Practice
50 articles
What Burnout Really Looks Like — and How to Listen to It
After one of the most challenging years of my life, I think I finally realise what burnout is. The saddest thing of all is that now I am on the right side of my experience, I watch helplessly as others around me experience the same thing but with different outcomes.
More in Practice
How I Finally Got My Dream Body (And Why It Had Nothing to Do With a Diet)
A Warning and an Invitation: if you are here for a quick fix, read on no more. I mean that kindly. There are plenty of places on the internet that will sell you one. This is not that place. But if you are exhausted by quick fixes. If you have tried them, lost count of how many, and arrived here with a particular kind of tired that goes deeper than fatigue, the tired that comes from fighting something for decades and not winning, then you are exactly where you need to be.
Meditation Myths Debunked: How to Actually Begin (Or Begin Again)
I have lost count of how many people have told me they can't meditate. Sometimes they say it with a kind of proud resignation, I've tried, I'm just not that kind of person. Sometimes, with a frustration that suggests they genuinely wanted it to work. Sometimes with a faint embarrassment, as though they've failed at something that seems to come easily to everyone else.
The Architecture of Awareness: Using Yoga as a Framework for Self-Study
Self-awareness is rarely accidental. It is built: slowly, deliberately and through practice. What drew me to yoga was movement. What kept me there was something far less visible: the framework it offered for understanding myself.
Sound Healing in Yoga: Why Learning to Receive the Tones Changes Everything
The first time I experienced a sound bath, I didn't quite know what to do with myself. I lay there, watching the ceiling, waiting for something to happen and then frustrated with myself for waiting, because weren't I supposed to just... let go?
A Softer Way to Begin: Introducing the Words & Contemplations Podcast
Words & Contemplations starts her podcast journey, bringing you blogs in audio format as well as meditations, gentle practices and talks. Come along for the journey; we'd love to have you tune in.
10 Mindful Practices for the Unravelling Soul (On the Go)
When we left our work/life roles, I thought the hardest part would be the logistics. I quickly learned that the true challenge is the unravelling of the "doing" mind. Here are ten practices I’ve gathered from the road that you can do anywhere.
Sanctuaries of the Self: Finding Rhythm and Ritual on the Road
Travel has a way of unravelling us. It stretches our boundaries and expands our horizons, but in the movement, we often lose the steady pulse of our daily rituals. After eight months on the road, I’ve realised that protecting your practice isn’t about rigid adherence to a schedule; it’s about finding the spaces that help you return to yourself—the ones that feel less like a workout and more like medicine.
A Symphony of the Self: The Science and Soul of Sound Medicine
“Every illness is a musical problem—the healing, a musical solution.” In our modern world, we often perceive our bodies as solid, static structures. Yet, if we look closer—through the lens of both ancient wisdom and modern physics—we find that we are actually a symphony of oscillatory patterns. From the rhythmic beat of our hearts to the subtle hum of our cellular membranes, every cell, tissue, and organ in the human body possesses its own unique resonant frequency.
Listening Beneath the Mind: Yogic Practices to Heal the Samskāras That Shape Our Lives
We all carry stories that feel so familiar they might as well be our own voice — the subtle doubts, the quiet assumptions, the emotional reactions that rise before we even have a chance to choose differently. In the yogic tradition, these inherited imprints are known as samskāras: subliminal impressions carved into us through repetition, experience and unexamined memory.
The Yogic Path of Remembering: Seeing Beyond Samskaras and Old Narratives
There are moments in life when you realise that what you are reacting to is not the situation in front of you, but the echo of something much older.A familiar sting.A tightening in the chest.A story your body remembers even if your mind has forgotten its origin.
10 Daily Habits To Bring You Back Into Your Body
Every day, the world pulls us outward — notifications, demands, plans, deadlines.What if instead you pulled yourself inward, back into your body, your breath, your being? Here are ten simple, accessible habits that can help reconnect you with yourself, activate your nervous system’s rest-and-digest mode, and bring calm into your day.
Lived Wellness, Beyond the Thinking Mind
Food, thoughts, emotions: these are all attachments we can become addicted to, especially the ones that reinforce our worldview. We crave confirmation, whether through accolades, achievements, or approval for our choices. But that’s all they are, choices.
Yoga: Unlocking the Inner Technology of Consciousness
We often think of technology as something external — built, coded, controlled. Yet long before the hum of machines and the glow of screens, there existed another kind of technology: one that required no devices, only awareness. Ancient yogis discovered that within each of us lies an intricate network, a system of energy, emotion, and intelligence — capable of profound transformation when we learn how to access it.
Meditations as Portals: Shifting the Mind, Soothing the Body
We spend much of our lives replaying the past, thoughts become familiar, feelings become habitual, and the body begins to live in cycles of memory. What feels like “just the way things are” is often simply a loop of remembered emotions.
Harness Your Energy with Yoga: Devotion, Breath, and Mindful Practice
Energy moves where attention flows. Both ancient yoga and modern science tell us this truth in different languages, yet the essence remains the same: what you focus on expands.
When People Show Up: Embracing Divine Timing and Connection
In the tapestry of our lives, certain individuals appear at pivotal moments, their presence seemingly orchestrated by forces beyond our comprehension. These encounters often feel serendipitous, yet within the framework of yogic philosophy, they are seen as manifestations of divine timing, guiding us toward growth and self-realisation.
The Light We See in Others: A Story of Gratitude and Human Connection
There are moments in life when we meet people who feel like mirrors. All the qualities we long to recognise in ourselves appear so effortlessly in them. And then, as you spend time together, you realise something extraordinary: what you see in them is what they see in you. The connection becomes something rare and beautiful — a space where you bring out the best in one another, even though just days before you were strangers.
Yoga as a Framework for Wholeness
Yoga has always been more than movement. Long before it became a practice of postures, it was described in the ancient texts as a complete framework for living with steadiness and clarity. The Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali remind us: “Yoga is the stilling of the fluctuations of the mind.” (Yoga Sūtras I.2)
Everyday Moments That Are Yoga (Without You Realising)
Yoga is often thought of as postures on a mat or quiet studio time. Yet the ancient texts describe it far more broadly, as a framework for cultivating steadiness, awareness, and presence in every aspect of life. The Yoga Sūtras tell us:
Transformation: What It Is and Why Yoga Retreats Promise It
Transformation is a word we see everywhere these days, especially on retreats. But what does it really mean? And why are so many retreats offering it as part of their experience?
On Retreat with Your Yoga Teacher: A Journey Back to Yourself
I have been practising yoga for about eight years and teaching for the past eighteen months. When I finally felt it was my time to guide others along the yogic journey, I also knew that my own practice was far from finished. My curiosity and hunger for growth led me to immerse myself in three Moksha Yoga Teacher Trainings. After completing my 200-hour training in Bali in January 2024, I continued with a 110-hour Meditation Teacher training, and then dove into Yin and Sound Medicine simultaneously.
Yoga as Life’s Lens: Reflections on Autobiography of a Yogi
Paramahansa Yogananda’s Autobiography of a Yogi is more than a spiritual memoir; it’s an invitation to see life through the lens of the soul. In his telling, the extraordinary becomes accessible, not as far-off miracles but as a way of living rooted in self-awareness, discipline, and love.
20 Reflections from The Surrender Experiment by Michael A. Singer
I read The Surrender Experiment just days after walking away from my corporate job, twelve months into the unknown. No guarantees, no structured plan. Just a quiet knowing that something had shifted.
20 Moments from The Untethered Soul by Michael A. Singer
A journey inward to awareness, stillness and freedom. Some books arrive like whispers. Others arrive as gifts. For me, The Untethered Soul was both.
Wellness Beyond the Surface: Living the 8 Limbs of Yoga in Daily Life
In the modern wellness world, the surface often appears to be a glow: luminous skin, green smoothies, gym schedules, lymphatic drainage, and cold plunges. And while all of these can support well-being, they don’t touch the deeper layers of what it means to be well.
How You Can Build a Nervous System-Supportive Routine
A personal guide to tuning in, slowing down, and finding your way back to yourself. There’s no one-size-fits-all when it comes to nervous system support.It’s not about following a strict wellness checklist or chasing perfection — it’s about tuning into your own rhythms, your own seasons, and your own signals.
Packing Wellness: A Conscious Approach to the Way We Travel
There’s a certain beauty in packing not just clothes or chargers, but your rituals. A yoga mat, a journal, snacks that feel good, shoes that let you walk for miles — these are tools that shift travel from hectic to healing.
Rituals in Motion: How to Make Wellness a Habit, Anywhere
Wellness doesn’t begin and end in your home or at the studio or gym you belong to. It can be a mindset you can carry, a ritual you can roll out wherever you land. From morning breathwork on a balcony to journaling beside a window in a new city, the rituals that sustain you can become part of the way you travel, work, and live.
Yoga as Remembering
When I look at the modern world of yoga, I see familiar patterns: the yoga studio, the teacher, the aspirational "yoga body." Much of the messaging circles around self-improvement. But the deeper message, the one that stayed with me through all my trainings, is that yoga isn’t about becoming someone new. It’s about remembering who you've always been.
Finding Home on the Mat: My 6 Week Journey at Alchemy Yoga Ubud
A Return to Self, Through Movement and Community. It’s been six wonderful weeks of daily practice at Alchemy Yoga & Meditation Centre in Ubud. Six weeks of breath, sweat, stillness, and subtle transformation. We chose this space instinctively, drawn back by the magic of the Alchemy café, which we first fell in love with eight years ago. The yoga studio felt like a natural extension of that same energy: nourishing, grounded, and open-hearted.
Journaling Prompts: Redefining Value & Worth
Without any expectations, write the answers to these questions. Write freely and as if you are talking to yourself, someone safe and silent. See what comes up with out judgment, but curiosity see where these questions take you.
What Do You Truly Value?
This is a gentle invitation to explore worth beyond work and wealth, going deeper into what it means without the cultural lens that you sit behind, the one determined by your place in the world, physically, metaphorically, familiarity, etc.
Ecstatic Dance: A Homecoming to the Body
While in Ubud, I’ve been trying to open myself to everything this place offers. There’s a current of possibility here, pulsing quietly beneath the surface. After experiencing the depths of sound healing—something I’ve done before and always found moving—I felt curious to take it one step further.
19 Free Ways to Feel More Connected to Yourself
In a world that constantly demands our attention—from deadlines and devices to the never-ending to-do lists—it’s easy to drift away from ourselves. But coming home to yourself doesn’t require a retreat or a spa day. (Although you should do these things too.) Sometimes, it doesn’t need to cost anything. Sometimes, it’s about the smallest gestures—things we can do right now, wherever we are, to re-centre, ground, and feel more us again.
From Burnout to Balance: How Yoga and Meditation Help You Reconnect with Yourself
I’m sitting in a café in Ubud, Bali, thinking about where we’ll go next. But then it hits me—we’re not traveling in the conventional sense. My husband, my partner in adventure, is working much like before, just with a changing backdrop and longer breaks. And me? I’m building something of my own that weaves all my passions: writing, photography, yoga, and meditation.
Yoga Transformation: The Student, The Teacher And The Integration Of The Teachings
The road to transformation is rarely linear. It twists and turns, revealing lessons we didn’t anticipate and demanding patience we didn’t know we needed. For those of you who have followed my journey, you know that my world shifted dramatically in 2022. That year cracked me open, forcing me to look at life from a new perspective—one that led me deeper into the practice of yoga.
Why is Bali So Synonymous with Yoga?
Bali has a way of calling to the soul, whispering through the rustling palms and the rhythmic crash of waves. It has become one of the most recognised destinations for yoga in the world, drawing seekers from all walks of life to its lush landscapes, sacred temples, and serene retreats. But what is it about this Indonesian island that makes it such a magnet for yogis? The answer lies in a powerful combination of culture, spirituality, and natural beauty.
Why Yoga? We asked a Yoga Teacher what makes Yoga so special.
As a regular writer for Words and Contemplations, I decided to share the common questions I have been getting asked as a new Yoga teacher. These questions relate to my Yoga teaching so far. I have been teaching for less than a year, and I am curious about every stage of the journey. Right now, I am finding it profoundly eye-opening and humbling.
Exploring Mudras in Meditation
Mudras are how we position our hands when meditating. Each Mudra can seal the energy in the body, and when meditation, we want to seal that energy in as it's positive and restful.
9 Books For Psychological & Spiritual Growth
It’s all about finding the right book at the right time. I have said it before, but it is taking on a life of its own; every time I get to the end of a book, I am a little more open, a little further along my path and a little deeper into my journey. These recommended books combine philosophy, ancient wisdom, spirituality, meditation, health and well-being. It’s an incredible reading list and I wanted to share it with you.
Meditation, The 10 Benefits Found In Less Than A Month
I’ve reached the halfway point in my Meditation & Mindfulness Teacher Training and it’s been profoundly eye-opening. I have been meditating consistently for 24 days, although in a lifetime, it's not even a millisecond, the impact has been vast.
Is It Timing, Trust, or Divine Intervention? Navigating the Unknown
This last month marks the halfway point of my accidental transformation year, 2024 has been a wonderful journey filled with unexpected and incredible opportunities. Look for the signs, lean into the opportunities, and jump in. If you have ever heard these phrases, but dismissed them I urge you to look again.
20 Moments From 'I May Be Wrong' by Bjorn Natthiko Lindeblad
This book was one of the recommended readings before my Meditation & Mindfulness teacher training which starts late June 24. Not often does a book transport you to a quiet place of contemplation, while showing you how to cry and smile from the heart as the words touch your soul and your understanding of stillness emerges. An easy-to-read deep dive into the powers of the mind, the clutter of the thoughts and the truth that none of your thoughts matter. We are not our thoughts and we can choose to live more lightly.
The Stories We Tell Ourselves
One day you will look back upon the things you believed and it will seem as if someone else’s voice was directing you. The voice inside will evolve if you let it, allow it the space to learn from your mistakes, and test the theories that the child version of you learned to believe. Trust, be brave and create new beliefs for yourself to live by. Once you start to listen, you’ll embark on a deeper understanding of yourself and the world around you.
Why Is Gratitude So Powerful?
Practising gratitude is said to improve sleep, reduce stress and improve mood. I think it also helps you find presence, for a moment, when you think about all the things you are grateful for you look back of course but you look at it from the present. The moment you are in, the moment that holds you that very second.
Yoga, Why Is It So Powerful?
The practice and dedication found in Yoga is a devotion that gives the yogi a purpose, a deep sense of self that is controlled, strong, understanding, patient and humble. Yoga is powerful as it shows each individual their body’s abilities, it gives them a space to self-demonstrate the power within. It sounds too good to be true and I, a person who wanted to get fit and be free of neck pain had no idea of this powerful layer until I was about 3 years in. I’m sorry to report it isn't instant, but you wouldn’t appreciate it if it was, trust me.
What Is The Meaning In A Raindrop?
When the rain drops from the sky it transforms the ground beneath it, if only for a moment, this temporary change is part of the cyclical nature of our world.
What is self-love? Why is it so important and what benefits will it offer?
Self-love is when you put yourself first, it might be for a moment or once a week or maybe it's whenever you need to self-soothe. It’s finding things that are just for you. Moments that make you happy that you can pull on and continue to cultivate over and over again.
The Power of Journaling
Writing regularly is something that is said to free the mind, to process one's thoughts, to download the noise. For some, it is a collection of thoughts that were, in the moment of writing important. For others, it's a way of making sense of the hundreds of thoughts we carry every day.