Embodied Mindfulness

30/01/2026

I had an Imbolc moment the other day; the feeling that I’m going to make it through winter, after all.

Imbolc is a celebration of the first signs of spring – think snowdrops and swelling buds on trees. It would have been far more significant hundreds of years ago, when staying alive through winter wasn’t such a given. However, some of us, even in this modern world of comfort, find Imbolc emotionally uplifting because winter can still feel long and dark, and hard work.

Imbolc marks the mid-point between winter solstice and spring equinox. Almost everyone who celebrates this festival does so on the 1st & 2nd February, but this custom would have been happening well before we had fixed days with numbers, before days of the week and weekends. Imbolc would’ve been as moveable as it needed to be. It would have shown up in the natural world in the busyness of birds and the first signs of the emerging spring. It would have been a feeling, felt by humans and animals alike.

As the energy builds to bring the natural world back to “life” how are you feeling? Can you feel this emerging energy within yourself?

Perhaps the feeling of relief that spring is coming overwhelms all other feelings. Or maybe you love the peace of winter, and the knowledge that the busyness of the approaching spring doesn’t bring good feelings at all!

Whichever it is, your body will have an opinion of this shift in the season. Somewhere within you will be a voice letting you know how you feel and how best to be present at this time. Take a moment to be with your body, with this inner voice, whether it’s on a walk, sat by the fire or even a fleeting moment grabbed between the many demands of life. Drop down, deep within your self – your rib cage, your pelvis – and ask yourself, “How am I now? What’s needed to support me through this time?”

And if you’ve got the time and the inclination, light a fire and send a prayer to Brigid, thanking her for the gift of healing, purification and clearing, but mostly for bringing back the light.

Imbolc blessings to you,
Gemma
PS If your winter feels tough and too much to bear, connecting to nature and to your body is a huge help. I speak from experience…

02/01/2026

Starting back on Wednesday 14th January at 7.15pm online.

In these relaxed and friendly classes, you learn the practice of Embodied Mindfulness, using the principles of the Alexander Technique, all within the framework of gentle movement. Each month there is a different theme and as you progress, you’re building a skill for life!

Spending time on the floor (on a yoga mat or similar), seated and standing, you’ll learn to use these unique skills to enhance your mind-body connection. Gentle enough for everyone, even those suffering with chronic pain. The classes will improve your muscular tone and strengthen your internal and postural support.

Joining these classes is an ideal way to nourish and support your body in its constant quest for balance and ease. You will also get the opportunity to learn the self-care practice of Constructive Rest; a “lifesaving” practice for busy people!

** Classes are small (max 8 people), so I can give a lot of individual attention. You don’t need to be flexible or to have any previous experience to enjoy these classes.**

message me or email to book your place - Gemma

02/01/2026

Starting back on Thursday 15th January at 4pm. Tavistock Physio Clinics

In these relaxed and friendly classes, you learn the practice of Embodied Mindfulness, using the principles of the Alexander Technique, all within the framework of gentle movement. Each month there is a different theme and as you progress, you’re building a skill for life!
Spending time on the floor (on a yoga mat or similar), seated and standing, you’ll learn to use these unique skills to enhance your mind-body connection. Gentle enough for everyone, even those suffering with chronic pain. The classes will improve your muscular tone and strengthen your internal and postural support.
Joining these classes is an ideal way to nourish and support your body in its constant quest for balance and ease. You will also get the opportunity to learn the self-care practice of Constructive Rest; a “lifesaving” practice for busy people!

message me or drop me an email to book your place - Gemma

30/11/2025

Do you know what’s going on in your body? Can you feel it?

Our body awareness isn’t solely an external experience. One of our most useful senses is our internal body awareness; our interoception. It tells us when we’re hungry, excited, or need the loo. It’s how we know that our heart is beating fast or our breathing rhythm has changed. As you read this, check in with this sense.

What’s going on in your body?

In the past this sense has been overlooked, and frequently dismissed as less important than some of your other senses. So, you may not have refined your interoceptive skills as well as you could, leaving you unaware of your body’s shift from a calm rest/digest state, into the more frantic fight/flight.
Do you know which state your nervous system is in now? Are you creeping into high energy or settling down into calm?
We absolutely need both functions, but overstimulation from the modern world we live in tends to influence us up into our fight/flight, and this is exhausting.

Interoception is a subject that crops up frequently in yoga and other somatic practices. Most people on a mind, body & spirit journey will have ventured along the path of the autonomic nervous system, looking to meditation or body calming practices to get out of their habitual fight/flight response. But the usefulness of developing interoception isn’t just for when you’re on your mat or meditation cushion, it’s for life - out there, during the ups and downs of your world. It’s recognising the shift in you as you interact with the high energy influences, online and in person. As you’re doom-scrolling your way through social media, your senses shutting down, your present moment connection disappearing with each scroll, that’s the point at which your interoception is calling to you, that’s the point when you’re shifting into fight/flight, but possibly not recognising it. Your “monkey mind” is occupied, so you think you’re relaxed!

Take a pause. Feel into it. How is your body responding in the moment?

Like any skill, the more you practice the better you get, interoception is no different.

Take some time for yourself, any time, sitting on the loo, stuck in traffic, on-hold on the phone, and bring yourself into your body. Check in regularly to recognise how it feels. Don’t get caught up in words to describe it, just do the feeling bit first.

Fortunately, in this wild wide world, we’re surrounded by brilliant therapists, teachers and friends, all making their own way with this work. Make a connection, use their wisdom to help you on your journey. You might be able to do this all on your own, but it’s so much easier (and quicker) if we accept some help.

Image courtesy zensationalkids dot com

07/11/2025

Come and try a Free online session Tuesday 25th Nov 7pm GMT. Sign-up details in first comment.

🧠 When stress shows up in the mind, you might notice:
💭 Racing thoughts
🌫️ Brain fog
⏰ Difficulty focusing
🔁 Overthinking
😴 Restless sleep or mental exhaustion

When the mind feels crowded or stuck, it’s often a sign your system is overloaded — doing its best to keep up.

Constructive Rest offers a way to quiet that inner busyness, giving your brain space to breathe again.

✨ Awareness is the first step in resetting.

Join us for Reset Before the Rush — Tuesday 25th November, 7pm GMT (online).
Sign up via the link in our profile.

05/11/2025

04/11/2025

How does stress show up for you — in your body, thoughts, or the way you move through the day?

Stress lives through the whole system — a busy mind, tight muscles, shallow breath, or that drive to keep going. These are signs of a system under strain, doing its best to manage demand.

When we pause and notice, even for a moment, we create space for the body and mind to quienten. Awareness is the beginning of resetting...

If your system feels stretched, this week is an invitation to slow down and reset.

Follow the for more about resetting your system.

16/10/2025

Tension and a keyed-up nervous system are often part of the back-pain picture — sometimes more than we realise.

Alexander Technique helps us unlearn strain and rediscover autonomy — a coordinated, responsive way of moving through your day.

Through Constructive Rest, we practise the conditions for this natural support to return.

Change begins not just with awareness, but with how we use it and take it forward.

Explore Alexander Technique and how Constructive Rest supports back care — this Awareness Week and beyond by clicking follow before you go.

13/09/2025

The classes I teach have a monthly focus, and this month it’s the fascia that runs down your back. There’s a connection from your eyebrows to your toes; this run of connective tissue has been named the Superficial Back Line. Like most anatomical names this points to the location, as much as what it is.

If you’ve excessive tension anywhere along this line of connective tissue, your head and/or pelvis will be constantly out of balance. This can show up as neck pain, lower back inflexibility, tight hamstrings or even plantar fasciitis.

I like to the think of the fascia as a connective tissue “wet suit”. If one area is tight and gripped, the discomfort or misalignment is often felt somewhere else in the body.

Those tight hamstrings might only be tight because your habit is to grip your neck or jaw. The ultimate cause of your tight hamstrings might be because your habit is to let your eyes stare, rather than let them relax back into their sockets.

Incredible, isn’t it?

Learning about these connections can help unravel the complexity of your pain or rigidity. Understanding that when you fold forward to put on your socks, you’re asking the entire length of your body to release, can give you permission to stop the relentless battle to stretch your hamstrings. Or the frustration of your stiff lower back. It’s not one bit that needs your attention, it’s the “whole”.

The word holistic has been used and over-used, but when it comes to improving your body’s elasticity and postural support, it really is the best approach.

To join the Alexander technique classes you don’t need to be flexible or knowledgeable, but if you join them, soon enough you’ll be both.

P.S. COME AND TRY A CLASS. IT ONLY COSTS £10 AND COULD CHANGE YOUR LIFE!

Image: Superficial Back Line - Anatomy Trains by Tom Myers

24/06/2025

“How’s your jaw?” isn’t a question usually asked, unless you’re with an Alexander Technique or singing teacher, but habitually tightening or clenching your jaw can create untold trouble in your body.

Localised pain, headaches, earaches, tooth damage and even sinus pain can be the result of a tight jaw.

But for now, let’s think about the arrangement of your jaw and its relationship to posture, because your jaw was the point of your first postural support.

I invite you to suck your thumb (feel free to nip off and wash your hands!); get yourself (and your sit bones) onto a firm seated chair, feet on the floor. Let your head gently pivot on the top of your spine to allow your face to drop a little and your jaw to slightly hang. Bring your (clean) thumb up into your mouth resting the tip of it towards the back of the hard-palate and allow your fingers to curve over your nose. Close your mouth to create an oral seal and suck – repeatedly - as if you were trying to draw something out of your thumb.

The gentle rhythmic movement of your jaw and tongue whilst sucking, is what gave you the strength and coordination to eventually support your head when you were a baby. The habits you’ve created around your jaw and tongue are old – as old as you! So, maybe give yourself a break when it comes to changing the habits around this area.

Back when you were creating your first bit of postural support, in this incredible and clever way, you weren’t developed in your cognition to process anything much at all. You were all feelings and sensations. You were still attached to your mother and feeling all her emotions. As far as you were concerned you were part of her. Was she stressed, anxious? Fundamentally terrified with her new responsibility? Probably, and you would have felt all those feelings, as if they were your own.

When you’re unpicking the tense world of the jaw and tongue, you’re unpacking a lot.

Your lower jawbone is attached to your skull, and having a clear map of that in your mind can help the muscles around it release their vice like grip. So, use your AT thinking to “hook” your jaw back on, then let your tongue soften as it rests in your mouth. (If you’re on the hypermobility spectrum you can think of it hooking onto the backs of your ears, just for good measure.)

It’s very common to have a slightly misaligned jaw; to habitually hold it more to the left, right, forwards or backwards, but rather than continuously putting your jaw in a different position you’re better off going back to your AT thinking. E.g. if it’s held to the left, see if you can let go in the tongue and under your chin, allowing the jaw to ”let go” to the right.

With all this letting go in the jaw, I wouldn’t want it to set you on the road to becoming a dropped jaw mouth breather. Ideally, unless being used, your mouth wants to be closed, lips together, teeth apart, tongue resting in your mouth, whilst you breathe through your nose. The back of your tongue may create an oral seal at the back of your mouth, which is very different, in feeling and affect, to having your tongue clamped to the roof of your mouth.

The journey to a released jaw can be complex and can be lengthy, but I would advise you go gently with yourself and keep in mind that trying too hard will just create more tension. Each time you remember to release your jaw give yourself a “well done!” because that’s what’s going to encourage you to release it again and again and again.

If there's something specific you'd like to know or ask, let me know in the comments.🙂

17/05/2025

May is hypermobility awareness month.
Did you know that you can be stiff and hypermobile at the same time?

Muscles often increase their tension in an effort to stabilise and hold you

Finding the appropriate tone, rather than excessive tension is what we Alexander technique teachers do.

If you’d like to explore this you’re welcome to join a free online session this Tuesday 20th May at 7pm bst. DM or comment below for the sign up link 🌟

07/05/2025

Anna’s newsletter a good way to help support and understand the emotional and spiritual aspects of the self.

Transform your life with TLC