Posture of the month

Posture of the month –
Adho Mukha Svanasana – Downward Facing Dog

Namaste!

As we move into Spring we enjoy the re birth of nature around us and begin to feel more alive and rejuvenated. Our yoga practise changes too becoming a little more physical and dynamic. Having enjoyed a slow, thoughtful and restorative practise during the winter months , deepening the meditative aspects of our practise and letting go of unwanted patterns, we now awaken to fresh energy.

Adho Mukha Svanasana, the Downward Dog is a prevelant pose in yoga and used to enhance our strength and awareness of breath.

With Spring in the air and the warmer months insight why not enjoy a yoga class with friends either take a class together or roll out the mat in the garden and enjoy a gentle practise in the sun.

Primary aim:
• A resting pose for the entire body and all its functions
Secondary benefits:
• Stretches and strengthens the shoulders and upper chest
• Releases tension from the trunk
• Stretches calves and Achilles tendons
Set up:
• Go down onto all fours
• Activate core muscles, bandhas and breath freely
Performance:
• Inhale curl toes under and lift sit bones up to the sky
• Press fully into the hands, straighten the arms and legs
• Lengthen through the spine and neck
• Exhale, lower the heels to the floor
• Relax the shoulder blades away from the spine
• Position the ears between the arms
• Gaze at the knees
• Breath freely
Avoid:
• Squeezing the shoulders into the neck
• Rounding the back
• Forcing the chest to the floor
Modifications:
• Bend the knees to avoid pressure on the lumber spine and hamstrings
• Lift the heels a little off the floor to release Achilles and calf muscles
• ‘Walk the dog’ to release lower legs and massage hips


Cathy Underwood is the founder and creator of the award winning YOGA4MUMS. To find out more please visit www.yoga4mums.com
www.facebook.com/yoga4mums

Posture of the month

Posture of the month by Cathy Underwood
Creative director of the award winning YOGA4MUMS


Great Posture

The Economist featured an interesting article this month entitled ‘The power of posture’ drawing on research compiled by the University of Illinois. The piece suggests that how you hold yourself affects how you view yourself.

With over 20 years of experience teaching fitness and yoga techniques my first reaction was ‘well duh!’ To me it seems obvious that to stand tall makes anyone feel better as it brings the body into correct alignment, one can breathe better and it is an active stance that inspires confidence.

The article concludes that ‘those who walk around with their heads held high not only get the respect of others, they seem also to respect themselves’

Inspired by these words our posture of the month has to be:

Samasthiti – the equal pose

Primary function:
• To begin and end the sun salutations, also used for stabilising before and after other postures
Secondary function:
• An opportunity to correct alignment and restore free breathing

Set up:
• Stand tall with feet together
• Spread your body weight evenly across both feet
• Find neutral spine
• Activate core awareness and breathe freely
• Gaze ahead

Performance:
• Energise posture rooting down through the feet, arms, hands and fingers
• Draw awareness to the core/ bandhas
• Imagine energy lifting up through the spine and out through the top of the head

Avoid:
• Fallen arches, locking knees, looking down

Modifications:
• Separate the feet and soften the knees for more stability

Final point:
• Smile, you’re awesome!

For more information about YOGA4MUMS please visit our website www.yoga4mums.com

Yoga 4 mums

written by Cathy Underwood : Founder and creative director of Yoga4mums
Based in Middlesex, married and mother of two boys.

Cathy Underwood set up her yoga company just over a year ago. Now she’s the proud winner of the Barclays Innovative Business of the Year Award 2009. She is currently developing online service and is a contestant in the Barclays Take One Small Step competition 2010.

cu@yoga4mums.com
+44 (0)870 626 2020
http://www.yoga4mums.com
https://www.takeonesmallstep.co.uk/Entry/View/3592


Yoga4mums is a unique health initiative designed to encourage mums of all ages and fitness levels, back into gentle exercise and back into a social network, using online modules, community based classes and donation packages.

The online and community classes offer mum consistent support for her physical and emotional health during the various stages of her life. Our donation packages invite a larger area of the community to come together, practice yoga and help ‘give back’ to local schools, charities and community projects.

The perfect tool for a busy mum, yoga exercise helps to improve posture, strength and flexibility with breathing and relaxation techniques to soothe emotional stress.

Our goal is to blend yoga exercise with these innovative ideas to enable mums, of all ages and abilities, to be more active and socially connect, bringing families together within the local and global community.

Community packages include:
• Local classes and monthly workshops
• Pre and post natal classes
• “School Run” Yoga
• Mother and baby
• Kids and teens, nurseries and schools
• Charity classes and donation packages
• Mental Health & Learning Disabilities support programmes

Business modules:
• Onsite training and donation classes
• Wellness days and weekends
• Alternative teambuilding events
• ‘Walk Yoga, Talk Yoga’ – an active networking group for working mums

We hope to help the community in the follow way:
• Inspire community health awareness and wellbeing
• Raise valuable funds for schools and charities
• Encourage social interaction
• Offer participants the recommended 30mins exercise per day
• Healthier workforce, better output, calmer working environment
• Calmer, fitter, focused children & young adults
• Improved relations within the family
• Employment

Yoga4mums believe there is a special empathy and synergy between mothers that can benefit, strengthen and nurture a community. Our community classes, “school run” yoga, workshops and events encourage women to come together and increase their awareness of general health and wellbeing. They begin to interact with likeminded people and start to benefit from their shared experiences. The friendships that begin to blossom ripple back into the community and a new network of families support one another.

Yoga exercise has enormous benefits. It is a non-competitive activity and encourages participants to work at their own pace. It is a wonderful tool that helps build great self-esteem as it combines physical and mental health techniques to aid emotional stress and encourage general wellbeing.

Yoga4mums is a conscientious business idea and our donation classes have helped benefit local charities and schools, raising significant funds for them. We currently support and provide classes for TreeHouse, the national charity for autism, Cancer Research UK and The Isobel Hospice, with a growing number of schools running sessions through their parents and teachers association.

Local businesses can benefit using our yoga modules too. We actively encourage local employers and employees to take extra measures to protect their physical and mental wellbeing. Using tailor-made modules, we can offer tools and techniques to help cope with the demands of the workplace. The current, global climate means we are all under pressure to perform well at work but this cannot be to the detriment of our physical and mental wellbeing. Yoga4mums have designed packages to encourage better internal, working relationships, to inspire a stress free workplace.

Health awareness starts within the family and who better to inspire them but mum. From the womb to adulthood mum is generally the driving force and if she is healthy and happy then the family will be too. In an age when online games and social networking distracts from family interaction Yoga4mums want to encourage active, interaction to include the entire family whatever the age or ability. Yoga4mums is a benefit to the community as participants contribute and connect with a strong sense of purpose.

To find out more please contact Cathy Underwood:
+44 (0)870 626 2020
email: cu@yoga4mums.com
Web: http://www.yoga4mums.com

To support this business please view our video pitch:
https://www.takeonesmallstep.co.uk/Entry/View/3592

Surfcastle - The lost paradise in Portugal

written by João Sepúlveda Castanheira
Co-founder of the Surfcastle


Let me introduce you to the Surfcastle… a vintage house located just by the edge of Baleal beach. This beach is described by the famous poet Raul Brandão as being “the most beautiful beach in Portugal”… and truly, the geographical shape of this coastline is quite unique ! Imagine three beautiful bays with miles of sandy beaches and countless surf spots… well this is reality in Portugal and the Surfcastle is located right in the center of it all…








The village of Baleal is amazing with the peculiar houses surrounded by the Ocean… it almost feels like you are living in a big boat ! Peniche is the main town which lies just 3 Km. south… a city that is literally focused towards the sea. We are working together with the city hall of Peniche and with several ecofriendly organizations in order to create a cleaner and greener environment in this region ( you can follow their work on the following websites:
http://www.cm-peniche.pt/he.pt/ ; http://associacaoarmeria.blogspot.com/ ; http://www.geota.pt/coastwatch/cw_portugal/index.html ). There is also the medieval town of Óbidos just 20 min away, a fascinating place lost in time… like a fortified town inside the city walls !



Our house was built in 1921 just after the first World War by an eccentric millionaire… he wanted to build a mansion in a very remote and beautiful place… the location of the house is perfect because Baleal beach is one of the few spots that has sea on both sides (North & South)… all the rooms in the main house of the Surfcastle are located in the first floor of the house and offer a panoramic view over this unique beach. The interiors are mostly made of wood and we try to use natural fabrics as much as possible.






Photo by Laura Putter








In October 2006, the owners decided to transform this amazing property in to a bed & breakfast guest house with a Surf school… this was the only way to give maintenance to such an amazing house in a eco friendly environment… our goal is to allow our guests to have contact with this amazing sport called Surfing… we help them learn to Surf, and more important than that… we share our peculiar beach life style in harmony with the nature, the waves and the Ocean itself !









Surfers are responsible for rescuing many swimmers in our coastline and even animals. Our students generate a great bond with the sea just by having surf lessons with us… they immediately fall in love with the waves, and the beach… a deep sense of respect and caring by the Nature develops and this is very visible specially with the kids !



Come & visit us anytime, for more information please visit: http://www.surfcastle.pt/ing/index.html

Photos by

Arthur Lavooy www.arts-pictures.nl/framesetartspictures.htm