The most important relationship you will ever have is the relationship you have with yourself.

To foster

It’s the Sunmer Solstice…. ☀️

It’s Exmouth Pride …. 🌈

And it’s time to get down to the beach for some feel-good Wild Yoga 🌸🌊😎🙏

Celebrating love in all it’s forms, diversity and inclusivity, equality, freedom, and solidarity… 

“We’re all in this together…We are all different, but we are all equal!”

So this is yoga for everyone!

The Big One 🌈🌈🌈

Yoga On The Beach session for one person Saturday 20th June 2020 10am Exmouth Beach

£5.00

So what’s so special about this one??

It’s all about Good Vibes, Love In All It’s Forms, and Summer!

For the first time, we are part of Exmouth Pride. We did a session on the beach last year, and then went along to the festival afterwards for a daytime dance, and it was awesome!!

It’s all about love and diversity, and it felt so aligned to our values here at Flow Yoga Devon.

For me, in my sessions, I like to show people that we are all different, and that yoga is for everyone!

We are all creatures of nature, we are all unique plants, and when put in the right environment, we bloom!!

In yoga we recognise that each of us have a unique light within us, and when raise our vibrational frequency (through mindful movement and being in nature), we can shine our lights out into the world with a sense of freedom and pride!!

If you’ve not tried Yoga On The Beach before, I invite you to come along and experience the good vibes of being by the sea, feel good movement with a sense of fun, and the love of the rainbow warriors that come along… ❤️🌈🙏

If you’ve any questions then drop me an email on gilliesutherland@me.com or sign up at the button above and come feel the love

Gillie xxx

Today was my favourite day back in the UK so far.

Sometimes it takes stepping away from a situation to really see it clearly, and gain perspective.

I returned from a spell out of the country a couple of days ago, and I have to say it was somewhat of a rude awakening.

Not just because I seem to have gone overnight from summer to winter, so much so that I have resorted to wearing ski wear for being outside, but because of the general energy I feel back in the UK.

Unsurprisingly, the country is on tenterhooks, as we await the results of the most important election of our lifetimes. I can feel the tension, the uncertainty, even the fear about what is going to happen.

More than that, I am looking around and seeing problems I hadn’t been subjected to for a while, and it’s shocking.

On my way back to the UK, I spent a few days in The Netherlands, and the contrast between our two countries was what struck me the most.

You would have thought that we would have shared many commonalities as nations, but it could not have been more different.

The big difference, the one that hit me the most?

There are no homeless people.

There hardly seemed to be any poverty at all.

As I started to question why, it started to become clear.

People seemed to look after each other. Someone having to resort to living on the streets would not be acceptable. Nor people living in poverty. Especially not children.

It’s all about values.

In the Netherlands, they have defined values as a country – freedom, equality and solidarity.

These values result in rights which you may claim, and the Government have a responsibility for making sure they are upheld. However, these values can only be maintained if everyone actively contributes to society.

Participation in society and community is extremely important in the Netherlands.

In a nutshell, everyone contributes, and people look out for each other.

It was the third value that really interested me. Solidarity. I looked up what they had to say about it.

“Citizens are jointly responsible for society. All citizens have the right to a safe living environment, decent housing, fair employment conditions, a minimum working wage, good education and good medical care”.

When I got back to the UK, and engaged in the political debates, I noticed that solidarity is sadly missing.

Statistics show you are more likely to die from poverty and being homeless than from a terrorist attack in the UK. Let that sink in.

Over 700 people last year died on the streets, a 22% increase on the year before, and a number that has been steadily rising since austerity measures were put in place.

An estimated 14.3 million people in the UK are living in poverty.

Out of all the children alive in the UK at the moment, 34% are living in poverty.

Now I don’t know about you, but I find this shameful.

It’s fallen upon charities to take care of people, because our Government has failed us.

The charity I was with last Christmas Day, supporting the homeless in Torbay, reported that at least 3 of the people they had put up in a hotel were now dead.

This broke my heart.

Meanwhile, I still hear and read people reeling off the same old headlines, stuck on a loop:

“Boris will get Brexit done!”.

“Yeah, but I can’t stand Corbyn!”.

None of this is important. Solidarity is.

On Thursday 12th December 2019, I will

Solidarity

Sometimes it takes stepping away from a situation to really see it clearly, and gain perspective.

I returned from a spell out of the country a couple of days ago, and I have to say it was somewhat of a rude awakening.

Not just because I seem to have gone overnight from summer to winter, so much so that I have resorted to wearing ski wear for being outside, but because of the general energy I feel back in the UK.

Unsurprisingly, the country is on tenterhooks, as we await the results of the most important election of our lifetimes. I can feel the tension, the uncertainty, even the fear about what is going to happen.

More than that, I am looking around and seeing problems I hadn’t been subjected to for a while, and it’s shocking.

On my way back to the UK, I spent a few days in The Netherlands, and the contrast between our two countries was what struck me the most.

You would have thought that we would have shared many commonalities as nations, but it could not have been more different.

The big difference, the one that hit me the most?

There are no homeless people.

There hardly seemed to be any poverty at all.

As I started to question why, it started to become clear.

People seemed to look after each other. Someone having to resort to living on the streets would not be acceptable. Nor people living in poverty. Especially not children.

It’s all about values.

In the Netherlands, they have defined values as a country – freedom, equality and solidarity.

These values result in rights which you may claim, and the Government have a responsibility for making sure they are upheld. However, these values can only be maintained if everyone actively contributes to society.

Participation in society and community is extremely important in the Netherlands.

In a nutshell, everyone contributes, and people look out for each other.

It was the third value that really interested me. Solidarity. I looked up what they had to say about it.

“Citizens are jointly responsible for society. All citizens have the right to a safe living environment, decent housing, fair employment conditions, a minimum working wage, good education and good medical care”.

When I got back to the UK, and engaged in the political debates, I noticed that solidarity is sadly missing.

Statistics show you are more likely to die from poverty and being homeless than from a terrorist attack in the UK. Let that sink in.

Over 700 people last year died on the streets, a 22% increase on the year before, and a number that has been steadily rising since austerity measures were put in place.

An estimated 14.3 million people in the UK are living in poverty.

Out of all the children alive in the UK at the moment, 34% are living in poverty.

Now I don’t know about you, but I find this shameful.

It’s fallen upon charities to take care of people, because our Government has failed us.

The charity I was with last Christmas Day, supporting the homeless in Torbay, reported that at least 3 of the people they had put up in a hotel were now dead.

This broke my heart.

Meanwhile, I still hear and read people reeling off the same old headlines, stuck on a loop:

“Boris will get Brexit done!”.

“Yeah, but I can’t stand Corbyn!”.

None of this is important. Solidarity is.

On Thursday 12th December 2019, I will be voting for the party who I think best reflects the values within me, including solidarity.

For the many, not the few. It says it all, and what’s more, I believe them.

Surrender in Surfing

It look me a long time to learn that the path of healing is not a linear route. It is a spiral. It is messy. It takes time, it takes patience and it takes courage.

It’s not a case of just following the steps, ticking off the boxes, and at the end you get a Blue Peter badge for healing.

It’s an ongoing process. Some days you’re on it, like a car bonnet. Others you wonder if you’ve made any progress at all. It’s all ebb and flow, except more random than that.

We don’t have much control over when and how the waves come. We can only prepare ourselves for when they come, and learn to ride them.

This came to me the other day when I found myself surfing, which I really was not expecting. I’d found myself having to do some really deep, inner work, as another “spiritual lesson” presented itself to me.

My first half hour at least was spent in a battle with the waves. I would conquer this. “I can surf”, I told myself, “I’ve got this”….. then “why isn’t it working?????”.

“It’s a different board”, I was saying out loud. “The waves are too short”. “There’s no power in them”. “This is rubbish”.  ….. then “I’ll beat it though”.

After half an hour, I’d exhausted myself, mentally and physically, trying too hard, using my mind to try to conquer the waves.

And then I caught myself. I observed myself like a young child having a tantrum (albeit privately, I might add, I was on a public beach).

I started to listen to myself, and finally I started to laugh at myself. Not in an unkind way. Just as an adult may be amused by their son or daughter as they get their words mixed up. Because that’s who I was in that moment, a young child. I’ve found that when we get this, we are more compassionate with ourselves.

Anyway, after that, I “let go”. I stopped trying to be the best surfer I could be. I sat out on my board for a while, and I just watched the horizon. That big expanse of ocean, with unknown varieties of waves that would eventually come.  I felt the power of Mother Nature within me once more. I surrendered, knowing that this Ocean was way more powerful than me, and I felt my faith return.

The reminder of my time on the way flew past. I was out of my head, into my body, and at one with nature once more.

I was reminded that the work is never really done. This is reality. It’s not paint by numbers. It’s not “follow this and it’ll all be ok”. It’s more a case of “let’s see if we can learn to ride these waves the best we can”. We’re going to fall off, that’s inevitable. Yet each day we do, we rise up again, stronger than before.

We may need to rest before heading out through the white water again, and preparing for the next wave. We may need to go and lie on the beach while we catch our breath. We may feel defeated at times, and it’s OK to feel like it’s too much like hard work for a while, and just sit and watch for a while.

We need to remember to get back on the board again though. And to respect that nature is more powerful than us. We need to learn to “surrender”.

Ever since the General Election was announced, I’ve been in a state of inner conflict, having a battle with myself, questioning what I should do.

My quandary is not based around who to vote for, that could not be clearer in my mind, my conflict is around how vocal I should be about it.

I’m so passionate about it, I’m a natural campaigner, a fighter for justice, so it would have seemed obvious I’d be screaming from the rooftops, persuading everyone I could that they need to be conscious in their voting.

A strange thing happened though. I realised it was “triggering” me. I was having both physical and emotional reactions when I engaged too much with what was going on. I realised it was reminding me of a previous trauma. It took quite a lot of soul-searching, and I realised what it was, it’s like being in an abusive relationship.

The lies, the gaslighting, the smear campaigns, the crazy-making, lack of empathy and compassion for others, downright bullying, and use of power and control to achieve selfish gains.

I realised what had happened. The bullies had quietened many of us, too scared to speak out, for fear of being bashed again. Others are in a state of confusion, cognitive dissonance, not knowing which way is up, due to all the mixed messages and lack of clarity.

All the smoke and mirrors, re-cycled propaganda messages, designed to brainwash a whole society, it will have disastrous consequences, as people don’t question what they are told, they just find themselves reeling off the same soundbites they’ve read in newspapers run by those with a vested interest in who gets in.

I’m triggered because my whole being knows what it is – coercive control.

Here are the facts – we have a cruel and dishonest Government. Their interests are looking after each other, and most likely, playing into the hands of the ones really pulling the strings, like Trump trying to get his hands on our NHS, and rich tax-dodging billionaires who own the newspapers using their power of influence to get what they want.

Meanwhile, those that haven’t take the time to educate themselves, reel off the same crooked and dishonest headlines, thinking because they’ve read it in the Mail, it must be true. It’s like pub gossip.

Jeremy Corbyn – racist. What????? He’s a pacifist, he campaigned against Apartheid, there’s not a racist bone in his body. Anti-Semitic? Do you know the history of Israel and Palestine, and what’s going on there. Since when was being against Israel murdering children racist? It’s spin. Why can’t people see it?

I’m so frustrated at how many people, people I’d considered to have good values, still saying “Yeah, but I can’t stand Corbyn”, as a reason to vote a certain way.

What people don’t like is change. Someone they can’t put into a box. Someone who is stronger, more compassionate, and has fought for more good than perhaps any other politician in our lifetime. As an unknown backbencher back in 1990, he took on Margaret Thatcher over homelessness. He has balls of steel, he won’t succumb to spin, nor lies, nor slander of the opposition.

Yet the media have presented him as the absolute opposite.

For me, it’s simple. Do we stay in a toxic relationship with the narcissist? Or do we put down all our pre-judgements, and vote for someone not popular, but real. For me, the “charmers”, they’re the ones to watch out for, they’ll be the ones who convince first you, then others, that they’re the answer to your prayers, then not long after, that you can’t trust your own judgement and what you need is them to take control.

Give me a leader I would trust with my children, to take care of my cat, to look out for those in need, as well as the good of the country.

Strong values equals a strong leader, and a leader with values will make good decisions.

So I guess I decided not to let the bullies win in the end. I’m back and I’m fighting for what I believe in. “Triggered?”, maybe. Or maybe just “a normal reaction to an abnormal amount of bull****”.