When the world outside is blanketed in darkness, it can be easier to calm the senses and draw attention inward. Here are a few meditation practices that can light you up from the inside, connect you to the deeper truth of who you truly are, and help you stay connected to community.

Pilates is more than just an exercise routine; it's a comprehensive approach to improving your overall health and well-being. At Soulful Fitness in Lane Cove, we’re committed to helping you experience the myriad benefits of this powerful practice.

Winter is an ideal season to begin your Pilates practice. The colder months naturally encourage us to slow down and focus inward, providing a perfect opportunity to enhance our physical and mental well-being through Pilates.

It can be tempting to write astrology off as hocus pocus, voodoo and teen magazine horoscope columns. In reality, it’s an age-old science that enables human beings to understand our inner worlds as well as the world around us.

When we use the yoga practice of svadhyaya—self-reflection—effectively, our actions become much more than a way to achieve something external; they become a mirror in which we can learn to see ourselves more deeply.

Our lives, much like nature, move in seasons. There are Summers for action, activity, and growth, and Winters for quietude, stillness, and healing. Each phase is equally important and relevant (like Yin and Yang), in order to live a balanced, harmonious life.

Each season brings some common and predictable patterns that can affect our health. For example, as we move from summer into autumn we may see the ‘winter blues’ starting to creep in and an irregularity in digestion as a result of the seasonal change in diet. Understanding why these patterns occur can help us to develop strategies against these seasonal tendencies and therefore maintain maximum wellbeing.

When your mood is low it is tempting to turn to sugary, high-calorie treats to lift your spirits but there are better food choices to help shift your outlook. Combining the right food choices with stress relief, better sleep and regular exercise may be the answer to a brighter, cheerier outlook.

After a serious injury that would have her shelve her favourite workout for at least a year, avid runner Faye James fell into a deep depression. But then she discovered Pilates, and her life changed.

Doing this practice regularly not only shifts your mood, but it actually changes the neural pathways in your brain. At first, and especially if you’re new to this sort of thing, you may find you have resistance to this. You might think “how can this even work?” Or you might feel it’s too new age or woo woo — not practical or action-based.

Light therapy — which involves sitting close to a special light source every morning for at least 30 minutes — can help improve SAD. But many people don't realize that this therapy can also be effective for major depression and depression that occurs during or after pregnancy, known as perinatal depression.

From Lady Gaga to Miley Cyrus, reformer pilates has a long list of famous fans to its name – and it's not hard to see why. While it might be easier to sit on the couch under a blanket and watch Netflix when it's dark and stormy, pilates can be a way to get your body moving and reap the emotional and physical benefits.

A simple and approachable way to nourish yourself during the colder months is to shift your eating habits and incorporate specific foods into your diet. You can also use these tips any time of the year when you are wanting to give your Lungs/Large Intestine some extra loving.

Align and adjust your life, yoga and meditation practice with the seasonal changes by tuning in with the intrinsic powers of the 5 element system used in Taoist practices. We, human beings, are a biochemical formation of atoms, molecules, and cells. Within the deepest fibres of our body we share the same atomic footprint as our surrounding nature.

You will all have things that you find difficult and challenging in your yoga practice, just like in the rest of your lives. Looking at others (who seemingly do these particular things with great ease) and comparing yourself to them will undoubtedly lead to self-doubt and frustration.

Life is an uncertain roller coaster. You can choose to embrace it and enjoy the ride, joyfully learning from your experiences along the way; or you can choose to rebel against all of life’s challenges, resenting every moment of your journey.

Los Angeles-based yoga teacher, life design coach and writer Mary Beth LaRue has created the life of her dreams—but she had to overcome her fair share of fear and self-doubt to get there.

Always learning new things, and staying busy with friends and favorite activities — is exactly what the experts say can help keep our thinking skills sharp. "Cognitive and social engagement have been shown to be protective against cognitive decline, whereas hearing loss, depression, and social isolation are associated with cognitive decline," says Dr. Kathryn Papp, a neuropsychologist and instructor in neurology at Harvard Medical School.

Through a series of precise, controlled movements Pilates targets all muscle groups in the body whilst working on posture, functionality and flexibility. It’s also one of the ultimate mindful training practices, aiding stress and anxiety relief through breathing exercises, which is one of the key principles of Classical Pilates.

On average, how many hours do you sleep each night? For most healthy adults, guidelines suggest at least seven hours of slumber. But these are general recommendations and not strict rules. "Some people need less than seven hours, while others might need more," says Eric Zhou with the Division of Sleep Medicine at Harvard Medical School.