focus – ShakeUpFit

August 18, 2016 — No Comments

Rubik’s cube – #ThrowbackThursdays

vector-rubik-s-cube_610226

Aaaahhh one of my favourite distractions for years. As a kid I would love to try and figure this out and never could. I’d ask my dad to help and all he used to do was take off all the pieces, rearrange them into their right colours and then put them back on haha

As a grown up this has a symbolism for me. Life is all about being as healthy and conscious as you can, being happy. Most of this site, these blog posts are dedicated to physical ways to do that. Cooking, eating, exercising, thinking but when do we focus on our minds? When do we do some workouts for our brain to keep it healthy?

Meditation is a great way to do that but so is playing with toys like this. There are countless studies to say when children use their imaginations and play with toys, colour in or generally have a way to play with just their minds they they are happier and more able to take on the world.

When was the last time you just picked up two toys and created a scene in your head using them and your imagination? Not a dirty one….. haha I still have all the action figures I had as a kid, spiderman, power rangers, transformers, they’re all in my loft. Maybe it’s time I got them out, dusted them off and messed around with them. I even used to make grappling hooks out of bent nails and string so they could obviously climb up and down the furniture in my room.

So for today, why not find a way to let out your inner child. Be silly. Let go. Have fun. Imagine.

Ciao for now x

Published by mbennardo in #ThrowbackThursdays, General, Therapy

Tags: action, children, figures, focus, fun, imagination, let the world wait, mental, mental health, mind, play, relax, toys

August 17, 2016 — No Comments

Wellness….WHAT?! – #WellbeingWednesdays

Wellness wooden sign on a beautiful day

Many of us work through life trying to achieve 'wellness'. But what is wellness? Is it the juice detox everyone is doing? Is it being able to sit in a cross legged position and 'ohm' at the top of my lungs for hours on end? Is it being outside?

What does Wellness even mean?

Every time you read a piece of media, or a medical study there is more advice of what is good for you, what is bad for you, what you haven't realised you're even consuming or ingesting and we can get so confused with trying to do the best things for our bodies that often we just give up and go right back to what we were doing before.

It's hard working towards 'Wellness'. All you want is for someone to show you a big sign saying 'Wellness this way', but that's not how it works. What is good for me, might be bad for you and may be essential for someone else.

The way I deal with it is to try and work towards feeling better, being healthier but also not taking life too seriously. You can get so caught up with being healthy all the time that you end up resenting the lifestyle, and yourself trying to achieve the unachievable. We live in a world where plastics, pollutants and chemicals are part of every day life. Yes you could try and eradicate them from your life but you'd have to live in isolation to achieve it and where's the fun in that?

Take it one day at a time and one element of your life at a time. For me, my journey started with fitness. I found things that I loved to do and just focused on those. I do them regularly enough that they become a habit. Equally if I skip them for a week, I have a mildly guilty feeling but I know I'll get back to them next week so it's no big deal.

Then I moved onto food and this was my HARDEST part. I LOVE food. I LOVE eating food. I LOVE cooking and exploring food. Most importantly I LOVE big quantities of food. So to find out how to change a lot of that I had to figure out the best way to be healthy, still enjoy the food I eat with it's flavours and the quantity but eat foods that are better for me. Vegetables, fruits, grains, beans.

Next came skincare and home life. I've never really been a big skincare person as having psoriasis has always dictated what I use. But finding Tropic and it's range of natural products has changed all of that. And I'm now experimenting with the cleaning products we use at home and finding ways to change those slowly but surely.

The last thing is my way of life. Spending more time outside, in nature. Potentially trying to grow my own fruit and vegetables, although living in London that's not always possible. I have however started doing exactly that in my office in Central London. We have a small roof terrace where there are all kinds of goodies growing. Cabbage, rocket, lettuce, sunflowers and lots of herbs! All of my own doing which isn't too bad for a first try.

My point is you can work towards being healthier, being happier in small steps. Don't try and leave your life and go off and live on a remote island and you'll live until you're 200. Just do it in small ways, and do things that you enjoy and you'll be sure to get where you want to be.

Ciao for now x

Published by mbennardo in #WellbeingWednesdays

Tags: better life, breathe, calm, change, country, dare to change, farm, focus, fruit, grow your own, health, island, live forever, meditate, nature, remote, vegetable, wellbeing, wellness, yoga

August 3, 2016 — 3 Comments

The importance of breathing – #WellbeingWednesdays

Just-Breathe-image download

Breathing. We all do it, we all think we do it well but do we really? The amount of forms of exercise and fitness that focus on your breathing can teach you how badly you are breathing.

One little breath can be manipulated to have such a dramatic difference. Those who practice yoga know what a lion’s breath can do, a huge sigh that releases tension and lets you clear out stale air that’s been stored in your lungs for longer than needed.

Then of course there is the fire breath, shallow, fast paced breaths that build up your body’s temperature and can be a workout in their own right!!

Then for those of you who swim, there’s the very shallow and slow breaths. You literally have a tiny handful of seconds to take a breath but that breath only needs to last the next handful of strokes until you’re back up again. It’s slow to keep your body calm and relaxed and very shallow so you don't keep yourself too buoyant.

So why don’t you take some time right now and focus on your breathing. Try not to change it or influence it. Just close your eyes, try and block out all the sound around you. Just turn your gaze inwards, assess your breathing. Is it shallow? Is it deep? Is it fast? Is it slow? Now start playing with it. Make it deeper, longer and slower. What effect does it have on your body? How about if you speed it up and keep them deep? And make it shallow?

Playing with breath, learning the effect it has on your own body is a huge step towards being more self-aware. Then when you’re mood is needing a bit of a switch up, use your breath.

At work and feeling quite lethargic and sleepy? Speed your breathing up, make it shallower, start heating your body up and you might see a big difference in your energy levels.

Agitated, stressed or just generally fidgety? Slow your breathing down, make them longer, deeper and try and fill every part of your lungs. What difference does it make? Do you feel more relaxed?

Have fun with your breath. Play with it, see what difference it can make!

Have fun, ciao for now x

Published by mbennardo in #WellbeingWednesdays, Fitness, General

Tags: breathe, control, focus, important, internal, slow down, speed up, try

July 31, 2016 — No Comments

Competitive yoga – #StretchSundays

I-will-win

This is one I struggle with a lot - trying not to compare to other people practicing yoga and trying not to be competitive and pushing myself to match what other people do.

I have to constantly go against my own grain with this one. The reason I like going to classes is because I’m aware of what others do around me and I push myself to learn more, I challenge myself to be as good or better than those around me. It does mean I progress my yoga, and everything, quite quickly as it means I try and do better than those around me.

What it does mean is it takes a toll on my body faster than expected and sometimes I can compromise my posture or alignment so I can go as low or as high or as deep a stretch as those around me.

Most recently I have used it to try and adapt my practice to match those around me with good posture or alignment. I use my competitive nature but instead of stretching deeper, reaching higher or folding more, I use it to adjust my back, get my legs straighter. Often that means I’m taking my legs closer or moving back a level so I’m at an easier level but working on perfecting my alignment. It’s a hard balance but it works quite nicely as I can still convince myself it’s competitive without pushing myself beyond my body’s limits.

Each of us has our limitations and our aspects that we’d like to work on. This is just one of mine that I deal with by adapting my existing issue into something that can be used productively and to better myself.

Remember, yoga is not meant to be about being competitive, it's about bettering yourself and focusing on your own practice in that moment.

Next time you're in a class, try and focus on yourself, look at how others are working their alignment, ask your teacher to adjust you into the right posture but try not to be the one pulling the deepest stretch or folding the most…unless you naturally are more flexible of course!

Ciao for now x

Published by mbennardo in #StretchSundays, General, yoga

Tags: alignment, balance, better yourself, competition, competitive, focus, life battles, overcome, posture, thoughts, work harder, yoga, yogi

July 26, 2016 — No Comments

Kids and Yoga? – #TalkToMeTuesdays

KidsYoga

Some of us already know the benefits of yoga. Having practiced ourselves for years we understand that it just makes sense to have children get engaged with yoga but how? and what are the benefits?

Focus - one of the huge benefits is teaching people how to focus. Using breath, teaching patience, holding postures, all subtle ways to teach anyone, regardless of their age how to focus. Once done correctly it can teach children how to use that focus on their exams, studies, learning in the class room

Behaviour - by rewarding well behaved children with more complicated postures, asking them to be your assistants and demonstrating to the rest of the class or even asking them to name their favourite posture can make them realise how easily they can be rewarded for the simplest acts of good behaviour

Patience - underestimated often by children and the impact and change it can have on their lives when they correctly master it. By correctly using yoga, postures and breathing you can teach children how to be patient. How to use that patience to benefit themselves

Those are just some of the benefits of yoga for kids but how do you deliver it? How do you keep a child’s attention span long enough to get them into poses, to breaths or even to explain to them what you are planning?

Simple. Stories. Tell them stories that they already know, some they don’t and incorporate yoga postures. Stretches, breathing exercises, all hidden within the story telling. Find ways to mask the moves so they don’t really acknowledge they are doing yoga, as far as they are concerned you are showing them moves that uses their imagination and incorporates it into part of the story.

Simple yet effective. That is how we change the next generation. Using what we already know in new ways.

Think on that and tell me what you do? Do you have a child who’s interested in yoga? Do you have an idea for how to deliver it? tell me! I love hearing more stories.

Ciao for now x

Published by mbennardo in #TalkToMeTuesdays, Fitness, yoga

Tags: breathe, centred, concentrate, focus, kids, mini, patience, peace, start young, yoga, yogi

July 6, 2016 — No Comments

Candle Meditation – #WellbeingWednesdays

Do you struggle with focusing day to day? Find yourself reaching for your phone to check social media when you’re at the table or having a chat with friends? Find your mind wandering off mid conversation? Do you know how beneficial meditation can be to sorting all of that out?

Meditation is one of the best ways to teach yourself focus and control. Teaching yourself to relax when you need to or motivate yourself when it’s time for you to do something specific.

Even as a regular practitioner of meditation however there can be those days where it’s tougher than others. Tougher to focus on your breathing and where you are right now. That’s when I try my candle meditation. Simple, yet highly effective for me.

Get a candle, preferably one of the bigger, quite fat ones. Light it on a stand and settle in front of it. Preferably with your legs crossed and sitting on a cushion in front of it. Turn off any lights, close any blinds or curtains and just watch the candle.

Then just breathe. Deep breaths in and deep breaths out, through your nose, eyes just slightly open. Whenever you find your mind wandering just focus back on that candle, on how it flickers on how it moves, the colours in it. You will find after a while that even though you are blinking the flame on the candle starts to blur. Let it.

Keep that going for as long as you can. The first time it may only be 5 minutes, the second it may be longer. Don’t time, don’t think about it. Just watch that candle. Breathe with that candle. Focus on that candle. Don’t let anything else distract you from that candle.

Try it out and see how you get on. It’s a great way to stop yourself getting too distracted by anything around you.

Ciao for now x

Published by mbennardo in #WellbeingWednesdays, General, Therapy

Tags: breathe, candle, focus, introspective, meditate, relax

July 5, 2016 — No Comments

Yoga is only for women – #TalkToMeTuesdays

Anyone who knows me knows I am particularly random. I like doing random activities and I like meeting and talking to random people. I don’t have a problem trying anything out, which is why some of my fitness passions come from activities traditionally linked to female activities, Zumba, Pilates and Yoga just to name a few.

It’s because of this attitude that I have got into yoga. It’s crazy how many times I ask men to come along with me to yoga and how many times they have excuses. Yoga isn’t for me is the most commonly used phrase, but I’ve also had lots of ‘yoga is for women’.

Now, it’s true that I like random things but yoga is not random. If you don’t really understand yoga and understand how good it can be for anyone, regardless of age, sex, conditions or a million other things then you really should educate yourself.

Rather than find yoga emasculating, I actually find yoga maculating. In order to perfect a yoga technique you have to have strength, balance, focus and determination. None of that is attributed to only one type of person. In order to hold a pose I need to focus on me. Yogi’s or just general yoga practitioner can be from every walk of life and the feeling I have after a good yoga session is euphoric at times.

I like all yoga, but I LOVE tough yoga. Tough yoga is yoga that makes me sweat (without the heat needing to be on!). It’s yoga that takes me much longer to hold a pose because I am trying to move my body into exactly the right pose while still being relaxed and still focusing on my breath. Tough yoga needs a strength, not just physically but mentally and that’s why I LOVE it.

So yea, I find it hard to have patience with men who say yoga is only for women. Maybe you should stop making excuses and get to a class? Let’s see if you can hack it 😛

Ciao for now x

Published by mbennardo in #TalkToMeTuesdays, Fitness, General, yoga

Tags: balance, boys, boys can, centred, controversy, dare to change, debate, discuss, emasculate, fitness, focus, gym, health, karma, maculate, manly, men, move, peace, skincare, stretch, talk, women, workout, yoga, yogi

July 3, 2016 — No Comments

Liiiiiiiiiizard – #StretchSundays

Lizard pose - Utthan Pristhasana

Lizard - knee down Lizard - knee raised

Another pose that I absolutely love. The feeling on your hips and inner thigh is just profoundly satisfying.

Be careful with posture here, a lot of people sacrifice proper alignment by trying to get their forearms down to the floor. I have been guilty of that myself and have had to teach myself about how not to be as competitive when it comes to my yoga. Focusing on you, your posture, your breathing and trying to look inwards while still keeping your eyes open is not something that comes naturally to a lot of us but that is one of the things to try and work towards when doing yoga.

Our eyes are sensory objects and we are used to taking in that information and assessing. If you can, practicing yoga with your eyes closed is an amazing experience but there’s no denying the benefits it can give you with your alignment and your practice.

The best way to start this pose is with both hands flat on the floor and both arms slightly inside your forward leg using your elbow to pop your knee out and get a bigger stretch on your hips. If you can you can then work forward to bending the arms slightly and once your flexibility gets better, actually working down to be positioned on your forearms with your gaze forward.

Then if you really want you can lift your back leg but only if your posture won't be compromised. I'm still working on mine but I love the feeling on my hips and thighs!

Ciao for now x

Published by mbennardo in #StretchSundays, Fitness, yoga

Tags: ache, balance, closed, eyes, focus, hip opener, hips, internal, legs, lizard, open, pain, stretch, yoga, yogi

January 14, 2016 — No Comments

Day 14 – Yoga and kids

Anyone who knows me knows that I love jamming out to a song. I love to sing along and I love to dance and that's why I love my Zumba and Dance Fitness class that happen twice a week.

But, did you know that I also do yoga and I like to use it as time to gather my thoughts and to understand what's going on in my life and maybe see a new perspective on something that has been bothering me.

A lot of us understand the health benefits of yoga, but not a lot of people really consider it as something they should be introducing their child too. Yet starting yoga from a young age can help in so many ways. Today I want to show just a few of those and hopefully convince you why I believe so strongly in kids doing yoga:

It improves your posture and flexibility. For children whose bodies are still developing and growing it makes sure that they grow in the right way, in the right postures and with internal strength that will do them wonders all through later life
It can lower blood pressure, improve bone health, help with overall wellbeing and help get rid of impurities in the body.
Teach you how to use breath to relax, focus and sleep better and we all know how much growing children need to sleep!
Builds awareness. Awareness of your own body and of your surroundings. That can be very much estimated in adults and the power it can have on your wellbeing, the natural intuition of your body, where it is and what it is doing. Imagine the power it can have on a child growing through adolescence, through growth spurts that leave them uncoordinated or struggling to feel comfortable in their body.
Can be such a powerful tool in the fight against abuse, bullying and so many other scenarios where it is hard to work with a child. Being able to draw discussion, self reflection, focus, calming, breathing and strengthening in both body and mind can be an amazing feeling.

Those are just a handful. Listing all the benefits would take forever. My advice, if you have a child, get them signed up to a yoga class if you can. There are dozens of teachers like me that teach in schools, nurseries, we can set up private classes, birthday parties or a whole host of other venues.

If you're not sure where to start just drop me a line on here, give me a call on 07708 996 234. No question is too silly.

Enjoy

Ciao for now x

Published by mbennardo in Fitness, General

Tags: balance, benefits, body, breath, breathe, breathing, bullying, child, children, focus, help, immunity, kids, teach, yoga

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