From bird in my back garden to bird of paradise

“Your perspective is always limited by how much you know. Expand your knowledge and you will transform your mind.” Bruce Lipton

And your body……….

If you think you don’t, or that you won’t ever have a flexible body, there is a strong chance that you never will.

I grew up remembering my gymnastics teacher telling me I’d never be strong or flexible enough and from that day on I always classed a good day from being able to touch my toes. Believe me, that didn’t happen very often.

I was very young when my gymnastics teacher seeded that belief that would become my truth. What she did unknowingly was plant a seed of disbelief in what I thought my body could ever be capable of. This weed continued to grow within my subconscious throughout my childhood and into my adult life. I remember stretching, trying to get into better habits by attempting to stretch every day, but it never lasted long. Deep down, I thought it was all pointless, that my effort would never amount to anything because I didn’t have the right type of body.

If only I had known, what I know now. That gym teacher literally cast a spell over me that day with her words. It was all lies.

Here’s why.

All of us have a flexible body, all of us have the potential to move and shape our body in the way that we desire. You’re now probably wondering how you make that change?

What we have to do first is unravel the belief that is keeping us stuck and then mindfully start working on ourselves. I use EFT to tap on myself regularly about the way I feel about my flexibility. This helps me to bring negative beliefs and emotions to the surface which I can then work through. I have gone from not being able to get my nose on my knees to standing  comfortably in forward fold with my nose in-between my knees after 45 minutes of tapping with no yoga or warm up.

“Since everything is a reflection of our minds…. everything can be changed by our minds.” Buddha

The key issue is the conflict between our conscious and subconscious mind. This occurs when our subconscious mind plays the belief in our mind which says “you’ll never be flexible, you’re not strong enough, this isn’t safe”. Even though there are times when we feel positive and optimistic about our ability, our hugely powerful subconscious is thinking “nah, never, there is no chance I’m letting you go there” and we experience conflict.

We then have a battle on our hands because our subconscious mind processes 40 million bits of data per second whereas our conscious mind which is our minute-by-minute brain only processes 40 bits in comparison.  Our subconscious runs the show and is responsible for 90-95% of our behaviour and physical processes all day, everyday.

Our muscles respond to our subconscious, they’re not being stubborn or difficult, they’re taking orders and they’re keeping us safe. If you want to get your muscles on your side, you have to listen to the internal dialogue coming from your subconscious and you have to discover the belief that is holding you back. Then you have to work on it.

Muscle memory is vital. If you want to become better at any physical activity, creating patterns of movement to embed new physiological blueprints is essential. Training your brain creates new connections to your nervous system and muscle fibres and as training continues the muscle movement becomes automatic. As the body becomes more comfortable with this movement it will start to respond in the way you want it to whether that’s flexibility, strength, speed or all of them. Eventually your subconscious will also begin to clock the similarity in movements and will learn from the correlated emotions whether you are feeling good or bad. How far you progress will depend on the level of positive emotional intensity.

I believe that smiling when practicing yoga will make you bendier. Put too much pressure on yourself and everything will seize up.

I can make heaven or hell of my yoga mat, it can be the most frustrating and painful place or the most enlightening, magical and empowering space. I have to literally kick my ego of my yoga mat sometimes, and tune in to how I am feeling and breathe. I use this time to reset and evolve the way I have thought wrongly about my body for twenty-six years.

So how has realising all of this benefited me and how can it benefit you?

I have been practicing my yoga regularly now for just over a year and what I learn time and time again, is that to grow we can’t just absent-mindlessly reach for our toes and hope for the best. We have to be in the moment, during every moment, breathe through the stretch and notice the sounds, tensions and space that we feel in every part of our body. It’s only when we really connect to ourselves that something magical begins to happen and physically, emotionally and spiritually we begin to evolve.

Bird in my back garden pose

Here’s me in Bird of Paradise pose a month ago. It’s a yoga pose that requires strength, flexibility and stamina in the hamstrings, hips and shoulders. This was my first attempt at the pose following an hour-long yoga class.

I lovingly called my attempt “Bird in my  Back Garden”. What should be happening is my leg should be completely extended and my foot beside my ear, a variation of standing splits. Though I laughed at myself, I felt proud of my attempt, just securing a bind with my hands underneath my thigh felt like a brilliant achievement.

Three weeks later during my Friday lunch break I popped over to Bend Fit Mend for a 45 minute stretch class. We would be focusing on our hips only, which would mean we would practice and breathe through five or six positions to thoroughly warm up and open our hips.

Stretching correctly is everything

What I value is the knowledge of knowing how to stretch right and how and what we are activating and what it should feel like. This has fueled my progress in ways I didn’t think would ever be possible.

Find a yoga teacher who knows their stuff

In my experience, finding a yoga teacher who is obsessed with anatomy and how our body moves and flows is the best thing you could ever do.

During the session we focused on the complete internal functionality of the hip, how it moves, and noticing where it doesn’t normally move past. We then spent time warming the back and front of the area around the hips before moving into warming the deeper muscles.

The result from just a few stretches was a much fuller movement ability and a deeper understanding of how the legs rotated in the hip socket while stimulating fresh blood flow.

Bird of Paradise after 45 minutes of focused stretching

At the end of the class I asked Amanda if we could try out Bird of Paradise. Although I hadn’t given the pose another go since the first time, I had been continuing to practice my yoga and at that point my hips felt warm enough to take a deep breath and go for it.

Forty-five minutes later and here I am. Leg extended and for a brief moment, long and entirely straight.

The benefit of practicing very few moves with a real expert is that you can just breathe into the area and create space. You also have time to mindfully make adjustments based on their 1-2-1 coaching. This gives you more time to experience the big differences from making a small change in the positioning and what this can mean for your body.

These are my eight tips for you and your fitness journey:

1. Do you believe that your body is capable of what you want to achieve?
2. What other beliefs do you have about how successful you will be at achieving your goal?
3. Do you enjoy working towards your goal?
4. When you work out or practice, what emotion(s) are you experiencing and what might that be doing for your body?
5. Do you feel that the way you move is correct and making optimal use of your energy?
6. How do you know if you’re engaging the right muscles?
7. How do you usually feel after a session – happy, content, wanting more or glad it’s over?
8. Where are you noticing progress in your body and where are you not.

 

If you have any questions or comments, post them below 🙂

Hannah x

 

Vegan food at 1847 Brighton

1847 is perfectly nestled in Brighton’s North Laine and shares the latest vegan and vegetarian offering in town. Surrounded by a diverse range of plant-based cuisine, it’s not short of competition, but it’s definitely not one you should overlook.  Although the menu is succinct, it offers a variety of combinations and flavours, whether you desire the nutritious and mindful or something a little more extravagant and rich.

It’s a short walk from the hustle and bustle of Kensington Gardens making it a great place to watch both the locals and the tourists explore and potter up North Street while you sip on one of their inventive cocktails and feast on some delicious and comforting grub. The restaurant is flooded by natural light and the soft pastel grey palette is offset by the lemon yellow booth and ‘live’ wall which creates a sense of tranquility. In the background plays funky soul beats which makes it feel current but relaxed.

To begin we shared the vegetable Pakora topped with shaved fennel and served with a coriander yoghurt. This is a gluten-free starter and they also offer a vegan alternative which you should opt for without a second thought – it’s coconut yogurt and absolutely divine. There are many perks to opting for plant-based dairy alternatives and coconut yoghurt is definitely one of them!

These three round pakoras were perfect. Crispy with a  gooey and moist inside, the spices were balanced and set off beautifully by the exotic coconut yogurt. They reminded me of an upmarket onion bhaji, which I found hugely comforting and a real treat. I would order these again in a heartbeat.

Many Brighton pubs now offer beer-battered halloumi and chips as the vegetarian alternative to fish. Finally I’ve found somewhere in town that offers a vegan alternative – tofu! 1847 offer a cider battered smoked tofu, with hand cut chips, and kept classy with lemon curd and mint infused crushed peas. They also offer a gluten free option. The waiter kindly found us some veganaise for our chips which was much appreciated, so much so that my vegetarian pal turned down the usual mayonnaise because she preferred the vegan option.

The cider batter was crispy and evenly coated the smoked tofu which added to the flavour, standard tofu would have been too bland. The ‘crushy’ peas were spot on. I adore mushy peas, but preferred the texture of them crushed and the mint nicely complemented the slither of lemon curd. The portion of chips was very generous and reminiscent of those you would find in your favourite local chippy. Some may want their chips to be a little crispier on the outside, but overall I felt very content and thought they were delicious. The only thing missing was a traditional tartar sauce, it would have taken this plate to the next level.

For our other main we chose the Surf & Turf, an aubergine steak, seaweed salad, coleslaw and jersey royal potatoes. This is a good dish if you’re gluten free and keen to eat a purely plant-based diet. The aubergine was cooked perfectly, it had that real smokey flavour and soft texture and was complemented by the crunchy coleslaw. The potatoes were cosy, soft and fluffy and made sure you finished your plate feeling fulfilled and well-fed. The seaweed salad didn’t have a strong flavour and I don’t think added much, but overall it worked with the rest of the dish.

This plate tasted as good as it was nourishing, however, it didn’t feel special enough in the sense that I felt like I could have easily made this at home. In comparison the cider-battered tofu was a huge treat and felt incredibly indulgent which I loved.

For desert we shared the warm 1847 brownie. A gluten free dark chocolate brownie with chilli brittle, pistachio soil and a basil syrup. I enjoyed the crisp texture of the outside of the brownie alongside the soft inside which also crumbled. Some people like their brownies to be really gooey but given this was gluten free I really admired this rich brownie.

The chilli brittle although had a kick wasn’t fierce and pistachio soil added another level to the combination of flavours. Although I enjoyed the basil syrup I felt it was overpowered by the brownie, I’d upgrade it to a basil sorbet to cut through the richness of the chocolate and make the plate extra special.

I was very impressed with the portion sizes, we left feeling perfectly full and agreed that every plate was generous in it’s size. 1847 offer two courses for £19.75 and three courses for £25.50. We chose to share a starter and the desert which was perfect for lunch. Given that many pubs in central Brighton now charge double digits for vegan and vegetarian food I think the price-point was very reasonable, especially given the size of the plates and the it’s location.

Every plate was colourful, plentiful and always well presented. The service was smooth and evenly paced across the three courses and always friendly from start to finish. A great location and vibe for a lunch with friends or partners and ideal for an evening out with the range of cocktails followed by one for the road at one of the pubs or bars.

 

 

www.By1847.com

Tel: 01273 677776

North Road
Brighton
BN1 1YW

“That croissant tasted of heaven”

Today I supported the Brighton Soup Run. Volunteering with two of my colleagues we picked up soup from a local restaurant and organised a cart of cups, bread, pastries, biscuits and fresh tea that had all been donated to take down to the seafront for 8pm.

There was a group of around 30 waiting patiently in their huddles for some warm grub. Some homeless who were living on the streets, some from hostels, others in emergency housing. Together they all got in line awaiting their bread and fresh minestrone soup.

I was on soup serving duty. It was one of the most humbling tasks I have ever completed for another human being. As each of them held out their cup I was surprised at the fact that a kind of instinct came over me; one that made me give the soup pot a good stir before each serving so that the ladle was full of vegetables and pasta, packed full of the stuff that was going to nurture their empty tummies.

“The best teachers are those who show you where to look but don’t tell you what to see”

Some came for a second serving, but many of them were satisfied with the first. They sat on the pavement once again in their huddles and ate so mindfully. Two ladles of soup in a small polystyrene cup fulfilled the majority of them; they were so grateful. It reminded me that so often, when we have plenty, we always want more.

A lady came to speak to me to thank us for one of the pastries, she said: “that croissant tasted of heaven, I’ve never had anything like it”. I can only imagine; this kind of treat for so many of us is readily available every day, have we forgotten to “taste” what we’re eating? I know I’m guilty of that at times.

“Do not judge by appearance; a rich heart may be under a poor coat” Scottish Proverb

Tonight reminded me that it is gratitude and community that makes for a happy life. Although it was likely that this was their first real meal of the day, they didn’t “scoff” or squabble over food. They ate slowly, mindfully and shared what little they had with their pals. They were courteous and grateful for their meal and one or two of them even offered me one of their biscuits that they’d saved for their night ahead.

Some of them were telling me that they’d been offered the opportunity to “move on”, to be placed 150 miles away from Brighton in a hostel. They didn’t want to go, with no relations they had found and created a “street family”. Without them they would have nobody and having bonded during the hardest of times it would be impossible to leave them. A life on the street with their “family” is more appealing than being alone with a roof over their head. It is this type of “community” that keeps them going.

From now on, I really am going to try to eat mindfully. What I witnessed today was “mindfulness” in its purest form and it was a powerful reminder of how blessed many of us are.
The 30 minutes I spent in the presence of this group of people reminded me to not take food for granted, to eat slowly and appreciate every mouthful.

As for croissants – well the next time I have one I am going to say a little word of thanks and take the time to really enjoy it. Not absent-mindedly chew on it whilst doing a 101 other things and then notice that I’ve eaten it all without even realising.

“As we express our gratitude we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter the words but to live by them” John F Kennedy