Hi everyone,

Welcome to the Late Summer Newsletter.

Late Summer is a season we’re not familiar with in the UK – a time of transition between the heat of Summer and the misty cooler days of Autumn. A turning point from high energy to coming back to centre, gathering inwards ready for the cooler months ahead. Hence the element of the season (in the Chinese 5 Element system) is Earth.

A yoga practice focussed on the Earth element is all about stability, grounding and centring. We will nourish (a key word for Late Summer) and stimulate the meridians related to this season, which run up and down the front of the body.

I look forward to seeing you

Rachel

Eating Seasonally

Along with practising yoga in harmony with the cycle of the seasons I’ve also been trying to eat more seasonally, and in the last few months we have switched to eating only home grown fruit and vegetables or organic fruit and veg grown mainly in the UK and occasionally in Europe. So pretty much out with apples from New Zealand and Argentina and in with berries from the garden.

My experience has been a good one and I feel that this is a much more natural way to eat, especially as our Western lifestyle now is so out of sync with nature.

There is some research I believe which suggests that if your gut microbes are in harmony with local soil microbes you will be healthier…even normalise your weight. You might be interested to know that improved relaxation affects your gut health. If you suffer from nervous digestive problems that may not surprise you.

For more about the importance of a healthy gut microbiome, follow this link to an article based on a BBC Radio 4 programme which was on earlier this year. The programme is also well worth a listen.

More than Half your Body is not Human!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-43674270?SThisFB

and if you’d like to eat a diet more in harmony with nature and the seasons, this really useful website tells you what’s in season when in the UK

http://eatseasonably.co.uk/

Drinking H2O during classes

My regulars know I don’t generally encourage water consumption during my classes. I was taught by my teacher that drinking or eating during a practice alters the energetic balance of the body, so I don’t.

The exceptions to this rule could be… if it’s very hot and you don’t think you have had enough water before class, or you feel faint or nauseous; if you know you are dehydrated; if you are on medication which might cause dehydration; if you have a very strong practice that makes you sweat a lot.

If you decide you do need to drink water during class, make a decision to drink it consciously rather than distractedly. Don’t fiddle around with your drinking bottle. As US Yoga teacher Rodney Yee says in the article below…”Why disturb the equilibrium you are trying to create?”

Read more about water drinking and yoga practice:

https://www.yogajournal.com/practice/hold-the-h2o

And please try and avoid buying water in plastic bottles…you know what plastic is doing to our planet.

There is also some evidence to suggest that chemicals in plastic leach into the water you drink.

So buy a bottle you can use regularly…there are great stainless steel ones available from:

https://www.onegreenbottle.com/

 “The success of Yoga does not lie in the ability to perform postures

but in how it positively changes the way we live our life and our relationships.”

TKV Desikachar