The Art of Mindful Living with Carla-Jo

When I found out I was pregnant with my first child I was overjoyed! I knew being pregnant would be a massive change in my life, a whole bunch of new questions were whirling in my mind, would I be a good enough parent? What would the birth be like? Will I manage the sleepless nights? How will I feel not having the same amount of freedom to do what I want? I’ve been a mindfulness teacher for a couple of years now. It is my absolute passion and it never fails to amaze me how much I continue to learn from the practice. As all these questions were spinning through my mind I thought what better time to really deepen my mindfulness practice then bringing a new being into the world! As the early weeks of my pregnancy passed I began to see that I was really holding on. I became aware that I had this constant background fear: what if something goes wrong…what if I lose the baby….I began to notice I was wishing days away just trying to get through the next hurdles until the...

Before I started to practice mindfulness I had a sort of faint awareness of how I didn’t feel a particularly confident person and I had the worst inner critic and that I never felt good enough! But the more I practiced the more I became aware of this and I realised how harsh I was on myself and I began to think where did this come from… I feel it came from being dyslexic and struggling throughout my entire education. I didn’t find out I was dyslexic until I was at university when I was 22, I was really struggling in the second year I just couldn’t keep up anymore so I went to student services for help.  Up until that point I had worked myself into the ground to try and keep up with my classmates but I just couldn’t do it anymore. I think that’s why it never got spotted at school because I worked soooo hard to try and keep up. I was actually in the top set for English!!! But I always got awful results in tests and exams but my English teacher felt I had something , so sh...

When was the last time you actually took notice of your breath? When was the last time you felt the rhythmic motion of your lungs drawing in the cool air through your nostrils? I  know I never paid much attention to my breathing, when I was living at home and going through a stressful time, Mum (who is a yoga teacher) would often gently say Carla-Jo you’re hardly breathing!! This would just irritate me and I’d probably just hold my breath even more!!! I was totally disconnected from my breath. When I was feeling particularly anxious I would unconsciously hold my breath, my chest would feel tight like I couldn’t breath, it was really scary. This way of breathing became a pattern even when I wasn’t feeling worried or panicked. When we feel stressed, anxious or depressed we often hold our breath or breathe very shallowly. This affects our overall sense of well-being and can create layers of tension in the body. In mindfulness connection with the breath is integral. We b...