I want to say a massive thank you to all of you wonderful human beings for coming to my classes and courses, for reading my (not so perfect english) newsletters and for engage in my social media for the last year.
I am always looking for ways of engaging with you to share this journey and practice, and to assist you in your unique path. So when I reflect on your participation, your openness to the teachings and your desire to practice with me, I feel truly blessed and humbled.  
So thank you so very much for allowing me to be part of your journey.

Now that the cold winter days are drawing in and the sparkly christmas lights can be seen all around and christmas is just around the corner I wanted to share with you a very simple practice that helps me when I feel stressed out, overwhelmed, or irritated.
This time of year can be full of a range of emotions and many people find this time of year particularly difficult.
Hopefully you will have a totally blissful, relaxed and fun filled Christmas holiday and won't need this, but just in case your Christmas gets crazy busy with loads of family and celebrations, you might find the Hour-Glass Practice (below) useful.

Wishing you a very happy, and peaceful Christmas and New Year.

With love,
Kerstin X

You can imagine this practice shaped like an hour-glass...
 
1, Acknowledging 
Bring yourself into the present moment by deliberately adopting a dignified posture.
Then ask:
                            What is going on with me at the moment?

Notice and acknowledge your experience, instead of turning away. Accept all your experiences in the body. Emotions and thoughts, and stay with them for a few moments, allowing any negative feelings or experiences to be present.
 
2. Gather
Then gently focus your full attention on to the breathing.
Experience fully each in-breath and each out-breath as
they follow one after the other.
The breath can function as an anchor
to bring you into the present and to help
you tune in to a state of awareness and stillness.
 
3. Expanding awareness
Expand your awareness beyond the breath to the whole body, and the space it takes up, as if your whole body is breathing. Having a sense of space around you, too. Hold everything in awareness.
 
You can find a guided version of this practice on
SoundCloud
​Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction CourseMindfulness is a training of the mind in awareness.
Life in today’s world can often feel like a never-ending rollercoaster and many people suffer with stress, anxiety, overwhelm and low mood.
Mindfulness can be a way of dealing with the demands of life and enable us to be with things as they are, even when they are difficult.
Through the practice of Mindfulness we can increase our ability to know what goes on in our internal world and in our external world.
This allows us to notice our emotions more easily and enables us to respond from a place of choice. Mindfulness enables us to notice and fully enjoy the good moments whilst becoming more approaching of the difficult.

Simply put:
‘It’s finding peace in a frantic world during frantic times.’ – Jon Kabat-Zinn

I am writing to you on this occasion as perhaps this is a good time to share the idea of bringing our practice of Yoga and Mindfulness into our daily life's.
The tragic events that have been unfolding over the last few month in the UK with repeated terrorist attacks on innocent civilians, has brought me on a rollercoaster of emotions.
Anger, sadness, fear, despair, hope, the list goes on...

As these emotions arise and change, I practice to embrace them, to hold them gently and to allow them to pass and change. 
Practicing in this way is very helpful for me personally, as my mind and body can process recent events and how they make me feel without getting caught.
However, my practice doesn't seem to make a difference to others, to people suffering.

My teacher, Michael Stone, often talks about our practice as useless, unless we are bringing the practice into our daily life. Our practice, whether Yoga or Mindfulness or something else, should be informed by a commitment to social action and positive change.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama talks about; 'making our life count'  and to 'commit to making the world a better place right were we are and right in this moment.' 
So with that in mind, I often find myself thinking, HOW?
How can I change the world? How can I have a positive impact on the suffering in the world? 
So recently, I remembered a story that Thich Nath Han told on one of his retreats. The story was about a little boy that he had encountered.
The boy was sitting in a hall with a big smile on his face.
When Thich Nath Han saw the boy, he said to him: 'You have a beautiful smile.'
To which the boy answered; 'Thank you.'
Thich Nath Han said to the boy; ' You don’t need to thank me. I am thankful to you.
You should say; 'You are welcome.'

Isn't that a lovely story?
It highlights beautifully how something we are perhaps unaware of, something seemingly small, can have a positive impact on others.
And it shows very simply and beautifully that our smile, our practice, can bring joy and comfort to everyone around us.
That our way of being, the simple and joyous act of smiling can make all the difference to others and ourselves.


So when we notice the wonderful things, the beautiful things in our life, and around us, something happens physically.
Our jaw relaxes, the soft pallet at the roof of the mouth lifts, the eyes soften, and we smile.
In that moment we are present, we are open and engaged with life, with our surroundings and with being alive.
And this we can practice.
Thich Nath Han teaches this simple practice. 
Breathing in – I calm my body and mind
Breathing out – I smile (actually smile)
This can be practiced at any time and anywhere. Wether life is awesome or life gives us lemons, we can be the change.
We are all on this earth together, and bringing attention to what I can do right were I am gives me a sense of hope, comfort and the ability to begin again and again. And it keeps me committed to keep practicing. 
I will practice this from today, so watch out for my smile. I hope you will join me in this practice and perhaps share it with others.
​
Love K