Nataraja Yoga

30/07/2025

🌍 BEING and BECOMING 🌍

“Being” emphasises a fixed, stable state of existence, while “becoming” highlights the dynamic, ever-changing nature of reality.

We spend our lives journeying through experiences, riding along opportunities, falling into wormholes of investigation and deprecation of the self, surfing high on waves of joy…

Where is it all taking us, what are we trying to become, where are we trying to go…..?

If we say we’re all “coming home to ourselves”, in a world where we’re historically connected - doesn’t that sound selfish and egotistical, that we solely need ourselves?

…

The Earth element, like the solid ground beneath our feet, represents a sense of stability, security, and being rooted. It allows individuals to feel present, connected to themselves, AND to their environment.

When balanced, the Earth element promotes CLARITY of thought, focus, and the ability to set intentions and follow through with plans.

It enables individuals to make CHOICES from a place of groundedness and self-awareness, rather than from a place of anxiety or overwhelm.

The Earth element is associated with the ability to bring visions and dreams into REALITY, to “digest” experiences and integrate them into one’s life. 

It brings the qualities of relaxed happiness, a CONTENTMENT with what is. We find we are not worried about what is to come.

This, is becoming ❤️

Our ability to be present, our capacity for nurturing ourselves AND OTHERS.

…

🧘🏻‍♀️ TRY THIS EASY YIN STRETCH - working right through stomach meridian lines and activating the digestive system, to encourage that state of physical ease in the depths of our subtle body…

🌲JOIN ME - on retreat for more of this and other grounding practices, 26-28 September 2025 in Sweden

📚 TRAIN WITH ME - Elemental Yin advanced course, 2026 at Kailo in Copenhagen and Kula in Leeds UK

::::: mizdeshannon.com 💌

28/07/2025

Where did this last week go... ☀️

Whisked along in a flurry of busyness and amazingness.

I’ve had the complete honour of sharing magical experiences with some magical humans - laughing, exploring, swimming, breathing, dancing, letting loose.

These days, I needed some healing. My tendency in the past has been to drop into work - distraction, you know??

But - in my older years after much experience - I recognise that I need different, I needed space and love.

As well as magical times teaching on the YTT, there’s been some real good stuff around recently. And lots and lots of love.

True friends and new friends, and laughter. A massage, dinner with the besties, ecstatic dancing, lots and lots of nature, water therapy, ice cream, reconciliations, and joy.

Spending an evening with some amazing women [last pic] who’ve been friends since I landed in Denmark, that was just so healing - completely 🤗

Reaching out is something I always struggled with doing - I grew up with a very stoic mindset. But there’s a huge beauty in opening up and being vulnerable.

I needed this time, this week, these people...

Love love love 🌹

21/07/2025

꩜ Some of my favourite moments from last year’s sold out Sanctuary Retreat ꩜

✨Only four spots left this year - will you come?? ✨

- filling the stone room with balloons for a lil’ playtime I created
- squishing toes in the moss and the leaves
- sharing space with Elton the king
- our opening fire ceremony
- eating together in the barn at sunset
- cooking with foraged mushrooms from the fields nearby
- morning breathwork and meditation in the dome
- hugging trees and fully dropping in to relaxation
- exploring the forest and the waterfall
- seeing friendships bloom
- being a bit silly 😜
- taking LOTS of time to enjoy **space** from busyness…

Join us this year - an inclusive, sober, long weekend in the Swedish forest 🇸🇪

All the info for booking and what’s included is on my website - mizdeshannon.com 💌

17/07/2025

🥂June re-cap… 🥂

The month I got to:
- reconnect with a whole bunch of friends
- make some amazing new ones
- crowdsurf with my Copenhell gang
- go kitesurfing
- eat great food
- make shapes and move
- teach an awesome bunch of people
- enjoy the sun
- rejuvenate my clubbing era
- and shed unnecessary s**t with the knowledge that I have and always will live my life fully.

No one needs to tell me to go and do that.

It’s been a core tenet for my entire life, however shaken I may become by people’s behaviour or events that drain me, as an ‘only child’ I have always been able to push myself and do exactly what I want, when I want.

Selfish - no.
Passionate - yes.
Tapas - yogic philosophy not food.

The intrinsic motivation that comes from doing what you love leads to higher productivity, creativity, and innovation 🏆

Engaging in activities you are passionate about has a profound impact on your mental and emotional well-being 💫

More people need to remember this - challenge yourself, enjoy new things, embrace the people who truly love you regardless of difference or distance, jump in the ocean without fear, enjoy the wind in your hair, learn to handle the fact that life is dynamic not a cotton wool bubble 🫧

“I expand my mind through reflection and revision”

Happy July 🎢

11/07/2025

✨FOUR SPOTS LEFT! ✨

“Miz held the space wonderfully, allowing us to relax into the moment and being fully present with the idea of rejuvenation and rest.”
— 2024 traveller, from the U.K

Just FOUR spots left on our sober, off-grid, inclusive weekend in nature.... I'm so excited to go back to the forest again 🥰

Retreat from busy-ness and recharge beautiful you - three days of yoga, and sauna, and food, and endless experiences in the Swedish forest, with a sustainability outlook and a nourishing purpose

11/07/2025

“Miz held the space wonderfully, allowing us to relax into the moment and being fully present with the idea of rejuvenation and rest.”
— 2024 traveller, from the U.K

Just FOUR spots left on our sober, off-grid, inclusive weekend in nature.... I'm so excited to go back to the forest again 🥰

08/07/2025

I looooooove Tiffany’s teachings - so detailed and informative, yet sensitive and dynamic too… Dive in - this knowledge is so important! 🦋✨🙏🏼💫

30/06/2025

🥂Someone asked me… 🥂

Why did I stop drinking, what was behind the decision?

Is it because ‘yoga’ says you’re not allowed to?

➡️ The Baghavad Gita (aka Yoga Bible) discusses tamasic (ignorance) foods, including intoxicants, suggesting they hinder spiritual progress. It emphasises; actions influenced by ‘ignorance’ lead to negative events and distract from one’s dharma (duty).

But also - moderation. The Gita guides self-control and equanimity, not suppression or extremes. Trying to be too pure or sattvic (harmony) can result in being complacent, arrogant, detached (and self-righteous).

My realisation; half my life had f###ed up because I had addictions - drugs and/or alcohol.

Addiction ≠ moderation, addiction = extremes…

I was into the 90s U.K. rave scene, worked in music, busy days, late-night culture. I fully dived into the “work hard play hard” lifestyle.

[photos attached of scenes from the last 20yrs]

I stopped drinking regularly over a decade ago, fed up of sickness, poor quality of life, bad relationships, incoherent memory, etc. When you drink regularly or to excess, neurotransmitters don’t fire properly so no surprise that things become muddled 😆

At the same time I was practicing yoga asana but the two weren’t linked - or so I thought.

Yoga talks about being present; not caught in past experiences, or forcing to presume future events. One can’t be present if one is hungover or on a different plane…

For me, my dharma - my reason to stop drinking - is to be present in life, not stuck in drama and maybes.

I learnt to enjoy my own company, see myself rather than distract from “being me”, and enjoy peace… It’s fun to dance on tables but not so if you’ve got no memory of it.

“If the vehicle breaks down, the traveller cannot go far” - Iyengar.

➡️ The first obstacle on the yogic path of self-discovery is ill-health - vyādhi. When the body is disrupted, so is the nervous system, and therefore the mind. We can match this theory directly with physiology.

THE BODY IS THE VEHICLE OF THE SOUL, so it’s simple - if I want my soul to be happy then I tend well to its vehicle 🥰

Come on a sober retreat with me.
26-28 September 🇸🇪
❤️ mizdeshannon.com ❤️

27/06/2025

Hey sweet people... A reminder that this year's Sanctuary Retreat is coming around - a sober weekend, filled with amazing nourishing food and practices, surrounded by magnificent nature that you literally get to dive into (hello waterfall swimming!).

Join me, and Sarah Wehmeyer our chef, 26-28 September.

People from around Europe have been in our last years, travel is super easy, and the community we create is just great.

All info is on my website:
https://www.mizdeshannon.com/retreat-sweden

25/06/2025

Sometimes we experience things in life that we think we’ve experienced before
Oh I’ve been here
I know this
No you don’t
This is a completely new experience
Maybe it’s similar
Maybe there are traits of what existed before
Sensations
Reactions
But it’s not the same
It never is
Nothing ever is the same
Release your expectations and take this for exactly what it is
A new thing
Just because something happened before doesn’t mean we have to make it happen again
No forcing
Things I say in Yin class when I’m feeling verbose 💭
- when taking a twist from side one to side two

Join me for Elemental Yin training in Leeds 🇬🇧 and Copenhagen 🇩🇰 next year.

Dates and details on mizdeshannon.com 🙏🏼