Caroline Mackley Yoga

08/04/2026

Yesterday was my first time back on my mat after travelling and boy did I need it!!

My practice was slow and releasing - I felt heavy in my body (might have something to do with my excessive consumption of tartflette, French bread and reblochon cheese!!! 😁)

But in reality it’s tightness from hours of driving and sitting in the car, stopover hotel beds, and a weeks skiing have all played their part.

I did take my mat with me, but only managed one practice after the first day, for much the same reasons. I’m not beating myself up over it- holidays are exactly that, and skiing holidays are very busy! A physical practice of course isn’t the only aspect of yoga. It’s more about how we live, through the lense of yoga.

20/03/2026

A week in pictures: -

1. Naughty Camilla on my bed. She knows it too.

2. Viparita Karani (Legs-Up-the-Wall Pose)

3. Homemade sweet potato, carrot and parsnip soup.

4. My beautiful Mothers Day flowers.

5. The indispensable soup maker.

6. Blue skies from my studio window.

7. Opening the upper body.

8. Connie catching rays.

9. Cat in Paschimottanasana (seated forward fold)

10. Beautiful skies at dusk.

11. Iris doesn’t understand personal space.

12. A Goodwood pheasant on the course.

13/02/2026

I’ve had a lovely active day out today. A break from the routine.

But that doesn’t mean I’m going to skip a yoga practice.

A real yoga practice isn’t about being flexible or touching your toes, or fancy poses that look great on Instagram.

It is for the mind.

Sometimes my yoga practice might look purely physical , I might be in Lycra (I like it, but it’s not needed) but what you can’t see in pictures is that it’s really always about the internal work.

The postures and the breath are the route to get to what’s deeper. And yoga definitely doesn’t have to be movement to be a daily practice.

I also don’t practice at the same time daily. It’s whenever I can fit it in to busy family life.

Tonight, I took a little bit of grounding supine movement to ease tension in my body after golf, but it was mostly seated breathwork and then meditation in stillness, 20 - 30 minutes in total. It could be much less.

And in my bedroom, in old trackies and socks. No Lycra or garden studio required.

10/02/2026

10/02/2026

Here’s an extract from my practice today, unedited. I think it’s important that we see stuff that’s real on here, demystify it a bit!

My personal home practice is sometimes similar to what I teach, some aspects are different. My home practice is unplanned, i follow my intuition as to where my body wants to go. Classes are planned.

I like to practise to music with lyrics whilst at home. My classes are instrumental. For yoga I like playing Edo & Jo - this is who is playing in the background.

I clunk around, I pause, I fidget, I wiggle my way into poses. I like to make sure my body is in the right position and I’m grounded in order to transition and hold poses. I encourage this is class.

Yoga is not a performance. It’s real, introspective and messy. I’m with my breath every second and I’m moving with the pace of my breathing.

I’ve been looking after my sore hand so today I felt ok to put weight on it, but not too much.

08/02/2026

Yoga is so much more than asanas (postures). I’d already taught class, my body didn’t want more movement. But I did need to unwind my mind afterwards.

Meditation is the most accessible part of yoga.

But let’s not overcomplicate it.

You can do it anywhere. At any time, simply closing your eyes and tuning into your breathing. And stay with your breathing, in stillness, it possible, for any amount of time. This was about 20 minutes, but it might sometimes only be a few minutes.

The shift in how you feel can be very subtle, and sometimes it can be deep and profound - an energy shift, a lightness, a clarity, mood altering.

I could go on and on listing responses to meditation but essentially a physical, mental or breath response to meditation can’t be clearly defined. It’s personal to you - how it makes you feel - there’s no right or wrong!

I’m only on my mat here because it’s a sacred space for me, overlooking my garden. And I’m covered in blankets because it’s cold in there sometimes!!!

I also like to have a little play (quite badly!) with my bowls, they help to me to ground and shift my energy.

05/10/2025

I’ve resisted posting this as it’s so exposing but it is a subject that matters to me, so here we go!….

Firstly - we are so much more than our physical body. But….

Grey hairs, wrinkles, laughter lines, surgical scars, crepey skin from carrying babies, stretch marks, broken veins, thread veins, dimpled orange peel legs and bum, gravity doing its thing with my skin - it’s all there in all its ageing glory. I’ve got the lot!

Let’s normalise ageing and celebrate our body imperfections.

It’s my body’s 50 year old story.

I’m not striving to look like an athlete, or to look younger, or to erase the years I’ve racked up.

I want to simply feel ease with my body, celebrate movement and my body with its perfect imperfections.

AND….

I do absolutely take care of my body as it carries me through the rest of my life. I mean, we’ve only got the one body, it’s got to carry us through the whole journey of life.

Movement, rest, good nutrition & reducing toxic load are all at the centre of my life. Embracing yoga philosophy to help guide me in all these good lifestyle and positive mind habits.

30/09/2025

One of the reasons I came back on social media was that I no longer wanted to stay silent about what it’s like to live with a lifelong condition, how it can impact on daily life and to raise awareness for sufferers of chronic conditions. But also to talk a bit at a time about how yoga has helped me.

This isn’t just my story. But a post to highlight the invisible sufferers, whatever it might be that is present in your body.

A chronically ill person can often look like the picture of health, life and soul of the party, the one who “has it all” . They might always have a smile on the face and cracking jokes. But in truth, that person might be having a really challenging time behind the scenes.

They might be the one who doesn’t drink booze anymore, who says no to invites and rarely goes out, the one who is quiet at school pick up because they haven’t got the energy to socialise.

I am all of this and more.

How has yoga helped me? Firstly the practice isn’t just the postures, more of that another time, in another post.

But the postures - called Asana - help to build an internal mental strength and resilience, as you learn to hold them and breathe through them.

This is just one of the ways yoga has helped me deal with the daily challenge of the supposedly simple act of eating, and more importantly, when things go wrong, that I can work though it, and pick myself up, knowing that the discomfort is always temporary.

28/09/2025

I’m a big musical theatre fan so there was no question of a trip to these Greek Islands to celebrate our 50 journeys around the sun! I really wanted to see where the Mamma Mia film was made and I wasn’t disappointed- the islands were breathtaking. I wasn’t well much of the break which was a shame as it was our first holiday alone in 21 years, so a special one. But I think we will definitely return to explore some more!

26/09/2025

I’ve been on a little holiday abroad, which was beautiful, but also I was plagued with health issues.

An idyllic holiday can sometimes be a big setback from someone with a chronic health condition, I’ve had to cancel my schedule since I’ve returned so that I can honour my body with rest.

So for the rest of the weekend I will be hanging with the kittens and a blanket to restore my energy and honour my body with rest, just as I would tell my yoga students to.

You can’t pour from an empty cup.

❤️