History of zen yoga

Here's a part of an article I've been writing on Zen Yoga for wikipedia. This is the history and origins section. Previously I wrote an article putting Zen yoga in context with all the other main styles out there - read it here.

Origins with the Buddha

The first mention of the word "yoga" seems to have been in in the Rig Veda, written around 1500 B.C.E, together with a description of the hierarchy of mind-body constituents—the senses, mind, intellect, etc. – and ways to control them. 

From the very earliest city-states in the region now known as Iraq, people spread in all directions, including the East. One group, that some call the Aryans, emerged on the steppes of Eurasia about 4000 yrs ago. In Sanskrit they were the “Aryas” (“Aryans”). The root of this word served as the foundation of the name of the conquered Persian territories, “Iran”. The Aryans first entered India around 1500 BC and drove the native Harappa-Mohenjodaro people southwards. 

The class division of the Aryans and the conquered darker-skinned native people into nobility and tribesmen was gradually expanded to become the caste system of India. The Sanskrit word for caste, “varna", also means colour. By the ninth century B.C.E., the religion of the Aryans was codified in the Vedas. Ritual and offering were central to their beliefs, and these could only be performed by the spiritual caste, the Brahmins. The ritual act of making offerings was even, at times, venerated even more than the gods themselves, and as a consequence the Brahmins became very powerful and secretive.

The concept of yoga appears again in one of the key pieces of literature that evolved from the Vedas called the Mahabharata. This great story, including a section known as the Bhagavad Gita, became seminal for the development of later Hinduism and Yoga.

The Buddha grew up in a time of great political and spiritual upheaval. In Northern India at around 500 B.C.E., the merchant class was on the rise. The separate kingdoms emphasis on wealth accumulation and the use of violent force, caused an increasing restriction in peoples' freedom and their suffering become increasingly greater. Spiritual practice, which offered ways to alleviate this suffering, had become increasingly ritualised and restricted only to the Brahmin caste. As a result, a number of ‘radical’ spiritual schools and teachers emerged (the ''shamana'' schools) in reaction to the established orthodoxy (sometimes called the “movement of the forest sages”). Common to them all was the rejection of a supreme god, such as Brahma, or any other form of a creator, and they all offered ways to alleviate suffering and paths to liberation to people of all castes.

The Buddha trod the middle path between some of the more extremes that appeared, accepting as parts of the path to liberation the use of logic and reasoning, ethical behaviour, and the direct “knowing” gained through insight and meditation. He taught that there are no absolute “things”, there are only processes in a constant state of change (''annica''); that there is no fixed or permanent essence or soul (''annata''); and that suffering is inherent to life (''dukkha'') (the Three Marks of Existence). His way of liberation was the end to suffering.

The Buddha described four foundations (or bases) of mindfulness in the Satipatthana Sutta – mindfulness of the body, of sensations, of the mind, and of dharmas (i.e. phenomena, thoughts, arisings), and is recorded as saying, 

“There is one thing that leads to happiness in the present and liberation in the future; and what is this one thing? It is mindfulness of the body.” (Anguttara Nikaya, sutta I, 21). 

Thus mindfulness of the body is the direct way to liberation and the end of suffering. Zen yoga practice is primarily concerned with the body and sensations, and observing life as a process in a constant state of change, so is in direct line with the Buddha's method of awakening.

Again in the Satipatthana Sutta, the Buddha says

"Furthermore, when going forward & returning, he makes himself fully alert; when looking toward & looking away... when bending & extending his limbs... when carrying his outer cloak, his upper robe & his bowl... when eating, drinking, chewing, & savouring... when urinating & defecating... when walking, standing, sitting, falling asleep, waking up, talking, & remaining silent, he makes himself fully alert.

"In this way he remains focused internally on the body in & of itself, or focused externally... unsustained by anything in the world. This is how a monk remains focused on the body in & of itself."

Evolution into China and Japan

With the revival of the brahmana and caste system around the turn of the first millennium C.E. and the Muslim conquest of the Indian subcontinent in the 12th century C.E., Buddhism began to decline. However, yoga and Buddhism had already spread into neighbouring countries, including Tibet and China to the north. In fact, descriptions of yoga-type exercises were discovered in a number of silk and bamboo books in Mawangdui Han tomb in Hunan Province dating from way back to the early West Han Dynasty (around 400 B.C.E.), so perhaps it was more like a re-spreading or merging. 

At around 500 C.E., an Indian monk called Bodhidharma arrived in southern China and taught practices centered on meditation and the direct mind-to-mind transmission teachings of the Lankavatara Sutra. According to Chinese legend, he also taught a number of practices to monks to prepare them for meditation. These include a series of external exercises called the Eighteen Arhat Hands (Shi-ba Lohan Shou) and an internal practice called the Sinew Metamorphosis Classic. The Yijin Jing ("Muscle/Tendon Change Classic”) is also attributed to Bodhidharma. As these practices developed, they led to the creation of Shaolinquan school of Kung Fu.

As the Buddhism of Bodhidharma fused with the prevailing Chinese philosophies and practices of Confucianism and Taoism, it became Ch’an (from Sanskrit "dhyāna", meaning meditation or "meditative state"). Over the centuries, Ch'an spread to Japan where it become known as Zen, taking with it the rich combination of practices known variously as yoga, Qigong, Tao Yin, etc.

Dating back to around the fourth century C.E., Yogācāra (literally yoga practice) is one of the two main philosophical systems that underlies Zen. It contains a sophisticated psychology of awakening and emphasises the practice of mindfulness. This mindfulness leads not to an experience but to a total shift in the way we relate to all experiences. This shift is referred to in the Yogācāra tradition as parāvṛtti, "turning around”.

Hatha and Yantra Yoga

Hatha Yoga emerged as a discipline in the centuries following the Buddha, tracing its origins to the Yoga-sutras written by the sage Patañjali (from the 2nd century B.C.E.) and the Goraksha Samhita (written in the 11th-century by yogi Gorakshanath). The word 'hatha' in Sanskrit literally means 'force', so Hatha Yoga is the “Discipline of Force”. It stresses mastery of the body as a way of attaining a state of spiritual perfection in which the mind is withdrawn from external objects. The Buddha once related his experiences with a Hatha Yoga-stype breath-retention practice and found it had a great effect, but not conducive to awakening:

"...I stopped the in-breaths & out-breaths in my nose & mouth. As I did so, there was a loud roaring of winds coming out my earholes, just like the loud roar of winds coming out of a smith's bellows... So I stopped the in-breaths & out-breaths in my nose & mouth & ears. As I did so, extreme forces sliced through my head, just as if a strong man were slicing my head open with a sharp sword... Extreme pains arose in my head... There was an extreme burning in my body... And although tireless persistence was aroused in me, and unmuddled mindfulness established, my body was aroused & uncalm because of the painful exertion... But with this racking practice of austerities I haven't attained any superior human state, any distinction in knowledge or vision worthy of the noble ones. Could there be another path to Awakening?"

The word hatha can also be seen as a combination of two separate "Bīja mantras" or single syllables – "ha" representing the masculine or solar energy and "tha" as the feminine or lunar energy. Thus Hatha Yoga is the practice of bringing balance to the two opposing forces[4]. The first occurrence of the term 'hatha yoga' is in fact found in the Buddhist Guhyasamāja tantra dating from the 8th century[5].

Yantra yoga (or Trul khor) is a the Tibetan Buddhist parallel to the Hindu or Vedic Hatha yoga tradition. The discipline includes similar body postures (asanas) and pranayama practices, and includes mantra practice and visualisations. Originating with the mahasiddhas of India, it was brought to Tibet in the eighth century by the great master Padmasambhava and transmitted to the Tibetan Dzogchen master Vairochana. Its practice is nowadays found in all schools of Tibetan Buddhism.

Modern Zen yoga in Japan

In modern times, Zen masters Hogen Daido Roshi and Harada Tangen Roshi, in particular, have advocated and taught yoga practices to compliment their Zen training. In an article published in the Buddhist Society's Middle Way magazine in May 2014, a student of Hogen Daido Roshi recalls that he constantly imparted the importance of mixing moving Zen (do-zen) into Zen practice: 

"...there are four kinds of Zen: sitting, standing, lying, and moving. We should practise them all. Whatever we do, we must do it fully, mindfully, wholeheartedly, one thing at a time without being attached to or involved in it. When we practise moving Zen, the quality of our daily lives becomes very different.”

In Zen, the inseparability of the “body-mind” is often stressed, together with the need to retain our flexibility for life. Hogen Roshi taught that:

 “By doing yoga and zazen, we can begin to appreciate the real state of our body and mind, both of which are stiff and unpeaceful. We should not hate them. Please, let them be as they are. Taste their special bitter taste”.

Mindfulness diary by Abi Davies

A while back I was running a weekly mindfulness drop-in class at a studio up in Shoreditch, London (which has sadly now closed down). One of the people who came along to the class from the very beginning was a reporter working for Keatons Estate Agents and writing content for their local magazine, Access London.

As a result of her experiences at my class, she wrote a lovely article which was published in their latest magazine.

You can read it here: www.accesslondonmagazine.com/i/295182

Now I run a weekly mindfulness drop-in class at ZenYoga in Camberwell (Saturdays 10-11am), and soon on Mondays at the Evolve Wellness Centre, SW7.

The Buddha on Breathing

Meditating with or on the breath has a very distinguished history! Working with the breath to develop concentration, awareness, and insight dates back to well before the Buddha, into the earliest practices of the sages, mystics, and yogis of the Indian sub-continent.

The Buddha found meditating on the breath incredibly powerful, so placed a very strong emphasis on it in his teaching. On Saturday I went to a mindfulness teachers workshop at the ZenYoga studio on the subject of what the Buddha taught about breathing, run by my Zen teacher Daizan Skinner. 

When he was just 7 years old, sat under a tree while his father (the King of the local province) was presiding over the annual ploughing ceremony, the little Gautama Buddha entered into a spontaneous state of meditation. Tradition says he entered this first state of meditation by means of the breath.

The boy Gautama at 7yrs old sitting under a tree in spontaneous meditation

Later, this experience proved crucial to his spiritual quest towards full liberation from the suffering caused by life. He remembers "I thought of a time when my father was working and I was sitting in the cool shade of a rose-apple tree: quite secluded from sensual desires, secluded from unwholesome things I had entered upon and abode in the first meditation."

Interestingly, the Buddha was very much against any practices that held or prolonged the breath – as is found in traditional Hatha Yoga (and was probably widely practised at the time of the Buddha) – he advocated relaxed, natural breathing. Through experience he found that "stopping the in-breaths and out-breaths in [his] mouth and nose... [creates] a loud sound of winds (energy) coming from my ear holes... violent winds in [his] head... and belly." He found "each time, though tireless energy was aroused in me and unremitting mindfulness established [his] body was over-wrought and uncalm because [he] was exhausted by the painful effort."

The sutras claim that "the Buddha himself declared that he realised perfect Self-Awakening through the practice of anapanasati (breath meditation)" and that "concentration by mindfulness of breathing, when developed and cultivated, leads to a pleasant dwelling in this very life and to mindfulness and clear comprehension." He even taught his son, Rahula, "if mindfulness of breath is cultivated with continuous practice, then there is a vast harvest, there is great richness."

After lunch we spent some time meditating on the breath, then looking at the development of breath meditation from the earliest Buddhist accounts, through the different schools that have arisen since, into China and Japan and Zen.

One of the key early Buddhist sutras dealing with the breath is the 'Satipatanna Sutra'. "Sati" has come to be translated as "mindfulness", so this is the 'Discourse on the Foundations of Mindfulness'. In it, the Buddha explains that the most direct, immediate (or in some translations, the only) way to reach enlightenment is through the four foundations of mindfulness.

These are "contemplating the body in the body", "contemplating the feelings in the feelings", "contemplating consciousness in consciousness", and "contemplating mental objects (i.e. thoughts, ideas, concepts) in mental objects."

He goes on to say "And how does a Bhikkhu [a monk] live contemplating the body in the body? ... [He] goes to an empty place, sits down, crosses his legs, straightens his body, and arouses mindfulness of the breath... Mindful, he breaths in, and mindful, he breaths out." Like this we can contemplate the body in the body via mindfulness of the breath.

Then he says "Let alone seven years, let alone half a month, if anyone would develop these four foundations of mindfulness... for seven days, one of two fruits can be expected for him: either liberating knowledge right here and now, or... non-return (i.e. nirvana)."

Wow, just seven days...!

So it's clear the Buddha held mindfulness of the breath in very high esteem! He says it really is the most direct way to fully wake up and realise the truth.

In the last part of the workshop, we each took on a question relating to what we'd learnt and came up with a little presentation on it. My question was: "How dows this practice relate to the four noble truths?"


The four noble truths were one of the first things the Buddha taught after his great enlightenment, and basically sum up the whole of Buddhist teaching. The four noble truths are:

1. Suffering exists as an inherent part of life
2. Suffering arises due to wanting things we don't have (craving, greed), not wanting things we do have (aversion, hate), and confusion or delusion as to the way things are now.
3. There is a way to end this suffering for good (liberation, enlightenment)
4. And that way is called the 8-fold path, and includes things like right livelihood, right speech, right mindfulness, etc.

By becoming aware of our breath, we automatically bring our attention to the present moment (we can't be breathing in the past or future!). With our attention on how things are right now, breathing and noticing the body in the body, we allow any thoughts, feelings or memories that arise to simply come and go. This presence and non-judgmental acceptance gives rise to an increasing sense of calm and clear understanding. With this clear, relaxed and open mind we begin to see where we are holding on to things (events, feelings, concepts, material objects), rejecting things, wanting things to be different, or being confused. Mindfulness of the breath is the vehicle we use to travel along the road towards the end of suffering.

If you'd like to explore the practice of mindfulness a little more, I run drop-in classes and 8-week courses at the ZenYoga studio in Camberwell, London. See here for more info.

A night in the Mu shed

Gyokuryuji temple

I've just got back from an absolutely incredible trip to Japan! Most years my Zen teacher Daizan Roshi organises a group trip over to his teacher's temple up in the mountains of central Japan – this was my 2nd trip out there. The temple, called Gyokuryuji, is a small hermitage training temple near the town of Seki in Gifu prefecture (about 1hr north of Nagoya).

We started with a 5-day silent Zen retreat (sesshin) led by Daizan's teacher Shinzan Roshi (see photo below), then had a few days for Zen-related cultural activities and sightseeing in Kyoto and Nara.

Shinzan Roshi by the front steps of the temple

Before I go on, let's just step back a moment. For the last few months before going to Japan I was working on editing and producing a DVD based on a recording of a workshop Daizan gave last year on the teaching of a famous Zen master, Nantembo Roshi. (Check out the DVD and trailer here.)

Nantembo Roshi was a very powerful and enigmatic character and developed a unique style of practice based around the famous 'Mu' koan of Zen. Back in the 800s in China there was a great master called Joshu. One day a monk asked Joshu "does a dog have Buddha-nature?". To this Master Joshu replied "mu" (literally no, or not) in an attempt to break through this monk's dualistic way of thinking. It worked! In Rinzai Zen this koan is used to help people get a first glimpse into their own true-nature (Buddha-nature).

What was unique about Nantembo was he got his students to practice with mu all the time, no matter what their current koan was. In the training hall they would all be chanting 'mu' with each breath, and only in private interview would they attempt to answer their koan. He found this to be a very effective way for people to develop their inner power and that kind of non-discursive, immediate, present-moment knowing/understanding.

It turns out Shinzan Roshi is a fan of this style of practice too, and back in the 80s and 90s he used to get pairs of monks training under him to do what he called 'mu sesshins' – 7 days shut up in the temple storehouse chanting mu 24hrs a day...

The temple storehouse (building next to the telegraph pole)

After having spent so long hearing about Nantembo's practice (after editing the DVD I could practically recite it...) and these mu sesshins, I wanted to try it out for myself!! So on the 4th day of the retreat over in Japan, myself and a friend, Ed, decided to lock ourselves in the Gyokuryuji storehouse for (only) 24hrs to explore this mu practice.

The storehouse was pretty full of junk, so we only managed to clear enough space for our two sitting cushions and a pot to pee into! The upstairs was a bit clearer, so we used that for walking meditation.

Just after breakfast on the 4th day we paid our respects to the Buddha and set our intention for the 24hr practice, then, led by Daizan holding the keisaku aloft, we installed ourselves in the storehouse. As Daizan slid the door shut and locked it from the outside, shutting out the daylight, we began our chanting.

The tiny space in the storehouse where we sat chanting mu for 24hrs

At first I went for the full Nantembo-style practice (as described on the DVD) – deep relaxed in-breath, then tightly close the eyes, tense the jaw, arms, fists, legs and lift the pelvic floor with a long slow out-breath making a low reverberating sound of muuuu. Wow, I tell you, after an hour of doing this things really get going! Belly tingling, energy currents flowing and rising up the body. But I soon realised I couldn't keep this going sustainably for the remaining 23hrs! I relaxed into a long slow mu keeping the body soft.

Without any kind of timer, we just nodded (or prodded) each other when we felt we wanted to take a break from the sitting and go upstairs to walk. The space was small so we could only move in a small circle, but the little window gave us a break from the dingy darkness of downstairs. All the time we kept the mu-ing going. Deep in-breath, and a long mu on the out-breath.

After about 4hrs Daizan brought us lunch in a big bowl. We paused our mu-ing for about 20mins to eat, but tried to keep our awareness centred in the belly (hara). After another 6hrs Daizan brought us dinner and we took another 20min break, then we were on our own until breakfast in the morning. We were very grateful when Daizan slid a bowl of chocolatey sweets through the door at about 10pm – these would prove decisive in getting us through the night! We decided we would break for 10mins every 2 hours after midnight just to punctuate the dark hours and give us a sense of time moving forward! Once night fell, the storehouse became absolutely pitch dark – to the point where you couldn't tell whether your eyes were open or not!

From a few hours in, I remember thoughts creeping into my mind basically saying "you can't do this". I started counting the hours left and trying to work out how I was going to get through to the end... And it wasn't long before my belly hurt from all the deep mu-ing, and my legs ached from being sat cross-legged. But I knew the only thing to do was to remain present with how things felt in that moment. In the present moment, nothing is ever a problem – problems only come when you want things to be different. So for me, this practice became very much one of remaining in the moment. I did my best to transform those negative thoughts into "right now I'm breathing in; right now I'm making the sound of mu; right now I'm sitting; right now I'm walking; etc. It became one of the most valuable lessons in mindfulness I've ever experienced.

All this mu-ing also had the effect of generating a great deal of energy in my system. As I've already mentioned, a strong sense of solidity in the belly (hara), tingling in the feet, legs, hands, and up the spine, energy currents flowing through the body, and a deep feeling of grounding (despite the upward rising energy), all slowly built and strengthened as we moved through the 24hrs.

I have to admit the last few hours were very difficult, and became an exercise in simply sticking it out. But we made it!

For the 3-4 days after the mu retreat, I felt like I was plugged in to the national grid. A source of energy was moving in my body way beyond what I normally experience. I was physically tired, a little droopy in the eyes, and my body ached, but I was drawing on this extra source of energy. It made me feel light and nimble, ready to go, and very connected to the world around. Even now, more than 2 weeks later, I feel more connected and more in touch with my energy body than I have ever felt.

Buy the DVD (or download the video) and try it out for yourself! Highly recommended (24hrs in a dark storehouse not necessary!!).

Watch this video interview with myself and Ed about our experiences:

Yoga tips for cycle tourers

Two good friends of ours have just left on a trip to Japan. Bizarrely enough, my girlfriend and I are also going to Japan this week too (for a Zen retreat). We'll be flying there, but our friends, Claire and André, will be taking a slightly longer route... They are cycling!

They asked me a while back to write a guest blog article with some yoga tips for their ride. Here's what I sent them. You can follow their journey via their blog here and see my guest article here (http://www.puncturesandpanniers.com/2014/06/25/tip-yoga-cycle-tourers/).


If you're a regular cyclist you'll probably have noticed your leg muscles are bigger than before you were cycling! The primary muscles needed for cycling are the quads and hamstrings (front and back of the thighs), plus a bit from the calf muscles. The question is for Claire and André: do you think your thighs and calves will be bigger or smaller by the end of your trip?

So the main danger with long-distance cycling is these muscles getting over-developed, pulling the rest of the body out of alignment. This has a number of effects. If the oversized flexor muscles in the thigh start to pull the knee joint into inward rotation, this torques the leg bones, putting pressure on the knee, then the foot and the hips (see image to the left). If the hamstrings (back of the thigh) and psoas muscle get too tight, they can pull the hips out of alignment. You can spot people with this issue when they start walking with their bum sticking out too much!

A cyclist's spine is constantly flexed forward over the handlebars, and the head often tilted up to look forward (hopefully!). If a good posture isn't maintained, it can result in muscle pain and strain in the back and shoulders. So as you're cycling, it's important to make sure your spine is in as neutral position as you can get it, and your shoulders are as relaxed as possible. (See here for a great article on cycling posture.)

Another danger is iliotibial band friction syndrome, apparently one of the most common causes of knee pain in cyclists (runners, hikers, etc.). The iliotibial (IT) band is a very important band of fascia that runs from the outside of the pelvis, down the outside of the thigh, to just below the knee, and provides crucial stability for the knee joint. Pain and swelling in the knee area can happen if it starts to rub against a projection at the end of your femur as it moves during moving and cycling.

So what can Claire and André do to help prevent all this happening on their long trip?

I would suggest starting with 5mins in what's called the "constructive rest position" – see image below. This helps the lower back and psoas muscle relax and is very restful for the body.

Constructive rest position

Then spend some time stretching the quads and hamstrings.
A good one for the quads is to sit with your legs bent underneath you (sitting on your heels). Lean back on your hands, fingers facing forwards, then begin tucking your tail bone underneath (hips forwards) until you begin to feel the front of the thighs stretching.
For the hamstrings, a simple forward fold with your knees bent and feet separated can work well, or try this one (see image below). Feet both face forwards, hold your elbows behind your back then fold forwards keeping that front knee slightly soft (i.e. not locking). Make sure to do both sides.

Take some time in down dog to strengthen, stretch, and open the shoulders. Make sure to keep your knees bent (even if it's just slightly). You can also vary it by treading back into your heels to stretch out the calves and achilles heels.

Downward facing dog

A great one for opening into the thighs and giving that IT band some attention is what's known as the "threading the needle" pose. Lying back, cross one ankle over the other knee then draw that knee up towards the chest. You can hold the thigh, just behind the knee, or the front of the knee on your
shin. So called because you thread one arm through the gap between your legs! Do on both sides.

Eye of the needle pose

One to finish would be revolved belly pose. This one helps to release tension in the spine, hips, shoulders, and – critically for cyclists – the pecs across the chest. Pulling up hills with the arms can strain the pecs more than you might think! Lying on your back with your arms out to either side and knees bent. Let your knees fall to one side, down to the floor, keeping your knees and ankles together. If the shoulder lifts, let it, then work on softening it towards the floor. You can add a twist in the neck by rolling the head looking in the opposite direction from your knees. Do both sides.

Finally, I'd recommend doing all these exercises with as much awareness and presence as you can. Treat this time doing your yoga as time for yourself, time to relax, to connect with how you're feeling, and an opportunity to breathe out any stresses from the day.

Is yoga all about stretching?

The most common reason I hear for people not doing yoga is that they feel they aren't flexible enough - "I can't touch my toes...!"

So do you have to be flexible to do yoga, and is yoga all about flexibility? Well, I'd say flexibility is a by-product of doing yoga, and bendiness is by no means a pre-requisite.

What is the point of doing yoga then?

To me, yoga is about awareness, it's about re-connecting the mind and body, and tuning in to how we are in each moment.

The thing is, most of us are quite inflexible. Too much sitting, not enough exercise, a dodgy diet, all causes the body to stiffen and to lock in tension. We also spend so much of our time in our thoughts, not feeling but thinking, not being but doing - we literally think ourselves stiff! Our culture doesn't help either – we're encouraged to ignore those knots in the shoulders, that little niggle in the lower back, and keep on working.

The less aware we become of our bodies, the less we notice how tight and tense we get. The tighter we get, the more it gets locked in to the body and the harder it is to feel anything beyond that tension. Our sensitivity to the body becomes more and more limited.

Massage can bring temporary relief and is highly recommended! A trained masseur skilfully guides our muscles to relax - and it feels fantastic. Ah the relief! But it's only temporary... whatever habits and patterns that caused the tightness in the first place haven't changed.

You see, the flexibility we learn in yoga isn't just about he muscles. Fascia – the tissue between the muscles, bones, organs – can also tighten up and hold stress. And since many of our nerves are embedded in fascia, this tension and stress gets felt by our nervous system and ultimately our brain.

Yoga works on many levels to stretch, lengthen, and release. It also teaches flexibility in the way we think. Thoughts like "I'm not someone who does yoga" become "let's try it and see what I feel". Developing a sense of curiosity, interest, and playfulness can work wonders to free up the mind!

So in a sense, yoga is all about stretching, but not just in the obvious way. A flexible, strong, grounded, aware, and adventurous body and mind means a healthy, content, productive and happy one!

I applaud companies offering yoga at work

This last couple of weeks I've been covering for a yoga teacher friend of mine Lucy Bannister while she's been away teaching a retreat. She's let me loose on some of her corporate yoga classes – classes that are offered in the work place for company employees – and it's been great fun!

One of the things I've noticed is the unusual demographic of the people at the classes. A proportion of them are perhaps a bit older, are unfit, or have certain injuries. I'm sure this is a testament to Lucy's lovely, accepting, gentle manner, and the rather therapeutic style of the yoga she teaches. But I'm also sure that by offering yoga cheaply or for free at a convenient time and place, allows people who wouldn't otherwise go to a gym or studio class, to come and do yoga. For this alone, I applaud any company that offers yoga to their employees at work!

And from talking to the people coming to the classes, one of the main reasons they come is to relax and de-stress.

Having a city job means stress. Doesn't it? "If you're not stressed then you're not working hard enough...!" It's almost rite of passage in the city to feel stressed. "Can I speak to John in derivatives please? I'm afraid he's been off for the last month with stress."

And how often do you hear the term "burn out" these days? Burn out, also known as chronic fatigue, is what happens to your system when you've been in a state of hyperarousal and it just can't take it any more.

Our bodies are hard-wired to respond to a situation of danger or vulnerability in a very particular way. Let's say we meet a bear in the forest, or perhaps more likely these days get asked at the last minute to do a board presentation. In both situations our body responds In the same way: it redirects energy and resources from our non-essential systems like digestion and our immune system to things like our muscles and heart (flight or flight). Adrenaline and cortisol are released that raise the heart rate, raise body temperature, and narrow your mental focus.

Getting that stress reaction once is a while is fine - in fact good! It can be exciting, adding a sense of thrill to giving that presentation! But the problems come when you live in a constant state of low-level stress, with those occasional big stresses thrown on top. There's always a deadline looming, your work phone keeps buzzing with emails from the LA office one moment and Hong Kong the next, someone in your team not performing, your partner keeps reminding you that you need to get the car fixed... Like this your body never gets a chance to return to normal, to come off orange alert. You're in a state of "hyperarousal".

Often the first things you might notice is that your digestion isn't working so well (the energy is constantly being diverted to more 'important' areas), you struggle sleeping (the mind is on alert mode), you keep getting colds or infections (your immune system is low), and maybe you have a low sex-drive (reproduction is another system that's compromised in the stress response). You may get sweaty palms, cold feet, headaches.

So what do we do? Our ambition and desire says keep going, work harder - it'll pass. But underneath that you might hear a quiet voice saying you need to relax. And that's where yoga can really help.

Stress brings tension, so yoga helps by lengthening and flexing the limbs so that they can soften and relax. You learn how to focus your attention on the body and sensations so intently so there's no space left in your mind for all those to-do lists and job worries. You learn how to let the movements unfold from moment to moment, and with as you notice that everything is in a constant state of change, and what you thought was fixed actually isn't, you build up a softness and resilience to difficulty, pain, and stress. So how wonderful it is to have it on offer at work!

If you listen really carefully after your class, you might hear your body saying a quiet, heart-felt thank you!