11 minute read
Health, Beauty and Fitness
Health, Beauty and Fitness Health Matters
by Sue Lennon
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It never fails to surprise me that the seasons here are so dramatically different to northern England. Excluding the ferry crossing it’s only 513.7 miles from North Yorkshire to Chez Nous (I know cos we cycled it once), yet summer starts a month earlier and lasts until mid-October. The clocks go back, then one day you notice a few leaves on the lawn and the next day the trees are bare – that was autumn done - and suddenly it’s winter, with ground frosts and two jumpers and the need to light the wood burner every evening. Next, it's the winter solstice and Hanukkah and Christmas and the ski season.
As you already know, in our house we are generally up for an adventure and while there is a small handful of things that I would never try – cage diving with great whites and taking illegal drugs for instance, my husband has a rather longer list. Sadly, this includes skiing. He is of the opinion that at the age of almost 70 the risk of injury is too great for a total novice, so snowman building and watching Ski Sunday is as risky as our winter sporting activity gets. For those who already ski, I’m sure you know about preparing your body for your trip to the slopes. For those who are taking to the piste for the first time, I’m not suggesting that you get your liver in training ready for all that après ski, but I do encourage gently working up your cardio fitness and stamina, and strengthening your thighs, stretching your hamstrings, walking up a few hills etc. There’s plenty of advice to be found online but be aware that skiing uses a unique set of muscles and it definitely pays to be prepared! You’ll no doubt have raked out your stored salopettes and jackets, weird socks with no heel and goggles with yellow lenses, but my next advice is to consider getting a ski helmet. While it is not compulsory in French law to wear a helmet, many ski schools insist and even if they don’t, I hope that you will join the 80% of skiers and boarders who have already adopted the helmet habit. You can of course choose to rent one, in which case I’d recommend you get a little cotton beanie to wear underneath. I don’t know about you, but I can be a bit squeamish about head hygiene! It's rubbish to have to be health aware when you are looking forward to a holiday, and of course those who take all the precautions can still end up in Urgences because accidents happen in those stupid unforeseen moments, no? Well, this is the interesting bit – according to research, most ski/snowboard accidents happen between 3.30pm and 5pm. There are a number of reasons suggested to explain this. Firstly, when the sun has dropped, the temperature takes a tumble too. This changes the texture of the snow which begins to ice up in clumps, making the piste that you may have been happily skiing all day, more difficult to negotiate. Next, later in the day you are not in ski-school being coached and carefully guided by someone who knows your limits, so you are more likely to do something daft or take a risk or join friends and family who have a higher ability than you. And lastly, you are getting tired and probably hungry. So, what can you do with this knowledge? I’d suggest the following - 1. Read the skiers code. (Look it up – the one I found is Canadian, but it works everywhere.) 2. Wear a helmet. 3. Don’t kid yourself or be flattered by others about your ability. Know your limits. 4. Be aware that those around you are also likely to be tiring as the sun goes down. Collisions with other skiers are the most common cause of accidents! 5. Get fit before going away. 6. Ensure your boots fit well. Do not rush when trying on boots, resist any pressure from others in your group to get a move on, or from the hire shop staff who may just want to get onto the next customer. If you can, check that the boots disengage from the ski bindings easily. 7. Towards the end of the day seriously consider whether
‘one last run’ is realistic, or whether a vin chaud and a slab of brioche is preferable. And definitely don’t neck the vin chaud and then decide ‘sod it lets do one last run…..’
I would like to finish with a bit of reassurance, (to my husband and) to anyone that is feeling a bit worried having already booked their first-time ski experience. Stats show that the overall injury rate is 3 injuries per 1,000 skiing days, and 4-16 per 1,000 snowboarding days. Which I’m told means that if you ski on 20 days a year, on average you’ll sustain an injury every 16-17 years. So, take sensible precautions, stay aware, don’t forget the sun-cream and have a great time! Sue x
Your Ground Yoga - Yoga for where you are
Your body is not you
by Rebecca Novick
About twenty years ago, I visited a friend in California who suffered from multiple sclerosis. She was very weak that day and could barely get up off the couch. When I asked her how she was doing in general, her answer surprised me, “My body is having a hard time, but I am fine.” I sensed there was something very profound about her reply to me, but at the time it eluded me. What did she mean, exactly. Who was this ‘I’ apart from the body that she was referring to? One of the most powerful long-term effects of a regular yoga practice is a fundamental transformation in our relationship with our bodies. In modern cultures, we suffer from an extreme identification with the body. We feel that we are our bodies, and our bodies are us. When our body gets sick, we say, “I’m sick” as if our entire identify is involved. But not everyone responds to illness the same way. Some people manage to maintain a core sense of themselves, regardless of the discomfort and suffering they are undergoing, that is unaffected by the illness. Such people are not in denial about their illness, and they do experience pain and all the rest of it, but their illness does not define them. Other people get utterly consumed by the illness, which acts as the gravitational force of the entire fabric of their lives. I’ve long been fascinated by these different responses. What I suspect is that the people who do not lose themselves to their diagnosis do not identify as much with their bodies; or put another way, they identify with a wider sense of who they are. The illness is not able to affect this deeper sense of themselves. This is also the deeper sense of yoga – a path that uses the body as a tool to free the mind from an over-identification with the body. Unfortunately, the kind of yoga that is performed, even in India nowadays, often takes people in the opposite direction. Yoga done merely as a trendy form of exercise can create more body-identification, not less. There is nothing wrong with losing weight, toning muscles, or improving strength and flexibility. But from a yogic perspective these are merely side effects of the real medicine, which is a profound psychological, emotional and spiritual transformation that unites our everyday consciousness with a deeper and vaster sense of self. The self with a capital ‘S’. From the point of view of this Self, going around thinking that I am the body seems as odd as going around thinking I am my trousers, or I am my overcoat. There are steps and stages to this journey of disidentification with the body. One of the signs that this might be happening to you, is a long-lasting sense of lightness and levity in the body, a higher than usual pain threshold and tolerance of extremes of temperature. As the yogic practices help the body’s subtle inner channels to begin to flow, then the ‘space’ within the cells become activated as prana – subtle vital energy moves within it. In fact, the body begins to feel more like a dynamic vessel of energy and space than a decaying lump of meat and bone. This is because the identification has shifted from the gross physical to the more subtle planes of existence. And as my kind teacher always said, when you find the right direction, keep going! For information on lessons and classes or questions about yoga, you can contact me at As always, respect yourself, explore yourself. Rebecca lavieenyoga@gmail.com.
For information on yoga and breathe better courses contact lavieenyoga@gmail.com
Discovering A New Skill
by Sophie Hargreaves
Photograph courtesy of Sophie Hargreaves - Photographer - Donatien Millet
For the last two years, we’ve been telling people about how amazing our alpacas’ fleeces are and the special qualities of their wool. We get two different qualities of wool from the alpacas depending on where it’s taken from on the body. The first quality wool can commonly be compared with merino wool; an incredible calibre wool. Being a natural fibre it will always allow easy breathing when worn, which can usually be directly onto the skin without irritation. Each individual fibre is hollow, a great insulating quality. It’s no surprise then that it’s four times warmer than sheeps’ wool. So, we feel a responsibility to do it justice with its use.
When asked what we do with it, we would confidently say “with the first quality wool, we will have it spun and knit clothing with it, with the second quality we use the technique of wet felting.” This was certainly the truth for the second quality wool which we have been wet-felting for some time; around soaps, for decorations, slippers, blankets and trivets. But, it would be a huge waste to do this with the first quality wool. The reality for the knitting of the spun wool was that it was in the future and of course I would magically know how to do it.
It took us over a year to find the right artisan who could spin our wool for us to our specific brief here in France, several people had advised us to use an overseas service. Here’s why: many alpaca breeders here will work together and combine their wool, matching quality and colours together, they then receive a weight of wool in return correlating to their fleeces contributed. Whilst it’s a great initiative, this wasn’t the way forward for us. We were in love with the idea of being able to be a farm with traceable products, from animal to home, where responsible buying was easy. Whilst ours is the more expensive production route, this idea of a “Clove bandeau” or a “Rohini beanie” was really important to us, respecting the producing animal, knowing it’s given an enriched life with the highest welfare standards was non-negotiable.
So, having found the perfect artisan, I needed to practise knitting. The realisation came that I’m not actually a keen crafter. The problem for me is the need to follow instructions exactly and keeping focus; I do tend to get bored a little too easily and too frustrated when I make a mistake. I practised with nylon wool so as not to waste the valuable alpaca wool with my errors. It did not go well and I was more frustrated than ever. Knitting did not look appealing to me.
Spoiler alert, perhaps some of you already know, we do actually have a wonderful selection of 100% alpaca wool homemade knits. So, how did I manage to turn this around? With an order from Will for a woollen hat made from Clove, the passion I had for the alpaca’s wool and thinking about the happiness it would bring my husband to have this piece, I put down the nylon wool and dove straight in. It was really that simple for me. I knew I couldn’t waste the alpaca wool, it was too good, too precious, too expensive to not do my best. And with that, I found my muse. With quality material and the knowledge of the joy alpacas bring to people, I knew having these pieces would be appreciated
by many.
I started off simple and if I’m honest, just “did” without understanding the technique. Since then, I’ve added a little crochet finishes to some pieces (yes, another new skill) and also created a couple of my own patterns, that I’m practising and finessing before they’re made public!
I’m very satisfied with my new skill, feeling like a child who learned to tie their shoelaces for the first time, that I’m now considering learning more crafting skills over the winter months with my new knowledge of how I am motivated; quality materials and the finished product needs to be able to bring someone joy!
