My 2020 Story

5 years ago..

This image popped up on my Google pictures app on the phone – a picture of a typical day.

A picture of a pile of notes and a list of patients representing my daily workload. I guess I got used to it over the years, and probably pretty efficient at the whole thing. Great staff and great systems. But a bucket load of stress.

It sneaks up on you, the volume of work you get through in a typical day working in NHS dentistry. You can work hard, focus for long hours – and somehow convince yourself that nothing much is changing around you.

But after 30+ years in dentistry so much had changed – it was not longer the profession I signed up for back in 1982 when I went off to the Universit of Edinburgh to be a dental student. And so 5 years ago my practice – the one I’d spent since 1990 building up – went on the market.

No more big piles of notes, no more seeing all my lovely patients. Do I miss it? – not enough that I’d ever want to go back there. I like my life now so much better!!

On the Radio- again

This week I have another oportunity to speak on the radio. This time it’s Radio Chat and Spin – and I’m scheduled to go live at 8:35 this evening.

The interview questions are:

1. What is the name of the Business. Inner Strength Yoga – I’m a Holistic Yoga Transformational Coach.

5 years ago I was stressed, depressed and working hard for a lifestyle which on the outside looked like I had it all – but on the inside I barely had time to enjoy. Where I could only squeeze in a weeks holiday at a time and the whole week I’d spend barely recovering before heading back to work.

I left my career of 30+ years (I was a dentist) and focused on a 2 year Yoga teacher training course, my fitness, health – and I moved from the Midlands to the North East where I was brought up. Through yoga I rediscovered my personal inner strength.

2. Tell me about the Business.

Dru yoga is a system based on ancient yogic principles

How you hold and move your body impact your mental and physical health

Yogic principles of lifestyle are as relevant today as they were 1000’s of years ago

Taking those ancient principles and adding a modern twist we can make realistic and lasting changes

Better sleep, glowing skin, clearer mind, inner peace, more time for the important things, stronger inside and out.

I’m here to help you to put all of the pieces together – to join the dots – to connect ancient wisdom found through yoga with the modern sciences around current lifestyle advice to help you live healthier for longer – increase your healthspan, if you will.

If you feel in any way let down by life, some of your sparkle has gone, no longer as vibrant or joyful as you used to be

Give me an hour –

Demonstrate the power of Dru yoga and light a spark to point you in the right direction

5 days taster course or one of our day retreats (hopefully soon at St Mary’s Lighthouse)

I’ll illustrate the pathways to uncover your personal inner strength

Or the 60 day course

To dive deeper down each of those paths – making life-changing shifts that start with baby steps.

Combining ancient wisdom with modern lifestyle science to uncover your buried inner strength – glow with health, sleep better, move better, feel more confident, be more authentic – a stronger body and mindset.

Yoga – not just a few stretches, a whole world of wisdom wrapped up in a few stretches.

3. How can people contact you. On my website http://www.innerstrengthyoga.co.uk, my Facebook Page, @inner strength yoga or via Instagram at amanda_innerstrengthyoga

Be the Change

It’s true, I think, that your reality reflects your expectations. Where you are in life reflects you beliefs. And maybe how your teenagers behave towards you is a reflection of how you are towards them and how you expect them to behave.

It’s a long shot, I grant you. There’s no allowing for the madness that is the teenage male’s brain. No room for anything other than self-absorption – particularly in these unusual times where they miss school, sport and friends.

So today I vow to be more accommodating, kinder, more understanding – the sort of parent I would be had that appology I’m seeking had actually happened. After all, he did mow the lawn yesterday..

OK – new day, new dawn – Be the Change – let’s see how it goes…

An argument over nothing

A battle of wills – and an argument over whether or not he’d brushed his teeth. He said no – and he wasn’t going to. Guaranteed to annoy me.

He’d been asked to help around the house – and declined on every occasion. I’d asked if all was OK – schoolwork (It’s pointless, we’re not learning anything) – he hasn’t been outside for the whole week to play basketball. – It’s all fine.

The high and mighty tone of his No hit a nerve.

I removed his Xbox and turned off the wifi – teenager’s biggest dread. I heard the remote slam against the floor – the same remote he’s begged for only a month ago. I went up to recover it before it was broken. He grabbed me and blocked my exit from his room. Over the edge.

You can not speak to me like that or touch me – or you’re out.

And so it went on. The whole day without an apology. No wifi. No xbox. I told him we’re having a conversation at 8:30am this morning.

Teenagers – I’d rather not, thank you.

Rushing back to ‘Normal’ ?

No rush here. Not because I have some fear about ‘the virus’ – more because I’ve discovered that I actually quite like not rushing about from one thing to another.

My yoga studio doubles as my conservatory – well in truth it’s the other way around – there’s more family chilling done in there than yoga. But I roll out of bed and switch on Zoom for my 8am class: no driving, no travel time. For all my classes I just appear in the space and people can tune in to join in.

I totally get it – it’s not the same vibe: but I quite like people coming to me rather than me going ‘somewhere’ all of the time!

I miss the gym: but even them so much can happen in my garage to maintain fitness. It’s something I can do more of with confidence. – and no travel time.

Having to be somewhere at a certain time? Easy when all you have to do is switch on and dial in.

There are, of course , a lot of things I miss. Those things I want back. Freedom to choose, places to go – a reason to wear something other than lycra. But not everything exactly the same as before.

So this weekend Im going to consider this – and choose what bits of normal to let back into my life.

Coming off the meds (Part 5)

A few months ago I took the plunge and decided to try to reduce the amount of thyroxine medication I was taking.

I started back in 1999 – after the birth of my third child at the age of 36. I was under a lot of pressure – work , shakey marriage, 2 older children and new baby. My body had said ‘no’. But I always had intended to revisit this and hoped to reduce the dose.

In the past I had been to see a herbalist who had tested me and determined the problem wasn;t my throid gland, but rather it was cortisol – stress.

It was only more recently, when I have had a few sessions of kinaesiology, that we again came to the conclusion that the problem had been stress. Stress which is no longer there. She tested to see if my body was still getting any benefit from the medication – the tests said ‘no’.

So this week I decided to abandon them. I had already dropped from 175mcg to 50mcg. I have another session with her in 2 weeks – so I thought ‘just go for it’. No more Levothyroxine. The half life for the drug is 5 – 7 days – so at 4 days in I’m still feeling exactly the same as I did last week. No slowing, no change in heart rate, no weight gain.

I recognise it’s not a path recommended by the doctors, but I’m listening to my body – the journey continues..

Flat and Heavy

Anyone tried making sourdough bread?

This was my second ‘lockdown’ attempt. I printed instructions and prepared myself for nurturing the dough as the muxture fermented – I was aware of the constant attention this would involve. I did all of that.

I weighed, measured, kept from the cold. The starter grew in fits and starts. To be fair it started pretty well. But oddly, towards the end of the recommended 7 days it seemed to have lost the will to keep growing.

A few bubbles persisted, so I went for it – mixed in the flour and left it overnight – and to be fair, it did double in size. I kneaded again, as prescribed in my instructions – and baked.

But ugh! – no holes – feels and looks like a brick. How can something so apparently simple go so wrong?!

On the radio

Today was the day my radio piece was delivered on Radio Northumberland.

I tuned in with some trepidation – thinking all week since we recorded the piece that maybe I should resubmit something. Did I babble on too much – did what I said even make sense, let alone represent me as a yoga teacher?

I waited past a piece about how businesses chose their business name – many local businesses had been quite inventive about their business names. Mine had come from that knowledge that yoga had helped me uncover my personal Inner Strength. Inner Strength Yoga represents the resilience of mind and body that I had uncovered as I travelled tohe 2 year journey of the yoga teacher training course.

As my interview began I shuddered some more – was I coming off as a bit crazy? I talked about the business name, how yoga had worked its magic to free me from years of losing myself in my dental career – and finally about the pure joy of yoga in the outdoors. We played out to ‘It’s a Kind of Magic’ by Queen – beacuse that’s what yoga can be – a kind of magic,

So I asked my partner did I sound a bit crazy? – not really, he said. Maybe a bit ‘Hippy Chick’ – my new persona?

Be Positive

Emotions are running high – and on social media those emotions can sometimes runover into negativity. So many people prepared to have a rant to let off steam. I’ve even seen comments deriding those who choose to try to be positive.

‘I don’t want all these positive uplifting posts when I feel so utterly rubbish myself’

Well there’s space for everybody, I think. So a couple of months ago I started to spread a little love. Positive comments appear on my Facebook daily for all to see. Just the sort of thing that I’m hoping will resonate with someone and provide a little loving support.

I do get a lot of support and love returned – but this one in particular today lifted me and gave me the desire to carry on:

“I don’t often comment but I do enjoy your daily posts. I need to chart a new course – even if I don’t act on them I think about the wise words every day. D 😘”

So if you want to: spread a little love. Change starts with you. Be positive.

Lost? – let yoga light the way

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately – about my journey – what brought me here: how can I best share what I’ve learned with others?

I see a lot of people in the same place I was 5 years ago: lost, tired, disillusioned. That look in their eyes that says ‘what am I doing this for?’.

That moment when you realise you’re going to work for a lifestyle that looks great from the outside, but from the inside you’re going to work just to pay for a lifestyle you barely get to sit in. There has to be more.

Five years ago I decided (with a little prompt from my daughter) to leave behind the career I’d dedicated 30 plus years of my life to. A career that defined me – or so I thought. A career that actually barely resembled the one a signed up for back ion the early 80’s.

As I signed out of the drilling seat I found it hard to loose that identity. I focused on me – my fitness, a 2 year yoga teacher training program. I read and learned about some of the latest health and wellbeing science – how I could align myself with habits to increase the healthy time I could look forward to spending in this body – how to increase my healthspan, if you will.

And now – I’m ready to shine my light. The light that has been hidden under piles of s**t that life threw over me. I’m ready to guide others towards uncovering themselves.

The path starts with yoga – not just some stretching – but a world of wisdom, a road to inner peace, inner strength – wrapped up in a bit of stretching.

Join the movment.