Allwoman Blog
Restorative Yoga – Probably the best Yoga in the World?
Surely lying around on bolsters is easy right? You are not exactly feeling the burn? But it doesn’t really look like you are “doing” anything! So my journey with Restorative Yoga started back in 2013 when I decided as a frazzled and overtired mum of an active 15 month...
The female archetype – Who is she?
She’s you. She’s me. She’s a pattern of energy. She’s feminine behaviour, a model of womanhood. And she’s associated with the stages of your life, the phases of your menstrual cycle, the seasons of the year, the moon. “Female archetypes teach us how to tune into our...
Liz’s birth story
I’m Liz. I’m 42 and Mum to J, who has just turned 3 and is the absolute light of my life, and wife of C who I first met over ten lovely years ago. He’s a creative soul and a wonderful dad and partner. We live in Leeds. Finding a doula to support my pregnancy and birth...
Creative visualisations and positive affirmations to succeed, boost wellbeing and manage difficult situations
Every now and again, we need to stop, take a moment and reflect on our lives - what has gone before and what we want to happen. What's important? What's not important? What do you want to let go of? What do you want to change? Key to our own wellbeing is being able to...
Are you ready to commit to your yoga practice today?
“The biggest commitment you must keep is your commitment to yourself.” Neale Donald Walsch Do you have commitment issues? Are you half in and half out? The term 'commitment issues' usually refers to a reluctance to get further involved in a romantic relationship - to...
The benefits of learning online – dispelling the myths
Online learning, distance learning, e-learning – whatever you'd like to call it – is a great option for many people to enhance their professional knowledge and progress their career, but it's often overlooked as it's often thought to be the easy option that's for lazy...
Everything is your choice – Choices in birth
I'm a great supporter of the Positive Birth Movement, co-facilitating the Leeds Positive Birth Group which meets every third Sunday of the month with fellow doula Claire. At our January meeting we discussed the choices we have in birth and the many questions we need...
Awesome women I admire
Angela Farmer Angela Farmer is my amazing yoga teacher and wise woman. She set me on the path to discovering a more free style of yoga that's less about form and more about feeling. She helped me to rediscover parts of myself that I'd lost and she embodies femininity...
Gentle is the new advanced
@NaomiAbsalom recently posted a video on Instagram about 'gentle' yoga and how patronising the term is. 'Gentle' is often used to describe the more subtle body practices of yoga; the practices I'm a huge fan of for both my own practice and in what I teach. In fact,...
Cores and pelvic floors
I'm learning all the time –I recently attended a fab workshop with my good friend and fellow Yoga teacher Louisa Thomas all about core and pelvic floor health and the range of tools that can be used for supporting women with core and pelvic floor dysfunction in a...
Yoga is for Everybody and Every Body is a Yoga Body
What does a Yoga practitioner look like? How flexible must you be before you even think about trying Yoga? Do you fit the stereotype? Not many of us do. I'd like to dispel the Instagram myth. You don't have to be flexible to do Yoga. You don't have to be young to do...
Imbolc: The Reawakening of the Earth
Imbolc, also known as Candlemas or Saint Brigid's Day, is an ancient Celtic festival that's celebrated on 1st or 2nd February each year at the midpoint between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox. It marks the awakening of the Earth as she moves towards Spring....
Boundaries and Ethics in Yoga
Yoga is more than a series of physical poses. It’s also a system for living your life off the mat. The Eight Limbs of Yoga, the Yoga Sutras, were the ancient ‘rules’ to living a better life as taught by the Indian teacher Patanajali, a very long time ago in around the...
Grounding: Bringing yourself down to earth
Do you ever arrive home and realise you've got absolutely no idea how you got there? Yes? Well, that's what it often feels like when we are feeling ungrounded. We're engrossed in our thoughts, dreams and fantasies, disconnected from our bodies and our environment. In...
Energy, seasons, your menstrual cycle and you
As women, we’re expected to be the same every day – look after our families, go to work, be productive, race around, get things done… but we’re not the same every day. Some days we’re full of energy, others we’re not. Some days we want to be sociable and surround...