Yoga, nutrition, organic food, health and wellness have gotten very fancy in recent years

How Gsy Life gave me this month’s theme; I’m sitting at Planet Organic on Tottenham Court Road, amid a flurry of people rushing to pack their supplements, gluten-free fries, and organic veggies, it’s rammed from wall to wall with funky Yoga Mat or bulging gym bags hung over shoulders. The queues are bustling and the boxes bulky and there is a real buzz in the air. Not only are people embracing the new wellness trend, they actually seem to be genuinely excited to take care of themselves.

And yes, I feel classy just being here! I put on the ‘gear’ and just ordered my healthy and nutritious salad, while taking a lunch break from a workout at a well-known London yoga studio, and yes, it feels good to sit back and watch it all relax in front of my eyes. . I have spent much of my yoga career in and out of various global studios in every corner of the world and ironically, a leading Los Angeles-based yoga teacher recently expressed to me how much she loved that London was “ finally getting Fashion ”.

Slowly but surely we are turning our backs on consuming massive amounts of fast and processed food packed to the brim with refined sugar and salt, and let’s be honest, a lot more synthetic junk.

I mean we’ve all been there – constantly checking our phones, ignoring our body aches and crying to rest, grabbing that quick snack or processed food because, frankly, we don’t have the ‘time’ to stop and prepare something healthy. !

We have become a population of every time the phone beeps or we hear a new sound, the level of the hormone cortisol skyrockets, but the thing is this, our cortisol levels were originally created so that we would be in a mode of ‘flee or fight’ when having a rather terrifying encounter with a bear in the forest while hunting, not by reacting to all aspects of our modern technology.

The quality of our sleep has dramatically decreased, our levels of prescription drugs to combat stress and anxiety have doubled, and we are simply losing more and more contact with ourselves as human beings.

Now, I am not the person to be stressed about how we should be, in fact I have been guilty of all of the above personally, and of horror, sometimes even with a studied level of conscience. I know firsthand how checking our emails first thing in the morning, right after opening our eyes, has become commonplace. I worked in finance for 14 years and ignored my back pain, my stress levels were constantly overwhelming me, and at one point on a duty station in Asia; Finding myself amongst the rest of my colleagues after a long day looking at our three flashing screens, watching the market fluctuations in a variety of red and green, was simply heading to the local wine bar and staying there until we had completely blocked any signals mind or body to slow down.

My point is that while Yoga and Health and Wellness are certainly stylish, I hope that instead of becoming the next fad in the cycle of cool or the latest, we practice awareness and continue to take responsibility. of our own health. and wellness.

When current trends are in fashion; We tend to go headlong to change everything at once, and to curse ourselves for when we ‘make a mistake’, however, wouldn’t it be wonderful if instead we allowed these positive changes in whatever way they manifest simply with Taking Care a Little rather, committing ourselves to recognizing when we need to slow down and when we feel overwhelmed or simply exhausted, taking the time to stop, even if only for a moment, perhaps cooking a healthy meal, rather than clicking. on escapism in the form of social media.

Personally, learning to take better care of myself in a gradual and digestible way allowed me the opportunity to reflect and become much more aware, and with practice to be a little kinder to myself, which sometimes also means enjoying cocktails with the girls and not feeling guilty about it, and definitely eating the last piece of cake!

In yoga, we say that our practice is for life, we practice to improve our quality of life, but not to be perfect. We practice for our body and mind, not for our ego.

And I really hope with all my heart that people continue to educate themselves on the vast knowledge of nutrition and wellness, which is everywhere right now.

We are also blessed to live on an island full of thoughtful, kind, educated and knowledgeable teachers who will guide us on our way, which could lead us to open our eyes a little more to what is a current style trend, to make sustainable, positive and well-balanced changes to live.

And as a wise teacher once taught me, happiness is being free and freedom is having options.