“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.”
I’m currently taking some time out from teaching and private sessions, while I am reconnecting to my new (old) home in the Netherlands. It is giving me time and space to slow down and to do the work; meaning a daily mind-body-soul practice like yoga and qigong, meditation, self-inquiry and being mindful, so I can be more present to myself and those around me.
It is also a wonderful opportunity to continue writing my book and to develop a mind/body reconnection program aimed at people with IBD and/or chronic stress and pain, based around the tools I use to support myself. (IBD stands for Inflammatory Bowel Disease of which Ulcerative Colitis (UC) and Crohn’s disease are the biggest ones; for more on IBD click here.)
New Program
I’m working on a program with the aim to provide tools which can help to reduce stress, improve health and wellbeing and reconnect mind and body. For me, living with a chronic illness for over 20 years, I had become very disconnected from who I was and what I felt. I was stuck in “doing mode” and not only did I physically feel bad, mentally and emotionally I was winding myself into ever-tightening patterns. Over the past 10 years or so, my journey through the various mindful movement modalities, has helped me to create a toolbox of practices that can help relieve stress and tension from body and mind and helps me to get closer to feeling like my true self.
I want to introduce people who might feel that “this yoga business is not for them as they aren’t able to touch their toes”, people who are in pain and for whom things like yoga might seem like an impossibility, or people who “just don’t believe in this spiritual stuff” to various ways they can open their minds and our bodies, and that these new experiences cannot only enrich their lives, but physically relieves tension and pain. It’s a program that can help widen your view, create insights into patterns of behaviour, release stored tension and emotions so that your vital energy can flow and your body can return to a natural state of healing (rather than be in a stressed state of dis-ease).
The program should become your own little toolkit of methods which can help at different times; some days you might feel physically able to do yoga or qigong, while at other times you might be able to listen to a guided autogenic meditation or breathing practice. It will be a practical introduction into various mind-body practices including;
yoga, qigong, breathwork, mindfulness & meditation, somatic movement, self-compassion, self-massage, myofascial release, autogenic training, HRV and coherence, EFT, energy medicine, and self-inquiry practices (using psychological and philosophical tools from yogic and qigong philosophies and the enneagram).
Sign Up
If you are interested in what might transpire from my creative period, you can sign up below to receive updates on new programmes. If you have questions or want to contact me directly, click here to go to the contact page.
Writing a Book
As you might have gathered from this website, I am passionate about sharing what I have learned around wellbeing and the mind-body connection as for me it was and continues to be such a powerful journey. Even though my medical experiences around IBD have been challenging, the fact that it has pointed me into the direction of yoga and all the wonderful practices that followed has been a gift. It is cliché perhaps, but illness has been one of my greatest teachers. Needless to say, I wouldn’t wish the pain, emotional turmoil and social difficulties onto anyone (and I very much hope that I do not have to go through many more of these painful events in the future), but I wouldn’t want my life any other way. The way that I can ‘be with what is’ so much better than I used to, I attribute entirely to my practices. It is something I have been relearning. I am in no way saying that I am an expert or that I have all the answers, but I have often thought, “I wish someone would have told or taught me this when I was younger”. This is why I am writing down my journey through illness and integration. I really wish our education system would place much more focus on self-knowledge and mind-body connection practices, as I wholeheartedly believe the world would be a much kinder place to live.
Another reason for writing this book is that I want to shine a spotlight on IBD (Crohn’s and UC) as there is still so much ignorance around what it might entail (for one, it is not the same as IBS) and there are too many silent sufferers. My silence and inability to ask for help, no doubt made my condition worse.
My final reason for writing a book is that my soul has been inspired by many books over the past decade. I’m eternally grateful for all the writers: in random order, the likes of Bessel vander Kolk, Brené Brown, BKS Iyengar, Gabor Maté, Tara Brach, Norman Fischer, Alan Watts, Eckhart Tolle, Richard Rohr, Mo Gawdat, Stephen Cope, Phillip Moffitt, James Nestor, Robert Sapolsky, Russ Hudson, Pema Chödron, Alain de Botton, Eknath Easwaran, Thupten Jinpa, Anodea Judith, Mark Nepo, Kristin Neff…. to name but a few. If my book to-be can inspire one person the way that these writers have me, I’ll be happy.
For more on books, click the link below.
Teaching and Private Sessions
I’m currently taking a break from teaching and taking on private clients. If you want to see what the private sessions entailed while I was living in London please click the Read More link below:
Private Sessions
I provide tools like Yoga, Qigong, Somatic Movement and Manual Therapy, to reduce tension and pain and to help make lasting changes in body and mind.