After a wonderful summer of covering so many lovely classes (enjoying each and every one of them) and trying to power through illness and low points, I finally hit breaking point yesterday, got poorly again, lost my voice and had to cancel a class. This was a valuable lesson in knowing your limits, listening to the body and looking out for the signals that it is working too hard and needs a rest. Being a yogi I now obviously feel the guilt of not seeing this in the first place when I am teaching it to others!! Missing classes because of working so much that I dropped the ball, got stressed, anxious and over emotional... classic signs of burnout. When we are caught up in this downward spiral it can be a challenge to get ourselves out of it!! I am hoping that telling you about this will help you to see the signs within yourself and take a break before getting to this point!!
I know, I know we lead very busy lives and we can't always take a day off whenever we start to feel tired/grumpy/emotional/full of cold. But noticing this before hitting breaking point and taking a regular yoga class (if overworked and anxious, make it yin or restorative. If depressed and emotional make it a good fire building class like hot yoga or vinyasa. Even better, a mixture of both). And most importantly, say no to extra work/commitments if you already feel overstretched... yes you may come against resistance from others but sometimes our own health and vitality has to come first if we are going to be in a good space to help and support others (put on your oxygen mask first!! :))
So back to my point, I gave myself a wonderful morning off to practise yin yoga, meditate, drink a lovely spicy, medicinal hot cocoa and a delicious healthy smoothie for lunch. I now feel alot better, my throat is much less swollen and I feel rejuvenated. As a little treat I will share the recipes with you.

Medicinal Hot Cocoa
For this I added turmeric for it's anti inflammatory properties 10 Health Benefits of Tumeric and Curcumin (healthline.com), cinnamon as it is full of anti-oxidants and may also have anti inflammatory properties 10 Evidence-Based Health Benefits of Cinnamon (healthline.com) and cardamom pods which are anti inflammatory and diuretic 10 Health Benefits of Cardamom, Backed by Science (healthline.com). Of course there are many health benefits of cocoa too (if you can get hold of cacao in it's most purest form, even better! 10 Health and Nutrition Benefits of Cocoa Powder (healthline.com).
So, here is my personal recipe;
1 tablespoon of cacao/cocoa
1 mug of oat milk (or your personal favourite milk/milk alternative)
1/2 teaspoon of turmeric
1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
3 cardamom pods
Sweetener of your choice to taste
Heat until boiling and let simmer for a few minutes, then enjoy!!
For my smoothie recipe, see the instagram post https://www.instagram.com/p/DAa7tKQIzWn/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
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