We advise that the information co ntained in this book does not neg ate personal r esponsibility on the part of the re ader for their ow n health and safety . It is recommended that individually tailor ed advice is sought from y our healthcar e or medical pro fessional. The publishers and their re spective employe es, agents and authors are not liable for injuries or damage occasioned to any pers on as a result of r eading or fo llowing the info rmation contained in this book. Pippa Shaw , you inspir e me more than you kno w. Ive n ever had a trainer lik e you ; you challeng e me, make me laugh, support me , empowe r me, and yo u are one of the s tronges t and ye t gentle souls Ive me t. Y o uve b een there when Iv e felt a lone and when Iv e felt on top of the wo rld, with unwaveri ng kindness and genuine care . Y o uve not only helped me achiev e my ph ysical goal s, but youve taught me loads about self-w orth and doing what feels right for me. Im ve ry grateful to not only train with y ou, but to call you a friend. Thank you, Pi ppy .
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INTRODUCTION Throughout my car eer as a nutritionist and yoga teac her , my purpose has always been to help people become the healthiest, happiest versions o f themselves they can be. Im also a big believer in living my purpose, b ecause unless I am healthy and happy , Im never g oing to truly i nspire others.
INTRODUCTION At twe nty-thr ee I d published my rst book, was practisin g as a nutritionist and had just been signed to a morning TV gig . I d also started wo rking with a personal tra iner who kept saying, Lola, you d love yoga, but I said, No way . T o o slow for me. I d rather do bo xing. T hen one night I was wo rking at a smoothie bar and one of the regular cus tomers convi nced me to aend her Bikram class the ne xt mo rning. Ill nev er for get i t. The room was heated to 40 C and about 45 per cent humidity and I re member not being allowe d to drink water fo r the rst half hour (t his was one of the rules) . I thought I was go ing to vomit f or all but ten minutes of the 90-minut e class! But the teacher was a wesome, and since I d bought a ten-day pass, I thoug ht I might as well use it so I found mys elf back on the mat the follo wing morning. By the third session I was hook ed. I lo ved the poses, I lov ed the sweat and I loved the deep relaxation I f elt aer ev ery class. I was really s tarting to f eel the benets. If you ha vent tried yog a before y ou might think its lots of meditating and hippy jazz, but if y ou pract ise the asanas (the yoga poses) it does wonderful things f or your body it improv es posture, e xibility , strength and e ven aids weight manage ment. Now, I have t o confess tha t when I rst s tarted, it was the physical stu that dr ew me in, but the more I practised, the more I became fascinat ed with yog as philosophical and spiritual roots. I wanted t o learn how to be mor e present, to calm my mind-chaer and to change the way I spoke to myself . More importantly , I wanted to learn about m y ego and how to let go of it, or at the very le ast decrease it. Le t me ex plain. I d been practising y oga for a while when I was aske d to do a TV segment advising wo men on the kind of diet re quired to become a lingerie model. I remember being so hypnotised b y the whole idea of wo rking on televis ion that I didn t stop to ask myself if this was the right thing for me to do. An yway , I got home aer doing the segment and I st arted crying. I f elt horrible, as if I had let ev eryone down. Encour aging women to pursue such an unrealistic body ima ge was way out of alignment with my values and I was inspiring no one , least of all myself . Then I caught up with a friend who said, L ola, y oure f ake, y oure i n this for the fa me. I was mortied and I didn t want to believe her . But you know what? S he was spot on. I wasn t doin g this to help others, I was doing it t o raise my media p role so I d be booked for more TV gigs. It was wrong on so many leve ls. So I decided to let go of TV and focus on becoming more connected to m yself I wanted to be clear in my mind and to feel happier . I wanted to act with integrity . And I knew that yo ga had a deeper , spiritual side that would encoura ge the kind of self- inquiry I needed. I tend to live by the mantr a the harder y ou wor k, the luckier you g et, so at t imes it can be a challenge fo r me to slow dow n.
INTRODUCTION About three ye ars aer I d started Bikra m, a friend took me to my very rs t vinyasa class, and I r emember thinking that I could do this fore ver i t was challenging and stre ngthening but at the same time felt ve ry nourishing. I lov ed it so much that I decided to train as a vinya sa teacher . Y e t despite all my practic e, I still felt I wasn t lea rning to calm my mind. I still tended to liv e in yang (ery , passionate, right- brained, fa st-paced) so I decided to try yin yog a. This is where yo u hold the poses for a long time (anywhere fro m four to ten minutes) and are encourag ed to shut your ey es as yo u slowly melt into them. Boy was it hard to slow down! But I pers evered, and the benets were am azing. Aer eve ry class I felt deeply re laxed (I call it yog a stoned), plus I d sleep really wel l and wake up f eeling super r efreshed. So I trained to become a yin y oga teacher as well, and it turns out that yin yog a is the perfect partner f or vinyasa . Now, some people I teach have confessed that they were scared to try yo ga in case they w erent exible enough. Others worried that the y wouldn t be t enough to hold the poses and still others said that the y felt self -co nscious about their bodies. Im here to tell y ou that anyone can do yoga. If you can br eathe, yo u can do yo ga. There are many di erent styles, and it s just a maer of ndin g one that feels right f or you. Ev en if yo u have an in jury or physical challenge, a good teacher will be able to modify poses to suit your needs. In any case, Iv e learned that yo ga isn t just about making yo ur body strong, e xible an d healthy it s also about making your mind strong, e xible an d healthy . The word yo ga itself comes from the Sanskrit wor d yuj , which means to join or unite. (Sanskrit is the language of ancient India and is still one of India s twenty- two ocial languag es.) Y o ga, then, is about the connection between mind, body and spirit. When we think of y oga here i n the W es t, we almost always think of the physical pra ctice (the asanas or poses), ye t according to the ancient teachings, the asanas are just one step on the eight - fold path to purifying the body and mind and aaining bliss. The others include the yamas ( ethical princ iples that guide how we relate to other people ), niyamas (the pr inciples that guide how we take care of ours elves) a nd pranayama ( breath control). More about these later on. Im here to tell you that anyone can do yo ga. If y ou can breathe, y ou can do y oga. There are many diere nt styles, and it s just a maer of nding one that fe els right for yo u.
