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Clémence Dieryck

I'm a bilingual yoga teacher who helps people who sit a lot gain mobility, move without pain and reduce their stress.

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Your brain is lying to you about how tired you are

I want to talk about fatigue today. It's something we all experience, yet we don't fully understand it. Even from a scientific standpoint, there's still a lot of ongoing research and competing theories. Here's one that recently blew my mind. The widespread belief is that we become physically tired when we reach our muscular limits. The muscles run out of oxygen, or start to suffer damage from the build-up of waste products like lactic acid (if you have ever held a Warrior 2 for over one...

Sooo... How many yoga or gym routines have you tried? I've done it all. I committed to a new routine I saw on Instagram. And I managed... what, four days? Before I had to travel, had an early meeting, or let's be honest... just couldn't be arsed to get out of bed. And then I thought: "The problem is me. I lack discipline. If I were more motivated, I'd manage it." Nope. I don't think that anymore. The problem is that I was trying to shoehorn a random routine into my life. If you've ever been...

There are two fundamental skills I believe everyone should develop as early as possible: emotional regulation and body awareness. Most people get why emotional regulation matters. It's the ability to recognise an emotion arriving, identify it precisely (sometimes anger is actually fear, or a subtler feeling like injustice), and pause before responding... so you can respond thoughtfully rather than reactively. But body awareness's trickier. You might be thinking: "Of course I know when I'm in...

It's not a secret that I've been dealing with anxiety for a long, long time. I often feel like my brain is working against me, telling me that I don't do enough, that I could do more, and that whatever I do, I better do perfectly (or else). I'm dealing with that much better than I used to, but I'm also aware this is something I will have to deal with forever. Still, I'm always looking for ways to make sure the anxiety doesn't take too much space. Which led me to the realisation that I had...

"I don't want to do yoga, I want to start a revolution!" "I don't want to calm down, I want to change everything!" If you don't know her... she's an icon I completely understand the sentiment. The powers that be want us to calm down, to be docile, to accept things as they are, and to let them get on with their dodgy dealings on their own. If we do yoga, aren't we playing right into their hands, really? And why should it be our responsibility to calm ourselves down, when we'd be much calmer if...

Today I want to talk to you about a phenomenon that's happening inside you right now, and that you've probably never heard about. It's called thixotropy. Inside your body right now, your tissues (muscles, tendons, fascia...) are mostly water. And when that water doesn't move, it gets viscous, a bit like honey. But when it moves, it becomes more like water. That's thixotropy. Now I'd like you to think about your typical day: laptop work, car/bus seat, sofa, phone, bed. Let's be honest, if...

You've probably heard "take a deep breath" when you're stressed (and you might even have rolled your eyes). Honestly... fair enough. It sounds like generic wellness advice, and it's hard to see how it could help fixing the issue you're dealing with. The annoying thing is... it actually works. And the science behind it is fascinating (even if you're not a neuroscience nerd like, I promise) Let me explain it, as simply as I can. Your nervous system operates in two modes: Mode 1: Activation...

So here we are, over halfway through January. It's generally when we realise that "new year new me" didn't really come to be and that our lives aren't as transformed as we had wished. If that's your case, I want you to get rid of any guilt you might be carrying about this, and give you a few essential reminders you might need to hear right now. You don't need to go to the gym, run, or do anything you hate for your health You need to move to keep your body (and your mind) healthy, yes. But...

Do you know the famous psychological bias called "the sunk cost fallacy"? It's when you've already invested so much time or energy in a project that you can't bring yourself to abandon it, even when you know it's going nowhere. Once we know it exists, we start seeing it everywhere: our friend who's staying in a relationship that emotionally ended years ago, the degree we're no longer interested in but we're "too far in" to quit... We keep pouring energy into something because we can't bear to...

Where does it hurt when your back aches? In the last few months, I've had a few new clients who all pointed to the same spot: on their lower back, just above the hips. They all told me they had a back problem, which is the logical thing to think. But most of the time, the issue doesn't come from the back... but a bit lower. I know, you know, we all know that we sit too much. And when we do, our hips become tight and weak. They gradually lose their ability to both move and stabilise our lower...