Author Archives: treelightyoga

Are you pretty good at knowing when to rest and take some time off? Or are you one of those people who do more and more and more (usually from a very good place of wanting to be there for others) and end up feeling overwhelmed, stressed and tired? I was teaching as part ofContinue reading “Do you know when to slow down?”

As I was growing up in Belgium, I got into the habit of starting a lot of my sentences with “Moi, je….”, which literally translates to “Me, I…”.  My mother used to pick up on it pretty much every time and reminded me that I shouldn’t be starting my sentences with Me and I oneContinue reading “You deserve to be number 1”

After only sleeping 4 hours last night, I woke up this morning feeling grotty, stiff and tense. I usually sleep like a baby the second my head touches the pillow. Yesterday was exactly like that, until one of my daughters woke me up after having a nightmare. And it took a good deal of soothingContinue reading “5 things you can do to sleep like a baby”

How can I reduce my stress levels? Being a yoga teacher, some of my friends can assume that I am always calm, relaxed and immune to the effects of stress. Not quite.  The advantage that yoga gives me is that I have built a buffer zone so that I don’t get stressed as easily asContinue reading “”

I used to hate autumn… With a passion! It meant the end of summer, the stress of back to school (that’s the thing when you are from a family of teachers, even if you are not one of them, September always has that stressful quality to it!), and the beginning of noticeably shorter days.   ForContinue reading “Autumn, Love it or Hate it?”

A couple of weeks ago, I took part in a 1-day yoga training around the theme of creativity.  Creativity is essential to our mental wellbeing as being involved in something creative focuses the mind and can have the same relaxing effects on the body/mind than a meditation.  Creativity also has a positive effect on anxiety,Continue reading “Act like a 4-year-old”

In every single one of my yoga classes, I will say multiple times “listen to your body”, “make sure you are comfortable”, “don’t go further than what feels right”, and other sentences to that effect. The key message can be summed up as “Be kind to yourself.”  After all, one of the first principles ofContinue reading “The importance of being kind to yourself”

A couple of weeks ago, I thought I had lost my bank card. For a while now, I had got into the habit of carrying my bank card into one of the slots of my phone case. And recently, the card had started to slip out of the case and I had several times foundContinue reading “I thought I had lost my bank card…”

Picture this. You are in a restaurant having dinner with a friend for the first time in ages. You’re having a lovely meal and a catch up. And then, the waiter sits a noisy family at the table next to yours. Before you know it, you start to become very aware of how busy theContinue reading “Is your social anxiety stopping you from having fun?”

When I started yoga, I was probably the only person in the class who didn’t look forward to the relaxation. As far as I was concerned, I came to my yoga classes to get toned and stretched… and to relax as well, but somehow I didn’t see the point of the relaxation. It was aContinue reading “The Crocodile – or the art of letting go”