Shazia Omar

Physical wellbeing and mental wellbeing are inextricably linked. To empower our youth with the knowledge and skills needed to be healthy in mind, body and spirit, a systems approach must be adopted.

Emerging research suggests that yoga may serve as a preventive measure against dementia and cognitive degeneration.

The act of journaling is not merely putting pen to paper; it’s a gateway to self-discovery, a path to healing, and a way to navigate the bustling world with clarity and purpose. Journaling inspires creativity as a writer and a sense of self-acceptance, as one begins to see events and emotions from a different perspective. It also helps us rewrite our own narrative, once, twice, weekly, daily, until we find a story that empowers us; a story of learning and healing and growth.

It’s not enough to rely on pharmaceuticals to save us when we are sick. We need to make our constitutions strong through yoga and herbal supplements that have been known to help humans for centuries.

Nauli Kriya is a yogic cleansing practice that involves isolating and churning the abdominal muscles and organs. While it's not a direct treatment for medical conditions like irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), constipation, or gas problems, some practitioners and yogic traditions believe that it can have a positive impact on digestive health.

Grief can manifest in the body as tension, tightness, and emotional distress, and yoga poses can provide relief and a holistic approach to healing. Here’s how yoga poses can assist in releasing grief.

The purpose of yoga is to achieve liberation from suffering through the realisation of our true nature. By practicing the eight limbs of yoga, we purify our conscience so we can perceive our inner divinity. Two of these eight limbs, the yamas and niyamas, are the social and personal ethics that form the foundation of a yogic lifestyle that enables us to advance along a spiritual path towards enlightenment. These are tools for cultivating happiness and self-confidence. When you come across an obstacle, a moment that tries your patience, a person that rubs you the wrong way, think of it as an opportunity to practice using these tools. This will help you put your spirituality into action.

Yoga is relevant in our age. Far from being mystical and otherworldly, it is a teaching firmly grounded in the physiological realities of science. Our experience of the world depends entirely on the state of our nervous system. This, in turn, is influenced by a host of factors – genes, diet, environment, and lifestyle. If the nervous system is fresh and rested, the body is healthy and the mind is alert. As a result, our thoughts are powerful and clear, our actions, which are manifested thoughts, are successful and rewarding.

There are many wisdom traditions and spiritual maps to help you journey inwards. Yoga is one of these. Vedic scholars in ancient India spent many years in meditation to intuit this knowledge. Buddha studied with many of these teachers before his awakening. The knowledge was passed down orally till they were most accurately transcribed in The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. For this article, I am drawing from a fabulously accessible version translated by Alistair Shearer.

Every now and then, you come across a place where you would like to pitch your tent and stay forever. For me, that’s Indaba Studio in Marylebone, London.

Looking for a meaningful way to celebrate your holidays? I’ve got just the treat for you!

We all carry habit energy, learned behaviours, picked up from our parents. We carry the wounded inner children of our parents and ancestors within us. The past is not gone if the suffering is still there. We must recognise the presence of the suffering, listen to our inner child, and tenderly embrace the child to heal the suffering.

Om Mani Padme Hum. Known as the Compassion Mantra, or the Jewel in the Lotus, this is a powerful Buddhist prayer. This mantra is a tool to train the mind to achieve ultimate peace and enjoyment. The mind dictates our experience of happiness and sadness, so we must learn to control our mind.

It is more than just a tireless muscle that governs our flow of blood to the rest of the body; the heart is also an energy centre that governs our ability to give and receive love, and our ability to heal from loss and grief.

Nau means boat (like nauka) and Li means cling, so in nauli kriya, the abdominal muscles cling to the abdominal wall while moving like a boat on the rolling waves of the ocean. It allows you to massage the organs in your abdominal region through the circular movement of the abdominal muscles.

Ashtanga is a vigorous and demanding physical practice. Maintaining a daily routine of the ‘primary series,’ as the sequence of asanas is called, requires discipline and dedication as well as an entire overhaul of one’s lifestyle.

The body is more than the sum of its parts. It is physical and energetic. Various parts of our body generate various frequencies and the body

Ujayi breath — breath of fire — helps us burn away toxins in our system. Prana is the life force, also known as chi, ki, and the Force in various cultures. We inhale ‘prana,’ and to expand our capacity to draw in more life force we practice ‘pranayama,’ or perform breathing techniques designed to increase the flow of prana.

I recently had the pleasure of meeting Fish in Sri Lanka. His approach to yoga as a form of healing and therapy was gentle and inspiring. The following is a takeaway from that meeting.

If your new year’s resolution included health, happiness and positive lifestyle, then making time for a yoga retreat is the best gift you can give yourself.