While our days of living off the land and pouring fresh milk across the doorstep to ward off faeries may feel long gone (for some), it's hard not to look out today and see the fertility and exuberance that people have been celebrating in Ireland for over 5,000 years. Bees are buzzing, flowers are blooming, the birds are singing, and all that was asleep has finally finished yawning and is now ready to dance. 

Hasta Bandha in Sanskrit translates directly to 'hand lock'. It is a practice of finding anatomical alignment and energetic lift in your hands to optimise balance, strength, and relieve pressure on your wrists. But in yoga philosophy we learn that everything is connected, and that the hands are direct extensions of the heart space. You give and feel with your hands. When you press down with your fingers and palms to lift out of your wrists in a downward dog pose, you simultaneously lift and enliven your heart centre. Just the same, when you offer something freely to another - simply because it feels good and right to do so - there is a subtle softening in the muscles of your upper back, and you tend to stand a little taller for the rest of your day.

I am writing to you enthused, rested, and restored from a glorious eight days away sailing around the Greek islands. I was pinching myself! I hoisted the mains and set sail towards Poros, swung like a pirate off the halliard and into crystal blue waters off Dokos bay, hiked to ancient temples in Aegina, and explored the cobbled and carless streets of Hydra where Leonard Cohen once roamed and wrote. Hallelujah!

Celtic Gaelic is an Indo-European language, and therefore a not so distant cousin of the Sanskrit language. For example, the Gaelic word for soul is Anam, the Sanskrit is Atman. If the Sanskirt word for ego is ahamkara, and the Celtic word for soulmate is anam cara, could there a connection here? Despite being two polar opposite concepts?

Chitta is a word in Sanskrit that alludes to the mind-field, referring to the subconscious part of our psyche that stores memories and impressions - out of which all of our thoughts, identity, and emotions are born. It's where you begin in the psyche, where your roots are. I think of it like a big field of mud; a fertile ground from which food can grow and nourish you - but also a place where you are likely to slip and get stuck.

The sanskrit word buddhi comes from the root word 'budh'; which means to awaken. The great Buddha, of course, translates to mean the 'awakened one'. The buddhi then, in yoga, is the part of our mind where we may be more spiritually awake - where we make good decisions, we consult our values, where we understand right and wrong. But it is also our higher knowing, the seat of our intuition, a place where we set intentions, and where we may recognise the ego for what it is.

Traditional yogis were masters of observing the mind, and they considered the physical practice of yoga (with all its many challenges and benefits) as merely a mental and energetic preparation for meditation and self-realisation. They coined the term Antahkarana Chatushthaya to refer to the four parts of the mind. The phrase literally translates to mean 'four parts of the inner instrument'. Just in the name, we can see that the mind was considered as a tool for self-realisation in yoga; an instrument. But, the mind was also known and taught to be the cause of human suffering. A double edged sword.

Sahasrara chakra is located at the tip top of your head, and is sometimes depicted as rising a little bit above the body, almost like a halo. It is thought of in subtle body teachings as the bridge between the physical experience, the psyche, and the spiritual world. It is associated with the element of space, the colour violet or white, and is specifically related to faith and trust; the knowing and recognising of the universe as a force that is working for you - not against you.

One of the best things I have ever heard is that you can recognise the difference between fear and intuition if you understand how they both feel. Intuition will always feel clear and expansive when it occurs - even if it's about something negative. There will be a sense of calm certainty, even a factuality about it. You recognise it because it comes to you all at once, it cannot be altered once it arrives, and it remains whole like a nagging certainty in your belly until you honour it, or until it comes to pass.

The word Vishuddha in Sanskrit can be translated to mean 'pure'. Words like true, authentic, clear, can all be attributed to this throat chakra; our physical dwelling place for expression and relational communication. The voice, the face, the neck; even our ears are linked to this throat centre. But if you're anything like me, you might sometimes come away from conversations with regret or anxiety, wondering if you 'came off okay', or if your true intentions were understood.

The word anahatha literally means to be 'unstruck'; unhurt, unbroken. The meaning is in reference to the specific sound of two objects coming together without ever striking each other; which is thought to be the sound of the universe: anahatha nada. This is paradoxically the sound of two things coming together and yet remaining separate; which is said to be the true meaning of unconditional love. To be whole as we are, while in connection with everything around us.

As the chakras get higher up the body, the focus slowly peels away from the physical and moves up towards the realms of personal relationships - the mind with its many restraints and tools - and eventually towards more expansive places of loving awareness and spirituality. The highest chakras, specifically the top two, are often the most scoffed at and/or the most obsessed over (!), because they deal with these realms of ether, spiritual intuition, and more celestial concepts like energy (prana), the universe (brahmāṇḍa), and the divine or a deeper consciousness (purusha).

As we continue working our way up the primary chakras this term, we now arrive at the manipura chakra - the solar plexus energy centre. This subtle body wheel spins around the area of the belly button, and links to these physical functions of digestion, immune support, metabolism, blood sugar levels, energy levels, the muscles of the diaphragm and the sympathetic nervous system. This is the energy centre of fire, associated with the colour yellow - an ghrian álainn. The sun. Sūrya.

Sometimes translated as the seat of the self, svadhisthana chakra is the energy centre of soft desires, emotions, creativity, and fluidity. A subtle body centre, it sits in the low belly, in the seat of the pelvis, and is physically connected to this area of reproductive organs, kidneys, and the bladder...which means it is linked to sensuality, creating new life (new ideas), birth, manifestation, and emotional connection. 

What makes the chakras interesting to me is that they provide a systematic structure for connecting the mind and the body, in that each chakra is associated with an area of the body and its physical functions, as well as a corresponding 'area' of the psyche and its specific emotional/relational functions. In other words, a health problem in the body might be linked to a negative belief or thought pattern in the mind (a klesha), and vice versa.

The gist is this: our thoughts affect our physical health, and our physical health affects our mental health. The chakras are the doorway to understanding this connection deeper and in a more systematic way.

I've been teaching yoga professionally for over eight years now, but this year has been my first time ever (!) privately renting a studio space and going out on my own to advertise and curate yoga offerings. It's been a little scary! Your kindness, warmth, and unwavering support has meant the absolute world to me. From the bottom of my heart, thank you.

Sushumna nadi begins at the base of the spine and is a key conduit for the flow of shakti - creative life force. It is said that when ida and pingala nadi, the feminine and masculine qualities within one person, are perfectly balanced - prana can then finally flow through sushumna nadi unrestricted, allowing the individual to feel a great sense of inner peace and divine clarity.

In Hindu mythology, Shiva and Shakti are two characters representing a fundamental universal principle; the duality of all living things. There is not a culture or people in the world that does not recognise this duality. Jungian analysts and many modern day psychologists will talk about animus and anima and the pursuit of unifying opposites within the psyche for the sake of individuation. A doctor or a biologist might tell you that in the function of a healthy cell, the principle that balances permeability is stability. Everywhere we look, things are dancing around each other in a balance of total opposites, looking for ways to come together.

It turns out that activating the 'fight or flight' system in our body can be a really good thing, in small doses. There is a fascinating biological phenomenon called hormesis that occurs when we intentionally expose ourselves to short-term stress. Rather than causing harm (like if we are constantly experiencing high stress), low-dose exposure to stress actually strengthens our cellular body and re-wires our relationship to challenge.