Refinery 29

Despite the surge in body positive and self-love movements, we still live in a society that glorifies thinness. So it was no great surprise, really, when I stumbled across Perfect Me: Body Slimmer, an app that promises to “make you look much better than you are”.​Start searching and you’ll quickly find a cornucopia of applications […]

We’re one year shy of celebrating the centennial anniversary of voting rights for women in the UK. In the past 99 years, significant steps have been taken to bring men and women towards a state of greater equality. But despite all the steps forward, there have also been a few back (hello, Trump), and we […]

My motivation here is simple: if you haven’t yet tried Yin yoga, I want to convince you to do so by the end of this feature. The most common response I have after teaching a Yin class is, to quote one student: “This is the yoga I’ve been looking for forever.” But as its founder, Paul […]

In his 2014 book Art as Therapy, philosopher Alain de Botton postulates that visual art can offer us solace, hope and reassurance, in the same way music has long been thought to do. “The point of art in general is to offer therapeutic assistance,” he writes, “It should help us to better endure and enjoy our […]

(Artwork by Anna Jay) In the increasingly socially pervasive worlds of yoga, meditation, healing, spirituality et al, the word ‘chakra’ pops up quite a bit. Great, if you know what it means; less so, perhaps, if you’re not sure (it might easily be a new superfood or trendy gym class).​So here’s a beginner’s guide to […]

In the competitive world of spiritual seekers – I kid, but only a little – “sweat lodge” has fast replaced “ayahuasca” at the top of this summer’s most-frequently-overheard-in-the-yoga-studio-changing-room list. (Other notable highlights include: “Does this crystal make me look fat?”) But what is a sweat lodge anyway? Let’s start with what it’s not: a sauna. […]

There’s a lot of weird yoga around these days. We’ve all heard of Beer Yoga, Goat Yoga and the more recent but possibly not 100% genuine Chicken Nugget Yoga. But have you heard of 4:20 Yoga? A form that combines marijuana use with gentle yoga postures and is “transformative” according to its devotees, who say the mind-altering, relaxing effects […]

The thing about yoga on Instagram is that – much like everything else on social media – it doesn’t quite reflect reality. I’d hazard a guess that 98% of the #yoga images you see are of a thin, white (but tanned), naturally flexible, 20-something girl in a bikini, on a beach, doing some variation of […]