I wrote a book

I was invited to collaborate on a book this year! me ! - the one who found it difficult to even keep a journal at one time. But I took the challenge and I co-wrote a book with the beautiful Lynette Allen. Lynette is a published author in her own right, she has published several books over her career and I feel I have learnt some great skills from a very talented and generous lady.

So the book is called ‘A woman’s voice is a revolution’, it is 50 women over the age of 50 who have written chapters of advice and their own experiences of life. A book that any woman at any age can pick up and find that there is a piece that feels it was written for them. Even as an author I often pick up the book and let it fall open as intended on one of the other authors pages and as I read the words I realise that they apply to me. I learn something new every day and the book is a fabulous resource to keep for yourself, share with others or even use as a coffee table book in your business reception. It has already gone into one of my local libraries, other big organisations have asked if they can use it in their book clubs and have even asked if I would sign some copies.

So look at little old me - a published author. Who knew.

Never give up - there is always something new to learn, new opportunities to seize, new possibilities and new adventures. Enjoy your life.

Busy Summer

My lovely garden has been out of action most of the summer as we built a little studio at the back of the garden for me to work in. it took some time as we had to clear the space, get rid of the old summer house, get a new base created, choose and build the cabin, stain the outside to give it some protection and paint the inside, varnish the floor and start to furnish it (the best part obviously) then there was the paving outside to complete. We had to rely on trades people for some of the work but did do much of it ourselves. I am really pleased with what we created and already it’s been worth its weight in gold. I run my online yoga classes and meditation classes from here. I have help women’s circles here and I am now writing here. It’s a special place, I can feel the energy of the space and it’s so peaceful and serene. I’ve help 121’s here and also Usui Reiki sessions. It is very very special and I am looking forward to many many years of sitting and holding space in the this little cabin. Yet to have a name - some I have toyed with are Garden Room, Zen Den, The Cabin - it will come to me in time I am sure. Here’s to a fabulous working space which is much

Sister Circles

I have been super busy this year. Lots of training courses. I am one of those people who always has to be on a training course. I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t on a training course of some kind. Now, though, I am ready to put more of my learnings into fruition.

We had our firsts women’s circle on the last full moon in September, a super moon, the harvest moon. We had meditation, we had journalling, stories, shares, cacao and so much more, it was a glorious evening, the moon shining down, our fire was amazing, the garden alight with candles and our resident owl made an appearance with a few hoots mid meditation. This made the evening so very, very special.

The intention is for the circles to run on the last Friday of every month now with lots of women joining together in the special and sacred ceremony of circle. The next one for the Samhain celebrations is on 27th October and I cannot be happier in this space.

Yoga Sequencing?

I am continuously learning and refining my yoga teaching style and approaches to teaching and my own practice. Following my first yoga teacher training, I felt I had to follow a sequencing approach focussed on building the training we were given. Sticking to a format which definitely works, but I wanted to be more flexible in my approach. When I became more immersed in my own yoga practice and completed the Advanced Practitioner Diploma in Dru Yoga, I fell in love with the art and playfulness of yoga class. A way to be more creative in my overall approach, working with the seasons. introducing Ayurvedic philosophy as well as yoga philosophy. . My teaching path was not going to be based in a typical studio class, it was focused on guiding diverse bodies and backgrounds of people. Making my yoga classes truly available to everyone. The specifics of the postures began to be less important. As long as my students are safe, they can create the posture which works best for their own body. I began shifting my energy into creating holistic classes that feel safe, accessible, and welcoming for all bodies.

I find an authentic approach is key in my teaching. Being me, myself as I am is what makes my classes popular, along with the holistic approach I take to my teaching.

I have recently trained in a 80hour Trauma Informed Yoga course which culminated in my creating a 6 week course. It still needs final tweaks, but now I have a manual with a 6 week course to deliver in a Trauma Informed way.

“Trauma-Informed Yoga is an approach to teaching yoga with a guiding framework that involves understanding, recognising, and responding to the effects of all types of trauma” (http:// www.traumainformedcareproject.org). We are not specifically treating trauma in a yoga class, but rather being aware of, and accounting for, the greater need for safety and trust within the space when we are working with others.

Trauma-informed yoga supports people who have experienced trauma in cultivating a connection and relationship with their bodies through empowering practices that prioritise the needs of the person healing from trauma.

Here are some core principles of trauma-informed practice that I operate by with my yoga teaching:

1. Respect - this begins with how you respect yourself, your family, the environment, and those in community.

2. Safety - always prioritising consent and fostering a sense of safety so individuals know they are safe with you, in the room and can make a choice to leave if/when they wish.

3. Creating a healing container - this begins during your own spiritual and cultural work, as you prepare for teaching, throughout the class, and to the closing and transition of the practice.

4. Offering choices - clear pathways to making decisions for what feels best in the individual’s body.

5. Empowerment/Agency - using a combination of themes, language, movements, stillness, and reflection to promote a sense of empowerment within the class

6. Transparency (or predictability) - stating what may be expected from the class, giving an overview, providing some time parameters or breath counts etc. Options to do something different are always available.

7. Collaboration - inviting the class to make the practice their own. Encouragement to move in a way that feels good and restorative in their bodies, minds, and spirits. Choosing to adapt posture, use yoga props/blocks, share in the circle (or pass) and feel they can share their voice to guide when they wish (which helps when you start class with a check in and check out). Or leaving out postures if these are not working for them today.

8. Today - always reminding people that all that is important is now. What your body does today, is what your body does today and each day is different. Go with it.

Some elements of a trauma-informed yoga approach include:

• modeling movements

• using slow progressions

• offering invitational, empowerment-based language

• integrating choices and providing options (e.g. A or B)

• careful selection of physical poses and breathing techniques

• maintaining a supportive and nonjudgmental presence

• awareness of where you position your body in the yoga space (avoiding encroaching into personal space, i.e not standing over people or place hands on people without permission)

• being mindful of the space (cautious use of lighting, candles, fragrances - putting care into your choice of using anything that stimulates the senses). Avoiding anything which triggers another.

Oh how I have loved making these changes into the way I teach and I am so filled with joy at the creation of my course which will be in one of my up and coming blogs with more details. I look forward to sharing the birthing of my course with you.

Hello 2023

2022 was a funny old year. Not the best personally, not the best professionally, not the best globally. It was what it was. A New Year brings hope for the future, brings hope for change for the better, brings a new energy.

I’ve spent autumn and winter hunkering down, making plans, studying and working on my future. My personal development and my professional development. There is a lot to be excited about in 2023 for me. New training upgrading my abilities as a yoga teacher. I have completed training in Trauma Informed Yoga and can offer this in my classes or in specific classes which focus on people who have survived trauma. This goes hand in hand with my work as a therapist and yoga teacher and I am looking forward to bringing all my learning into my teaching. My meditation training has been upgraded - Meditation Mastery :-) yup Master meditation teacher. Though I feel that I will be learning meditation for the rest of my life, along with my yoga practice and daily learning, but I am better equipped to teach better classes.

I have even upgraded my business and the way I work. I am now collaborating with a colleague in our new venture. A new business which will launch in the next few weeks. Watch this space!!!! I am so excited to be able to bring yoga and meditation to more people in the community.

I am also collaborating in writing a new book - writing! who knew? I blog a bit, I journal almost daily, I post on social media but a book collaboration is new, exhilarating, exciting, promising.

I am and always have been a life long learner and so I feel I am now getting to the point in my life where I can bring all this learning together. Offer top tips on surviving life ha ha. Again watch this space for updates on the progress of this too.

2023 is starting in a really positive place with many opportunities. I bring hope into my daily gratitude. Hope - Hope has moved people out of untenable situations into better lives, and has helped humans stay alive long enough to figure out how to thrive. Hope is an optimistic state of mind that is based on an expectation of positive outcomes with respect to events and circumstances in one's life or the world at large. As a verb, its definitions include: "expect with confidence" and "to cherish a desire with anticipation.

Yes, I have hope for 2023. Happy New Year.

Not a natural blogger

I have been taking to some creative writing of late, my new found discipline and pleasure is journalling, something I would never hear myself say after a traumatic time with a diary when I was in my teens. I’ve always been reluctant to write down my thoughts and feelings. So writing is pretty new to me. I wouldn’t have even shared this little snippet with you at one point so that is progress in itself.

I wrote a little blog with a group of other wellbeing practitioners recently and then was inviting to write a guest blog for the same website and here is my offer. https://wellbeingumbrella.co.uk/headaches-and-migraines-3-yoga-poses-to-help/ I would be interested what you think about my writing and whether or not I have a future in writing, sharing, providing useful information to support your wellbeing, your health. Yoga is pretty much my life these days, there is not a day goes by without my taking to my mat to practice, to meditate, to light a candle and sit in the early morning peace and quiet to write in my journal before the rest of the house wakes. Even before the dogs get up. That is another new ability. I can get up out of bed, make a drink, settle down with my journal and the dogs don’t even notice…..Hmmm Maybe I am invisible.

Blogs are they still a thing? Do people still read them?

This week I was invited to contribute to a blog article on the topic of Insomnia and my contribution was how yoga can help. You can read the article here  https://wellbeingumbrella.co.uk/best-ways-to-naturally-manage-insomnia/ I then was invited to write a blog in my own right and so I have set to work on this. I’ll share more when I am done with it. I did however get to thinking, do people still read blogs, I have to say that I am not one, normally to do so, but then I realised that you can pick up a wealth of information, learn something new and find new interests. I did as I read the blog with the contributions from the other experts in their fields. It’s such an interesting topic and an issue which affects many people at some point in their lives and so to read other people’s perspectives on ways to help has been most informative. So, maybe I am a convert to the art of blogging. Maybe, I will share more snippets of information and ways to help heal our bodies.

For now though, enjoy the read on insomnia over at the Wellbeing Umbrella.

2022 - Hello!

What an incredibly challenging couple of years. The challenge began in early 2020 when we found ourselves in the midst of a global pandemic. Covid-19 was the name given to this disease which was rapidly travelling around the world. Countries going into complete lockdowns to protect their citizens and our movements restricted. 2021 wasn’t much better lockdowns lifted in May 2021 and people in the UK attempting to bring back something of what felt more ‘normal’. I, with many others hadn’t been able to work for a full year and some. I had been teaching yoga classes on line. Counselling had all but dried up as people were really confused about what was happening. I jogged along and then finally in May 2021 I was able to get back to in person teaching. I took my classes off line and back to Roberttown where gradually over the year people started to return and classes were looking great. Not pre pandemic great as social distancing meant classes were all generally half their previous size, but still great that people turned up. I also started a brand new class in Howden Clough, this was interesting. week 1 - me and 1 student, week 2 - me and two students, week 3 - you get the picture. But now in January 2022, the class is full, in fact it is is oversubscribed and I need to find another day to teach or another venue/time in addition to this one. I was also lucky to be offered an existing class at Balne Lane in Wakefield. This class didn’t return until mid July and as of now we only missed two classes over Christmas and New Year. I still have online classes and these are still well supported and so I feel with my online classes, in person classes, 121 yoga classes, Reiki and Bars treatments and my return of counselling clients I am starting 2022 in a really good place. I began my grief therapy training this week and I am continuing with my yoga backcare and wellbeing for social prescribing course and my Advanced Practitioner Diploma course.

I have come to realise that I am here to help people to heal, that I am here to offer people alternative ways of living in this often challenging life. That there are ways to feel better and to hold this space with another person to be in whatever is needed.

My next focus will be to start to hold sacred spaces for women’s groups. Spaces which allow groups of women to be together and share. To nurture and care for each other. These women’s circles are something I discovered over the last two years and have been amazing sources of support when needed. I am looking forward to being able to share these spaces with others.

I intend to hold more workshops too. My winter workshop back in December is still being talked about and I am asked weekly when the next one will be. So plans are underway to create new workshops for 2022. What a wonderful start to my year.

I am open to all opportunities, open to all that the universe/source has planned for me and I don’t intend to miss any of them so watch this space for all new ideas being put in place.

I hope 2022 will be an amazing year to you too. Maybe if you pop along to one of my classes or my holistic treatments or even counselling you will discover just how amazing your year can be too.

Namaste x

Customer Feedback

As I continue with my knowledge and skills training it was suggested that I may consider a customer feedback questionnaire. Ooh! I wasn’t sure. Did I want to really and truly hear what people think of my classes. Could I handle any negative feedback? I realised that this was my ego talking and I really want to let go of my ego. So here it is, here is my customer feedback questionnaire. I will leave this open so that people can leave feedback at anytime. Anonymously of course. I have also shared this on social media and also emailed to all my customers past and present. I now hold my breath as I await the results coming through…….and breathe :-)

If you have attended any of my yoga classes or you would like to leave feedback about what you would personally like or want from a class please feel free to complete the questionnaire here https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/Q6SRKNX

A Little Self Reflection

It’s my birthday this week and I have been spending time self reflecting on my life over the last ten years. My reflections started when I decided to look at how much money I had spent on “up skilling” myself. I was staggered by the fact that I have invested well over £30k! yes Thirty Thousand Pounds. My wandered to consider what else I could have done with that money - new car, house extension, lots of holidays, move house. So many, many choices and yet I chose to spend this money on me.

My investment in myself started with a crazy decision to start studying for a degree, I chose a Batchelor of Science with Honours no less :-) in psychology. Now, I was already working 50 hours a week and running a home and family but still thought this was a good idea and it stopped me watching the dross on TV. I can’t say it was easy, I also became seriously ill part way through my degree and really struggled in the end but I did it. I am Karen Pullan BSc (Hons). Well done me.

As I came to the end of my studies, I had found a huge interest in psychotherapy and completed several modules of my degree with this in focus and so I started the look out for a psychotherapy course I could start. I was struggling to find something which fit with my current lifestyle and then by a chance meeting I was introduced to Scarborough Counselling and Psychotherapy Training Institute - SCPTI for short. I arranged a meeting and ended up with an interview for a place on the course and I was in. Three years of training, intense training, I felt as though I had been put through an industrial washing machine and then through a mangle before getting a tumble dry at the end. My life as I knew it was turned inside out and upside down. My awareness of myself and others changed. My entire belief system was challenged, what I thought I knew turned out to not be real. I also discovered that even though I had my psychology degree I actually knew nothing. Who was it who said No matter how much I read I still find I know nothing? this is so true for me.

Part of the training was to undergo regularly weekly personal therapy for the duration of the course and beyond. So up to now four years of weekly personal therapy. At first this started as a tick box exercise I have to admit. I remember sitting in the therapists room with my arms folded and said “I am only here because I have to be”. My therapist smiled and nodded but that smile said to me “OK, let’s see, but I know better!”

I had been practicing yoga for several years and my yoga teacher was moving away. Panic set in, I wondered if I would ever find another yoga teacher that I liked. And so, true to my script I searched out a course and trained to be a yoga teacher. Once again this was running in parallel with my SCPTI course and people around me wondered whether I was taking too much on. But I really had begun to know myself and what I was capable of and so off I went.

Another emotional journey of self discovery ensued. I was taken to places within me that I had not yet discovered even through therapy. Combined the SCPTI training and the yoga training tore me apart and put me back together again.

And so here I am, beaten, battered, bruised, cared for, cherished, healing. At times I wondered what the hell I was doing to myself and paying for the privilege of it.

So, now I ask myself was it worth it financially, HELL YES! would I have been better off spending the money on that extension, new car, holidays - Nope, not a cat in hells chance. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

The importance of a logo!

I have been researching the world of logos this week. One thing I picked up was how important it is for a business to have a logo. Many logos are memorable and really don’t need much in the way of explanation and they are always very recognisable.

I decided I’d like a logo for my business and so I reached out via my Facebook page for someone to create one for me. An old friend offered immediately and so we spent some time working together to come up with the image I felt reflected my business best. Thank you Cameron for your hard work. I love my logo and yes it really represents my business. As Cameron himself said, “I think that if each of the particles that fly from the dandelion were a different colour then it would be a good representation of your counselling. Like inner thoughts setting themselves free and becoming brighter!” how wonderful that the humble dandelion can have such impact and influence on people. How the dandelion continues to grow in extremes of adversity and sets seeds to ensure its future survival. I hope you too like my new logo.

Spring Planning

We have been in lockdown now since November 2020. It has been a long time and made winter feel longer than it probably should for me. However, I have spent my time productively, attending lots of CPD workshops for both yoga teaching and for my counselling business. I am up-skilling on a daily basis and increasing my knowledge to help support students and clients.

I am feeling hopeful for the future, which is something I haven’t felt for a while.

I am feeling grateful for the time I have had available to me to allow me to train, up-skill and increase my knowledge.

Now, though, I am ready to get back to face to face, in person work be that with clients in therapy or teaching yoga classes.

As my yoga classes go, I plan to increase the frequency and availability of these. As venues begin opening again over the coming months I have secured times and space in venues which I have used previously Roberttown Community Centre, Gomersal Public Hall, and a new venue at Howden Clough Community Centre. My classes are at different times of the day and hopefully, there will be a class to suit. These are all advertised on my Facebook page, Instagram page and my website. Though full start dates are yet to be confirmed I am hopeful in person yoga classes will be able to start mid May. I am manifesting this in my daily practice at the moment.

Home working for therapy clients is still not confirmed but I am hoping this will be available from June. Currently all counselling appointments are via Zoom or now the weather is improving, walk and talk therapy appointments are available.

My Yoga Journey

I began my yoga journey in 2013, after being referred by my physiotherapist to take up yoga to help me with my issues with my joints. I did wonder what I had let myself in for when I stood in the class for the first time, breathing through my feet! Then finally, one day I got it, I really got it.

I had been diagnosed with hyper mobility syndrome. Great! I hear you say, “You are super bendy and can do yoga”, “It’s easy for you because you can get into the postures”. Well, it’s not like that, yes I am super bendy, yes I can get into the postures, however, the daily pain I faced because of this condition was horrific. Every part of my body ached. I dislocated joints easily, my balance was shocking - I would fall over regularly, sprained ankles were the norm!

Dru Yoga has really helped me to gain physical strength which was severely missing. It allows me to use my own bodyweight to build that muscle I need to support my joints. I no longer an injuring myself in a gym.

I also was working very long hours for an international corporate organisation. I was on the work treadmill and couldn’t get off. I was stressed and miserable. Dru Yoga also helped me manage my stress, cleared my mind, and allowed me to make changes in my life as I now could think more clearly. Who knew I would find so much benefit in my life from just 90 minutes a week? Imagine what my daily practice is now doing for me.

I decided to train as a yoga teacher so that I could share the benefits I had found, with others. I also wanted to share elements of yoga practice with my clients in therapy and realised I can also share my therapy skills with my yoga teaching.