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oak tree yoga

174 Victoria Road
Wargrave
07977934346
yoga classes and yoga teacher training

oak tree yoga

  • Welcome
  • Classes
    • One to One
    • Online
    • Special Needs
    • Sound Baths
  • Retreats
    • Retreat with Us
    • June 2025 Hampshire
    • July 2025 Sweden
    • October 2025 Hampshire
    • November 2025 Hampshire
    • September 2026 Menorca
  • Thai Massage
  • Yogi's Library
    • PRACTICE WITH US
    • THIS WEEK'S CLASS
    • 20 MINUTE CLASSES
    • VINYASA
    • SLOW FLOW
    • HATHA YOGA
    • YIN-YANG YOGA
    • RESTORATIVE YOGA
    • 7 CHAKRA SERIES
    • MEDITATION
    • TUTORIALS
    • Guided Meditations
  • Inspiration
  • Sign In My Account

Prescription for Peace

October 29, 2022 Sarah Raspin

Yoga is your prescription for a peaceful life. Take twice daily.

It turns out that what the yogis of old discovered through practice and observation, medicine has now validated with scientific evidence: yoga is good for you.

We all contain four hormones that contribute to our sense of ease, peace, health and contentment and yoga done the right way can stimulate them all.

  1. DOPAMINE- Dopamine is responsible for feelings of pleasure, satisfaction and motivation.

    How does yoga increase dopamine? Achievement stimulates dopamine, so completing the goal of rolling out your mat and doing some yoga makes you feel good. Yoga helps you sleep well too, which increases your dopamine levels. Exercise, meditation and breathing practice all increase your dopmaine levels.

    If you are struggling with motivation, you could have low dopamine levels, but DOING yoga will stimulate dopamine and therefore improve your motivation. A virtuous circle, so just begin. Call friends and ask them to hold you to account if you can’t get yourself motivated, or check in with our Oak Tree Yoga community who are always on hand to support and encourage you.

  2. SEROTONIN- Serotonin is a crucial chemical for increasing mood and decreasing anxiety. Researchers have found a clear connection between low serotonin levels and increases in depression, anxiety, and other mental health challenges. Besides being helpful for mental health, serotonin also improves digestion, sleep, and bone health.

    How does yoga increase serotonin? Serotonin is stimulated by exercise and by managing stress. Yoga gives you both benefits in one practice. A mindful walk in nature will also help - listen to something inpsiring as you walk, or go in silence (don’t make a call, or check your texts when you’re out, or you’ll fail to stimulate serotonin. If you can’t stop yourself from looking, leave your phone at home)

  3. ENDORPHINS - Endorphins are released during pleasurable activities such as exercise, massage, eating and sex. Endorphins help relieve pain, reduce stress and improve your sense of well-being.

    How does yoga increase endorphins? Yoga is exercise, yoga makes you smile, yoga helps you breathe well and all of these things stimulate endorphins. Lying in savasana at the end of class feeling peaceful, content, renewed?? You’re enjoying the feeling of endorphins swimming about in your bloodstream.

  4. OXYTOCIN - Oxytocin is typically linked to warm, fuzzy feelings and shown in some research to lower stress and anxiety. Oxytocin has the power to regulate our emotional responses and pro-social behaviors, including trust, empathy, positive memories and positive communication. Thanks to oxytocin, we get a warm, tranquil feeling whenever we're with the people we care about.

    How does yoga increase oxytocin? The positive feelings generated by coming together with like-minded folks to practice stimulates oxytocin . The way you hold yourself kindly during your yoga practice and the more positive feelings you generate towards yourself, your family and friends and the world in general are also caused by stimulating oxytocin. You can even stimulate oxytocin in your body by hugging yourself, so the kind of yoga we do, where movement is gentle, breath is deep and the physical self is felt and nurtured is all good for stimulating oxytocin.

Poor motivation? Depression, sadness, anxiety? Low mood, negative mind set, feelings of overwhelm? We ALL experience these things from time to time to a greater or lesser extent. Forgive yourself for being a lovely, normal human. Embrace yourself, ask friends to help keep you motivated, just BE on your mat (it doesn’t matter too much what you do when you get there… can you see now, how just lying there and listening to your teacher’s voice will sometimes be all that your body needs to stimulate all of these helpful hormones?)

Be kind, do yoga.

Namaste x

Don't take the pill, do the work

October 22, 2022 Sarah Raspin

It’s a lot harder to do the work than to take the pill. An entire pharmocological industry has grown out of this fact.

I am not anti-medicine and I applaud our scientists for their skill and dogged determination. Some of my special needs yoga student’s lives have been transformed beyond recognition by the meds that have reduced their seizures or improved their lung function. Another student’s life has (literally) been saved by meds for the very serious mental health condition which has sometimes seen him hospitalised for his own safety.

I am however very pro doing the work.

Yoga, breathwork, good diet and relaxation work when they are applied to back pain, social anxiety, depression, chronic conditions and a multitude of other difficulties, physical and mental, that so many of us confront throughout life.

So does looking deeply at the sources of your pain.

That these are not quick fixes is their power. You are not going to understand that your depression or anger comes from your need for perfectionism, which comes from your need not to disappoint yourself or others, which comes from the way you were brought up by your (probably very lovely) parents. To understand the provenance of your problems does not mean that you turn to judgement and blame of your early carers. It means that you understand clearly the framework in which you are operating, so that you might choose a healthier and happier modus operandi for life.

That this work is hard is evidenced by the fact that so few people are doing it.

That this work is of utmost value is evidenced by the peace and wisdom of those who have done (and continue to do) it.

So don’t take the pill, do the work. Understand yourself and how you got to be here. See more clearly how you contribute to the longevity of your own pain by the deeply ingrained habits and attitudes you are carrying through life with you. Move forward with compassion and forgiveness in your heart (for you, for them, for everything). Make changes accordingly.

Practise, reflect, choose wisely every day - a daily dose, so to speak. The side effects are that you live better, feel happier and have more positivity to contribute. Everybody wins.

Hope

October 15, 2022 Sarah Raspin

That the world is an unwieldy and sometimes frightening place is not in doubt. It has always been this way, as any cursory glance at myth, legend and history will tell you.

The trouble is that clenching yourself up, whether as a fist to smash or a stone to hide, is never the answer. You cannot control your way through life, for it happens anyway; it is the clear blue sky from which the plane fell, as Joan Didion has written.

The disasters you think you are preparing for never happen, and nothing could have prepared you for the ones that did.

And yet you coped. And yet you lived on. Loved on.

The result of that difficulty and pain is the wisdom and compassion you now have, which is a gift to everyone you meet.

The answer to the question of what to do in the face of a difficult world is to stay open and hopeful.

Hope is optimism and the belief that good things will come again, but hope also means trust. Trust that you are strong enough to thrive here; trust in your little life, which is so important to so many; trust in doing the simple things that restore you to yourself and inspire you.

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Another week of yoga begins ...

This little shala is blessed with the yoga of dozens of people every week, working on their breath, their body and their spirit.

It is said that the energy of a place is imbued with the shakti of all who have practic
Every single year you get your car serviced.

You take it to a professional who tunes it, fixes it, oils it and sets it running well again. 

Are you doing the same for your body? Or do you keep putting it off?

Are you busy oiling the gears of your

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