The Yoga Coach

10/10/2025

A reminder.

Please be aware that I do not rely on digital enhancement tools or techniques in managing this page.

I occasionally use basic crop or straighten features or apply a black and white filter, but more often any photos are 'raw' edits.

I don't edit my physical appearance, nor do I spend time styling my hair and make-up before any yoga or gym practice. That isn't particularly in the spirit of yoga practice.

I also don't use any AI tools to generate imagery or video.

If you are bothered by the natural appearance of a human woman (+40, who has carried, birthed and raised two children) and prefer heavily styled, edited or artificially generated imagery and insights, then there are plenty of AI-generated accounts to be found elsewhere.

This isn't one of them 🙏🏼❣️.

08/10/2025

Do you sometimes feel like you don't really fit in with the people around you?
Do you struggle to find people who 'get you' on a deep level?
Do you occasionally feel socially excluded or isolated as a result?

I renewed my library membership last week and am currently reading 'The Power Of The Outsider - a journey of discovery', by Samuel Kasumu. (Front cover photo featured in picture, taken earlier this week.)

Although some distance from me on the political ideological spectrum (as a former Special Advisor in/to Boris Johnson's government), Kasumu's writing resonates, so far. He thinks and writes intelligently and sensitively about the experience of finding oneself outside social, professional, familial or communal groups, the causes, conditions and challenges of such a status, and the range of potential responses to it.

He interviews a range of different people and explores their lived experiences, with a particular focus on socio-economic, class, education, racial, religious and gender exclusion.

I'd therefore highly recommend this book to anyone living as an 'Outsider', in their personal or professional lives. Also for anyone looking at the impacts of social exclusion, and the significance of acceptance as a means of empowerment and autonomy.

This one is perhaps not for you right now if you are in the midst of any deeper, profound suffering as a result of 'misfitting' or social misalignment, as I generally call it.

08/10/2025

Love this 😍

When you throw a ball at a wall, you can be sure it will bounce back at you.

You would be extremely surprised if the ball suddenly appeared on the other side of the wall. In quantum mechanics this type of phenomenon is called tunnelling and is exactly the type of phenomenon that has given it a reputation for being bizarre and unintuitive.

The 2025 laureates in physics John Clarke, Michel H. Devoret and John M. Martinis, used a series of experiments to demonstrate that the bizarre properties of the quantum world can be made concrete in a system big enough to be held in the hand. Their superconducting electrical system could tunnel from one state to another, as if it were passing straight through a wall. They also showed that the system absorbed and emitted energy in doses of specific sizes, just as predicted by quantum mechanics.

Learn more
Press release: https://bit.ly/42jAlZg
Popular information: https://bit.ly/4gKFvTX
Advanced information: https://bit.ly/48CSBjZ

08/10/2025

Good morning and happy Wednesday!

Here are a few timer-selfie shots, demonstrating some variations of Utthita Hasta Padangusthasana (Standing Hand To Big Toe Pose), as practiced in yesterday evening's class (belt variations), and illustrating different technical and alignment principles.

My styling team is away 😉🙏🏼❣️.

07/10/2025

Do you struggle with tight hamstrings, knee or ankle weakness or joint instability?
Do you find your lower body strength and balance is naturally deteriorating with age, or due to prolonged desk working?

In this evening's class, we trained and practiced Utthita Hasta Padangusthasana or Standing Hand to Big Toe balance as main posture, using belts to assist and support initially. This is a strong pose; really beneficial for leg/knee strength and gives a deep hamstring stretch. So ideal for sportsmen and women, and office/desk-workers. It needs adequate warm up practices, and appropriate adaptation for any niggles.

We have two more Balance classes to take us to the end of the series, then I'll be sharing my key training tips for standing balances via my website.

I currently have spaces available in both beginners and improvers classes; we had a new joiner this evening and newcomers are always welcome 🙏🏼❣️.

Series #3 training will begin from Tuesday 21st October - I'll announce the focus theme nearer the time... 😁.

06/10/2025

Congratulations to the whole team...for going against the grain, digging in and believing in real science. Their research will make a huge difference for people living with autoimmune diseases (especially rare ones) cancer and transplant patients.

2025 Nobel Prize laureate in physiology or medicine Mary E. Brunkow was born in 1961.

She received her Ph.D. from Princeton University, Princeton, USA. She is currently senior program manager at the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle, USA.

https://bit.ly/3KFUBy2

06/10/2025

Jnana

Since reading 'Eve' by Cat Bohannon, I've been contemplating the evolutionary nature and purpose of 'The Change' that almost all women experience at some time in our lives. Then assimilating insights with my research into and lived experiences of higher sensitivity.

My first (summary) hypothesis - The Night Watch Women is as follows:

Fluctuations in the key female hormones of oestrogen and progesterone interact with and affect melatonin, which governs day/night wakefullness, relating to photo-sensitivity (light spectrum sensitivity), as well as linking to moods.

There is a clinically recognised link between more night time wakefulness and insomnia around the time of progesterone surges - with PMS and in permenopausal women.

There must have been some evolutionary benefit for more women to be more wakeful and alert at night, at certain times of the month, and at a certain age threshold (coinciding with declining fertility)?

Given the dangers present in our ancient habitats (caves, forests, savanna) one can reasonably surmise that our most ancient of ancestors needed people to remain reliably alert - even to actively keep watch - through the night whilst the majority slept. Especially if the fittest and strongest members were absent, hunting night prey?

So perhaps our ancient ancestors needed elder females to consistently serve as Night Watch Women; protecting their familial and tribal groups and communities from predators - be they animal, or human members of other tribes? Especially pregnant and feeding women, infants, children, and other fertile women of child-bearing age. This kind of pro-natal protective behaviour is seen in bonobos also.

This presupposition could reasonably apply to elder men too, but I suggest women would be more reliably able to remain awake into or from the early hours, as a direct result of the greater insomniac effects of female hormones.

Perhaps the most sensitive members of the ancient tribes would have been most effective in this role, and thus boosted the survival prospects of biological lynchpin communities? Likewise those with greater levels of hormonal activity.

Perhaps this need gave an evolutionary advantage and reward to those communities with members with this adaptation?

Thus ensuring that the majority of women today experience some level of insomnia before menstruation and throughout perimenopause and menopause. And that there is a significant proportion of women today who have a greater sensitivity to this phenomenon.

I shall continue my studies, and publish in article format in the Jnana section of my website. Do get in touch if you have any relevant published neuroscientific research, insights or lived experience you wish to share 🙏🏼❣️.



Image is an abstract painting, titled 'Night Sky', which I painted a few years ago.

06/10/2025

Happy Monday 😊

Meditation training is available this lunchtime, online at 12.15 -1pm.

I warmly welcome meditation practitioners of all ages and abilities, with a special invitation to fellow gifted and highly sensitive people.

05/10/2025

Do you sometimes experience feelings of stress and worry, pressure and overwhelm about your work or financial reality?
Do you often have a feeling of looming dread about Monday mornings?
Are you able to regularly create and protect time for self-care in your working day?

I offer Monday Meditation classes, online from 12.15 - 1pm, UK time, weekly during UK school term time. For further info and booking, visit https://yogacoachuk.com/booking/ola/services/monday-lunchtime-meditation-beginners-meditation-class

I also offer meditation workshops as an holistic health and wellbeing intervention for employers and community groups.

04/10/2025

Do you regularly struggle to find the time, energy, motivation and focus for your own personal health and wellbeing?
Do your health and wellbeing intentions sometimes fall flat?
Do you start new seasons with big, hairy, ambitious goals (BHAGs), just to end up feeling like you 'failed' 3-4 weeks in?

I help my clients set grounded, realistic intentions for their health and wellbeing, and to realise those intentions. I offer a money-back satisfaction guarantee for all private yoga coaching and training programmes.

Check my website for more info and client testimonials: https://yogacoachuk.com

03/10/2025

🪶 Coming soon... 🪶

Image is a brand logo featuring a hand-drawn effect indigo circle, with slight fading to left side, with indigo copy in centre reading 'Sensitive Women's Circle' in caps.