Time to relax.

It’s amazing that sometimes in a yoga class we are so focussed on what the body is doing from the neck down, we forget to release stress in the face. Test yourself now. If you are holding your jaw together, teeth touching, you are holding tension in the face. Are you pushing the eyebrows together, causing a crease on the forehead? Try and hold your facial position and look in a mirror. Are you holding tension? If so, then here is a remedy for you, you’ll feel fresher and you’ll look younger – no surgery or expensive creams necessary and if you have a young baby, toddler or older child they will find you incredibly amusing and probably join in!

Yoga for the Face & Neck: A 5 mintue workout!

1.       Close the eyes and take 3 deep breaths. Be aware of relaxing the forehead and jaw.

2.       Drop the chin towards the chest. Lower the shoulders and take another 3 breaths.

3.       Slowly lift the chin. Place your hands behind your head, supporting/cradling it and look up.

4.       Turn the head gently to one side then the other.

5.       Slowly drop one ear towards one shoulder and change sides.

6.       Open your mouth and eyes wide.

7.       Screw up your face as much as you can, making the features as small as you can.

8.       Push your mouth towards an ear, then repeat to the other side.

9.       Lift your eyebrows high.

10.   Imagine chewing a really chewy toffee, moving your mouth around your face.

11.   Lift your shoulders up toward your ears and gently relax. Repeat.

12.   Give your face a little massage with your fingers, making small circles all over the face (avoid the area under the eyes)

13.   Finish with Lion Pose for the face. Stick you head forwards, look up, stick out your tongue and go ‘raaaaar!’

See, now don’t you feel better.

Namaste.

If you are a new mother then you know what it is like to be tired! A new baby usually comes hand in hand with a disrupted sleep pattern. You may find yourself unable to get back to sleep after a night feed or feel so tired in the day that you just have to nap when your baby is napping. Yoga can help with both areas as there are poses that you can do to either help you get back into a relaxed state to make sleep a lot easier and also you can use these same poses when you are tired but do not have the chance to sleep, just to give the body some relaxation time to get you back on track for the day. Half Lotus Pose is a great asana to use to deepen the breathing and provide quiet relaxation. All you need to do is sit cross legged on the floor and cross one leg over the other as in the photograph .

If you are a brand new mom make sure you are well recovered from the birth and engage the pelvic floor muscles. You can change legs half way through your time in the pose. Tree Pose is another pose you can use if you are feeling tired yet do not wish to sleep. Standing up, find a good centre of balance and lift one leg, placing it on the inner thigh (or below the knee if more comfortable). Lift the torso yet keep the shoulders relaxed. Focussing on a spot infront of you and deepening the breathing allows time for the body and mind to refocus and you will feel refreshed yet relaxed at the same time.

For those times when you need to sleep but the mind is racing try Fish Pose . This pose opens the chest, stretches out the shoulders and releases and muscle tension in the back.

Follow this with a lying leg lift relaxing the shoulders to the floor and breathing deeply into the stretch.

Roll over onto your stomach and take a locust leg lift.

Finish by sitting up for a shoulder stretch and then lie in Savasana, on your back with arms by the sides palms facing up and feet and legs relaxed.

Be aware of the breath and breathe in, hold for a moment and then exhale. Chances are you will fall asleep right here!

As babies are natural yoga wonders, quite happily falling into downward facing dog and pushing up into upward dog, the focus of Yoga Baby TV is for mum. It is you who has been through lots of changes, your body has adapted to carry a baby, give birth and after such an exhausting process, it is you who has to learn to rebuild strength and yoga for you is not just a physical process, it is a place for you to strengthen your mind, find peace in a hectic world and allow yourself time to both recover and enjoy this time of your life.

The shows will guide you through yoga practice you can take whatever mood you are in, however your body is feeling and whenever you (maybe with your little yogi’s or alone) feel the need for a few moments of beauty.

Yoga has helped me greatly through both of my pregnancies. Having two children close together meant that my home has been a little hectic and yoga has enabled me to laugh, bond with my children, find quiet in the present moment and feel happy in my body. It is a wonderful thing to be able to share this with you!

The new show is filmed at the Yogabode Studio in Norway which is my own studio where I teach many styles of yoga, from gentle Hatha to hectic Hot Yoga. It is here that I have developed the Figure Yoga Style, based on sculpting the body and feeling strong and confident in the process. If you want to know more about Figure Yoga, please see www.figureyoga.com and if you are ever in Northern Norway, why not drop by! The studio site is www.yogabode.com

Jill x

Happy Easter Holidays to all our viewers!

I am thrilled to announce the re-launch of Yoga TV! The new show will be relaunched on May 1st!

The studio is finished and we are all set with new lights, sound and a whole new concept for the show, which will include routines through all stages of pregnancy, birth preparation, post natal recovery to mothers with older children…and a few routines for dads, grandparents and anyone else with a desire to try yoga!

Matthew, my husband and editor has been in the US for a while and has returned full of exciting ideas for the show which we will work in to the new format. You will be able to get the show through the Yoga Baby TV  site (which will also be having a small facelift!), through blip tv, itunes, vimeo and you can even watch and join in using your phone!

I will be available for questions and will be leaving lots of video comments too, so please feel free to contact us and leave feedback!

We look forward to seeing you on the 1st May!

Namaste!

Jill, Matthew, Heidi & Miller x

If you like to look after your skin then you will want to visit the Arbonne website to see their great range of products – guaranteed not to be tested on animals and certified vegan, these products are adorable. They have ranges for everyone, including a cute range for kids! Compared to many other products of a similar standard, Arbonne are reasonably priced and you even have the opportunity to offer evenings or work part time as a consultant and get freebies and good discounts. I have been in contact with Arbonne and they are a down to earth and approachable company. I love these products and that is why I am telling you about them. Go check them out at www.arbonne.com.

A common mistake in yoga is to keep tension in the shoulders in a lot of the poses. Whilst the focus is elsewhere it can be difficult to remember the shoulders but it is essential if you want to eliminate any stiffness and to combat the aches that come as a knock on effect from shoulder tension, such as a stiff neck and discomfort in the upper back and even facial tension.

A good way to think about the shoulders are to keep them rolling down, away from the ears, especially in poses such as cobra and open leg forward bend. Yet even in poses such as Warrior II and Tadasana (Moutnain Pose) be aware of the shoulders as chances are you will not be relaxing them! In poses where the arms are extended overhead, feel the lift coming through the torso as opposed to through the hands and don’t forget that if you have any shoulder problems the you do not need to go to full extension, keep a bend in the arms. You can also try adding in neck and shoulder rolls at the end of your practice to eliminate any remaining tightness.

Tired kids! Heidi and Miller can hardly stay awake after a busy day at kindergarten today. As a departure from a physical yoga topic but more atune to yoga as a lifestyle I wanted to share something my husband and I experienced today. In a temperature of around minus 7, in heavy snow, a Busker was playing outside the shops, his hands shaking with cold.

He had a few coins in his blanket. Now I know what is said of some buskers but I do not believe this man was not freezing cold and in need of some money, maybe even to feed his family. Many people with full shopping bags would not even look at this man playing music in the cold. My thought is this, next time you see someone like this, maybe think they may be better off with that change in your pocket than you. It seems some have forgotten what it means to help a fellow man, let’s not be one of them.

This year has gone so quickly! We would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and New Year! We will be filming a Christmas Yoga Baby soon and will rejoin you again in the New Year with a new set-up! I am looking forward to getting into the studio and we are even going to change the title sequence to include Heidi who is now a big part of the show too! Only yesterday when Matthew and I were sitting looking at some paperwork, we looked up and the two rascals were playing together on the rug in the lounge. Miller was in Down Dog, waving through his legs at us with one hand and Heidi was perfecting her Dancer. What have I started?…. Namaste!

I am almost fully recovered from a bad reaction to some medication and feel alert and inspired to build on the success of Yoga Baby. We are on track now to begin filming in the new studio, in high definition, with improved sound and lighting from January 2009! Please let us know if there is anything you would like to see from the show. It is my aim to look at yoga from the first stages of pregnancy, right the way through to having babies, toddlers and older children. The show will have sections for mum on her own, to help baby development, e.g to encourage crawling and relieve any stiffness, for mum and baby/child in playful or relaxing moods and a whole host of other things! Miller and Heidi will of course join me on the show and maybe we will introduce some new mums and their little ones too!

Sometimes I get so inspired by reading quotations that I thought I would share some of my favourite yoga quotes with you. I hope you enjoy them!

Yoga, an ancient but perfect science, deals with the evolution of humanity. This evolution includes all aspects of one’s being, from bodily health to self-realization. Yoga means union – the union of body with consciousness and consciousness with the soul. Yoga cultivates the ways of maintaining a balanced attitude in day-to-day life and endows skill in the performance of one’s actions. B.K.S Iyengar

Yoga is about clearing away whatever is in us that prevents our living in the most full and whole way. With yoga, we become aware of how and where we are restricted, in body, mind, and heart and how gradually to open and release these blockages. As these blockages are cleared, our energy is freed. We start to feel more harmonious, more at one with ourselves. Our lives begin to flow — or we begin to flow more in our lives. Cybele Tomlinson

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You cannot do yoga. Yoga is your natural state. What you can do are yoga exercises, which may reveal to you where you are resisting your natural state. Sharon Gannon