Level Up Your Yoga Practice

By guest contributor: Sheila Johnson, Founder of WellSheila.net

Yoga means “unity” in Sanskrit, the language of ancient India. Invented by yogis, spiritualists who wanted a direct experience of the spiritual beyond cultural rituals, they developed a way to become one with mind, body, and spirit. Through daily practice, yoga uses postures and breathing to help you grow more in tune with yourself.

With yoga, you don’t just gain the physical benefits of circulation, muscle tone, and flexibility. You also gain a deeper sense of yourself. You become unified. Through personal unity, you become focused, actualised, and stronger in yourself.

A Few Minutes a Day

Some people dedicate their entire lives to yoga like the ancient yogis, but you don’t have to live your life meditating in a cave to gain the benefits of practicing yoga. If your life is busy, Treehugger explains you can still achieve focus, fitness, and a greater sense of personal unity by setting aside as little as seven minutes for yoga every day. In fact, you don’t even need to get yourself to a yoga studio to learn from an amazing teacher and follow guided lessons through the positions and routines that will free your body and mind.

Stream Your Yoga

One of the greatest things about modern technology is that even though our lives have sped up, relaxation has become more accessible. You can easily use a streaming device to access yoga lessons directly from your living room. What’s more, even if you only have a few minutes each day to practice, you’ll have an expert guiding you every step and position along your yoga journey.

If you’re going to be practicing at home when you’re not in the studio, your home needs to be a relaxing and positive space. Clean and open your windows to let in fresh air and extra light, sweep up messes, and toss out any items you’re no longer using.

Find a Well-Trained and Enjoyable Teacher

There are many options for yoga lessons on the internet and through apps. The key to your own enjoyment and progress is to find an online yoga teacher that you can really connect with, whether online or in-person. For in-person classes, a well-trained instructor can offer words of encouragement to inspire you, sensibly explain poses, and help you make adjustments to get the most out of your practice.

Gear-wise, many enthusiasts find it helpful to invest in a couple of pieces of equipment, especially if an instructor isn’t there to help with their poses. There are yoga mats that can help you with alignment, and a bolster can assist you with posture in difficult poses.

Set Intentional Yoga Goals for Yourself

Even with a short amount of time per day, as Metta Yoga points out, you can and should set yoga goals and strive to meet them. Don’t just follow along, challenge yourself to achieve greater form or get further through a routine each day. Challenge yourself to greater balance and flexibility. Challenge yourself to meet the goals you set even if it’s difficult. You will find yourself in your dedication to meet the goals you push toward.

Find Your Unity Through Yoga

Whether you join a yoga class or stream lessons in the privacy of your living room, yoga will help you find that spiritual unity with your mind, body, and soul. You will learn more about your body while strengthening your muscles and balance. By daring to strive beyond failure, you will build your resolve and become stronger in yourself. Through the meditation and focus that yoga brings, you will get in tune with your spiritual self, in whatever way you define it.

Yoga means “unity” in Sanskrit for a reason. Look for ways to push yourself to the next level, and you will find it. Through even brief daily practice of yoga each day, you will experience a strengthening unity with your inner self.

ABOUT SHELIA

Sheila Johnson left the corporate world and long hours behind to start her own business. She’s seen so much personal success with her health and wellness routine that she wanted to share it with others. By creating WellSheila.net, she hopes that sharing her story will help people put their physical and mental health first.

Five easy tips to build a meditation habit

Want to build a meditation habit without effort? The team at Silatha tell us how.

The new year is almost upon us and it’s an essential time to look back and reflect on the crazy year it has been. Starting 2020 with gusto and positivity, many of us took the small things for granted and the normality of life we always trusted being there. Then all of a sudden our securities were upended. Feelings of anxiety, stress and worry inevitably crept in with the lack of childcare, compulsory home-schooling, working from home as well as many being removed from the support bubbles of parents and relatives. Just as you thought the worst was behind, another lockdown became reality.

So how does one stay sane? Our recommended way to survive the current uncertainty is through meditation. But how do you fit meditation into your already jam-packed day you ask?

Here are 5 tips to help you build a meditation habit that sticks:

1. Use every free minute
   We often think that we need to allocate 20 minutes or more in order to get some ‘meditation’ time in, but this isn’t true. Even one minute can make a difference if you start doing it regularly. Use the time when you’re waiting in line, the first minute after waking or when you’re next put on hold over the phone. With so many moments that we let pass today, often frustrated, make it a habit to utilise these mindfully, and simply focus on your breath for that short moment.
   
2. Connect it to an existing habit
   One of the difficulties of creating a new habit is remembering to do it. When you link it to another habit that is already in your routine it becomes much easier. For example brushing your teeth or
   making a cup of coffee – train yourself so that before taking your first sip, you take ten slow, deep breaths or straight after brushing your teeth, you sit for two minutes and do some breathing exercises.
   
3. Use a meditation app like Silatha that is designed to help build a habit
   Get supported by using a meditation app such as Silatha. The special method has been fine-tuned over many years and promises to increase your chances for success, as well as being 6 times more successful than any other meditation app in creating a habit that lasts. The method includes linking your personal intention to a tangible object which then becomes your reminder. So, when a stressful moment happens during the day, you hold your object (called your ‘Gem’) and you will go back to your intention. This is not the only technique Silatha uses to build a lasting meditation habit as the guided meditations range in length, support topics and ensure you acknowledge the positive steps toward change you’re taking, congratulating you along the way.
   
4. Find a buddy
   Are you the kind of person that thrives alongside others or perhaps needs an extra push? Many of us do, so if that’s the case for you, get a meditation buddy who can keep you excited and on track. Align on a time of the day that you both will meditate and keep each other
   accountable. It’s always easier when done together. You can also join a group, so you meet like-minded women and you’ll stay reminded and inspired – join the Silatha Tribe here.
   
5. Have a tangible reminder
   Invest in yourself with a tangible reminder. This can be a beautiful piece of jewellery (check out the Silatha collection here, where each piece has a special intention linked to it already), or create a warm space in your home with some candles and flowers, where you feel calm and
   relaxed. Make sure there is a tangible element in your daily surroundings that helps you remember that you want to sit for a few minutes, so you can’t forget.

With a combination of the above suggestions you will be well on your way to building that healthy habit you desire, so then whatever 2021 may bring, you’ll be ready! You will certainly notice you’re more calm, focused and perhaps start to feel that you have your life under control and are heading in a positive direction.

And lastly, don’t be too hard on yourself. Go bit by bit, remembering that building a meditation routine is a marathon, not a sprint and great things take time, so don’t rush. Build day by day and if you miss one, don’t be too tough on yourself, just smile and pick it up the next day.

We wish you well and hope you’ll enjoy the Silatha method, here you can find more information:the Silatha app [Android & Apple], website and on social.

About Silatha

Silatha Founder, Veroniek Vermeulen, is on a quest to break women’s mental health taboos and support women through their mental health issues with meditation. Veroniek enjoyed a long career as a Senior level marketing expert. At some point in her professional life she realised that status and money weren’t making her happy. A life changing experience amidst the beautiful surroundings of the Himalayas got her in contact with meditation and this led to the creation of Silatha, a company that wants to improve the mental health of women harnessing a special meditation
method that becomes a long lasting habit.

www.silatha.com

Postpartum Psychosis

After an incredibly brave, humbling and eye-opening conversation we had with postpartum psychosis survivor, Eve Canavan, we wanted to share some information about this rare but serious mental health illness that often goes un- or mis-diagnosed, so that you as a Mama, or you as a partner or friend of someone who experiences this can tell the signs and know how to help.

Eve is coordinator of the UK Maternal Mental Health Awareness Week for the Perinatal Mental Health Partnership, and as you’ll hear in her story even the health professionals she sought help from where unable to recognise postpartum psychosis, and when they did, not all of them knew how to help her. Please help spread the work about this severe and sometimes frightening illness, so that no women have to suffer alone or for long.

The below information was provided by the Action for PostPartum Psychosis (APP) website. For more information please visit: app-network.org

WHAT IS POSTPARTUM PSYCHOSIS?

Postpartum Psychosis (PP) is a severe, but treatable form of mental illness that occurs after having a baby. It can happen ‘out of the blue’ to women without previous experience of mental illness. There are some groups of women, women with a history of bipolar disorder for example, who are at much higher risk. PP normally begins in the first few days to weeks after childbirth. It can get worse very quickly and should always be treated as a medical emergency. Most women need to be treated with medication and admitted to hospital.

With the right treatment, women with PP do make a full recovery. Recovery takes time and the journey may be tough. The illness can be frightening and shocking for both the woman experiencing it and her family. Women do return to their normal selves, and are able to regain the mothering role they expected. There is no evidence that the baby’s long term development is affected by Postpartum Psychosis.

The period after childbirth can be a devastating time to experience a severe mental illness. For women who experience PP, their partners, friends and family, it can be hard to find high quality information about the symptoms, causes and treatment.

WHAT ARE THE SYMPTOMS?

There are a large variety of symptoms that women with PP can experience. Women may be:

• Excited, elated, or ‘high’.
• Depressed, anxious, or confused.
• Excessively irritable or changeable in mood.

Postpartum Psychosis includes one or more of the following:

• Strange beliefs that could not be true (delusions).
• Hearing, seeing, feeling or smelling things that are not there (hallucinations).
• High mood with loss of touch with reality (mania).
• Severe confusion.

These are also common symptoms:

• Being more talkative, sociable, on the phone an excessive amount.
• Having a very busy mind or racing thoughts.
• Feeling very energetic and like ‘super-mum’ or agitated and restless.
• Having trouble sleeping, or not feeling the need to sleep.
• Behaving in a way that is out of character or out of control.
• Feeling paranoid or suspicious of people’s motives.
• Feeling that things are connected in special ways or that stories on the TV or radio have special personal meaning.
• Feeling that the baby is connected to God or the Devil in some way.

There are a great many other symptoms that can be experienced. For more information see mums’ and dads’ personal descriptions of PP.

WHAT’S THE DIAGNOSIS?

Postpartum Psychosis is the label used by most professionals for an episode of mania or psychosis with onset soon after childbirth. However, other names can be used and this can be confusing. You might hear the terms: Puerperal Psychosis; Postnatal Psychosis; Mania or Bipolar Disorder triggered by childbirth (this doesn’t necessarily mean that your partner will develop ongoing Bipolar Disorder); Schizoaffective Disorder with onset following childbirth (this doesn’t necessarily mean that your partner will develop ongoing Schizoaffective Disorder); Postnatal Depression with psychotic features.

There are many other mental health conditions that occur following childbirth, including Postnatal Depression (PND), severe anxiety, and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. It is important that these conditions are not grouped under the term ‘Postnatal Depression’. PND is much more common than PP, but tends to require different treatments and has different causes and outcomes.

WHAT’S THE CAUSE?

Unfortunately we know little about the causes of PP. Research points to biological, probably hormonal, factors related to pregnancy and childbirth but many other factors are likely to be involved.

For further information about PP take a look at APP’s Frequently Asked Questions, read their Insider Guides, see the Royal College of Psychiatrists PP patient information leaflet which APP have helped to develop, read the personal stories of APP members, and find out about the research APP are conducting to help understand more about the condition.

ABOUT ACTION FOR POSTPARTUM PSYCHOSIS

APP’s Peer Support network helps women and families affected by PP feel understood, supported and less isolated. With the support of world-leading academic and clinical experts, an amazing, supportive, peer-led, lived experience community has been developed. The Peer Support community has been described as “life changing”, “lifting me from the shadows of a life half-lived” and a “good and precious resource to all who have been affected by PP”. Our evaluation shows that the service saves lives and improves recovery outcomes. It is the only PP support network in the UK, and the largest in the world with over 900 members. 

Our workshops, conferences and arts events enable women to articulate their experience of PP and develop information to help other women and families. We facilitate ground-breaking research into the causes of PP at the universities of Birmingham and Cardiff and produce ‘Insider Guides’ and other expert literature to support affected families and health professionals caring for those with PP.

APP is a collaborative project run by women who have experienced PP, specialist health professionals and academic experts from Birmingham and Cardiff Universities. Our project is based within the Mood Disorders Research Group in the College of Medical and Dental Sciences at the University of Birmingham. We are very grateful for their support.