​Guest blog time! I know many inspirational people so I’ve asked some of them to write a guest blog. The first one is by my friend and colleague Tessa Venuti Sanderson. She is an extraordinary person and we share so many interests and ideals. Do look her up!
 
“You have all the answers. Ultimately, I really believe this is true. You might need some guidance and signposting along the way, but you can feel when something is good for your body. You’ve probably seen conflicting advice about what the best diet contains. Perhaps you’ve seen information about the latest exercise craze and wonder if it will have the same effect on your body.
 
What I’ve learnt over 16 years of teaching yoga, through completing my MSc in Exercise and Nutrition, and teaching menstrual cycle awareness to women of all ages, is that we are unique. And we change through the course of our lives. We need tailored approaches. I’ve become suspicious of anyone who claims to have the diet or ultimate exercise routine for everyone.
 
The key to supporting your well-being is feeling empowered to change what you’re doing. Information + empowerment to act = transformation.
 
My passion is empowering children and women to be body positive. To listen deeply to what their bodies tell them. I do this through the books I’ve written, including my latest one for pregnant women. Rather than another how-to book on birth, this book aims to support women to fundamentally shift their mindset, to transform the birthing journey and parenthood too.
 
The illustrated children’s books about puberty are for younger readers. They give children a language about their bodies and normalise body talk. This empowers them to speak about what makes them nervous about growing up. And to tell someone if they don’t have the body sovereignty that they have a right to.
 
Well-being is more than skin deep! Cultivating it is a life-long practice.”
 
Tessa’s book Pearls of Birth Wisdom is released on the 5th September. Pre-order it now for a pregnant woman in your life at www.amazon.co.uk/Pearls-Birth-Wisdom-Insights-Practices/dp/0993375189 or buy it direct from me for a signed copy: hello@tessayoga.co.uk. To find out more about Tessa’s work, visit www.cyclicalwisdom.com or follow her on Instagram @tessayogawomanality.

​When someone lightens up your life just by their presence, it’s a wonderful feeling to bask in that light. When someone is a bit of a downer, there is usually some hidden inner baggage which contains sadness and darkness. Which do you bring to the party? A little light or a little dark? A lot of optimism or a little pessimism?

Before the days of flicking a switch to light up a whole town, one candle had to be lit by another. So, if you are aware that you are ‘holding’ some darkness, it might be useful to spend time with someone whose light is already lit, and stays lit in most situations. Eventually, we may learn the art ourselves, and then act as a candle to others.

​Where does your sense of well-being come from? What is ‘at the bottom’, where you can go no further?
 
Well-being is not a peripheral or surface-layer state – it is something that lies right at the root of yourself. It’s made up of your fundamentals. The important thing to know is that well-being does not lie in other people, in things, at the bottom of a bottle or in the promise of future times: it needs to be in the present time.
 
If you have a chance today, spend some time playing around with the idea of what is at the root of your well-being. What are your fundamentals? This might feel a bit uncomfortable at first, because it can challenge our ideas and encourage us to question the status quo.
 
Whatever you ponder, remember that caring for your roots allows for more well-being shoots to thrive. 

“If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.”

Isn’t it interesting how your thoughts have a huge impact on your life?

If you always think the same, you will always get to the same place. If you think in a new way, you will find new solutions and ways of doing things.
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You are in charge of your thoughts and your life and you can adapt to make the changes you would like to see in your world. 

In my day job as an education consultant, I come across a lot of people who strive for perfection. It’s something that I’ve noticed more and more in the teaching profession over the years, no doubt associated with the amount of testing, assessing, checking and re-checking (just in case things have changed in the three minutes since the previous assessment was made).

In trying to understand and help, I found this ‘perfect’ quote from Brené Brown, who is a researcher professor at the University of Houston, Texas.

“Perfectionism is armour. It’s not internally driven like healthy striving. It’s externally driven and fuelled by ‘What will people think?’ Perfectionism is a shield that keeps us from being seen. Here’s to a genuine, unamoured, messy, awkward, compassionate, less-than-perfect life.”
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I love this attitude and strive for it daily, saying to myself that it really doesn’t matter what people think and it is perfectly acceptable to be seen. How about you? And for more on the marvellous Brené, take a look at www.brenebrown.com.