You can do ANYTHING!

Welcome to my first blog post on the new incarnation of the Great Malvern Yoga website. I’m so excited! Way back in 2014, my work colleague’s 17-year old son built the first website for me and it has been great for all these years, but I decided it was time for a change so I built a new one. I wanted something a little more modern. I really, really hope you like it! *clapping hands together in glee!*

In actual fact, it was more or less ready to go in January, but then the usual January rush of new enquiries and students ensured that it got firmly moved to the back burner. Then coronavirus happened and everything changed! EVERYTHING! To say that this period has been difficult for everyone would be an understatement. More about this in a subsequent blog post.

Anyway, the whole reason for this blog post was to tell you that you can do ANYTHING you put your mind to! I had a rudimentary knowledge of websites when I started this project, having administered various corporate ones over the years, but I’d not built a website from scratch since about 1999 when I used Dreamweaver (shout me if you remember the original Dreamweaver!) to build a directory of all the websites I liked at the time. Thank goodness it’s not in existence anymore – it was seriously *cringe*!

Is there anything you want to start doing that you’re not currently doing? A project you want to start? What’s holding you back? Where is the fear coming from? Making space for this sort of self-enquiry is a great way of discovering how you really feel. Taking a walk in nature, meditating or writing in a journal are all great ways of working it out. And remember, you can do anything you put your beautiful self to! Energy flows where the attention goes.

Chocolate & Tahini Cookies

I’m still working my way through that bag of buckwheat flour.  My mum is always baking something and there’s always something good happening in my friend Sarah’s kitchen too.  I keep jealously looking at these photos of marvellous creations on Instagram and then suppressing my urge to bake something by telling myself that I don’t […]

Tips for setting up your home yoga space.

    Practising yoga at home doesn’t come naturally to some of us, whether it’s finding a quiet space or having enough ceiling height to get your hands above your head (me), it’s definitely been a learning curve over the last month.  I am so impressed and grateful for everyone’s willingness to adjust and adapt […]

Buckwheat & Chocolate Muffins

Does anyone else always have half a bag of buckwheat flour in the cupboard, or is it just me?!  This recipe is not vegan – but pretty sure you could use flax eggs and non-dairy chocolate – when I make it, this is what I will be doing. INGREDIENTS (makes 12 MUFFINS) 225g buckwheat flour.  […]

Cacao & Orange Power Balls – Recipe

Ingredients (makes about 16 balls). 200 g pitted medjool dates 50g pumpkin seeds (ground) 50g sunflower seeds (ground) 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract 1 tsp. pure orange extract 3 tbsps.  cacao or cocoa powder 2 tbsps. melted coconut oil 20g natural whey or vegan blend protein powder (or just don’t bother with this bit!) Method. […]

At least find out my name!

Dear Prospective Yoga Teachers You are just about to finish your teacher training and you are enthusiastically emailing every yoga studio in the area to find out if you can hold a class there. Here are a few tips that might help you: 1) Find out the name of the person who owns the studio. […]

A Labour of Love

When I set out to build a new website for Great Malvern Yoga, I had no idea what a labour of love it would turn into.  You see, I wanted to do it myself.  From scratch.  Have I ever built a website from scratch before?  No.  So why do I do these things to myself?  Because I’m a cheapskate with a very small marketing budget and because I was interested enough to learn how to do it!

 

It’s not like I was a complete novice.  I have administered the old Great Malvern Yoga website since its inception in 2014.  Previously I have administered various corporate websites when I still had an office job.  However, I had never built anything from the ground up before.

 

I was talking to my friend Paula the other day for the podcast and she said that her secret to getting things done was to practice presence.  Don’t try to get ahead of yourself.  Worry about what you need to be doing right now and leave the rest until you have the brain capacity to deal with it.  For example, I’ve still not quite finished getting all of the images up and where I want them, but in the grand scheme of things that is not today’s task.  Today’s task has been sorting out the slider on the homepage.  Have a scheme of work, and stick to it.

 

This goes for everything, not just building a new website!  You cannot expect to be doing a solid headstand after three yoga classes.  Let’s be realistic.  I could not expect to get this done before Christmas once I realised the mammoth task I had ahead of me.

 

You can only do what you can do.  This is a phrase that annoys me.  It has always sounded like an excuse for not getting much done.  It’s true in principal.  You can only do what you can do, whilst being organised, productive and patient.

 

 

 

Why yoga is better for you than the gym – Part 1

I hear this a lot, “Oooo, I would come to yoga, but I already pay a gym membership”… Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not telling you to ditch your gym membership and some gyms even offer yoga classes, but here’s why I think you should give yoga a try at a proper, dedicated studio: […]

Curved Balls!

Sometimes life throws you curved balls. Why did I decide to look for a yoga studio? Way back in February when the Severn was flooded, something told me to look for somewhere better to hold my yoga classes. I was sick of smelly church hall carpets, spiders, glitter on the floor, the burlesque class in […]

Moroccan Spiced Orange Cake Recipe (Gluten and Lactose free)

This is my Easter cake recipe.  I can actually eat this cake without fear of being crippled with stomach cramps for days afterwards.  The recipe is adapted from a book my mum bought for me called The Guilt-Free Gourmet by Jordan & Jessica Bourke. Ingredients 300g/1.5 cups ground almonds 250g/1.5 cups xylitol (actually I used […]

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