Resilience & Healing for 2025

One of our lovely yoga teachers has written a blog to go up here. We hope you enjoy it - it's about 8 minutes reading time 🥰

"As we move into 2025, our 5th year post covid, I couldn't help but wonder … why do things still feel difficult for so many of us?  

The phrase “burnout” has been brought to my therapy room more times in the last 2 years, than my entire 19 year psychology career. 

But that’s kind of understandable, I mean WowWee... Hollywood script writers couldn't have made up the last 5 years! A virus we could not see closed down the world - literally. Our social lives were suddenly reduced to social media via small screens.   We were exposed to frightening visual death tolls so often it became normal. Freedom was reduced to 2 short walks a day, during which we would doff our caps to fellow walkers, making a point to honour the 6ft gap by walking into the road . We hadn't experienced so many casualties & shared trauma since our last world war. But it unbelievably it didn't end there. Pent up emotions spilled into angry worldwide protests, and the pandemic triggered a global recession.   

And just as we were starting to celebrate coming out the other side, we were flooded with distressing information and images of a new war. Utility bills continue to increase beyond anything we have experienced, rental properties decreasing causing huge distress, and food banks struggle with new demand. For many of us a £10 note began to feel like a £2 coin. 

The Japanese have a wonderful proverb about resilience: Fall down seven times, stand up eight  

But what happens, when it feels like we’ve fallen for the 8th time?   

Is it any wonder that struggling mental health services have seen a rise in people feeling the pressure, manifesting in anxieties, fears, insecurities, anger, frustrations, loneliness and dark thoughts. 

For some it was more subtle – feeling increasingly worried, irritable, unhappy, dissatisfied , disconnected or malaise. 

During the initial lockdowns more and more people found themselves thinking about how they were feeling anxious, depressed, traumatised and even broken. In fact, so many sought out therapy for the first time it led to a boom in online therapy services.  Later people began to wonder if they matched the symptoms of autism, and more recently many have found themselves perusing online ADHD symptom checklists.   

As a clinical psychologist it has been interesting to observe the increasingly popular behaviour of searching for answers in mental health diagnoses, as why we feel ‘different’.  To explain our emotional landscape, to seek out our tribe, to feel understood and perhaps more importantly, for our internal struggles to feel seen.   

We are each so beautifully unique, a product of our personal life experiences – the good and the bad.  But sometimes this uniqueness can make us feel lonely, triggering commonly held core beliefs such as “I am odd/do not fit in” or “I am unwelcome/unlikable/unwanted” .  Is it any wonder then, that we would seek distractions from these incredibly common, yet hurtful beliefs?   

We of course, want to avoid feeling such things and so embrace a plethora of ‘emotional numb-ers’: excess alcohol, drugs, over exercise, over work, gambling, bingeing with food or online shopping.  

Maybe our emotions became so intolerable or shameful we psychologically ‘pushed’ them onto someone else for some respite: finding frequent flaws and overly criticising or shaming others, from loved ones to strangers (think social media comment threads!). 

And let’s not forget, even though the planet was brought to a halt, human traumas were not.  We continued to experience all the usual life challenges: relationship breakdowns/betrayals with romantic partners, family, friends, or colleagues. Job dissatisfaction, unemployment, physical health issues, bereavement, abusive/bullying experiences and financial difficulties.  Plus more time to remember childhood adversities.  

During these times each day may have felt like the hardest of challenges , yet somehow you continued to put one foot in front of the other? During periods of distress we are unlikely to recognise how strong we are being on a daily basis. But once it’s in your rearview mirror and you have shifted out of survival mode, I would encourage you to reflect back. It is 100% okay AND normal to break down sometimes.  Allow yourself to acknowledge and honour the courage and resilience you demonstrated during that period of your life.  

So… What can we do to support not only each other, but ourselves?  

Thanks to the explosion of mental health ideas in recent years, most of you will be well versed in the basics of taking care of yourself - sleep well, eat well, hydrate, increase exercise whilst decreasing screen time. 

Show yourself some kindness – Look at everything I listed earlier; we have been through so much! Is it any wonder we may be feeling fragile or overwhelmed? Start noticing how much you criticise yourself for feeling like this. Try to boundary a little guilt free rest time wherever possible, by learning to say no and try to understand your FOMO.  Obviously I am biased to suggest therapy! Ask for a free chat before committing, and if you don’t feel connected to your therapist you can leave or try another one – there are so many therapy styles its important to find one which suits you! Its your recovery journey – shape it as you wish. 

But if you are already on a long NHS waiting list or financial pressures make private therapy less accessible, why not try yoga in the meantime? 

We know that all exercise can boost your feel good vibe, by lowering levels of stress hormones, increasing the production of endorphins, and bringing more oxygenated blood to your brain. 

But In 2021 Harvard Medical School described how yoga may have additional benefits. They explained yoga was observed to affect mood by increasing levels of a brain chemical called gamma-aminobutyric acid (that’s GABA to me & you!).  GABA is known for its calming effect on certain brain functions – think less stressed AND decreased anxiety AND better sleep (who doesn’t love a hat trick of fabulousness!). 

In addition to this, they described how meditation could actually reduce activity in the limbic system - the part of our brain involved in our emotional and behavioural responses.  For a yoga loving psychologist this was huge! Because so much of mental health is linked to our emotional reactivity.  So if we could learn to deliberately calm our limbic activity, we could reduce our distressing emotional responses.  And in time, develop a more tempered response when faced with stressful situations. In other words, life could begin to feel a little more peaceful. 

Watching rates of mental health and distress steadily increase, I decided to combine my 19 years in Psychology, with a decade of regular yoga practice and teacher trainings, to develop a yoga class inspired by the psychological treatment of trauma. The aim was to create a safe space for anyone who’s quality of life felt affected by mental health issues.

I named it Anahata yoga, after our heart chakra as my patients frequently describe to me how their hearts feel broken, heavy or fearful.  This Sanskrit word also translates to ‘unhurt’ or ‘unbroken’ which is what many patients aspire to feeling. 

If you would like more information on my class please click here: 

But, for those struggling at the moment, however you choose to support your mental health, please be kind to yourselves.  Remember it is okay to feel overwhelmed, angry or tearful with everything we have been through, and I wish you all the best on your recovery journey."