Yoga with Seema

Yoga with Seema "The mind is everything; what you think, you become." -Buddha

www.yogawithseema.co.uk

20/07/2026

Odissi dance came into my life even before yoga- when I was about 6 years old. It was a stop-start relationship. My learning was fragmented: moving cities, changing gurus, lack of continuity and, if I’m honest, not enough resilience to cope with the rigorous demands of Odissi.
I finally hung up my ghungroos as a teenager, when I was busy becoming “cool”—short hair, short skirts, and my pop icons were Madonna, George Michael and Michael Jackson. I convinced myself that Indian classical dance was not for me.
But Odissi never really left me.
I remember watching a performance at university. My feet instinctively moved to the taal. I longed to return but told myself I was “too old” to restart. I was 18! Funny how our perspective of age changes with time.
Life unfolded. I got married, moved to the UK, built a career in yoga, and raised two wonderful children who are now young adults. Our adventures took us to India, Singapore and back to London. Through every chapter, yoga remained my constant. Looking back, I realise my love of movement, even my yoga practice - has been deeply rooted in those early years of dance.
A few months ago, while watching an Odissi performance at the Nehru Centre in London, my feet once again found the rhythm. My husband encouragingly said, “It’s never too late.”
That was exactly what I needed to hear.
That same evening, my teacher, Elena appeared on my Instagram feed before I had even begun searching. I watched her dance, completely mesmerised, and instantly knew.
“When the student is ready, the teacher appears.”
Coincidence? Synchronicity? Or perhaps it was the discipline of 26 years of consistent yoga practice that quietly prepared my body and mind to return to dance.
This performance marks my return to the stage after almost four decades. I still have a long way to go.
My start is a reminder to stay curious, stay open, and be willing to begin again.
It’s never too late to take that first step. 🙏

Hurt people- hurt people. But the counterpart is equally true: healed people- heal people.Hurt people often carry unreso...
08/06/2026

Hurt people- hurt people. But the counterpart is equally true: healed people- heal people.
Hurt people often carry unresolved trauma, unhealed conflicts, and emotional wounds that hinder the development of healthy coping mechanisms and can profoundly shape their beliefs and behaviours.
People living with deep, unhealed emotional pain are often so consumed by their own internal struggles that they lack the awareness to fully consider how their actions affect others. While emotionally drowning in their own sorrows, they may panic, lash out, and sometimes unintentionally pull down the very people who are trying to help them.
Understanding that such behaviour is often unintentional, but rather rooted in unresolved trauma and a nervous system that remains in a constant state of “fight or flight,” can help us navigate these relationships with greater empathy. While this understanding does not excuse harmful behaviour, it can help us establish healthier boundaries to protect our own peace without being drawn into the vortex of another person’s chaos.
However, hurt people who choose to heal are different. They undertake the difficult work required to break free from this cycle of pain. They commit to processing their wounds, take accountability for their actions, and courageously examine the root causes of their suffering.
In yogic philosophy, this process of self-inquiry is known as svadhyaya, the Sanskrit term for self-study. It is the practice of observing one’s thoughts, emotions, breath, and physical sensations without judgment.It is an inward journey that cultivates deeper self-awareness, helping us recognise habitual patterns, unconscious beliefs, and emotional responses that no longer serve us.
Through this kind of honest self-reflection and self-awareness, we can interrupt the ripple effect of hurt and transform it into a ripple effect of healing—both for ourselves and for those around us.

30/05/2026

I remember this day well. It was the summer of 2014. We had recently moved to Delhi and were back at our home in Chester for the kids’ summer holidays. I was out in my garden practicing my newly acquired skill from Delhi - a yoga headstand.(ironically, I finally ‘got’ the headstand not from an Indian yogi in Delhi, but from my extremely talented Belarusian ex-gymnast/ neighbour/ friend - Elena, who I had met there.🙏) Ahana secretly filmed me from the windowsill of her upstairs bedroom.
At the time, all I could see in this video was - imperfection. My legs were slightly angled instead of being a perfect straight line. The transition out of the pose wasn’t smooth enough. I wasn’t wearing the ‘correct’ top. And, most embarrassingly of all, the label from my yoga pants was sticking out! 🤦‍♀️
One of the unexpected gifts of getting older has been realizing that perfection was never the goal. In fact, age has made me far more comfortable with being ‘imperfect’.
Looking back at this video now, I don’t see flaws. I see courage in trying something new, progress rather than perfection, self-compassion instead of self-criticism, and an acceptance of my limitations without letting them define me.
Most importantly, I see someone who was already enough—whether her headstand was perfect or not. 💪

Whichever way you look at it, the beauty of Stonehenge will blow your mind away. There is something mystical and magical...
19/05/2026

Whichever way you look at it, the beauty of Stonehenge will blow your mind away. There is something mystical and magical about this prehistoric megalithic structure which is one of the ancient wonders of the world. It felt sacred to walk in the footsteps of our neolithic ancestors and marvel at their engineering feat. It is difficult to fathom how Stonehenge was built (in stages) nearly 5000 years ago.🤯 Even my 2000 year old yoga asana seemed young in comparison!

One summer morning in 2013, I was jolted awake by a loud thud. To my dismay, the old tree outside my bedroom window had ...
27/04/2026

One summer morning in 2013, I was jolted awake by a loud thud. To my dismay, the old tree outside my bedroom window had finally given way, unable to withstand the stormy winds of the night before. I watched as its roots were pulled from the ground, grieving its loss, while the tree feller reassured me that the tree had already died- the storm was only the catalyst, not the cause. Its fall was therefore inevitable- the result of a hidden weakness.
In its place, we planted a young sapling.
Coincidentally, at the time, my life felt much the same. I was grappling with fear and uncertainty as we prepared to leave our settled, comfortable life in Chester and move to Delhi for my husband’s new job. We were taking a bold step outside of our comfort zone and into the unknown. I was most worried about how my children would cope with this major change in their environment. (Two years later, that journey would take us further still - to Singapore.)
Last weekend, during a visit back to our home in Chester, I saw that same spot transformed. The sapling had grown into a beautiful tree, bursting with gorgeous white blooms. It felt like a full-circle moment. A quiet, powerful reflection of my own journey.
We spend so much time fearing what we cannot see, resisting what we do not yet understand. But when we find the courage to move through that fear, we make space for something new, for something uplifting to take shape. And sometimes, if we’re willing to trust the process, we are rewarded with the most unexpected and beautiful blooms.
It turned out to be the perfect spot for my yoga practice.

“A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions.” - Oliver Wendell Holmes Our men...
21/04/2026

“A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions.” - Oliver Wendell Holmes

Our mental landscape is continually reshaped by our life experiences. Each new place that we discover, each idea that we test, each person that we meet expands our sense of understanding. In stretching our minds, we gain perspective. The way we see the world shifts, often in ways we can’t fully reverse.
What we’ve learnt cannot be unlearned; what we’ve seen cannot be unseen. We move forward carrying a wider lens, unable to return to the narrower view we once held. These moments leave lasting impressions on our consciousness, quietly influencing how we interpret things.
However, growth is not always a scenic path. It can be uneven, uncomfortable, and intensely challenging. But even in those difficult stretches, something important is taking shape. We start to see with greater clarity. As we challenge ourselves to evolve, we start to notice the quiet, unfolding beauty of what lies ahead.

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