Archive for November, 2020

I’ve been running some yoga classes for the triathlon club. Below, you can find a 46-minute flow class designed to open up your hips: it is great for running, cycling, sport in general or just building some strength and flexibility. There are more classes on the way so drop me a message if you want to join them live.

Two years ago we opened Leeds Anxiety Clinic and it has been a big success. Depending on your value of success. We have been very busy and are inundated with clients, which is a business success, but perhaps not a success for the state of society’s mental health.

We are now expanding and have opened a second branch in London, the Islington Anxiety Clinic. If you are in the London area and are looking for support in managing your anxiety, we’re here to help.

Typically, we only want to supplement when we cannot build a diet that provides enough nutrients. But, in the case of vitamin D, we get it mostly from exposing our skin to the sun, rather than from food, so it is difficult to get additional vitamin D from your diet.

Given that many of us do not get outside enough in normal times and that we’re all inside because of the pandemic and lockdowns, vitamin D deficiency is probably pretty common right now, And there is some evidence that it is a good idea to supplement. So, I thought I would give it a go.

Labelling can often be a little confusing, but a typical adult intake should be around 600 IU (international units) which is 15 µg (micrograms). However, we can safely tolerate up to 4,000 UI (100 µg).

I picked up some vitamin D gummies from Boots. These contain 25 µg per gummy so one per day should provide plenty of vitamin D (and I will still get some from going outside, and a little through diet) and yet be safely within the tolerable limit.

I probably won’t let you know how I get one because I’m not expecting a vitamin D gummy per day to make any noticeable changes. If I don’t report back, assume it went fine (or I’ve exploded).

I was planning to do yoga teacher training with my local studio. Unfortunately, I held off to see what was happening with COVID as I didn’t really want to do it online, and by the time lockdown ended the course was full. So, I enrolled with the Yoga and Ayurveda Center which was online, but so affordable that I thought if it’s rubbish, I can just do the training with my local studio and I haven’t lost much.

As it happens, the course was great.

They have spent the money in the right places. The video quality isn’t perfected or edited down to a T. But there are about ten hours of contact time with tutors every week. And I would much rather interact, learn and practice teach over Zoom than have fancy transitions and perfect lighting in the video lectures.

In fact, there was so much contact time that I could often pick and choose what type of class I wanted to attend. With the lunch time ones (early morning in the US) I often had one-to-one attention with the tutor, or if I wanted a larger group to practice teach to, I could go to the evening groups.

Steph and her team have put together an excellent programme and it was wonderful to be a part of it.

Anxiety Leeds has been running face-to-face groups since 2013. However, as we are based at the hospital, our meetings have been suspended since the pandemic arrived to ensure we keep both our clients and vulnerable hospital patients safe (from COVID, not from mental health problems, unfortunately).

So far, we have been referring people to other organisations who are better equipped to handle digital events and services. However, due to high demand, we are now trialling on an online community that allows attendees of Anxiety Leeds to interact digitally, hopefully providing the same level of warmth and support we were able to achieve in the group.