In the age of AI and big corporations with huge budgets it can be easy to forget that on the other side of the screen, on the other side of our transactions and the businesses we interact with are real human beings. And the quicker and slicker we start expecting things from other people the more pressure we end up putting on ourselves. But we are not machines, are value is not measured by our output.

We are human BEINGS. And we deserve rest and time to just be.

I know a lot of you are back to work/school today so I’ve created this delicious legs up the wall sequence for you.

Enjoy, and if you’ve been putting a lot of pressure on yourself to get back in the groove perfectly, take your foot off your accelerator, you can only do one thing at a time.

Much Love,

Jo x

The way we talk about trauma being ‘stored’ in the body makes it sound like our bodies are a scorecard taking tally of all the things that happen to us, or make it seem like once we have trauma in the body it’s there forever.

But our bodies aren’t scorecards, and the trauma isn’t ‘stored’.

It’s more like our bodies are a map of all the movements and patterns that we do most often. Our bodies are extremely adaptable and when we repeat a movement our bodies get stronger or weaker around that movement. That’s why if we train legs we get stronger legs, and if we don’t we don’t.

But the movements we do in the gym are only a tiny fraction of the movements we do in life.

And when we are stressed or traumatised we move our bodies differently to when we are relaxed, and so long term stress get’s coded into our bodies.

But like I say, our bodies are very adaptable, we can make new patterns and train our bodies to not brace as much.

When we move the body in new ways and teach our bodies how to relax we are creating brand new ways for our bodies to be, and over time our bodies adapt to this new way of being.

This is exactly what we are doing in yoga.

If you are interested in the physical application of this, for members of the Zoom Studio or Practise Library we have a very special Soul Restore Session on Sunday the 30th August at 8pm

We will be doing a deep dive into the nervous system and how to relax.

If you’re a member of the Zoom Studio you can come live or watch the replay, if you’re a member of the Practise Library you can watch the replay.

The Zoom Studio is currently full to new members but there’s space in the Practise Library if you’d like to sign up 🥰

More Info

‘Exercise gives you energy so just push through.’

No. Exercise CAN give you energy if you’re a normal amount tired. But when you’re running completely on emtpy and your nervous system is fried ignoring your signals and pushing through is going to make you ill.

‘You just need a holiday’

I love a holiday, but taking a break and then coming straight back into what was burning you out in the first place isn’t a long term fix.

‘Just be grateful for what you have’

Gratitude is such a powerful tool but we can’t just will ourselves well, we can be grateful and still take steps to improve our lives.

And what actually helped

Recognising that this wasn’t a dress rehearsal, that this was my one life and that the pressure I was putting on myself was literally killing me.

Making rest a priority.

I practised restorative yoga, and let that be enough trusting that my body would want to move more when it healed (it did).

I committed to it taking as long as it takes knowing that it was going to be the best investment I ever made (it was), because nothing is more important than how you feel in your body and mind, it’s the only place you’ll ever have to live.

So treat yourself well and if you don’t know how to do that imagine you’re a plant.

Water, sunlight, nutrients, rest and kind words will go a long way…

If you’re a member of the Zoom Studio or Practise Library we have a very special Soul Restore Session on Sunday the 30th August at 8pm

We will be doing a deep dive into the nervous system and how to relax.

If you’re a member of the Zoom Studio you can come live or watch the replay, if you’re a member of the Practise Library you can watch the replay.

The Zoom Studio is currently full to new members but there’s space in the Practise Library if you’d like to sign up 🥰

More Info

But never fear, because here is a delicious stretch perfect for those hard-to-reach areas.

I hope you enjoy!

And as always let me know how you get on because I LOVE hearing from you.

Much Love,

Jo xx

Recently I’ve had some really lovely emails from people who would love to support Yoga for Tired People but don’t want to sign up for an ongoing subscription.

Substack doesn’t let you do this, but you can buy me a coffee on Kofi to help keep the classes running. It’s very appreciated.

HERE

Ok, I admit it. I’m bricking it…

The book I’ve been writing all year is with my publishers (shout out Bloomsbury) being made into an actual book and up until this point I’ve been fine, loving it even and then…

Two nights ago I woke up in a literal cold sweat, heart beating out my chest, pinned to the bed. Oh crap. People might actually read this thing.

I suddenly felt so guilty.

My brain raced for things I’d done wrong, compulsive thoughts came.

What if I’d accidentally written a load of slurs and nasty things in the book (I haven’t)

What if I had written it with ai without knowing (I haven’t)

What if everyone hates me and stands in a circle chanting ‘not worthy, not worthy’ while I roll into a ball and cry. (unlikely at best)

Maybe, I thought, I should get up and check, go through the book one more time, just in case.

Or better idea I could just pretend I’ve never written a book, not promote it and hope that everyone forgets.

And then I remembered.

This is has happened before, lots of times in fact.

It happened when I opened my studio.

The first time I taught a yoga class.

When my neck stretch went viral and 8 million people saw me.

When I pressed publish on my substack.

Driving on my own when I passed my driving test.

Every single time you expand in visibility you have to crack open a new identity, and that shit is scary.

Every single thing you desire for yourself is on the other side of fear.

You will only grow to the level that you feel ok to stand in the uncertainty.

Every time you expand, your nervous system will scream at you to contract. To go back to where it feels safe.

But we are ambitious, we want big beautiful lives, however that looks to us.

We want to claim our dreams.

And that means we have to put in the nervous system work. We have to learn to stay steady when the big waves come. And they will come.

And the more you do it the easier it is.

Not that the growth is easier but you understand the process.

Kind of like running, every run is hard but the more you do it the more you can be like ‘oh this is the bit where I think I’m going to die but I don’t die and it gets easier.’

So if you’re growing at the minute and you’re finding it hard, I see you.

And I’m cheering you on.

And make sure you’re making space for the nervous system work, because without it everything else feels twenty times harder.

Here’s a little practise for you to do to balance yourself as you grow.

I had a few people asking about yearly memberships to the Practice Library because for some reason I forgot to add them onto the email. Yes, I do annual memberships and they come with a huge saving. It’s £90 for the year for recordings of all the live classes, yoga of the day so you don’t have to think which class to do and the on demand library

Yes Please!

It can sometimes feel like we spend all day long hunched over with rounded shoulders and tension on our neck.

So it’s no wonder really that we end up with tight chest muscles and sore upper backs.

Well, not all is lost because here is a delicious session you can do to help counteract all that hunching. All you need is a hand towel and 10 minutes.

I can’t wait to here how you get on.

Love a session and want to find it again?

Did you know that you can save your favourite sessions so you can find them easily in your substack account. You can even download them to do when you’re offline.

Hoorah!

Yoga was invented in India well before air con, so luckily for any of us currently experiencing this heat wave it can show us lots of ways to cool down.

Here is a short sequence to help you cool off even if you don’t have air con.

But, like, what does that mean?

And when I asked the members of the zoom studio (the online yoga studio where we have 3 zoom classes a week) what they wanted to learn more about so many of them asked if we could go a bit deeper into yoga philosophy.

So I thought it would be a good time to bring back my yoga philosophy podcast.

In this episode we look at the history of the Yoga Sutras, which is the text that most modern hatha yoga comes from.

I hope you enjoy!

Listen on Spotify

Listen on Substack

There was no zoom class this morning and it will be on Friday morning instead, as yesterday was a my birthday, yay!

And I have no shame at all in celebrating my birthdays to the fullest, maybe it’s because I’m a Leo, maybe it’s because I’m the youngest child, or maybe it’s just because I love an excuse to eat cake and have a good time.

But I believe that life is precious and one more journey around the sun is worth celebrating.

So me and Andy went up into the wilds of Northumberland and stayed in the CUTEST little cabin at a place called Hillside Huts

We toasted marshmallows, went in the wood fired hot tub, stargazed and swam in the sea, it was heavenly.

I have one more year of my thirties left now, so I’ve been thinking of how I want to be when I step into my fourties next year, and if there’s anything I need to do this year to make that possible.

I have spent a lot of my thirties healing from burn out, unmasking and generally working out who I am when I am not trying to impress other people.

And a lot of this has been creating safety and routine, which has been so needed and I am so proud of myself for doing, but I think I’m ready to step put of my comfort zone again.

So this year I’m going to do 40 things that are out of my comfort zone before I hit 40.

It’s not going to be a sky diving and climbing Everest bucket list, more like turning right on the A1 and learning how to throw a basketball into a hoop. Little things to get me off my couch and out of my scrolling-on-my-phone rut.

I’ll let you know how I’m getting on here.

In almost every culture there is a form of sacred speech. We have prayer, chanting, spells, mantra.

Using language to weave the world is innate to us as human beings, and has been used as part of religion, spirituality and ritual since records began.

But we don’t have to have an organised belief system to access it’s benefits.

I love affirmations; I love how flexible and empowering they are and how quickly they make a difference.

For me, affirmations are not about forcing myself to believe something or to deny reality but a way to shift the lens I am seeing the world through. A way to influence the landscape of my mind.

I hope you enjoy this session, you can do a formal relaxation and sit and listen to it or you can have it on in the background as you go about your morning.

I sent an email to the members of the zoom studio asking them if there is anything they’d like to see in the membership and an overwhelming number of replies said that they wanted to know about the philosophy of yoga, especially the 8 limbs.

Well it just so happens that I have a full podcast series on this, but because I made it so long ago I forget to tell people it exists (doh).

So I’m bringing it back, every Wednesday I will send out an episode for you to listen to and explore a bit more about the basics of yoga philosophy. I hope you enjoy!

(If you’re wondering who that woman with the short dark hair is in the photo, that’s me! 2022 was the year of my burn out and there were signs 🤣)

Listen on Apple Podcast

Listen on Substack

PS.

Welcome to everyone who joined the Zoom Studio yesterday, the slots have now been taken and the doors are closed again. If you are interested in joining you can put your name on the waiting list and when a space comes available I’ll let you know x

Join Waiting List

I’ve had lots of requests for a session you can do in a small space when you’re travelling, so your wish is my command: here’s a short routine for your whole body, for when you’re stretched on space but still need to stretch your body.

Enjoy!

Enjoy!

Don’t forget you can save your favourite sessions to find again faster and you can even download them so you don’t have to be online to do them.

When you’re exhausted all the advice about how to relax can feel so overwhelming.
You’re too tired to move, and you’re too wired to be still. And so you keep doomscrolling, keep playing on the computer, keep doing things to numb you out and you stay exhausted and with a dollap of guilt on top.
That’s why I teach the Move, Soothe, Connect, Express method.

If you’re too tired to move then it’s time to Soothe.

Hot baths, nice smells, self massage.
And even better if you can combine it with Connect and do it with a friend, loved one or pet.

Here’s my favourite soothing foot massage for you to do.

Or maybe you listen to the radio, or have a comfort TV show that you watch before bed.

The human brain is primed to find stories comforting and relaxing. For millennia we have told tales in the evening in front of a fire. They remind us of safety, of belonging, of being part of a tribe.

A sleep story is an adult bedtime story, specifically picked for their gentle, cosy nature. They are interesting enough to stop your mind wandering but not so interesting you get involved in the plot.

I have wanted to record one for ages but it’s a little bit different to what I normally post so I haven’t had the confidence. So when someone in my zoom studio specifically asked for one, I jumped at the chance.

I have chosen the Wind in the Willows as this was a particular favourite of mine when I was a child, and if people enjoy it I will make it into a series.

So pop it on when you’re dropping off and let me know.

Did you know?

That you can now download substack videos so you can watch them offline. Just click the three dots and choose download so you can then listen without having to be connected to the internet.

That means you can listen without being distracted by other things.

We all have one, and it can cause so much misery in our own minds and in our relationships.

Jealousy can be a destructive emotion if we let it fester or push it down or use it to lash out, but it can also be a message from our deeper wisdom guiding us on our desires and showing us our path towards a truthful life.
For years I struggled to know what I wanted in life, I’d been living in survival mode just trying to be liked and fit in, and when I came out of it I didn’t know who I was or what I wanted.

And it wasn’t until I started turning with curiosity and compassion to the parts of myself that I had tried to push down that I realised they’d been showing me the way the whole time.
Tapping into your intuition doesn’t just mean looking for positive signs but also listening the less socially acceptable parts of us too.

Yoga teaches us that emotions are morally neutral, they are all part of being human, it’s what we do with them and how we act that matters.

What is your green eyed monster trying to tell you?

Coming up on Monday we have something a little bit different.
It’s a bedtime story for helping you drift off to sleep. 💤
I’ve recorded the first chapter of Wind in the Willows as a super relaxing sleepy story to make you feel comforted and put you in a slumber.

This is an experiment and if people like it I’ll make a series. Look out for it in your inbox on Monday.

But over the years I’ve learnt that if I do regular, simple, jaw releases throughout the day then the culmination of tension is way less and I grind far less too. (Though it’s never fully gone away).

This is the one minute session that I do, Enjoy!!

Could you do me a favour?

Gosh, that sentence is so hard to type isn’t it! Do you find it hard to ask for help too?

As you probably know (and can tell) Yoga for Tired People is made entirely by me, I don’t have a team or an ad budget, it’s just been me in my spare room with my laptop.

And yet it has grown into the most wonderful community of the best people on the internet (that’s you).

And I’m not afraid to admit that I would love it to grow even more, I have a secret dream of Yoga for Tired People becoming a household name, and it becomes normal for everyone to take short breaks throughout their day to stretch and relax.

So can you help me get the word out?

If you enjoy the sessions here can I ask you to share Yoga for Tired People with anyone you can think of that would also enjoy the sessions?

And let’s see if we can get everyone stretching, relaxing and grounding themselves.

Share Yoga For Tired People

And this is just not true. Yoga is not there to bypass our very real and valid emotions, it’s there to help us feel steady as we experience them fully.

So instead of feeling like a little boat being rocked and tumbled about, at the mercy of the waves and storms of our mind, we remember that we ARE the ocean and this weather is simply passing through.

Because at the end of the day, we can’t just go and live in a cave by ourselves. And personally I don’t think we should, we are social creatures and life is for living. For me, yoga has always been about living our life in the world rather than distancing yourself from it.

And the world will always include people we don’t get on with, stressful situations, and things that annoy us.

It’s so common to feel guilty for any negative emotion, like they make us a bad person, or mean we are ‘bad’ at yoga. But emotions don’t have any morality attached to them, they are simply data. There to be felt.

It is how you behave, not how you feel, that makes the biggest impact in the world. And yoga can create the space you need to make sure you are behaving in a way that aligns with your morals.

When we react out of anger, this is often when we lose integrity and do something we don’t feel proud of later. So taking a beat, returning back to ourselves and then responding means we are acting from a place of self power, and it usually means we get better results.

This is never about pushing away our emotions or making ourselves okay with other people’s not-okay actions. We are not putting ourselves in ‘time out’ for having a ‘bad’ emotion.

Instead, we are returning our nervous system back to a more steady state so we can decide how to act, and make the changes we need to make, to respond rather than react.

So next time you are activated by someone try this 5 minute session to bring you back.

Don’t forget to save it for when you need it.

And because it’s so horrible, it’s very common to become anxious about getting anxious. Then you can get caught in a cycle of being anxious about your anxiety, which ironically makes you more anxious.

When I had my burnout in 2022 and was experiencing regular panic attacks, I found my world getting smaller and smaller as I was afraid I’d experience a panic attack somewhere public, so I started restricting where I felt ok to go. And of course, the places I felt ok got fewer and fewer until my world was tiny.

Also, everywhere I turned the advice was to breathe through my anxiety, but this wasn’t helping me, in fact when I was focusing on my breath I felt even more panicky!

Now, I love breath work. I am a yoga teacher and I do breath work every day, but when your body is in a heightened state of anxiety, and it thinks it’s in danger, sitting still and forcing yourself to concentrate on your breath is not always the best thing to do.

What helped me was seeing the distinction between the two types of anxiety:

1. The original anxiety

2. The anxiety about the anxiety

I didn’t have much control over the first type in the moment, but if I watched it, it had a beginning, a peak, and then it passed. It was really, indescribably unpleasant, but it wasn’t going to kill me, and it couldn’t be more powerful than me because it was me.

It was a sign from my body, not a moral failure.

The second type was a bit more tricky; this one could seep into everything, but this is the one I had a bit more control over.

It consisted of all the stories I was telling myself about the first type of anxiety, my reaction to it, and the way I kept pushing it away and trying to control it, and the way I was shrinking my life to try and avoid it.

Weirdly, it was by accepting my anxiety that I was able to move through it.

And part of accepting my anxiety was developing a toolkit for things to do when I can feel the physical symptoms of anxiety rear their head, and knowing that these might be different tools to the ones I need when I am in a calmer state.

Here are 3 things that aren’t breathwork that can help with the physical symptoms of anxiety:

• Eat a very sour sweet - this is a grounding body technique that helps move your attention away from ruminating and scanning and to a strong sensation.

• Splash your face with cold water, this stimulates the mammalian dive reflex and stops you spiralling.

• Do a simple but engrossing mind puzzle. I like to think of a band name for every letter of the alphabet. The key is that it needs to be hard enough to engross you but easy enough not to stress you, think something you’d play on a long car journey.

Please note that these tools might not work for you every time. It’s so important to experiment yourself and find what works for you, and to know that you are not a failure if certain tools that seem to work for others don’t work for you. And just because something doesn’t work now doesn’t mean it won’t be useful to you in the future.

Also, these techniques are never meant to be a replacement for therapy or medication.

Here is a short anxiety release that you might find useful

Yoga For Tired People

5 Minute Anxiety Reset (No Breath work)

Yoga for Tired People - One short yoga routine a week delivered to your inbox. To do as you are, no need to get out your mat or change your clothes. Hosted by Jo Hutton a Senior Yoga Teacher living in Newcastle Upon Tyne…

Listen now

2 years ago · 1189 likes · 64 comments · Jo Hutton

Did you know that Yoga for Tired People has a soft paywall. This means that the videos and relaxations are available to everyone, regardless of whether you’re a paying member or not.

This is because I trust that the people who can afford to and value what we do here will want to support the page and keep it accessible for all.

All of my colleagues I have spoken to about this have told me that I’m mad. That this isn’t how things work, that no one will pay for something that they don’t have to. That if I make it available to everyone I’ll tank my business, that I won’t grow, that people will take advantage and I need to put my own oxygen mask on first.

But I can’t help but have faith. I think so many of us are craving something new. We’re sick of big corporations and we yearn for a sense of community. And this is the world I want to live in so why not give it a try.

If you want to support me to continue to make the videos then an annual subscription is pay what you feel, with a minimum of £20 because anything less gets wiped out by fees. Pay more if you can, pay it forward if you’re able. And if you can’t afford it right now, please just enjoy the videos guilt free. That’s what this is for.

Yoga for Tired People is your permission slip to rest,
To start where you are,
And to stop waiting until life is less chaotic to take care of yourself.

1. I started my day with a four minute meditation. And I will end my day with one.

2. I’ve written a ‘and that’ll be enough for today’ list. Not a to do list of everything I need to do. That would be a thousand pages long. But what is enough for today.

3. I’m unpacking my suitcase. I know. Evil. But if I don’t do it today it’ll become a spectre sitting in my wardrobe and I’ll never ever unpack it.

4. I will try to reply to all my emails but also know that if it was that important they’ll email me again (if you don’t have a reply from me please email me again).

5. And this is my affirmation for today. Peace is allowed, even when there’s work to do. I can only ever take the next step in front of me. I am in no rush.

It’s totally possible to work towards your big beautiful ambitions, and not stress yourself to death. You don’t have to choose between a balanced nervous system and a big life.
I think sometimes we can get stuck between the two, shrinking ourselves to feel safe and then hustling to feel fulfilled.
BUT you get to choose what a big life looks like for you. A big, full, beautiful life, that you get to fill with things that make YOUR heart happy.
In my opinion life is for living, enjoying, creating and being in community with each other. And only you get to choose what that looks like.
So if you’re feeling a bit stuck today remember to take the smallest step available to you right now and be kind to yourself.

Much Love,
Jo xx

If you’ve been with me each day this week, I hope these practices have brought something useful into your days—a bit of calm, a shift in pace, even just the reminder that you’re allowed to stop for a moment.

And if this is your first one, or the first one you’ve got to in a while—that’s fine too. These practices aren’t going anywhere. You can return to them anytime you like.

Today’s audio is a gentle closing practice. Nothing dramatic, just a final quiet pause—and maybe something new to weave into your day going forward.

If you’ve enjoyed the reset, I’d really love to know.

The comments are open for your reflections, big or small. Whether something surprised you, stuck with you, or just helped you breathe a bit deeper—I’d love to hear.

Big love,

Jo x