Smile and the world smiles with you….

Think of someone you know that has a beautiful smile, the kind that touches your heart and lifts your spirits. You see their eyes light up and they generate a warmth and joy that connects from within.

The likelihood is that you are smiling as you think of this person. Your body relaxes, your breathing is steady, and your mood lifts.

Studies have shown that the act of smiling, alters your body’s chemistry and elevates your mood. We only have to try it to find out!

I will often invite people to smile during a yoga class. If we are holding a yoga pose that requires balance, focus and concentration, we might notice that we tighten in the mouth and hold our breath. Softly smiling however releases tension in the facial muscles, we also let go of tension in the mind and the body. A reminder to breathe steadily in and out through the nose counteracts any feelings of tightness. When we take deeper slower breaths, with a typically longer exhale, we stimulate one of the key nerves of the body, the vagus nerve. Activating this nerve slows the heart rate, reduces blood pressure and helps us feel more calm and at ease.

The vagus nerve is the longest nerve in the human body and is the main pathway connecting the gut to the brain. It is in charge of reducing and turning off the ‘fight or flight’ response of the body. You can consciously activate the vagus nerve to induce inner-calm through relaxing the muscles of the face and breathing steadily in and out through the nose.

Try this:

Sitting comfortably on a chair or on a cushion, take a nice inhale through the nose and sigh out through the mouth. Do this a couple of times.

  • Settle yourself and notice your normal breath as it is in this moment.
  • Take a breath in through the nose, pause, and then exhale out through the nose, long and slow.
  • Centre yourself in the here and now, feeling the length in your spine, notice how your shoulders drop a little with each out breath.
  • Now, take a deep steady inhale through the nose, breathe down into the lower belly, feel your ribcage expand, then your chest. Stay with the pause at the top of your inhale. Then take a long deep exhale through the nose, emptying your chest, the rib area and the lower belly. Feel that sense of slowing down as you continue with this breath, softly smiling as you do so.
  • Breathe in smiling, feeling the healing, nourishing aspects of oxygen in your body. As you hold the breath for a few seconds, imagine it radiating health and nourishment inside you. Then breathe out thinking “Letting Go”, releasing all of the tension in your body through your exhale.

You can do this breathing at any point throughout the day, waiting at the train station, queuing in the supermarket, or intentionally taking the time out to do this at home or at work.

Keep smiling…..and, of course, keep breathing!

Home

Private Classes

Satty Yoga specialises in private classes for individuals and couples, tailored to your needs and goals. Lessons take place in a well ventilated environment with space to move, breathe, relax and unwind.

People sign up for private classes for different reasons. For some people it is about focusing on flexibility and strength in the body, for others it is more about coming to a place of stillness in the mind. In recent years yoga has proven to be invaluable in helping those with burn out or bore out, conditions that require a serious programme of mind, body and brain reset work.

Ultimately yoga is a about transformation, learning how to live and breathe from a place of balance and harmony.

Group classes are also offered, these are available via zoom:

Timetable – Satty Yoga

Latest customer reviews:

Reviews – Satty Yoga

What kind of yoga is it?

Satty Yoga is an integrated yoga and mindfulness practice.  A process of moving into balance and harmony through yoga movements and postures that reveals the creativity of the body and the expansiveness of the mind.

The foundation of my yoga training is Ashtanga (power yoga), Hatha yoga, and mindfulness meditation training. The classes vary from dynamic movement to a more slow flow practice. The breathing techniques you learn and incorporate into your life are a fundamental aspect of every yoga class.

Mindfulness has always been a part of yoga, it is an active process with many aspects to it. The most common aspect is knowing what we are experiencing whilst we are experiencing it. Being able to drop into present moment awareness in the mind and the body without judging or story telling.

Through yoga and mindfulness you learn to release tension, tension that you may have held in the body for many years, and that also gets released in the mind. In time you start to feel more freedom and coherence throughout the entire mind body system. The whole purpose of yoga is to take what you learn on the yoga mat into your day to day life, so that the harmony and balance continues and becomes your natural state.

You do not need to be flexible to try yoga, the greatest flexibility required is from the mind. You work with the body’s natural intuition, softly listening, moving with the ebb and flow of the breath, towards greater mental and physical well being. Satty Yoga facilitates the process of transformation, YOU make it happen.

Smile from within 🙂