Why don't we look after ourselves properly?

Give yourself the permission

In Britain, so many people still wear “busyness” like a badge of honour. We push through tiredness, ignore aches and stiffness and joke about “falling apart” as if that were just part of getting older. Yet beneath the humour there is often quiet discomfort: anxiety, sleeplessness, low mood, or a body that no longer moves the way it used to.

As a yoga teacher, every week someone will say to me: “I didn’t realise how tense I had become,” or “I feel so much better, I must come more regularly” The desire to feel well is definitely there, but perhaps what is missing is permission — permission to prioritise health, rest and simple presence in a culture that still quietly glorifies overwork and self‑neglect.

Cultural Habits, Tired Bodies

There are understandable reasons why so many people in the UK struggle to look after themselves.

• A long-standing “keep calm and carry on” mentality, where asking for rest or support can feel like weakness rather than wisdom.

• Work patterns, long commutes and digital overload that leave people “tired but wired” and disconnected from how their bodies actually feel.

• A healthcare system that works in a crisis but has less space (and resource) to support prevention, movement and stress reduction as everyday essentials.

  
  

As many of you know, I worked for many years in a highly stressful environment, with a lot of travel and nights away from home and never the time to stop, breathe and take stock. So I know the feeling and I know how hard it is to shift the priorities. What I also now know is how important it is to find a way to make a start. Diarise time for yourself once a week – time that isn’t there to be the first free slot when something else comes up, but time that is there for you.

Yoga with a friend

Yoga meets this reality in a very practical way. Turning up to class and stepping onto a mat is not a grand gesture. It is a small act of resistance against the idea that the body is just a machine that must be driven hard until it breaks. It is choosing to listen, rather than override.

What Yoga Philosophy Says About Care

Yoga philosophy gives language to something many people sense but rarely articulate:  that how we treat the mind body connection is an ethical, even spiritual, question.

Patanjali describes yoga as the settling of the mind into stillness so that we can rest in our true nature, rather than being constantly dragged about by distraction and agitation. When people leave class saying “I feel more like myself,” I think that this is exactly what was meant.

The Bhagavad Gita speaks of yoga as “evenness of mind” — a steadiness in success and failure, pleasure and discomfort. That steadiness is not available when the nervous system is constantly stressed and the body is ignored until it shouts out because of pain or illness.

These teachings were written over 2,000 years ago, when there were no scanners, no NHS and no emails and survival was their day-to-day challenge – but people still understood the importance of looking after themselves.

In my own practice and teaching, I keep coming back to some simple questions:  How is my body responding? How is my breath? What is my mind rehearsing on repeat? Our weekly classes in that wonderful, quiet and warm village hall become the perfect space for all of us to engage in this honest, compassionate inquiry.

Why This Matters So Deeply

Inviting people to look after themselves is not about promising a perfect body or eternal youth. It is about:

• Preserving mobility, balance and strength so everyday life remains enjoyable and independent for as long as possible.

• Regulating the nervous system so that stress does not silently erode sleep, relationships, digestion or mood.

• Reclaiming a sense of agency so that we can leave in the knowledge that “there are things I can do, today, to feel a little clearer, calmer, more at home in myself.”

  
  

In a rural community, classes also have a social dimension. People arrive on dark wet winter evenings or bright summer mornings and find not just a practice, but a circle of others who are also choosing to pause. The class becomes a weekly reminder:  you are allowed to matter to yourself.

Gently Changing the Story

Perhaps the most radical thing many people in the UK can do is to take their own health and wellbeing seriously — not in a prescriptive, perfectionist way, but in small, consistent choices by rolling out a mat once or twice a week, walking instead of scrolling, going dancing or maybe just going to bed half an hour earlier. It's the little things that really make a difference.

From a Yoga perspective, we learn from the ancient Yoga philosophy that it offers a quiet invitation to us that, when the mind softens and the breath deepens, what you truly are can shine through more clearly. Caring for your body is one of the ways you honour that light. Week by week, breath by breath, you are rewriting a very old cultural story — from “I must hold everything together at all costs” to “Even in this digital world, I can live in this body with curiosity, respect and kindness.”

That's what really got me about a regular yoga practice.

I look forward to seeing you on your mat very soon.

Tim