in bulk just because it’s cheaper and pay huge corporations for services that don’t require much effort from said corporations. Yet when it comes to paying a self-employed professional, these same people try and knock the price down, truly believing they deserve to pay less than everyone else. I see this as a self-employed yoga teacher, but it’s all around us – people trying to entice artists with “exposure”, and get their photographer friends to shoot their weddings for free.

Continue reading “Don’t Haggle With Self-Employed People”

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Gym Yoga and Snobbery

I had a very interesting experience today. As a teacher, I often get asked how I got into yoga. For me, yoga was a coping mechanism – I joined a gym and chased precious endorphins by attending every class I had time for. Yoga was only one of them, there were also Les Mills programmes, boxercise, dancing, swimming, HIIT core sessions… I probably attended over ten classes each week, coupled with at least 5k running distance. Exercise was a form of escapism, an that’s all yoga was to me – exercise.
As I got to a better place with my mental health, it got less intense and I started exploring other sides of yoga, moving away from instructor-led classes and experimenting with my own flows. At one point I was encouraged to become a teacher, so I could share what I’ve learned, and so I went travelling, I trained to be a yoga teacher, and I got to experience a few different environments, different students, with different requirements.
This week, I was asked to cover a yoga class at the very gym where I first discovered the practice, and it felt great. I see a lot of yoga snobbery, often among teachers, who judge those who only embrace the physical side of the practice, and by extension spaces that weren’t purposefully created for yoga. Today I was reminded that, as cheesy as it sounds, everyone has their own path when it comes to yoga practice, and one should never judge the medium through which we learn, as long as it doesn’t harm anyone.
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NY Resolutions Actually Worth Making

Every New Year’s Day comes with a wave of people bravely declaring their intentions to change their life. Ah, the New Year’s Resolutions! Ironically, they are often recycled from the year before – top five include losing weight, buying something significant – like a car or a house, unattainable amount of travel destinations, or books to read, or films to see. The key to sticking to your intentions is to start small and focus on quality vs quantity. Diving head first into the new lifestyle of yours gets overwhelming, so you have a cheat day. And then comes the guilt, so you find an excuse to postpone going back to your chosen resolution. The more radical the change, the more hesitant you become. So here is a list of New Year’s resolutions actually worth making, along with tips on easing yourself into it. Continue reading “NY Resolutions Actually Worth Making”

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Make Nature Beautiful Again

If you are an outdoorsy person, I’m sure this happened to you. You go for a walk in the park and come across an abandoned tyre. You go for a run along the canals and notice all the bottles and cans floating in the water. You go climbing and find crisp packets when you reach the crag. You go hiking and step on a shard of glass. You’re foraging in the woods and find a used condom. You’re walking your dog and step into someone else’s dog’s faeces.

Thankfully, there’s an initiative to make nature beautiful again, cleaning up local nature reserves, woodland, parks and such like ran by a single person. It runs entirely on donations, so if it sounds like an initiative you’d like to support, you can do so by donating funds, or joining Ian on his clean-up trips. To learn more, click the links below!

Donate here!

#letscleanupthewoods

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Ready for this.

I have had a tough few weeks but here it is – my first blog entry.

I am a long time yogi and I have been climbing for just under two years. The name reflects my passion for both, as well as many linked activities, such as aerial circus, slackline, hill walking and such like. I am also passionate about nutrition, and at some point I’d like to introduce a food section to this blog.

My partner and I go climbing outdoors when our schedule and the weather allows it, so for the most part this blog will be myself documenting our climbing adventures. I will also attempt to keep up to date with any workshops I attend, and share an occasional yoga sequence.