Waking up to our health and wellbeing

I cannot tell you how delighted I am that RFK Jnr is giving voice to the detrimental impact of eating processed foods, let alone the dangers of over vaccination and the power held by Big Pharma to maintain the status quo of a sick society.

I am fortunate that I learned over 20 years now that we are what we eat. Quite literally. And how we can help ourselves from PMS and depression through good nutrition, let alone a myriad of other disorders and ailments.

I am eternally grateful to Carol Champion for inspiring in me a love of nutritional therapy and an awareness that food can be used as medicine as much as it can be used as a killer too. And I am always grateful to my Ayurvedic doctor for teaching me about the Ayurvedic approach to diet, which has become my norm now.

I am passionate about good nutrition and wellness. It blows my mind that many people do not realise the connection between what they put in their mouth and their mental, physical, emotional and energetic well-being.

I recently read Fast Food Genocide by Joel Fuhrman and Ultra Processed People by Chris Van Tulleken and both really highlight have far we have fallen in terms of connection with food, nutrition, farming, environment and health and wellbeing.

It saddens me that so much of it is - as always - is about money at the cost of people’s lives. Mainly it is about companies profiteering, with very little ethics or heart, just to increase their own personal wealth and notion of success. I find it difficult to understand how people can live with such little integrity or care for their fellow man, but this is rife throughout our society these days, where it is literally always, it seems, about the bottom line and profit, profit, profit.

It feels important that RFK Jnr is given this opportunity to raise awareness of the manner in which the food industry and Big Pharma have been conning people of their health and wellbeing and allowing their approach to artificial foods and unnecessary drugs to become normalised.

However, I really feel it is time that we all start taking more responsibility for our wellness and look at what we are not only putting into our body but the environment in which we live. It is important that we educate ourselves beyond what we are told by these companies and the scientists who are paid by these companies, and see through their advertising and marketing scams.

It is important that we question what we are told by the mainstream news and the powers that be, who are keen to maintain their financial status at whatever cost and might give the idea that they have our best interests at heart, but don’t, not really. Even doctors are held ransom by Big Pharma and those who do speak out are vilified and made out to be wrong.

We have to move away from science being seen as God. Science can show anything in its research if it needs to promote a certain product. We have to be very careful in believing all that we read, just because science says so.

What fascinates me is how much wiser we used to be. And yet we consider ourselves wiser than any other generation because of science. I disagree. The ancient yogis knew what we might do to thrive and I am certain they wouldn’t be living as we do now.

I was reminded of this in a Yoga Sutras class yesterday, that we need to consider ourselves like an apple seed. For that seed to grow and thrive we need to create certain conditions such as access to water, good soil and light and how there is a timing.

Now is the time.

We are a sick society and we need to be asking questions. Is the for we put in our body clean or is it processed or covered in pesticides? How about the water we drink, is it clean or does it contain various chemicals which compromise our immune system? Is our environment healthy for us, is it decluttered, can the energy flow? Are we able to protect ourselves from the detrimental impact of EMF?

If we are not thriving we have to ask ourselves the reason. What can we change?

Looking at our stress levels is often key, but this will be impacted by what we put in our body and the environment we live in, let alone any unresolved emotions or traumas and our poor boundaries.

This is the reason I love sharing Spiritual Life Coaching with clients as we look at all of this. This isn’t a plug for that incidentally but it just means that I have observed all this in practice - not just from the direct experience of my own life, but from witnessing others reclaim their health, wellbeing and vitality by looking honestly at how they are living and what they are eating and making different choices.

It’s the same with Reiki too. When clients become attuned, things change. their vibration changes and then they don’t want to be eating crappy food or hanging out with negative people, or numbing themselves from their reality. They find the courage to make changes, to look after themselves better and consider the impact their choices have on the wider world.

There is always a bigger picture in terms of the wider world and the manner in which we feed more of the same by whatever it is we are or are not doing. It gets to a point where we begin to realise that one of the ways we can create positive change, is not just about what we put in our body, but how we spend our money - do we spend it on big industry who have little interest in your thriving, or do you spend it on those trying to make a positive difference, the smaller companies offering organic alternatives, the ones who don’t want to compromise on you or animals or the environment just to make money.

We try to live clean here and I try to support businesses which are trying to do something positive. We don’t always get it right, but its empowering to even be aware that we have this choice and that we can make a difference through our spending power as well as trying to optimise our health and well being and question and progressively step away from the mainstream lies and illusion.

I highly recommend reading those two aforementioned books and also having a listen to these videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFFfd9-t1Lo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KO04-EnRU-o

This could be quite some year, I am grateful to the moon for encouraging this transformation, let’s hope that the positive changes in America will filter through the rest of the world.

Love Emma x

Scaravelli yoga

I discovered the Scaravelli-inspired approach to practice quite by chance back in 2019. I had felt called to the Isle of Lewis to visit the Callanish stones and while there attended a yoga class at the Uig village hall where the teacher suggested I might like the teachings of a Scaravelli-inspired teacher called Sophie down in Littlehampton.

So I went and visited Sophie and was blown away by this approach to practice which was so very different from the vinayasa practice that had shaped my life for many years. I couldn’t quite understand what had happened but I left that first session feeling a sense of mind-body connection, peace and aliveness that I had never experienced previously. I read and watched all I could of this approach to practice and in this way connected with Diane Long, who was primary student of Vanda Scaravelli herself. I saw that Diane was teaching a workshop in Findhorn with another teacher called Louise Simmons, so I made contact, knowing that I couldn’t afford the time away from my boys, but desperate to feed my immense curiosity in this practice. Fortunately Louise offered online lessons and was happy to teach me. 

In those earlier days I would practice with Louise and then do my real yoga practice afterwards, this because I was still very much caught up in the need to exercise and perform postures in a way that had been conditioned into me after years of attending trainings and workshops in the Vinyasa, dynamic, Anusara, Ashtanga and Iyengar traditions. 

It was during the pandemic that I finally let go of my need to practice in such a rigid,  masculine and disconnected way, and that I adopted the Scaravelli-approach to practice and started sharing this approach in my classes, which sent my students into quite a spin. Many of them dropped away as it was too big a shift, although fortunately many did stay and have benefitted by committing to the practice and others have been attracted back again, seeking deeper connection and freedom. 

It wasn’t until I visited Louise in Findhorn in early 2024 that I committed to her as my teacher – I’m inn this for the long run! I have visited her many times since and always return to Guernsey inspired and passionate to deepen into this practice and become a better teacher because of it. What appeals to me the most about this approach to practice is that it has gifted me increased freedom, not only in the body but in my mind too. There is a feeling of aliveness, quietness and calmness that arises and abides for some time after the practice. I love its complexity and yet its simplicity, its demand for attention and yet its softness, its sacred connections between resting and lightness and that it is always changing – there are no rules, no training, no authority outside the practice.

I also love its artistic, poetic and paradoxical nature. I also love that it can free us from the rigidity of ingrained and often unconscious habits, conditionings and programming’s which limit our deeper connection and get in the way of our alignment to truth. I like that it is counter-cultural and encourages our vibrancy and ability to rest more easily into uncertainty let alone the manner in which is heals on a very deep level. Every day I am amazed by this practice and by the profound intelligence of my body and potentiality of my breath , which asks only that I keep getting out of my own way and let go of over and fixing and making myself right. 

Scaravelli-inspired practice

Scaravelli-inspired yoga is suitable for everybody from those new to yoga to those who are in their eighties and beyond. This radical practice works deeply with gravity, breath and awareness to re-awaken the potential of our spine and allow a new harmony, freedom, and fluidity in our body, mind and life generally. In time our body reveals a whole new language of movement, born from the spine, and expressing itself in a whole-body approach, healing and releasing deep tension and allowing us to truly be in each moment as it arises. 

Everyone can benefit, from those who experience physical discomfort and ailments, to those who wish to increase vitality and wellbeing, to those who need to heal, to those who wish to deepen their existing practices and experience of yoga. 

This is a hands-on session in which I work intuitively and compassionately to support and guide your body in discovering new ways of being, relating and connecting, working from the inside out

General classes, intimate classes and private sessions are available. Please contact Emma at emma@beinspiredby.co.uk for more information. 

“Is it possible to have a different attitude in which a new intelligence, not imposed by authority but born from interest, attentions and sensitivity, will emerge and in which body and mind, fused in one single action, are collaborating together? It is just this revolutionary attitude that we are going to discover through a new discipline in the practice of yoga”, 

Vanda Scaravelli

Conscious uncoupling

*Warning - rather long!*

The term ‘conscious uncoupling’ was coined and created by a so-called relationship expert, Katherine Woodward Thomas, and popularised by actress, Gwyneth Paltrow, when she and her husband at the time, musician, Chris Martin, split.

The term has since become synonymous with divorce or separation where both partners accept responsibility, appreciating that they both played a role in the breakup and, in particular, are seeking to co-parent (and often co-habit) in a functional and healthy way in the future.

It is of course a modern term, which many have called New Age spiritualism, ‘woo woo’ but in essence all it is really doing is honouring the two people involved in the relationship, and their children, and breaking free from tradition, showing that it doesn’t have to be the conventional ‘split, divide, fight, hate, animosity’ trend, which many choose – often unconsciously - instead.

In essence, this process of consciously uncoupling allows couples a healing as they release a lot of very difficult feelings including anger, rage, guilt, regret, sadness, grief and unfairness, all of which could lead to the desire to seek revenge or cause harm if not addressed, and might lead to a breakdown in communication and effective relating, which has a knock on effect on the children.

It is a path which Ewan and I found ourselves treading three years ago now, not consciously initially, but because our lives are so tightly woven together into the fabric of what makes us a family, and our relationship has always been based on friendliness and cooperation. We knew that there had to be a way that allowed our romantic separation, but maintained a steadiness for the children, and for ourselves too.

Of course we didn’t intend for it to be this way, no one enters a relationship expecting it to breakdown, but alas sometimes our perspective shifts and we stumble up against our unresolved traumas and emotions and life throws curved balls and it just reaches an ending, or at least an ending in that particular way of relating. In short life changes and we change and that’s OK.

The problems arise when we resist our reality and get stuck in our often limited conditioning and programming, let alone come from a place of victimhood because of our unresolved emotional trauma. So too, when we buy into other people’s opinions and judgements, which might cause us to create imaginary stories and take a course of action which is out of alignment with our own truth.

I hadn’t realised when this journey began, how much my perspective on relationships and love was skewed by the Disney ideal, let alone societal, traditional, cultural and religious conditioning and belief systems. I also hadn’t realised how many unresolved and undigested emotions I still held, from past events and experiences in my life, samskaras then (afflictions), which created various patterns of behaviour and thinking, that didn’t always support healthy relating.

It never crossed my mind that in our quest to avoid being triggered – where those painful unresolved emotions from the past are remembered and re-felt, at least until we have digested, healed and released them - that we might enable certain behaviours and patterns of control in ourselves and others (such as co-dependency), in our quest to avoid having to go to those uncomfortable places in ourselves.

It is all too easy to blame others without taking responsibility and this was one of the many lessons I have learned on this journey. Every time that we find ourselves criticising or judging another, we can be sure that they are mirroring something unresolved within ourselves. Never is this more true than in our closest relationships, and we need to be mindful of laying into the other person without first looking honestly at ourselves and ensuring we are taking responsibility for dealing with our own emotions.

After all, emotions are energy in motion (e-motion) and need their expression. If the energy gets stuck because we have not managed to digest the emotion – perhaps we have repressed or supressed it – then we may well find ourselves suffering from physical ailments or mental disorders or have a hard time effectively relating. Emotions needs to be allowed to move through us if we are to optimise our wellbeing and experience greater harmony in our relationships.

From an Ayurvedic perspective we can take all the pro-biotics we like, but it is only when we shift our emotional state that our gut flora will positively change. Of the diet is blamed for loss of wellbeing, and while a good diet supports our wellbeing, if we digested our emotions and life experiences better, then we would digest our food better too. This will lead to improved immune function, mental stability and increased vitality.

Needless to say the body makes us aware when it is holding something that needs releasing; perhaps a skin condition or a restless leg, perhaps a twitch or a sore stomach, perhaps a headache or a dullness to mind, perhaps acid reflux or constipation, maybe a bout of anxiety or insomnia. All of these complaints are a way of the body trying to communicate with us, telling us that something is unresolved on the inside.

Whatever lays unresolved seeks expression and we will attract situations into our everyday lives which ‘trigger’ whatever it is that we are holding onto. This is the reason we experience various patterns in our lives and find ourselves stumbling up against the same old problem, whether that be falling out with the same family member, always choosing toxic partners, suffering anxiety each time we have to travel, feeling insecure at work etc.

The trouble is, when a samskara, an old experience then, is triggered, we don’t often take the time to really feel into it and process it. We might notice we’ve been triggered (and sometimes we are in it before we even notice it) but the more we begin taking time to be with the discomfort of whatever is coming up for us, and realising the value in taking this time to be by ourselves, the more we will create space and the opportunity for solitude in our lives.

This process has certainly helped Ewan and I to both value our space and the need to allow each other opportunities for solitude. This highlighted to me especially that we often need to fight for space in our lives because it doesn’t always come easily and healthy boundaries are needed to protect any space and opportunity for solitude that we might carve out in our daily lives.

Furthermore, we have to be conscious of misguided feelings of guilt and perceived selfishness that may arise when we take time for ourselves, this because our society celebrates selflessness – it seems odd to me that we are encouraged to give ourselves away to others. It is important that we give time to just be, on our own, following our joy, otherwise we can end up frustrated and resentful, blaming our partner unnecessarily.

This pattern certainly showed up in mine and Ewan’s relationship and it took a good while to put better boundaries in place in my life and I am sure they could be tighter still. This highlighted our threads of co-dependency, which fascinated me, simply because our way of being in a relationship can be normalised to the extent that we do not appreciate that these patterns of unhealthy relating exist in the first place.

And it was only as we began to release those threads that the fabric of our relationship began to change, a loosening here, a letting go there. Of course this breathed air into spaces that were held tight, which were creating so much of the friction, frustration, resentment and discomfort in the first place. In many ways our friendship has deepened through all this, just by letting go of our grip and being a little more respectful.

What I also didn’t appreciate was how much we buy into the illusion of good/bad, right/wrong and how this perspective causes so much of our suffering. It was all too easy in those earlier days especially – but again there are layers - to consider that Ewan and I had somehow failed, or that we should have chosen differently.

I beat myself up for a good while as I fell into feelings of regret and blame – if only I had seen those supposed red flags and made different choices way back then. I was angry and rageful not only at myself but at Ewan too – why had he not realised, why had he let us walk this path, why had he done what he had done etc.?

These feelings led to a momentary depression, as I got stuck into thinking I should have known better and struggled to appreciate that it was always meant to be this way. This state, albeit painful at the time, helped to re-highlight that we are the creator of our own suffering in the way we give value to certain thoughts, forgetting that there is always a different perspective if only we can let go of our egoic mind’s obsession with making things concrete and ‘right’.

The idea of having failed or being a failure is just a thought. It is up to us to choose whether to buy into it or not. This isn’t to say the thought won’t be there, it will. But that we can take a moment to notice it and challenge it and shift the perspective into something more positive.

Because it is all too easy to tell ourselves that we are free agents who could have chosen path B instead of path A (or indeed path C), that we should have seen those red flags and known better somehow, but there really is no evidence to support this belief. It is just a thought we want to believe. At the end of the day, we chose A because of all the causes and conditions leading up to that point, and we couldn’t have chosen otherwise. 

None of us could possibly choose anything but what seems like the best option available to us at the time that we made the choice Plus we have to remember that that decision was made based on all the various causes and conditions in the background; psychological, physical, emotional and otherwise.

In short, Ewan and I were always meant to tread this path together. This realisation was huge for me, So too reframing ‘failing’ by remembering that there is no perfect, no happy ever after, that this is just the Disney conditioning, which so many compare their lives against. Being human is painful and life is full of suffering. To believe otherwise just sets us up for more pain and suffering.

Letting go of the idea of perfection is one of the hardest things for so many of us as our programming (educational, religious etc) encourages it, and yet it can be one of the most positive things we can do for ourselves, setting ourselves free from our negative emotions, especially around failing, shame and disappointment.

So too letting go of the notion that there is something wrong with us that needs fixing or changing. It doesn’t. We are perfectly imperfect in our essence and all we need to do is let go of anything which tells us otherwise. This is the path of yoga and healing – there is nothing to fix or add, just a whole heap of false beliefs and negative thinking to let go of for us to recognise our inherent innocence.

I was reminded again how easily we project and judge in others the stuff we need to look at in ourselves. Which brought me straight back to the illusion of free will. This being the fact that we cannot choose anything but what looks like the best option available to us at any one moment in time, based on the various causes and conditions at that time, our psychology, mental/emotional state, and our samskaras again.

Thus, if we truly see through the illusion of free will, then we stop judging ourself and others for our/their choices. Admittedly we might still grieve various choices we have made – and grieve I most certainly did – but we are free from the belief that we or they could have chosen to do anything differently in the past.

And we also stop believing that we could make the wrong choice in the future. We begin to realise that we can only make what looks like the best choice from the options that appear to us. And it will always be this way for everyone, because it couldn’t be otherwise, and that is OK. What we might call failings, mistakes or wrong choices could then simply be called learning.

Which leads me to another learning, or understanding. That while we live in a highly structured and ordered universe, there is what we might call a little bit of wiggle room. This wiggle room is what we call consciousness and it is consciousness which sets us free – and this of course is the path of yoga in its quest to reduce our suffering by creating clarity and Reiki too, in raising our vibration and increasing consciousness – Ayurveda also is a path to greater consciousness.

Thus, while all our thoughts and behaviours arise based on what’s happened to us previously – the causes and conditions of our lives – when consciousness becomes aware of itself (when we become conscious then, in that wiggle room, the space that sometimes arises between cause and effect), it can transform thoughts and behaviours which otherwise wouldn’t occur.

I suppose what I am saying is that in this wiggle room, we have the opportunity to become conscious of our thoughts and behaviours and to change them. Thus our consciousness is not just a witness to the unfolding of our conditioned thoughts and behaviours, it actually becomes a source for transformation of old and often unhelpful patterns (samskaras), by reflecting itself to itself.

Conscious uncoupling by its very nature has gifted Ewan and I this opportunity. Being self-reflective, we have tried to become increasingly conscious of our actions and behaviours, which have led to disharmony in our relating, and do something about them – not only by attempting to trace them back to source, but by catching ourselves before we run down the same old road and then inevitably hit up against the same old blocks. It is this process that has allowed us to positively change things.

Thus – and as I wrote earlier - while we might not be able to choose our reactions in any given moment, when we notice ourselves being emotionally triggered (because we have hit a samskara), we can try to remember to pause, breathe and reflect before we act or speak. Over time, this helps us to choose whether to believe our thoughts and feelings and challenge them so we can choose differently if necessary.

And in this way, we are more likely to allow forgiveness and compassion to arise spontaneously, because we are ‘seeing’ (perceiving) differently. We are also more likely to relax and open to reality as it is, rather than resisting it. Realising all of this was helpful, especially the recognition of the way in which we exhaust ourselves and create yet more unnecessary suffering because of our resistance to forgiveness.

Yet forgiveness is key. It is what truly sets us free. When we are stuck, then we can be sure that there is some stubborn unforgiveness lurking in there somewhere; some unresolved emotional stuff that prevents our expansion. By its very nature, if conscious uncoupling is to set us free, then forgiveness and letting go are both needed. Otherwise we stay trapped In our victimhood, which serves no one, least of all ourself. 

As Carolyn Myss writes in her book Anatomy of Spirit:

 “Forgiveness is not the same as telling the person who harmed you, “it’s okay”, which is more of less the way that most people view it. Rather, forgiveness if a complex act of consciousness…that liberates the psyche and soul from the need for personal vengeance and the perception of oneself as a victim. More than releasing from blame the people who caused our wounds, it means releasing the control that the perception of victimhood has over our psyche”.

But really one of the most valuable lessons I have learned from this journey, is not to care about other people’s opinions or judgements because then we may try to follow a path that isn’t right for us, which ultimately creates conflict between head and heart.

For example, there are people in Ewan and my life who were keen to see us separate. It would appease their understanding of how life should be lived when two people romantically split and they couldn’t understand our hesitation in doing so. But what they haven’t realised is that in their quest to be ‘right’, their interference created more disharmony for Ewan and I.

I suddenly realised how poorly placed these people were to judge, because for the most part they didn’t have children and had no real understanding of the woven nature of our lives, both of us self-employed and working around home schooling our children, admittedly with much valued support from grandparents. We are not living conventionally and for those individuals to apply their conventional perspective was unhelpful and limiting.

The last time that this happened, which created quite a schism and a questioning of our approach, and a hardness to arise between Ewan and I, we really had to dig deep into all of the above. And I was reminded how sometimes we have to be taken to our very edge before we can let go of the way we are told life has to be lived. It is in this letting go that freedom arises, but it is not always an easy process and generally involves a forgiveness first.

There is usually no forgiveness without rage, and we may have a tendency to look outside ourselves for change. I fell into this trap, of thinking I needed to make an external change to appease what I was being told by others. This caused a deep dive to practice and a sense that I needed to let go of some old stubborn unforgiveness that was creating mental rigidity and disharmony.

As often happens an external event happened which caused me to soften and to shift my perspective and as a result I was able to truly let go of my stubborn unforgiveness. I had held onto it for quite some time and the letting go that accompanied it brought with it a wonderful wave of compassion and gratitude, quite unlike anything I had experienced previously.

This internal shift to greater vulnerability in its open heartedness positively changed things, not least internally, but externally too. Mine and Ewan’s relationship found greater cohesion, independence, love and freedom. It was a blessed relief after a period of inner turmoil, like a part of us had died and we had been gifted a new beginning.

Throughout all of this communication has been key. I cannot stress this enough. We have both been encouraged to communicate honestly and openly. We have both learned – and no doubt will continue learning - that without effective communication we can easily fall victim to confusion or imaginings, both of which can lead to toxic and unhealthy relating.

I am reminded time and again that there are many different perspectives, that we do not all see the world similarly, that in the most part we are all living in different realities simultaneously. We have to remember that we are all seeing through different lenses based on what has happened previously, let alone our conditionings and level of consciousness in any one moment.

I share in the hope that it might help you if you are stuck in your relating, to offer you the possibility that there is always another way, which doesn’t have to be based on what you may have experienced previously or what others may tell you.

Not to say that it is easy, but no path is easy and no doubt Ewan and I will encounter more obstacles along the way. But it is an approach that does what it says – encourages greater consciousness in our uncoupling, which gifts the opportunity for healing and increased self-awareness, and ultimately greater stability and indeed love for the family.

I am eternally grateful to my extended family for their unwavering love and support as Ewan and I have trodden this unconventional path. I am also extremely grateful to Ewan for his love and support and indeed courage in walking this path with me, and to our boys who ask us to go deeper still and remind us that there is always a more harmonious and loving way.

 Love Emma x

Feeling at home - Findhorn!

I am fortunate to find myself up in Findhorn with the sun and the moon and the ice and the snow colliding to create the most wintry and magical of conditions for going deeper still.

There is something about the combined energy of Findhorn and the approach to practice of my teacher, Louise, which creates a certain aliveness. It is a feeling which cannot be bought or contained, or boxed or sold to anyone.

In this material work where everything seems to have a commercial value (including people - have look at the film ‘Sound of Freedom’) it is a relief to be reminded that there is richness in the simple art of being and in allowing one’s greater freedom.

Louise never stops inspiring me. Her knowledge of the human body and its song is one which encapsulates me and encourages me to keep slowing down and turning deeper inwards. The intelligence of the body is mind blowing so too the depth of what it might reveal to us if only we can keep getting out of our own way.

I am lucky that the powers that be connected us through my neolithic wanderings, and that those same powers being me here now, where I can continue those wanderings, to the beautiful snowy scene of Clava Cairns today. The peace I feel sitting in solitude at these places is met by the peace I feel when I have finished a practice with Louise.

And this peace has continued with my ramblings and walking around Findhorn, which has held me beautifully and encouraged me to find even more joy in simplicity. This is a stunning and unspoilt part of the world which reminds me a little of of the wilds of Vancouver Island; there is something about it that gets right into my heart.

So a huge thank you to Louise and her partner, John, and to this beautiful land and all the most lovely ladies who have shared the yoga space with me in front of the log burning stove with the smell of cinnamon and wood permeating the air and the sound of the birds tweeting in the bushes outside and the most glorious light that a wintery northern day allows.

Now I am looking forward to truly embodying what I have learned so that I can share with my students who have committed to this path of going deeper still, of working with breath and awareness to re-awaken the potential of the spine and encourage a new freedom and fluid strength in the body.

This is a practice that works from the inside out and was inspired by Vanda Scaravelli, whose primary student was Diane Long who is mentor of my own teacher, Louise. I am grateful to all of these ladies for all of their practice and teachings of this whole-body approach which releases blocks and increasingly allows us to truly ‘be’ in each moment.

It is quite in contrast to modern day yoga which often creates more rigidity in the body in its quest to fix the body into certain shapes and with certain breathing techniques, all focused on the external. We have to remember that yoga is an internal practice, that is attempting to set us free - to liberate us - from our suffering, not be the cause of it. It requires deep honesty and trust, and a teacher who has trodden the path ahead of us.

As Louise says, “all can benefit—to ease discomforts from ailments, to increase well being and vitality, or to deepen existing practices”. And she is right, this is a practice that is available to all ages and levels of ability, from those who are just beginning to those who are carrying much tension, all can benefit.

And thank you to my students too, who encourage me to keep finding new ways of engaging and helping to (try) to set them free from their tensions and conditionings, through traditional yogic practices. We are in this together and there is much joy that comes from our connection!

This moon is very much about the home. And this trip has reminded me of the joy of the home - feeling at home not only within our own skin and our body then, but within ourselves generally and within our environment. Ultimately our positive experience of home comes from our effective relating - more on this next time as I delve into conscious uncoupling!

Happy full moon!

With love Emma

Happy Yule!

Well what a year it has been - so many changes for so many and so many more on their way. The moon is definitely shifting things for us as it nears towards its 18.6 year major lunar standstill in June/July.

I am so grateful to all of you who have supported Beinspired this year. Our community has grown in ways I could never have imagined with so many of you finding the courage to deep dive into the various spiritual practices and come to know yourself on a deeper level, letting go of unhelpful conditioning, habits, beliefs and thinking patterns (Samskaras) in the process. It has been an honour and a privilege to witness the transformation. 

We can expect more light flooding in now with Yule upon us (thankfully!). The sun has reached a standstill and won’t continue rising/setting any farther south, and will start swinging more northerly instead. It will rise higher in the sky too, bringing much needed light and warmth to the northern hemisphere, and energy to all those dormant seeds.

The annual solar movements along the horizon from one solstice to another describes a year. Thus the winter solstice, known in the olden times as Yule, celebrates the return of the light, from now onwards the hours of light lengthen each day.

This is a time for us to begin to tend to our seeds too, taking little steps in the direction of our hopes and dreams. The path ahead may not be clear and this can be scary - the unknown and the uncertain have a habit of bringing up fear - but we are asked to trust the light as it appears, just taking one step in front of the other, following the nudges and signs from the universe while balancing the heart and discernment. 

Ultimately this is a time to open to greater trust. We trust the sun will rise in the east and set in the west each day. We trust that the inhalation will be followed by the exhalation. And so we must trust in our intuition, inner guidance and inner knowing - we always know what to do, even if the self deprecating ego tells us otherwise or makes us doubt ourselves. 

If this does happen - if we get in our own way - then we can ask the question,

“If I keep doing this, how will things be in three months? … in six months? …in a year?”

Typically things will have come worse, sometimes much worse. Let this help to inform your choices and the decisions you make as you head increasingly towards the light, enlightening yourself in the process.

Happy Yule all of you and thank you from the bottom of my heart for the love and the energy which you each bring to Beinspired - even if it is simply reading these blogs!

As a gift, please find another video so that you may practice at home. This is for you Helen and all the rest of you who might explore the letting go that emphasis on the forearms brings. A huge thank you to my teacher, Louise, for helping me appreciate just how amazing the forearms are in helping us breathe. 

Thank you too to Helen for all the philosophical sharing and the pranayama practices too. 

I look forward to seeing some of you over the festive period and more of you during 2025.

Love Emma x

Stepping forward

Well that was another potent full moon asking us to let go and move forwards in our life. It wasn’t comfortable for many of us because of the courage needed to do the letting go an the faith needed to overcome the fear of stepping forward into the unknown. It reminded me a little of a quote from one of Rebecca Campbell’s books:

“In order for the new to arrive, we must first allow the old to shatter. Sometimes this happens on its own. And sometimes it requires that we do the smashing. To tear apart what we’ve built because things have changed, including you. To admit that while it was once aligned, now it no longer is. This smashing requires both courage and faith. Courage to let go and faith that the pieces will come back together again in a way that was more aligned than it was before”

I certainly seem to be going through a re-alignment in my own life as the moon follows its major lunar standstill pattern and I know many of my clients are in a similar position. What fascinates me is the manner in which my menstrual cycle has shifted, so like when trying to conceive, evaluation occurs around the creative potency of the full moon, as if allowing more energy to make the changes which need to be made, to allow the potential birthing of a new way…the menstrual cycle never ceases to amaze me with its moon connection and it’s inherent wisdom.

For those new to the idea of working with your menstrual cycle as a spiritual practice to greater levels of consciousness, then take a look at our resource section on this website and have a read of our free Menstruation and Moon Pack. I also highly recommend Lisa Lister’s book called Code Red. If you don’t have time then just remember that the moon is always communicating with us and our menstrual cycle too will allow you to understand where you are out of alignment with your truth - it literally helps you to navigate your life in a more conscious way. I wrote about this in my own books, available on Amazon, called Dancing with the Moon and From Darkness Comes Light.

On a completely different note, but talking of consciousness, I recently watched The Corporation, a documentary on, well, corporations, and their impact on consumerism and greed, and this at the exploitation of people and indeed this beautiful planet. I am sure you know much of it already, but it clearly hammers the message home - that if we want to see positive change on this planet, then we need to make those changes individually, this is where the true power comes. I am always reminded of Gandhi’s famous quote,

“Be the change you wish to see in the world”

Really though, this was the theme of the moon and will be as the lunar standstill unfolds; to step into our power individually and indeed collectively. I feel that we have a really good chance of changing things, lessening our grip, our greed then, on consumerism and making different choices, which are more aligned with heart and the needs of this planet, our real needs too, not the ones we have been conditioned towards, but the ones that truly make us thrive as a spiritual being having a human experience on Planet Earth.

The documentary will remind you to choose your products carefully, to be mindful of the impact of their production on this planet and indeed the many humans involved in the chain. It is very easy, especially at this time of year, to turn a blind eye and just buy for the sake of buying without considering the welfare of the workers who produced the product, or the implications on the planet, but we have to try to be conscious because everything has a vibration and you are bringing that vibration into your home or into another’s.

This isn’t just the big things, but the little things too. What toothpaste do you put in your mouth and what impact is that having on your health and energy field, let alone the planet? What about the deodorant you put on your armpits, is it full of chemicals? Where was that crystal mined? Did children manufacture that football kit? How was the cocoa for that box of chocolate’s grown and collected? What about that tree, where was it cultivated and at the expense of what land? How many chemicals were sprayed on the food you will eat? Were those prawns farmed in really crappy (literally) waters? And what about that turkey, how much did it suffer?

Of course there is no perfect. We have to weigh it all up depending on our economic position as much as our level of integrity and general awareness and access to information which might allow us to make a more informed decision. But we have to remember that it does all make a difference, not least to us individually, but to us collectively too. If we just go along with what we’re being sold by marketing companies and those who are trying to be ‘in control’, then we can just expect more of the same, we always have a choice…but we don’t always realise this.

So choose wisely. And yet know that your choices will change as your level of consciousness shifts too. We cannot regret, because decisions made in the past were made based on our level of consciousness at that time, and all changes, including us.

This is a time for taking a deep breath and stepping forwards. It does take courage and faith because we don’t always know where we are headed and that is when the fear comes in. But we have to dig deeper into trusting ourselves and the messages we might be receiving from the moon and the stars and the universe at large. We just have to take that first step and allow the light to unfold bit by bit, making the path ahead clearer as we embark into the unknown and the uncertain but knowing and being certain that we are held and protected in the process. It is in this way that we will reclaim our power and experience greater love.

Happy realigning and conscious buying as we head towards the solstice.

Love Emma x

Grounding ourselves in these shifting times

It would appear that we are being asked to release and let go whatever is holding us back and is unhealed from our past, at the exact same time as being asked to step into our future self. It is discombobulating and a little overwhelming as I know some of you are feeling too.

The energy is intense, we are being upgraded for want of a better word, our hearts are being cleared out and old patterns are being brought to the surfaces along with the related thoughts, emotions and conditioning. Forgiveness hangs in the air and a release of anger and frustration and indeed sadness and grief that underlays this.

Guilt and shame are in the ‘field’ too. We are beginning to see more clearly through our own stories and narratives and the ways we may have taken responsibility for others’ poor behaviour or inability to do the work on themselves and we are realising that we don’t need this additional weight in our life and on our shoulders.

We are beginning to feel our auric holes too. I stumbled up against my own around guilt, for example, and how we may have taken on such a detrimental emotion since childhood and because it is there - because we take on the blame (or whatever the emotion is) - we attract more of it, allowing others to dump their blame or shame or whatever it is on us. It’s funny really because during this revelation, I had a few missed calls from the police station and immediately felt guilty, even though I had done nothing wrong, proving my point to myself!

Shame is popping through too and I know I am not the only woman who has had to work through this. We can’t win in our society, we experience judgement whether we are a stay at home mum or one who works all hours she can, same with termination, there is still so much stigma so that many women suffer intense feelings of guilt and shame, even though it takes two to conceive, and the other option, of potential single parenting isn’t received well either.

We have to remember that our emotional states are often linked to a sub-conscious thought or thought pattern. Whenever we are pulled away from our natural state of being to a more contracted state of being then we can be sure that we are thinking about our reality in a way that allows a particular mood to arise. Disliking the mood or yourself for having the mood is pointless. This because the mood expresses our need for self-reflection (Kriya yoga).

As I have been reminded, nature never acts without reason. Therefore every form of disease, physical or mental, encourages reflection. There is a note of caution here - we must not fall into patterns of thinking that we deserve whatever is happening to us as this is nothing more than a form of self hatred. Nor does it mean that the universe has it in for us, and is trying to show us something, This follows on from my previous blog post in that we still subject ourselves to the Judeo-Christian god of judgment under a different name (be discerning about new age spiritualism as it encourages this judgement with its emphasis on only perceived positive emotions and states of being, we have to move away from this conditioning).

If we are honest with ourselves - and this current energy is helping us with this - we will find that our ‘bad day’ (or weeks, months etc!) was/were probably caused by a negative thought-pattern, which we may not have noticed at the time, but which we believed and spun into a story about our reality, which is actually untrue and merely disempowers us.

Nothing exhausts us more than our well-spun stories which are not in alignment with reality.

Do we really need to feel guilty or shamed about what happened? Is the story we have created around the emotion and/or the thought true?

The trouble is we don’t realise our stories because we are so immersed in them, which is why it is helpful having someone mirror them back to us or question us on them (spiritual life coaching is brilliant for this btw), or for us to take time for self-reflection through various yogic practices. This is the joy of yoga. It has been prod for thousands of years and understand ALL of this and the ways we create our suffering and certainly the ancient texts offer our grounded guidance in how to set ourselves free. This is another reminder not to fall victim to new age approaches which are not grounded in any ancient wisdom.

We also have to be very mindful of the patterns we have created to avoid the self-reflection. Say we have a bad day because we feel we did something wrong, perceived a criticism from a boss perhaps and even though the boss didn’t mean it that way, we internalise it so, and while the boss moves on with his/her day, letting go of the moment the caused us to enter a bad mood and begin our bad day, we take it home with us and reach for wine or TV or social media or tub of ice cream to buffer our mood rather than feel into it.

What really happened was the interaction with our boss reignited our persistent and incessant subconscious story that we “always screw things up”, or we “are not good enough”, or we “should have known better”, which creates deeper self loathing and hatred. This negativity, buried deep within us, creates our experience of reality. Especially as we will see evidence of it everywhere now in our reality. This like my experience with guilt - because I was so used to feeling it, I called more of it, from the police who never did call back btw, once the lesson was learned - a cosmic joke to highlight my unhelpful and outdated pattern.

All of this of course, removes us from our natural flow and presence.

So the energies currently are helpful in that they are helping to bring the sub-conscious to the conscious so that we can let go of unhealthy stories and move our lives forward in a more positive direction.

It’s an amazing opportunity really to be the change we wish to see in the world.

The more of us who can find the courage to dig deep and shift the stories, the more this will influence the whole and the more we will let go of our disdain for self and our fears and become increasingly self-loving and whole.

Generally people have had enough of the patriarchal crappiness, of world leaders behaving like boys in a playroom with their missiles and guns, playing our their unresolved inner child. So we must look at our unresolved inner child too.

The pace of life is too much for many, but the only way this will change is if we step off the treadmill and draw a line in the sand. Increasing numbers are choosing simplicity and shifting their understanding of abundance away from material gain at the expense of everything (including the planet and their fellow man) and realising the abundance in walking in nature, or being quiet at home with children, or watching the sun set, or any of the other gifts we experience in our lives which we don’t always value because they are not material (and we have been conditioned to the material).

Increasing numbers are questioning our education system and the confusion over gender identity that our children are having to navigate, let alone the damage caused by online living and social media, and the detrimental vibrational effect of holding mobile telephones and iPads endlessly (I see how jittery the later makes my boys, displacing their Vata), and the manner in which they cause a loss of ability to focus and concentrate.

More are seeing through the many ways that we are being harmed by the big companies, and the drive towards profit at whatever cost to us as an increasingly sick society.

At the end of the day we have to take responsibility for us and our healing and certainly the powers that be are encouraging this. We can do this! We can make the positive changes, to free ourselves of patriarchal, Judeo-Christianity and new age conditioning, so that we can increasingly see reality as it is and free ourselves from our false stories and narratives, and ease our self-inflicted suffering simply because we don’t see ourselves - our true Self -clearly.

Yoga helps, Reiki too, but any spiritual practice grounded in reality, will give us the support we need at this time. The word to really drop into is ‘grounded’. Our grounding, our base chakra, our being in the body, our attending to our basic needs for sleep, good food and healthy relationships, our hands ion the earth, salt baths, baking with love, walking in nature, sea swimming, all of this will help enormously.

Sending love xx

Interdependence in community

We’re deep diving people. Pluto has entered Aquarius (which appears to be a big deal) and Mercury is retrograde, but that aside the moon has also entered its major lunar standstill year and the last two weeks especially have been intense - well since the eclipses in September/October.

And you can expect more as the energy is really ramping up ahead of the peak of this 18.6 year major lunar standstill which takes place in June and July of 2025. This when the moon will rise its lowest in the sky, and up in the Outer Hebrides, for example, the full moon nearest the solstice will only be present for a few hours - the stones of Callanish have been aligned with this so that on the major lunar standstill it appears as if the full moon rolls along the hills.

The last time we experienced the major lunar standstill (which basically means the moon rises and sets the most extreme of the sun, and will be super high at full moon around the winter solstice rising and setting the opposite of the sun, so more northerly and then around the summer solstice it will be very low in the sky, rising and setting most southerly, again the opposite of the sun) was 2006, which funnily enough was the year I set up Beinspired.

In fact it was the year that yoga really exploded into the world. It moved away from being practised in church halls by ladies wearing leotards, into the huge billion dollar industry it is today where commercialism encourages us to invest in expensive mats and yogis clothing to realise our inner nirvana - or not, as the case may be.

In fairness here in Guernsey we are protected a little from what it has become elsewhere in the world, and the pandemic sorted some of it out in any event, because yoga started losing its widespread popularity and yet those committed went deeper - at least this was my experience and with my students too; my student base is vastly different now to how it was pre-pandemic, there is much greater commitment, students are in it for the long term, not just as a fad.

Anyway the point in sharing this, is to highlight that the year that the moon does her major thing, is a year where things are renowned for changing, like significantly, like we take a step forward in our individual and collective evolution, consciousness then. How this manifests remains to be seen, but I do have a sense that increasing numbers of us are called to play our role in making holistic therapies and alternative healing practices more available to the populace to allow greater opportunity for healing.

I am always reminded that we are not in control, that despite our best planning, sometimes things are just not meant for us. I am always reminded too that we don’t create alone - sometimes the universe’s plans for us are indeed very different to our own idea of where our life is going - a reminder not to plan too far ahead (but we do this because we want things known and certain). Ultimately decisions are often made for us if we give them the space, if we don’t restrict their freedom by over planning our life and making it rigid instead.

I have done my fair share of over planning and pushing and of using will power alone through ambition, desire and impatience, but it never quite turns out the way I had hoped, and I then have to unpick what was created, and allow something greater to enter in. Maybe it was always meant to be that way. There is no perfect either and the only way we learn is through our mistakes. This is where forgiveness is helpful. Forgiving ourselves, letting go and moving on.

I don’t feel we know yet where our lives are headed or what it is we should do. Instead our focus might be on knowing what not to do. .Thus we might start asking ourselves, what can we discard? What emotions are we holding onto which can be let go of now? What belief systems are we still buying into which limit us? Which negative thoughts still shape our reality? What are we carrying for others which is not ours to carry?

As I know only too well myself, a degree of honesty is required.

And being present to ourselves.

For me that means being very quiet on my mat and allowing my body’s intelligence to reveal more of the stuckness and holding. It means being in nature as much as I can be so that I can hear more clearly and recognise increasingly that I am part of the whole, not separate from it. It means communing with standing stones and the moon to elevate my perspective.

At times it is scary.

At other times I am filled with deep love and gratitude for this process.

But mainly I am grateful to receive the support of all the wonderful beings, Earthside and Ethereal, who support me, the people, the birds, the plants, the guides, all are there, communing with us, reminding us that we are not alone, that we are part of this whole wonderful dance of creation…and destruction…and creation again.

I have also become increasingly conscious of something that seemed important to me when I set up Beinspired, but without really knowing the reason: the idea of creating a Beinspired community where people could feel safe being themselves without fear of judgment, has always been one of Beinspired’s main intentions, but it is only now, all these years on, 18.6 in fact (ain’t that funny, a whole lunar standstill cycle) that I can see how that has finally manifested (reminding us of the need for patience!) into something rather magical.

I have never loved teaching and giving treatments more than I do now, with such a beautifully dedicated and committed community of clients and students who are truly committed (there’s that word again) to their healing and ongoing spiritual and personal transformation. We have a laugh. It’s fun. We care about each other. Being in community really does enhance each of our healing and transformation in ways I never imagined.

My Mum shared this beautiful quote by Ernest Hemingway this morning, which sums it up well, how a hand can help:

In our darkest moments, we don’t need solutions or advice. What we yearn for is simply human connection—a quiet presence, a gentle touch. These small gestures are the anchors that hold us steady when life feels like too much.

Please don’t try to fix me. Don’t take on my pain or push away my shadows. Just sit beside me as I work through my own inner storms. Be the steady hand I can reach for as I find my way.

My pain is mine to carry, my battles mine to face. But your presence reminds me I’m not alone in this vast, sometimes frightening world. It’s a quiet reminder that I am worthy of love, even when I feel broken.

So, in those dark hours when I lose my way, will you just be here? Not as a rescuer, but as a companion. Hold my hand until the dawn arrives, helping me remember my strength.

Your silent support is the most precious gift you can give. It’s a love that helps me remember who I am, even when I forget.

Then I read the I Ching, and I loved what it said in the translation I use:

“It is the nature of being human that we are dependant in many ways; dependant on water, air and food for nourishment; dependent on shelter for warmth and protection; dependent on each other for family life and friendship. We are also spiritually dependent: when challenges arise, each of us must have some place to turn for guidance and support”.

This is what Beinspired is all about. We are deep diving. It is tough. Endings. For the new beginnings. Emotions are coming up, deeply buried ones too - anger, sadness, grief, the heart is releasing, lightning itself so that more love and compassion can enter instead, the centre is feeling the fear but encouraged to rest more easily into it, not numb or run from it - we are being asked to transform, to let go over and over again without falling into patterns of victimhood or revenge. We are being asked to take responsibility and compassionately find a new way forward, independent and yet dependent, on our own and yet together, interdependence perhaps. It is the paradox of life to be able to hold both sides of tension and allow something else.

Please do reach out if it all gets too much. Know that you are not alone, that we are here at Beinspired to help, that we can be interdependent within community.

And thank you to all of you for taking responsibility, allowing your vulnerability and being part of this magical little community by just being your beautiful selves with warts and all!

Love Emma x