Yoga Festival

Today I went to the British Yoga Festival and demo'ed a bit of my yoga practice by the Bikram Highbury and Islington stand.  I probably slightly veered from my actual yoga practice and did a whole load of handstands that are not totally yoga... but still, i had fun :)  A photographer called Jan took some lovely video and pictures of me which i will upload soon.

I was asked roughly the same 3 questions by a lot of people at the festival, and I thought I would write this blog post too which answers a lot of them.

Were you a dancer or a gymnast?
Yes I was a gymnast in my youth.  I competed at regional level in Womens Artistic Gymnastics, and i was a base in Acrobatic Gymnastics for a few years to an elite level though never competed it.  When people ask me if i was a gymnast it makes me laugh, i'm now 32, i dabbled with adult gymnastics sessions but it has been a while since i wore a gymnastics leotard, you would never catch me running towards a vault ever ever again.  I have not been to the gym much for the last two years because of my knees, although i would love to go soon and swing some giant circles round the pit bar for fun.  I have performed handbalance and aerial for ten years, i did not go to a circus school, my teacher was myself and my video camera, when i learnt there were not very many people doing what i do to teach me in the UK so i ended up teaching myself with input now and then from other working professionals.
Yoga goes beyond the asana, my background may provide some transferable abilities for asana, but i learn more each day with my daily practice from all of the different limbs of yoga.

How long have you practiced for?
I went to my first yoga class in 2009, i have had a regular and daily practice since Feb 2013, I mainly practice the Bikram 26+2 series, and also an advanced series.  I also have a self practice at home.

Are you a yoga teacher?
I am a teacher of handbalance and flexibility and acrobatics.  I am not (yet) specifically a yoga teacher.  One day when i am able to save enough money i would love to go to teacher training, sadly i have no savings and earn just about enough to survive and not much more.  One day i would love to share my knowledge with others and give back to others what i am so fortunate to have been able to learn myself.

Sally Xx 

Bend so you do not Break

I bend so i do not break.

Backbending feels so beautiful to my spine.  We were given joints in our spine for a reason and the spine is designed to bend backwards. We just as humans never use backbending in everyday life, so we tighten up, then complain we have bad backs.  Backbending not only feels gorgeous and releasing but it keeps my spine healthy  :)

Be you, be unique

Because you are awesome.

I am in competition with noone

I hope we all get out of life happiness and do what we dream of doing.  I wish for noone to fall for me to succeed.  I wish for everyone to live to their maximum potentials and show how awesome they are.  I wish to be able to help people and not just focus on myself, i wish to pass on my knowledge and wisdoms.  I expect nothing in return.  I wish for everyone to smile and be happy on their journey through life. Xxx

My Diet

I haven't updated this blog for a while... I guess i have been too busy standing upside down on my hands, or in a yoga class!  Also sometimes i write posts and then realise i am just ranting about something that is more personal than i would allow published on my blog, and so i have a selection of written but never published blog posts!

Today I want to write about something though that always gets me!  Diet.  Whenever i go on a gig i can guarantee that i will be asked if i follow a special diet.  I guess because i am slim athletic build, and perform very bendy things.

If I was writing this blog post 5 years ago i think it would be different to today, 5 years ago i ate a lot of processed foods, i was still the same build i am today but my diet was terribly unhealthy.  Although i did eat vegetables I did not know what kale was and the thought of a green juice would terrify me.

Then I hit 30, i moved into Unit 6b where i was surrounded by healthy eaters, i began a regular yoga practice, and i realised how shocking my diet was.

It wasn't sudden but gradually my diet morphed into eating a lot of healthy things.  It sounds weird but when you start fueling your body with goodness then you realise how horrid your body feels when you pump it full of the wrong fuels.  Last night I was on a gig and they fed us a burger and chips with one slice of tomato and one lettuce leaf, i would have loved this in previous years, but all i wanted/craved was a big plate of vegetables.

So the age old question that i constantly get asked!  What do I eat.

Well I like to try and stay roughly to 80% healthy and 20% whatever I like, because if i deny myself certain things then they are all i want.

Breakfast: Despite breakfast being a really important meal i do not really have breakfast, mainly because i prefer to have an extra 1/2 hour in bed, i also go to yoga class for roughly 10am and do not like doing it on a belly of food and by the time yoga is over it is lunch time.  What i do try and do when i wake up in the morning is have a big glass of water (well not water but i'll come to that later).  Sometimes i grab a banana on the way out the door.

Lunch: I hate hate hate a big lunch, if i have a big lunch i have a little dinner.  If i could have a kale and peanut salad from Leon every day for lunch i would, but when i can't then i have a juice or something.  I do snack throughout the day on fruit/chocolate/cake/nuts, so i am eating, just not 2 big meals.  Re-reading this it sounds like i hardly eat, i assure you i do, and i do snack a lot.

I LOVE green juices.  I have one most days.  My favourite i swish up in my Vitamix and has all or a mixture of the following: cucumber, celery, kale, spinach, carrot, lime, pear or apple, honey, massive chunk of ginger, water or coconut water, a sprinkling of chia seeds on the top.
I also LOVE a slightly unhealthier power shake containing: banana, chocolate koko milk, cinnamon, honey, peanut butter, chia seeds sprinkled on top.

Dinner: Mainly vegetables.  I am a bit boring but i usually have the same because i love it: tenderstem brocolli, asparagus, baby sweetcorn, green fine beans, kale, carrot, butternut squash, all together is one big yummy plate of goodness.  Sometimes i put chicken on there.   Sometimes though i'll eat a pizza, sometimes i will order a takeaway from the curry house (i love curry!), and if i go back to my mums she cooks me a feast.  I also make some lovely lovely soups in my vitamix.  I love dessert, all desserts, i have a sweet tooth.  After dinner i have to have dessert, i have another belly for desserts!

Many people think i am vegetarian.  I am not.  I love vegetarian food and i do often eat like a vegetarian.  But i do eat meat.  Not every day, just now and then, mainly chicken, i personally feel my own individual body needs it in my diet to function better health wise, i do not eat some other rich protein sources such as fish, tofu, eggs.  Eating meat is a personal choice and i respect every person regardless of their dietary choices. The yoga yama of ahimsa is about no harm/violence to yourself or any other living being, i do think about this often, but i also respond to what my body tells me it could do with.  When i do eat meat i am sure to eat it all, the animal died to be eaten to give it's energies onwards, and not to be thrown in a bin and killed for waste.

I do not eat fish, infact i do not eat anything from the sea.  I am weird.  I like neither the smell or taste or thought of eating seafood, the smell wants me want to vomit.  I wish i did like fish but i do not.  I get my omega-3s through flaxseeds and chia seeds.

Water is another of my really fussy things, i can not drink water without anything flavoured being added to it.  I think it is partly psychological due to a past event as a child.  I wish i liked water and have tried and failed time and time again to wean my self onto it, i keep trying.  In the meantime i continue to always add squash/cordial, i try to choose the ones with no added nasties, i find Ocean Spray Cranberry and Raspberry is my favourite.  I would actually go thirsty and dehydrating than drink water unflavoured. 

I very rarely drink alcohol.  Maybe a cocktail on the rare occasion i go to a bar, but that is it.  I do not like the taste of many alcoholic drinks and see no reason to put things that i don't like that are in any case unnutritious into my body.  I used to drink loads in my university days, i was young and wanted to fit in, now i'm old and boring haha and i like it that way :)

And for every person wondering then i am on average 8stone and 169cm, size 8, perfectly healthy, fuelled by wonderful foods, and content with my diet :-)

Sally Xxx

What I do

I have recycled/copy+pasted this post from my old blog, it is what i do as a performer with a few edits, enjoy :)

I work in many areas but the area where I primarily work as a performance artiste is at one off corporate events and launches.
My choreographed acts are between 4 and 6 minutes long.  Some people may presume that that means that I just get paid for 4-6 minutes of work every time I have a job.  WRONG !!!!   That 4-6 minutes are the result of a lot more work, part of a bigger picture.
So what do I do?
Training: I train.  Without training I would not be able to maintain the fitness levels required to do my skills.  Without training I would not be able to increase my skill repertoire and develop new acts.  Without training my body would not be as in shape/toned as it is.  Without the many many years of training i have done since i was little then I wouldn’t be able to do anything.  As well as stretching each evening at home then I train in various other locations for handbalance and aerial.  Training costs money each session, and training is a chunk of my working day that I have to pay to do.  I have actually renamed ‘i am going training’ to ‘I am going to work’, or ‘I am going to rehearse’.  Because training to some people sounds like i am only going as i have nothing else to do that day.  Training is WORK, very important work to ensure I can do each and every job that I do.  Training takes time in my working week.
EDIT: I also now have annuals at two yoga studios and spend a large chunk of my week running around London to yoga classes.  Yoga asana has benefited/complimented my work as well as myself more than i can write in this post.
Promoting:  I do my website, I do my blog, I do my social networking, I do my logos, I do emailing new people, I do replying to people who enquire about me.  Basically I spend time each week working on getting work.  Promotional work takes time in my working week.
EDIT: Due to the fact i am in the yoga studio so much i hardly do any admin anymore, and then i have a panic and spend whole days devoted to it haha.
Speaking to agents and clients: Some of my work comes through agents, some comes directly to me.  I speak to the individual about for example what they want and what performance wise I think would work well for their event.  I talk about the venue, is it suitable for what they want.  I supply technical requirements.  I supply when necessary a risk assessment.  I work out and supply a quote for my work.  etc etc etc.  This all takes time in my working week.
Admin: Contracts, Invoicing, Payments, Chasing Enquiries, Chasing Payments, Subscriptions, Insurance, Receipts, Tax Returns, Music Editing, Video Editing.  This all takes time in my working week.
Costumes/Make-Up: I spend time handwashing costumes i have just used, rhinestoning new costumes, designing new costumes, repairing costumes.  Gigs are not always kind to costumes and I look after them as much as I can but it is inevitable that they will not last forever.  Costumes are not cheap.  Make-up is not cheap.  Both are essential to each gig I do.  This all takes time in my working week.
Props: My handstand canes, contortion box, aerial hoop, rigging, and every other equipment/prop I own are not cheap in the slightest.  I am very protective of all my props but sometimes they need repairing/replacing.   Without them my acts would not exist.
Travelling: Sometimes i have to travel for hours and hours to get to events, and then hours and hours back home again.
EDIT: I love gigs in London or flying out somewhere abroad from Heathrow, these are now the bulk of what i do as i have no car...
The Actual Gigs: My favourite part of my job.  I arrive a few hours before I am due to perform, because I need to get ready with hair and make-up, I need to view the performance area, make sure all is ok, and very importantly I need to warm up.  For contortion jobs I like to warm up for 40-60 minutes immediately prior to the performance.  My act is only 5 minutes long, but I am at an event for hours.  If I am doing aerial I am sometimes there for longer as I have to be at the venue early to rig, and I can not leave until every guest has gone home and I am able to de-rig.
So in essence then there is much more behind every 5 minute performance, and without all the above then the 5 minute performance would not happen.  I work as a performance artiste full time, it is my primary source of income, I LOVE EVERY SINGLE MINUTE OF IT.

As a little separate note, if you are a new contortion/handbalance performer and you are charging a silly cheap amount for corporate events like £200 you need to look at your fee and raise it (like 2X+ it), because you need to remember all the points above, plus that corporate jobs don't come along every day of the week!  Never devalue yourself, your skillset, and the industry.

Lotsa Love,
Sally Xxx

What Inspires Me

I was asked recently on my Instagram what inspires me to bend and go upsidedown, and so I thought I would write a little blog post about it.

Over the years then what inspires me has changed a lot.

When I first started 'more' stretching it was very inconsistently, back when I was a teenager about age 14.  I did it for two reasons.  Firstly I wanted to score well on my range and conditioning set in (club/low level) gymnastics, it is a compulsory routine based on strength and flexibility, and so i stretched at home, i sat in oversplits and i did a few bridges.  Secondly i was going through some really really hard years and my family life was pretty awful, i hated myself, when i used to stretch it used to hurt, and i liked the pain because i felt i deserved it.  I hate writing that nowadays, it appalls me, but it would be a lie for me not to write it.  What was good though is that the stretching as well as being painful it released pain, it was my release and my own individual therapy at a time when i felt trapped.

Throughout my early and mid 20s i no longer lived at home and although i still had bad times i found outlets through other ways.  My stretching and handstand inspiration mainly came from other people, i would want to be like them, as bendy as them, as good as handstands as them.  I taught myself and would consistently practice before bedtime.  I had dreams of all these amazing one arm handstand shapes, i had dreams of sitting on my head, i had dreams of a massive oversplit.  I taught myself and stretched with a technique that today makes me cringe.

Today I am 32 years, my bendy knowledge and theory is rocket high, i am bendier than i have ever been, my handstands are the best they have ever been.  But unless i am on a stage then I have no care for physically what you see, how far i bend.  Often in practice my depth varies, i listen to my body and go with what i bring to the mat that day.  

My inspiration comes from inside of me.  What inspires me is how good it feels for my body to move and bend and go upsidedown, my body's individual capabilities and possibilities, the enjoyment it gives me.  I do it because i love doing it.  Other people inspire me also through showing me what an individual body is capable of achieving with work and dedication, every body is different, unique.  I aspire to be like no-one else but myself.  I do not care if i never sit on my head, i care not for the depth of any of my stretches, i care not for how many handstand one arm shapes i can hit.  I do care for how doing what my own individual body can do makes me feel.  I care for how moving my body through it's available range of motion gives me all the health benefits that it gives me physical and mental.  I care for the fact that stretching out the tightness of my hips external rotators combined with other work has meant my hypermobile menisci have not dislocted/subluxed for nearly 2 years now, ever since i started a regular yoga practice.  On stage performing i feel a bit more pressure to be as bendy as i can, but with the realisation that i am in competition with no-one, even when on stage there is much more to a performance than how far you bend.  I participate in yoga asana championships, but compete is the wrong word for it as i am not competitive and have no care for where i place, but that is a whole other post... :)

This is all written in brief, i could talk about and write about for hours what inspires me, people who have inspired me over the years, how my inspiration has changed over the years, how i love doing what i do :)

Namaste

Never Stop Learning

https://svpply.com/item/2005747/Never_Stop_Learning_Art_Print_by

Never stop learning, keep your mind open, always be willing to listen to others thoughts, ideas, points of view, methods.  Never close your mind, you will miss out on a lot of good stuff :-)

Standing Head to Knee

Standing head to knee, Dandyamana Janushirasana, as i performed it on stage at the International Yoga Asana Championships 2014.  This is the first compulsory posture we performed in our routine, it is not easy as a first posture, while your nervous jelly legs are feeling like a leaf blowing in the wind you have to get your head onto your knee and hold it there then slowly return, controlled, and showing each stage into and out of the posture.  It looks so easy.  It is not.  I like standing head to knee, I like the focus and control it develops :-)

Images by Nick Delaney

Check out these beautiful images of me by Nick Delaney.  I love them :-)

www.nickdelaney.com
https://www.behance.net/gallery/18068007/The-Bends

Box

At the end of my act when i perform I sometimes squeeze myself into my tiny box.  It measures about 16.5 x 16.5 x 20 inches.  I am 5'6.5 foot/ 169cm tall.  Here is a pretty picture of me in my box by John Nassari :-) 

Knees

I don't know if i have ever written about my knees before so here is a post about my knees!

Although i still don't know what it means to go a day without my knees hurting then today my knees feel good and strong, but go back a few years and i was hurting so much.  I had a few things going on - chondromalacia, fat pad impingement, and hypermobile subluxing lateral menisci.  In short...:

Fat Pad Impingement: The infrapatellar fat pad is a fleshy part of tissue that acts as a shock absorber, it sits just below the patella.  It contains a lot of nerve cells and when it gets impinged it means it is getting trapped between the femoral condyle and patella, and it kind of screams very loudly at you... (meaning it hurts alot!).  It is mostly aggravated by extension of the knee joint.

Hypermobile Subluxing Lateral Menisci: The mensici moves further than it should do because it's ligamental attachments are rubbish/not there, sometimes it slides so far it moves totally out of place and the knee locks up, i would have to forcibly straighten it and 'clunk' it back into place.  It is painful.  It often made me cry.

I have had bad knees since i was about 12 but i just lived with it.  My knees hurt when i did hills and stairs so i avoided hills and stairs.  My knee would totally lock up where my menisci would sublux/displace itself and i would pop it back into place, and then get on with my day.  When i was in gymnastics as a teen then I could tumble and jump with no problems but leglifts and bars would hurt my knees, no-one believed me and so i'd just take a lot of ibuprofen to get through each gym session.  I went to doctors, physios, and no-one gave me anything that was useful/worked.  I did all the exercises i could find but nothing worked.  So i just lived with it.  2009 I went to Bikram yoga 3-4 times a week and it felt like it did something, then i moved to London and my yoga practice stalled because my then theatre schedule was unforgiving.  My knees got super bad, to the point where i cried as they hurt alot, so i had surgery beginning Jan 2013, on both knees, where they removed inflamed fat pad, cleaned up the cartilage, and poked at my menisci to confirm they were hypermobile but they did nothing to resolve it.  My knees still hurt, my knees still locked up.  A new Bikram studio opened near my house, i popped along... I got committed to it and have had a regular almost daily practice for 1 1/2 years now since February 2013... my knees are improving, my knees HAVE NOT LOCKED since I began yoga again.  This is so significant for me as they have been locking since I was 12 and they have never gone this long without locking, they don't even feel slidy.  The general pain, well it's not as much as it used to be but the pain is still there, i just deal with it as best as i can and still avoid doing certain things.  

I regret having the fat pad part chopped out, i'm not sure it helped, they took more out of the right knee and it is my right leg i struggle with more in yoga when doing one leg stands.  I do definitely now notice a difference between both knees in pain and proprioception.

And that is the story of my knees...

Istanbul - Alice in Wonderland with Incandescence

I just returned from a marvellous run of shows in the Mall of Istanbul.  As part of the Incandescence Company's Alice in Wonderland show I performed as the Sleepy Doormouse.  The show went down very very well and was loved by both children and adults, with wonderful large happy audiences each day.  It was a pleasure to once again perform with the wonderful Incandescence, and I look forward to my next adventure with them this summer, a 3 week tour to Bolivia, exciting times :-)

Handstand

Live your own life, follow your own star.

Set your own patterns in life.

Dare to be different.

IYSF World Championships Yoga Asana 2014

My first time participating in the World Championships representing the UK, and my 3rd ever time participating in any type of asana competition.

3 minutes, 5 compulsory postures, 2 optional postures.

I did 5 beautiful for me compulsory postures and 1 beautiful optional posture.  Sadly i got quad cramp on my last optional posture which i did but had to exit it early, resulting in a zero score for that posture.  Somehow, and because my other six postures scored quite highly then i still finished 29th out of 54 (i just had to look this up as i typed, i'm not attached to where i placed, it just seems other people are...), unlike me the vast majority of the 54 were scored out of their completed 7 postures, and so if i had of held that last posture I very likely would have been through to the next days finals, but sh*t happens and each time i fall it is because there is something down there for me to learn.  It just wasn't my time this year, everything happens for a reason.  I admit it did slightly hurt, i worked very hard, and it can be frustrating not doing what i know i can do.  But that work is not lost, it carries over.  And like I continually emphasise, this is just 3 minutes on stage, what does it assess, what do the placings mean? it just shows 3 minutes in that moment, on that day, on stage.  Everyone that placed from 1st to 54th is amazing in their own individual way (the people that made day2finals though, wow they have incredible asanas with beautiful alignment, lovely to watch).  What the three minutes do not show is my journey, and the journey is important to me as it is where i mostly learn and mostly develop.  The championships is like a catalyst to me, it enhances my practice and takes it to new places, asana and more.  I have met many incredible people through it, and have made many new friends from around the world.  And for next year, i will just keep working hard, developing my practice, taking it to wherever it takes me, and whatever happens happens, because my practice offstage inside the yoga room will always be just my practice, unjudged and compared to no-one around me, my journey is my journey.    

I look forward to working towards next years championships.

  

My two worlds of bendiness

I have these two worlds - my yoga world, and my contortion world.  They overlap so much and yet they differ so so much.

Both worlds are worlds where i bend and balance my body into extreme positions.

My contortion and handbalance world is a world of creativity, extravagant costumes and make up, taking solid foundations/moves and embellishing them with a uniqueness to make them mine.  Doing crazy positions and having the freedom to do exactly what i want to do.  Choreographing all of this to music.  Wearing lots of sparkles and make up.  And that is just the bit people see.  Behind every performance is a massive amount of time spent doing administration and a wealth of other things that enables me to be a freelance performer.  Having the best skills or acts is nothing if you don't have the abilities to promote these and do all the tedious admin to go alongside it.

My yoga world began after my contortion and handbalance world.  I entered this world of set asanas, but a world which has developed me greatly, it took me back to the foundations for flexibility and corrected bad form and technique, it made me work both sides, it continually corrects my bad habits, it continually develops me in many ways including but no way exclusively my flexibility and strength and teaches me what i missed when i taught myself.  It teaches me discipline, and has made me a healthier person in mind and in body.

I love both worlds.

When I first began Bikram Yoga...

I am sure i still do a few things that maybe in a year or two would maybe make an appearance on this list, but here are some of the crazy things i did when i first began Bikram yoga back in 2009, i grew out of them all lol :-)

Extra towel:  Concerned about getting acne spots from putting my face in the midst of my very sweaty towel I used to bring an extra little towel especially for the floor series to put my face on.  I kept this up for quite a while, even though my nice face towel also then got really sweaty and so was a bit pointless...

Blowing my body:  In the beginning days I decided it would be a lovely idea to provide my own air conditioning by blowing my body throughout class.  I would be in poses like standing separate leg stretching and blowing cool air onto my belly from my mouth.  It felt quite nice, though i'm guessing completely mucked up my breathing and dehydrated my mouth.  I did this for months and months until i grew out of it.

Pretending to do standing separate leg head to knee pose.  In my first classes when i heard the teacher say one of the benefits of the posture was that it regulated your metabolism i backed out of the posture.  I have a fast metabolism and freaked out at the fact it might regulate it/make it slower.  I did this for ages... happy to say that now i do do the posture fully, and that i am still the same weight...

Full on warm up before every class.  I used to go to evening sessions after i had done a full on 3hr handstand and bendy training session, i must have looked so bendy.  I didn't want to go without it as i felt i needed it...  Now i settle for a quick 10-20 min stretch in the yoga studio, i still appreciate a bridge and some lunges.  Tbh I would probably still love to do a full on warm up except now i go to morning sessions and i am a sleepyhead and usually get up and go straight to yoga.

There are likely more, some i probably don't even know about or can not remember, if i remember any i will update this post :-)

Yoga 'But She Was A Gymnast'

Today one of my yoga friends told me she recently stuck up for me when people were saying my practice was good because i was a gymnast.

One of my absolute hates is when i am talked about in the context of yoga with 'but she was/is a gymnast' or 'but she is a handbalancer/contortionist', and that is why she can do everything easy.

Yes apparantly because I was a gymnast as a child, then that is why i am good at yoga asana at age 31.

WRONG

I WORKED VERY VERY HARD ON MY ASANAS, SIMPLE AS THAT.  MOST OF THEM FROM WHEN I BEGAN YOGA AND COULD NOT DO THEM.

A) If you are performing the asana with correct alignment then regardless of where you are depth wise then you gain the benefits and we are all as good as each other.  Within the doors of the yoga studio i compare myself to no-one and nor should anyone else.  Yoga goes beyond the asana, there are eight limbs of yoga and asana is just one of these.

B) I couldn't do many postures/asanas when i began yoga (especially hip opening ones).  I still have many i can't do yet.  But i practice regularly and with hard work i achieve some asanas and go deeper in asanas, and achieve better alignment.  The more you practice and the wiser you practice the better you get, at anything.  I get many benefits from the asanas i do, and i want to get the benefits from doing some of the asanas that still elude me and so i physically work hard on them, and i never see things as impossible.

C) I didn't pop out my mother's womb in a handstand or a backbend, gymnastics only developed me a basic two arm handstand, a bridge, and nice splits, i couldn't do things like press handstand as a gymnast.  Yep guys, as an adult i worked my butt off on my handstands and flexibility, i was never fortunate enough when i was learning for there to be any handstand class anywhere near me, so i have mostly taught myself.  I always arranged my furniture in my bedroom so that there was a big space i could practice and train my handstands and flexibility.  I was fortunate i picked up enough knowledge through other people along the way that teaching myself was a successful feat.

D) The reason i am so strong is because I never stopped, i retained the strength i had developed as a child because i never stopped doing acrobatic type things.  You don't use it you lose it, i never stopped so i never lost it.

E) I developed a lot of my flexibility through stretching a lot by myself since i was in my late teens and early 20s.  Gymnastics helped because i knew how to stretch, but it was my own dedication that every night would work hard on some stretching.

F) What my childhood gymnastics training did do is strengthen me, both mentally and physically.  It gave me the knowledge that to get good at something you have to work hard at it, you have to dedicate yourself to it, you have to push yourself to your limits to go past them and develop.

G) I wasn't, but even if i had of been a top level gymnast, that also means someone who worked very very hard every single day in the gym for years and years, sacrificing parties/going out with friends as you have prioritised training, dedicating a childhood to a sport that requires you train a massive amount of hours a week, the tears, the blisters and calloused hands, the aches and pains.  That's what i see when i see a yogini/yogi who has a past in elite gymnastics, it isn't easy for them because they were a gymnast, they just sometimes have a bit more depth and strength in postures because they worked hard over many years and dedicated themselves to a sport, an activity, that developed certain abilities.  Don't ever be jealous of the fact someone was a gymnast, most often they still have very much to learn that the yoga world can offer them.  

My new Vitamix Professional Series 750

When I was successful at this years UK Yoga Asana Championships I won a £500 prize.  My aim was to buy a Vitamix.  I make green juice almost daily and have wanted a Vitamix for a long time, our then current blender was failing to actually do the job of blending, we had a lovely juicer but i prefer blending.  I decided to wait a few months till i purchased my Vitamix so i could get a deal at the Be:Fit expo show.  My prize money could easily have been spent on rent after I wiped out my bank account paying for annual's for Bikram yoga whilst also trying to cut down on work to prepare for internationals (epic fail as i have now run out of money and need to work more than ever!).  But I stuck to my guns, my money was for a Vitamix and a Vitamix I would get!

At the Be:Fit show i was then presented with an additional dilemma.  Do I want the ordinary Vitamix or the newer edition 750 which was a bit more expensive but had features i liked more.  I had to think it over for a while.  I decided that if i was spending so much money anyway i'd just buy the more expensive one.  It has a shorter but wider jug, specific settings for what you are making (juice/soup/ice cream/paste/clean mode) as well as the 1-10, and is apparently 40% quieter than a normal Vitamix.  The deal I got was an extra (smaller) jug for free.

I think I made a good choice, especially because at 40% quieter it is still mighty loud, my housemates still hate how loud it is so i dread to think how loud a normal Vitamix is.  I also like the jug being shorter and wider.  And i love that i can just put it to it's mode eg.soup mode, leave it, and when i come back my soup is perfectly ready.  After a busy day chucking everything in (i rarely follow a recipe) and then 5mins later having a warm fresh homemade soup ready for consumption is AMAZING!!!!

My diet this week has been very liquidised.  I am enjoying making everything :-)

Everyone (who doesn't have a Vitamix themselves) is like OMG at how much it cost me, but i happily spent all that money, which was mostly prize money, and I love love love my queen of blenders.  I thoroughly recommend the Vitamix 750  :-)

 

Be:Fit Show 2014 - My Little Review

I just returned from the Be:Fit show.  The Be:Fit show is an exhibition show/event dedicated to women's health and fitness, it has exhibitors, fitness classes, expert talks, fitness challenges, health checks, free samples of food, and much more.

It used to be called the Vitality Show and this year rebranded to Be:Fit and has moved from Earls Court to Old Billingsgate Market.  I have been to the Vitality show for the past two years and enjoyed it a lot and so thought i totally couldn't miss it this year too.

Overall I had a lovely time, i went with my acrobatic friend Lisa and we participated in a lot of different things.  We stayed for the whole day, arriving at about 10:30am and leaving at 5pm.

Price
Be:Fit 2014: Full price tickets were £18, we got ours for £12.50 each as there always seems to be some sort of deal or discount going on.  I did sign up to be a Vitality Ambassador, meaning if people use my code they get money off and it advantages me, sadly they only got £2 off a full price ticket and there were far better deals going on so no-one used my code!
(Vitality Show 2013 full price weekend tickets were £20, vitality ambassador code priced tickets were £10 and i sold quite a few).
So a full price ticket was slightly cheaper this year, but signing up to be an ambassador was totally pointless!

Freebies
I was slightly disappointed.  The Vitality Show used to have a free goody bag for all guests full of wonderful things, but this didn't exist this year at Be:Fit.   There were a lot of food stalls offering lovely free samples, i ate alot.  I did still get a few freebies to take home with me, just totally no way near as many as previous years.

Fitness Classes
Me and Lisa got there early and were recommended that if we wished to participate in fitness classes we needed to go and sign up for them, so we did.  The Vitality Show used to have several different areas where fitness classes happened, Be:Fit only had one area so only about 9 classes during the whole day.  This resulted in many people not being able to participate and it was a bit sad to see the long queue of people in the reserve queue for classes.  I think there totally needed to be more areas for more classes, I love participating in the different classes and would have been gutted if i had of missed out on it.  The other downside was the stairs leading to the fitness zone, i had my granny shopping trolley and stairs and a granny shopping trolley full of things is harsh.  The plus side was that the classes I did do were awesome.  I did the Beyonce Workout where we all danced, strutted, and shaked our booties, I enjoyed this class a lot.  I also did a contemporary yoga class, i enjoyed the first part of this where we did some gentle yoga asana, the dance bit for the last ten mins slightly lost me, possibly because i really was enjoying doing the gentle asana part.  I would have maybe done some more classes had i been able to.
Something else sad was that there was a whole massive bit of unused space on the floor when you went down to do the fitness classes, it would have been totally better to have utilised this space for more fitness classes/trying out things zone/etc, or at least more stalls.

Health Check
I love a health check haha, so as soon as we arrived we dashed to the Nuffield desk to make a health check appointment.  I think they booked up fairly quickly and so again this was good to get in quick early in the morning.  The health check consisted of about a 10min check of blood glucose, cholesterol, blood pressure, heart rate.  I was happy to be totally healthy.
What i really would have loved is the machine that one year made an appearance at the Vitality Show.  I held onto some handles and it sent electrical impulses through my body measuring nearly everything about my body composition such as the percentage body fat in each part of my body.

Stalls
The Be:Fit show was way way smaller than the Vitality Show, so less stalls and less variety of stalls.  Me and Lisa had walked around it all fairly quickly.  I did make some lovely purchases such as some bud earphones that are the first i have ever tried out that do not fall out of my tiny ears (www.yurbuds.com), a lovely pair of leggings i just couldn't resist buying (www.bottonfitness.co.uk), and my long awaited Vitamix machine using the prize money from when I won the yoga asana championships earlier this year.
A big sector missing from the show this year was the hair and beauty sector.  I missed it.  I know beauty isn't directly to do with health and fitness, but in a way it is because a lot of us work out to make our figures look more beautiful as well as for health reasons, and when we feel beautiful we feel happy, and some people (not me as i mainly do do hot yoga) workout in makeup, and some people like me like to do our post workout baths in nice smelly bath bombs like i happily purchased at last years Vitality Show!!! :-)  Also I missed the cheese stalls, i purchase awesome cheeses every year at the Vitality Show, something little but i really missed it!  I think maybe they were trying to make it even more healthy fitness based (after all cheese is not as healthy as a granola bar), but in doing this i think that they lost a bit of beautifulness about the show.
I am happy the massage chairs were there.  I always feel slightly guilty with these as however much i would love one (they are amazing) then i know full well before i sit down that i can not budget for one, yet i sit down in denial of my budget and try it out on every part of my body before deciding that indeed i have no budget for one.

Fitness Challenges
These made my day that much brighter.  I participated in the Tribe Sports Side Plank challenge where you had to hold a side plank for as long as you could.  I never do side planks and was totally blind to my side planking abilities.  The two highest scorers of the day won a sports top, i somehow came 2nd with 4.31mins.  There was a lady who got 6 minutes, full respect to her!  I also took part in one of the Reebok challenges, when we walked past at 10.30am then it said if you took part you got a free goody bag, except about an hour later when we returned and did as many sit ups as we could in a minute there were no goody bags left and so we got nothing.  So we didn't then do the Reebok press up challenge or burpee challenge, gotta motivate us with freebies and prizes lol!  If there were more challenges with more prizes/incentives i totally would have done them :-)

Lecture Theatre and Fitness Personalities
Things i didn't do as none of them really appealed to me or clashed with stuff i had already scheduled to do.

Overall
Overall then I had an awesome time.  Though if we had of got there later and/or not been aware we had to book in for fitness classes or the health check I think we would have been totally gutted as without them then the show may as well have been free entry.  We were lucky and the reward for that was that we had a pretty good time.  Though it was slightly disappointing in terms of size then there were many good stalls and i met some lovely people.  There were too many different floors and too many stairs.  I am not sure why it changed from the Vitality Show as the Vitality Show in content and location size was superior, but i hope the Be:Fit show can grow and develop back to what the Vitality show was like for next year, and i hope they have more fitness class areas, and bring back the free goody bags!

quote

Someone could have all the technical skills in the world, but if they have no creativity their performance could be anybodies, and if they have no passion their performance dies.  Passion can not be taught or learnt, it lies in the heart and projects through every movement, and every word you speak.  It is a powerful thing.

Quote

A lot has changed in the last year.  I think it has made me a better person, it has made me see things differently, it has allowed me to grow as a person, it has allowed me to be more at peace with my own self.  I am learning to love and appreciate life more than i ever did before.

Strength

Sparkle

Lucky :-)

I am grateful for each day.  I have never had everything I have wanted, I didn't grow up in poverty but my mum worked 4 jobs to keep us afloat.  One day i came to realise that i didn't need everything i wanted to be happy, that happiness is dependant on my actions and the love i surround myself with.  That i wake up each day a roof over my head, food in the fridge, and am blessed with good health.

When you really stop to look at life you realise just how god damn lucky you really are.

Don't fake your 1 arm handstand pictures!!!

I screw my face up when i see a picture of someone doing a one arm handstand that is not being held.  I see it so often, the quickly lift my arm and take a photo shot.

BUT TO A TRAINED EYE IT IS CLEAR (mostly)

To the trained eye then you can tell in terms of body/arm/shoulder position and technique if the handstand is held or not, because to do a one arm handstand you know what happens when your body is not in the correct alignment (ie you fall...).

It shocks me that some people can post a picture of them walloping their hand off the floor and people still believe they are holding that thing !?!

Of course sometimes i am wrong, sometimes some people can hold the most wild shapes :-)  

The secret of becoming really bendy and really good at handstands...

There is no secret.  If you are dedicated, work hard, use good technique, don't over rush it, then you will improve.

There are also no quick fixes, it takes time.  For steady progress without plateauing or getting injured you will also need to work with correct technique, for example learning a bad shaped handstand, or just lifting your arm from the floor, is not going to progress you to a one arm handstand, you are better off stepping backwards and getting the shape right/doing the correct progressions and then the one arm handstand following these correct progressions will happen a lot lot quicker and consistently.

I currently teach acrobatics to two awesome identical twins.  When I first met them it was amazing because they were both identical in flexibility, their bridges were identical in shape and bend, their splits also looked very much the same (they both had and still have very good flexibility).  As they have got older then their flexibility is no longer the same as each others.  We only train twice a week.  One broke her ankle (skiing) and missed a chunk of lessons.  But she has done enough to maintain what she already has, the other has been working hard and consistently and her back flexibility is becoming really rather amazing. It is fascinating to watch. 

Me by Jason Lunn, these hands work hard to keep me upsidedown :-)

I will always rise no matter how hard i am pushed down

I love my career, I really do.  I have this passion for handstanding and performing that will always be with me.  Some people in my past have tried their best to push me down, but my passion for performing is just too strong.  I always rise.

I have had one of those careers that has not always been smooth.  It has had many ups and downs, times when i was flying and times when i felt like i was sinking.  One of the hardest moments in my performing career was when a person really really tried to destroy me, i can't and won't go into full details or name names, but this person following a day that they made into one of the worst in my life, then this person then decided to further the pain by bullying me relentlessly.  This included a lot of verbal bullying, nasty threats, calling me useless, pathetic, reducing me to the exhaustive crazy state of tears where you can not breathe 5 minutes before i would have to go on and do a performance i really didn't want to be doing but was too scared to walk away.  I forgave them, i forgive too easy, or i ignore too easily, pretend everything is fine, but then they did something else to attempt to further my misery and kick me down a few months later that is a totally separate event and story and i do not wish to discuss here but can say it had a good ending.  But you know what, although i still hurt, i still cry, i still fear, and will never forgive them for some of the things they did to me, then ultimately this person strengthened me, they made me a stronger person, they proved to me how much i love performing and how nothing will stop me doing what i love doing, they showed me i can deal with a lot more than i thought i could, they showed me who i was and that i was stronger than i thought i was.

Life can sometimes throw bricks at us, sometimes little ones and sometimes they feel like big boulders, sometimes we get so scarred invisibly inside.  But these events shape us, make us who we are today.  You can not change things that have happened, only accept what has happened, learn from it, and see how you can grow from it rather than wither.

I don't know why i am writing this, i guess it is because i want to tell the world however bad things are then if you have a passion that burns so fierce then that fire inside of you will never disappear, i love performing, it is my fire, it has at times been reduced to a small ember but it always re-ignites into a big flame that burns so bright and happy.    

My First Yoga Trip

I have just got back from my first yoga trip away, and it was amazing :-)

Yoga trips often conjure up images of a nice relaxing retreat to somewhere by a beach where you do yoga, relax, and sunbathe.  My yoga trip was a little bit different to this.  Instead of sunshine and beaches I was in Prague - a beautiful city and about 0 degrees with snow.  Instead of a nice relaxing trip i had full on intensive yoga asana training each day.  It was awesome :-)

Each day began with Bikram beginners class.  We then had sessions with 4 world champion yogis - Dev Kapil, Juan Manual Martin Busutil, Ky Ha, and Gloria Suen, plus compulsory posture training with Tereza Bonnet-Senkova.

We covered many many things over the course of the weekend and I learnt so much my head and body were filled and buzzing with new asanas and tips and progress on my existing asanas.  I achieved much and learnt much.  What a thoroughly enjoyable and amazing weekend :-)

Below is a little picture montage of me and my friends during out Prague trip.

Next weekend is the yoga asana championships, I am competing and look forward to demonstrating my asanas.  I have no expectations of myself or of others, and my main aim on the day is to keep calm and enjoy it.  What will be will be.

Event for Capita

My January kicked off performing at an event for Capita.

I performed an ambient set containing handbalance and contortion as the guests entered the venue.

 

I then performed my handbalance contortion act - Dancing Upside Down.

And here are two little warm up pictures :-)

An enjoyable event to begin a lovely January.  I hope to post some video soon :-)

2013 Review - Events and Media Work

I will not write a big long review post because I doubt anyone will read it lol, but here is a quick summary in a picture collage.  I could not take pictures at many of the lovely gigs I performed at but from the ones where i did get photos then here are a few :-)   It was a wonderful year with a lot of lovely bendy handstanding performances.