I can’t help myself. Soup is the yummiest, fastest, easiest and most nutritious food in the world. As soon as the temperature drops below, er, 21 degrees, I’m in the kitchen with my blender. And I totally make it up every time.

Here’s what I made for dinner tonight (it’s currently sitting on the cooktop, steeping in its own goodness).  The recipe name says it all. 

There’s not much in my pantry Soup

Ingredients

1 Beetroot chopped in to 1cm chunks

1 medium sized sweet potato chopped in to 1cm chunks

½ cup split yellow peas

1 onion, sliced

3 garlic cloves, sliced

2cm square piece of ginger, sliced

1.5 cups veg stock

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp tumeric

3 cardamom pods

2 cloves

1tsp olive oil

Method

Jane Emerson, a Monday morning regular at Adore Yoga, shares her experience of yoga at Adore.

"I tried yoga & pilates classes several years ago at various locations. I mostly felt the classes were a one size fits all bodies and fitness levels, besides the fact the classes were generally too crowded & quite impersonal.

In stark contrast the classes at Adore Yoga are a great size & small enough that you get plenty of individual feedback & guidance.

It is the first time I can honestly say I've enjoyed any fitness class & have felt a real benefit from the classes I have done with the lovely Sarah & Nikola at the Avenue Rd studio. Not to mention the first time I have kept re-enrolling in a class.

Adore has a very pleasant environment with excellent instructors who guide you - working with your ability & pace; no forcing you into a pretzel shape but definitely feel the workout each time.

I feel I am making progress from each class & over time building up some much needed core strength. I am so very happy to have found Adore Yoga studios."

Thanks for sharing, Jane!

I’ve discovered a revolutionary new wellness routine. It makes me feel as fantastic as when I first discovered yoga over 20 years ago (and that’s a BIG claim!) 

The amazing thing is that it takes 5 minutes and I do it in bed with my ipad every night. Sounds too good to be true? Try it and judge for yourself (you don’t even need an ipad)!

Every day I use a handy little app* (you can use a notepad and pen) to record my answers to four simple questions:

1. What am I grateful for today?

2. What exercise have I done?

3. When did I take my meditation break?

4. What acts of kindness did I offer?

That’s all there is to it. What’s more, this technique has been scientifically demonstrated to improve your levels of happiness and wellbeing.  

The four questions are courtesy of Shawn Achor, a Harvard fellow working in the field of applied positive psychology. This rapidly growing discipline is generating hard data that demonstrates what does, and doesn’t, work when it comes to feeling great.

Not surprisingly, most of it has direct parallels with yoga and Achor’s four questions offer a modern take on Patanjali’s 8 limbs of yoga:

1. Gratitude = Samtosha

2. Exercise = Asana

3. Meditation = Meditation!

4. Kindness = Ahimsa

The 8 limbs, as described by the ancient sage Patanjali in The Yoga Sutras are:

Yama – guidelines for getting on with others

Niyama – guidelines for developing positive personal habits

Asana – yoga poses

Pranayama – breathing exercises

Pratyahara – withdrawal of the senses

Dharana – concentrating on a single train of thought

Dhyana – single-pointed concentration 

Samadhi – complete absorption in the object of concentration

The first Yama is Ahimsa. Often translated as ‘non-harming’, the great teacher TKV Desikachar describes Ahimsa as “consideration towards others” – kindness. 

Gratitude is reflected in the Niyama Samtosha (contentment).  One of the most effective ways to cultivate contentment is to practice gratitude. When you contemplate all the things you have to be grateful for, you start to develop a delicious sense of contentment.

Exercise is taken care of with Asana (yoga poses). Both Patanjali and modern science recognize a healthy body as being integral our overall wellbeing. However, both approaches make it clear that exercise (or Asana) alone is not enough if we want lasting happiness.

Meditation has been shown in numerous scientific studies to be highly effective at increasing happiness. Patanjali dedicates half of the 8 limbs to meditation, starting with withdrawing from external distractions (Pratyahara) and moving to total absorption (Samadhi – the state of bliss). It’s no accident that both ancient and modern wisdom place such strong emphasis on meditation.

The sheer volume of yogic teachings can be overwhelming and the simplicity of Achor’s four questions provides a practical framework for developing a daily practice. The 5 minutes I spend answering these questions each night ensures that I reflect on how I’ve spent my day and sets my internal compass in the right direction for the day to come. 

*The app, which works on iphone and ipad, is called iJournal and is available from the Apple apps store.

I love the end of Daylight Savings - it makes getting up for those 6.30am classes so much easier! Although I miss the fun of summer, Autumn’s my favourite season and I enjoy the challenge of adapting my yoga practice to each new phase of the year.

You probably already know that we tailor each class to the needs of our students at Adore Yoga, but did you know that we make subtle adjustments to the poses each term so that your yoga practice is in harmony with the seasons?

According to Ayurveda, India’s ancient system of wellbeing, everybody and everything is composed of three basic types of energy, or doshas – Vata, Pitta and Kapha. It is the interplay of these three energies that creates your personal constitution and determines your patterns of health and wellbeing.  

Autumn is Vata time when we become more susceptible to health issues specifically connected to Vata dosha, such as skin dryness, constipation, insomnia, tics & twitches, joint stiffness and feelings of overwhelm, exhaustion and anxiety. 

During Autumn we focus on Vata balancing poses. These are warming, grounding, calming and focus on core strength and flexibility. Navasana (Boat Pose) fits the bill perfectly and you’ll find plenty of variations on this pose in your classes at Adore this Autumn.

Autumn Pose - Navasana (Boat Pose)

Benefits: Strengthens the back, thighs and abdominal muscles. 

Contraindications: Avoid this pose if you have neck problems, back issues such as prolapsed disc, heart problems, pregnancy or low blood pressure.

Preparation: Sun salutes and downward facing dog are good ways to prepare for this pose.

Counterpose: Gentle seated forward bend with knees bent.

Instructions:

1. From Dandasana (Staff Pose) bend the knees so the feet are flat on the floor, legs and knees together. Hold the backs of the knees. 

2. Inhale to lift the sternum and lengthen the back of the neck, chin tucked in.

3. Exhale and lean back on the sitting bones, lifting the feet until the ankles are in line with the knees.

4. Inhale to straighten the legs, letting go of the knees and holding the arms out in front of you at shoulder height. If this causes strain, return to step 3.

5. Make sure the chest is lifted and the spin is long – no ‘rounding’ through the upper back. Extend through the legs by pressing the heels away from you.

6. Hold the pose for 10 to 60 seconds. Lengthen the neck and spine with each inhale, gently draw in the lower abdominal muscles with each exhale.

7. To release the pose, bend the knees and return to Dandasana.

8. Release the back muscles by bending the knees slightly and folding into a forward bend.

You’ll enjoy the feeling of strength and groundedness you get from practicing Navasana. Of course, not everybody benefits from the same poses, so if you feel pain or discomfort doing Navasana, there are other poses that will strengthen your core and keep you grounded – just ask your teacher and they will help you tailor an Autumnal, Vata calming yoga practice that suits your body.

Nikola Ellis is the founder and principal teacher at Adore Yoga.

Want to do a home yoga routine but can never find the time? Have you ever decided to do a regular meditation practice, only to find yourself constantly distracted by ‘more important’ things? Here’s the secret: save yourself 20 seconds and you’ll gain several hours to dedicate to your practice.

Willpower alone is not enough to get us into a daily yoga or meditation routine, according to psychologist Shawn Achor. In his book, The Happiness Advantage, he demonstrates the 20 Second Rule that really will get you on your mat every morning. Simply follow the same technique that Achor used to cut down his TV viewing time so that he could be more productive in the evenings.

Achor took the batteries out of the remote control and put them in a bedroom draw. The 20 seconds it would have taken him to replace the batteries was enough extra effort to make it easier for him to reach for the book he’d carefully left on the couch. By adding just 20 seconds to his habitual routine of flicking on the TV, he saved 3 hours that he could now spend productively.

He also found that his sporadic guitar practice became a daily habit when he stopped keeping the guitar in the cupboard and left it in the middle of the lounge room on a music stand. The 20 seconds it used to take him to get the guitar out of the cupboard was just enough extra effort to stop him from practicing every day. When the guitar was right there in the room, there was no resistance to picking it up and practicing.

You can apply exactly the same 20 Second Rule to your yoga and meditation practice. Simply roll out your mat, or set up your meditation cushions, right by your bed or in your lounge before you go to bed (or before you leave the house if you intend to practice in the evening). Keep your practice paraphernalia to a minimum – do you really need music/incense/special clothes to meditate?  Remember the 20 second rule - the more effort you have to put in, the less likely you are to do your practice. Keep it simple – just you and your mat – and you’ll find you enjoy more bliss time and less procrastination. 

Nikola Ellis is the founder of Adore Yoga.

During the time I was having chemotherapy, I attended a local movie premier of Sex in the City. The evening was a fundraiser for breast cancer. Given the nature of the movie, the cinema was naturally full of women with the odd token male. As I casually looked around I sadly observed that one woman in each row of the cinema would be affected by breast cancer within her lifetime.

The latest statistics from The Cancer Council NSW state that one in seven women will develop breast cancer by the age of 75. This is an astonishing figure! I had heard these figures myself in the media many times, however, I was one of those people who had thought to herself, “not me, I’m too young, I’m too healthy.”

I was diagnosed with breast cancer in January 2008 at the age of thirty-three. I must admit it came as a rude shock as I had considered myself in near perfect health condition. I led a holistic and balanced lifestyle with a nutritious diet, exercised regularly and practised yoga and meditation.  As most of my friends commented, I was the last person that they would expect to be diagnosed  with the disease.

To me breast cancer was for older women although in recent years media portrayal of the stories of Kylie Minogue, Deltra Goodrem and Belinda Emmett had brought to the forefront that breast cancer does affect young women too.

As a yoga teacher, my job is all about the connection between the body, mind and spirit. Yoga is about our relationships, with ourselves, with others and our environment. From a yogic perspective, I did not believe that my breast cancer was random or that I was plain unlucky. In yoga, disease is caused when one becomes dis-connected on some level.

Ayurveda is the ancient Indian healing modality that addresses not only the physical body, but the cause of the disease.  From an Ayurvedic perspective causes of breast cancer are both hereditary and acquired; the acquired causes being physical, emotional, spiritual, and environmental (Alakananda Devi Director of Alandi Ayurvedic Clinic, Colorado).

Ruling out genetics and many of the other contributing factors that are listed as putting one at ‘risk’, I innately knew that I would have to search deep within to understand where my disease had stemmed from on an emotional and spiritual level. 

Yoga and Ayurveda considers each person a multi-dimensional human being and therefore addresses illness and healing in a holistic way. According to yoga, there are five layers to our existence; our physical body (annamaya); our breathing/energy level (pranamaya); our intellect (manomaya); our personality/nature (vijnamaya); and the level of bliss/spirit (anandamaya). All of these levels are entwined, interconnected. What is manifested on one level affects the other levels. The body is not considered separate from the mind. 

For example, an illness can appear on the physical level, however it's cause may be caused from the emotions such as when we are sick with worry, or have indigestion after being angry.

Daniel Goleman in the book Healing Emotions (Daniel Goleman, Shambala 1997) stated; “The weight of scientific data shows that the link between emotions and health is particularly strong for negative feelings: anger, anxiety, and depression. These states, if strong and prolonged, can increase vulnerability to disease, worsen the symptoms, or hinder recovery. On the other hand, more positive states like equanimity and optimism seem to have salutary effects on health”.

With my belief and personal understanding that I had developed breast cancer as a result that on some level other than my physical body, there was ‘dis-ease’. The cancer was a result of an imbalance within my emotional being. I thus began my inward search to find the cause. 

In my research on breast cancer I came across very little written about the link between emotions and breast cancer. I was amazed that so many women had breast cancer and so much money is being poured into research for a cure, but no one is looking at the root causes to the disease. 

Within Western medicine, the cause of breast cancer is stated as ‘unknown’ but there are some factors known to increase the chance of developing breast cancer such as; being overweight, high alcohol consumption, use of the birth control pill, hormone therapy treatment, not having children or having them later in life (Cancer Council NSW).

My inward quest to learning more about the causes of breast cancer led me to an energetic healing modality called AcuEnergetics, which helped me to understand how it was that I was holding (emotionally) that contributed to the breast cancer. To cut a long story short – I was holding in my heart. I had lived my life in “protection mode” so as not to get hurt. This is a really common thing for women to do – hence the large number of women with breast cancer.

My more recent studies of energy healing with Universal Medicine has helped me to understand that the energetic root underlying cause of breast cancer is due to lack of self-nurturing. It’s that simple. We do not love and nurture ourselves enough. To know this and then to change how we are is another (and much harder) story. 

We need to address the energy that we are living in. Learn to be gentle in our bodies. Some simple examples to look at within ourselves are; how do I walk? How do I open the door? How do I make my cup of tea? How do I do my yoga postures? How do I breathe? Is it with a hardness in my body or could I do these things with a gentle energy? How do I feel when I breathe a gentle breath? How do I feel when I walk in a gentle rhythm? Having learnt to make these changes in my own life, I can tell you, it feels beautiful.  When I live in gentleness, I re-connect with myself and I feel like me. The hardness, the pain, the anger and other negative emotions and behaviours start to drop away. The beauty of who we really are (in yoga this is referred to the anandamaya) starts to shine.

So that you do not become a statistic and perhaps saving yourself from surgery, chemotherapy and radiation therapy, you might want to consider in each moment, what is my relationship to myself?  Am I holding onto resentment, anger? Can I feel constriction around my heart? Can I be more gentle with myself and really start to self-nurture and self-love by changing the energy that I live in. 

This requires time and commitment. I consistently work on this on a daily basis. By doing  this, I do not live in fear of a reoccurence, as I know that I’m addressing the root cause of my cancer.

Donna Gianniotis is an experienced and inspiring yoga teacher who offers Yoga for Cancer classes at Adore Yoga on Sundays at 10am and Hatha Yoga classes on Sundays at 11am. 

Yin Yoga Teacher Sarah Corbett

This workshop is about learning how to bring balance into your lives through yoga, through the art of the yogic breath and learning from the ancient science of Chinese Meridian Theory. 

Yoga can bring immediate positive benefits to our lives and in Yin yoga we learn how to have a more skillful inward drawn practice.  We learn how to relax during a posture and be less reactive to the challenges of a pose.  This in turn helps us to build less reactive responses to life’s challenges that we face daily.

Yin poses are traditionally cooling, calming and collective.  They are soft, slow and still.  We target the energy channels or meridians of the body thorough specially adapted Yin poses, using lots of soft comfy blankets and bolsters to help even the stiffest of us.  The energy or ‘chi’ in the meridians is enhanced by encouraging chi flow and removing energy blockages in these invisible energetic pathways during practice.  Balance is brought back to the subtle energy body.

Everyone can benefit from learning how to calm the nervous system, especially us busy Mums who are always left till last!  (Really Dads should be coming too !) A Yin practice is also a wonderful way to start building a foundation for a more meditative practice.  Expect to feel completely revitalized and to have a renewed sense of energy and wellbeing.  As a dear non yogi friend said to me recently after a class, ‘I don’t know how it works, but it does.’ 

Yin has been increasingly popular in the West after hundreds of years of practice in the East.  Yogis such as Sarah Powers and Paul Grilley have brought this type of yoga to the West after years of study in the East. You can check out their recent DVDs and books on their websites. 

I was fortunate enough to have had Sarah Powers as my teacher after years of a muddled yoga practice, always imagining I had to grow and ‘get better’ at yoga.  Yin was a revelation to me, not just as a yoga teacher but as a mother, learning how to accept life’s changes and the inevitability of learning how to slow down gracefully !

Give yourself the gift of learning how to really use your intuition in your yoga practice and making it completely your own. 

Sarah is a Level 2 teacher with Yoga Australia and Yoga Alliance USA and a Certified Yin/Yang Yoga Teacher with Sarah Powers.  She has also completed her Birthlight Pregnancy and Baby Yoga certification and is now working towards her Diplomas.  She is a qualified Senior First Aid member with the Australian Surf Life Saving Academy. 

Sarah's Yin Yoga workshop runs on Saturday 24 March 12pm - 3pm BOOK NOW

Maurice takes his yoga seriously, but his personal warmth brings great lightness and humour into his classes. It’s a compelling combination that has created a loyal following of happy students! A native Chilean, Maurice has lived in Australia for 27 yrs and has been teaching his extremely popular Hatha, Vinyasa and Ashtanga style classes at Adore Yoga since 2006.

When and why did you start doing yoga?
 
Way back in 1995 I found myself going through a tough time! I had a friend who told me that yoga was a fantastic way to see things as they really are and that it was a great way to find clarity and meet beautiful genuine people. This was the beginning of change for me as it helped me realize my full potential as a person and realize how much I was able to improve myself so I could become a better man!

Since then I did yoga teacher training at Qi Yoga, where Nikola Ellis was one of my trainers, and became a Yoga teacher in 2005. I undertook an apprenticeship with Debra Grant and have pursued endless further studies and workshops on Meditation, Pranayama and Asana, including ongoing further training the Eileen Hall (certified Ashtanga Teacher/ Mentor) in Sydney.

What do you love most about yoga?
 
I love everything about yoga, how I am able to integrate every breath with every single movement, how it brings me into stillness and the peaceful feeling that fills me physically and mentally after every practice session. I love the discipline that it's required of me to put myself on my mat and the results that I have been able to achieve as a person - mentally, spiritually and physically.

Yoga helps me every day. It has made me a better listener and has helped me be more compassionate. It has greatly improved my level of tolerance and it has opened my heart to give and receive love, understand and to forgive! And it helps me everyday to let go of what has happened and learn to live the NOW and to always do things with integrity and with good intentions!

Teaching allows me to share every single thing I have learned and felt through my own practice:  the joy and happiness, achievements, feelings, thoughts, disappointments and how important it is to teach with safety and integrity whilst respecting boundaries and allowing time, dedication, patience and discipline to guide you through this beautiful journey.
 
What advice will you give to a beginner student?
 
To learn to let go of the ego (Yoga's worst nightmare!) Yoga is not about being flexible but rather we are here to teach the mind how to be still! Yoga is about inner observance and inner acceptance - it is ok not to be flexible. Yoga is about finding your own inner boundaries and respecting these boundaries. Physical flexibility is an extra added bonus that will eventually happen with time!

Maurice teaches the following classes at Adore Yoga: 

Friday 9.15am Hatha, Friday 10.30am Vinyasa, Saturday 7.45am Ashtanga style, Saturday 9.15am Hatha. BOOK NOW

I've been writing materials for our Mentoring Program and it's set me thinking about what we stand for at Adore Yoga. Why do we only teach small classes? Why don't we hire newly minted teachers with industry minimum qualifications? What's the point of yoga?!

I wrote down a few of my strongest held beliefs about yoga and the list started to crystalise into a sort of values statement. A manifesto. It's still a work in progress, but I thought I'd share it with you and see what you thought. What would you add to this:

The Adore Yoga Manifesto

1. Yoga is important. It changes lives because it changes our understanding of who we are.  

2. Yoga is more than 60 minutes of asana. It’s a rich tradition that brings lasting personal transformation.

3. Authentic yoga is taught by experienced, well trained teachers who never stop learning from their own experienced, authentic teachers.

4. The best yoga style is the one most suited to your individual  needs. There is no single system or approach that is right for everybody.

5. Yoga is safest and most effective when it is adapted to each individual in small groups or one-on-one.

6. Yoga is about relationships: your relationship with yourself, your relationship with the world and your relationship with your true source.

7. Yoga uses many tools, including movement, breath, concentration, a healthy lifestyle and mindful action to help us remove the obstacles to a happy, peaceful and authentic life.

Donna Gianniotis is an experienced teacher who specialises in supporting students who are going through treatment for cancer. Having been through breast cancer herself, Donna's yoga story is fascinating and inspiring. We are honoured to have Donna join us at Adore Yoga. 

When and why did you start doing yoga 

I did my first yoga class on a trip to India 15 years ago. I tried it because everyone else was doing it in India! I was very sceptical about it, but from that first class, something happened. I felt, for the first time in my life, more of a quietness in my mind. I had made a connection to my body. 

Tell us about how that connection has helped you in recent years.

I was diagnosed with breast cancer 4 years ago. I underwent surgery, chemotherapy and radiation. My yoga and meditation practise was my rock throughout the year that I underwent treatment for the cancer. I felt very lucky to have the tools through yoga to support my physical body, my emotional body and my mind.

What kind of yoga did you practice during your treatment for cancer?

Gentle asana was really important after surgery to regain the full movement of my arm (after having 12 lymph nodes removed) as well as supporting my body through the aches and pains associated with chemotherapy. Breathing practices and meditation were a daily practice (and still are). These practices were so important at that time because our minds can easily project into an unknown future. Meditation helps to keep you in the present moment, to take each day as it comes and to find some stillness and peace within the storm of the cloud. 

What advice about yoga would you give a student experiencing a serious health issue? 

Yoga is a great tool that can work alongside traditional Western medicine to look after your inner world. Yoga means 'union' and it is about re-connecting to ourselves. The reason that we have illness and dis-ease is because somewhere along the line we have disconnected from ourselves. To put it simply, our mind is not with what our bodies is doing. Yoga on the mat helps us to re-establish this connection to ourselves and then hopefully we can then start to take this into our daily living, in all that we do. So my advice, practice yoga to help re-establish this relationship to yourself. But the practice can't remain on the mat, it must go with you into your work, play and relationships. 

What keeps you coming back to the yoga mat every day?

I love the re-connection that is made to myself in the practise and, as a teacher, I love the feeling in a class when students re-connect to themselves. It supports everything in my life, from swimming, snorkelling & bushwalking to my continued studies and practise in energy healing and energy medicine.

Donna is teaching a workshop for students going through cancer on Saturday 10th March, 12-2pm (book here) and will be running a 5 week course for students with cancer on Sundays at 10am from 18 March (book here).