Pyramid Adventures Yoga

A little creativity in between deep chats around parent partnerships in the Early Years at college today. I love inviting the students to be creative and PLAY. It’s where the most important learning, thinking and connections happen.
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The Being Me Clubs have landed in Cheltenham and they’re full of gentle joy, chaos, creativity and a serious celebration of people being themselves.

What a pleasure it has been to help bring these groups over the border to Gloucestershire.

I drew this. In one of our Being Me clubs, because

… I wanted to and I had a nice time.

A year since graduating as the first ever Kids Yoga Teachers with this bonkers bunch. My heart still swells with pride for the courage I found within me to go on this adventure! The teachings have guided me in my personal and professional practice, in yoga and the early years. I’d love to do it all again! 💕

I’ve recently come to realise that it all happened thanks to some beautiful book binding. It was that spine that caught my eye in the bookshop. I’d never heard of or but I just knew that this shrink wrapped book had something that I needed. Little did I know where it would take me! (Swipe to see it!)

I used to think that it was all about the gym. That’s how to fit in, feel connected to others and move my body. NO PAIN NO GAIN. I remember straightening my hair before going and checking my makeup before walking out onto the gym floor. All of this with a sprinkling of disordered eating was a recipe for a quietly sad Lucy.

Flash forward nearly 10 years and I no longer have a gym subscription. I’m signed up to two delicious things.

1. The most welcoming, nurturing, kind and playful studio I’ve ever known. My body feels strong and my brain does too.

2. dOOdling club. Last night I spent an hour drawing and painting at home, experimenting, and testing without judgement. Creating for the thrill of the process.

Hip hip hooray!

Making marks with whiteboard pens at college this week. In invitation to draw until the pens ran out. We drew for about 20 minutes and most of us still hadn’t run out of ink! God bless the humble white board pen. The textures were beautiful, and the paper felt so silky smooth afterwards.

I want these EY educators to feel like artists, so sometimes it’s about making them feel brave, giving them an instruction and after time they discover that they’ve made something beautiful.

They’re always artists.

Puppet Club with

This sweet one was so purposeful, making his vision come to life. “A dancing spoon with feet on its head so it can dance upside down”.

We were side by side making. It was magic. ✨

-:- WRITING NOTES -:-

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how I was never taught how to ‘take notes’. It’s a skill that requires deep thinking, self reflection, practice and creativity. So here’s some things I’ve tried out this week in FE.

1. Drawing, painting and scribbling in response to the beautiful film ‘Let the Child Be the Guide’. A French film about a Montessori classroom.

2. Making VISION BOARDS using articles, pictures tissue paper and pens to explore ‘Professional Love’ in the Early Years.

It’s a work in progress, but I think something good’s happening here!

It’s a carrot!

A few years ago I joined an online workshop for mothers run by and she spoke about creativity. I realised in early motherhood, and inside the dark cave of lockdown, I hadn’t made any space for creativity. I’d been in survival mode. Flash forward a few years, and I find myself surrounded and inspired by women who see me, hear me, make me feel brave and bold and celebrate my creativity and being-ness. I am so grateful to all of these magical people, who in their own way (unknowingly) led me to draw a carrot this morning. I love you.

He wanted to be able to look down and see a lion THE RIGHT WAY ROUND.

For us, an upside down lion. For him, just right.

Made me wonder why all our clothes with words or pictures, serve the people who look at us, not ourselves. It’s deep and profound.

Thanks little one. ✨

I’m proudly working with again on a new project. They’ve been commissioned by the NHS to pilot 2 creative clubs for autistic girls who are in years 7-9 of mainstream education, with low confidence, this Autumn. These will take place in locations in South Gloucestershire.

To make these groups the very best they can be, we have been consulting with girls and teachers, and now want to reach out to families, to see how we can best support participants to attend the clubs and ensure they have a great time when they're there.

We will be holding two consultation sessions - one in person and one online - NEXT WEEK! If you are interested in attending please book using the Eventbrite link in the comments.

If you have any questions or want to discuss your own access needs, please email [email protected]

We're really looking forward to meeting you!

I realise the mic looks a bit much. But when you’re teaching in a large space, and you’re inviting children to lie down and rest, you really don’t want to be shouting at them to be heard! We played with paint, and rested in pjs. Is there a better way to end a day of sports when you’re in primary school? I think not! Thanks for having me and for being a part of my yoga journey. Also credit to for the paint inspiration … I LOVE IT!!! 🎨 🪄 🧘‍♂️

PROPER Yoga for Kids! I’m thrilled to be part of the first ever kids yoga training by What a privilege to spend so much time at that special studio, learning, sharing and growing with like minded humans, all devised by a glorious and magical team who I’ll always be grateful to for guiding and uplifting me on this grand new adventure. If you’ve not already met, let me proudly introduce you to

Who nibbled this?

Yesterday I wore a skirt that I hadn’t put on since I was a primary school teacher a few years ago. I found this in the pocket and it made me wonder …

Who nibbled this? It’s brought back really find memories of spending time with young children in primary school. Although I’ll never know who it was, I’ve indulged in some time to stop, think, wonder and reflect on all of the children I’ve had the pleasure of sharing a classroom with.

On a slight tangent… is it ever possible to have shiny new pencils in your classroom for more than 5 minutes before they end up in someone’s mouth?!

Don’t focus on the end result.

A few weeks ago I went pottery painting with my nearly 2yo. I trusted and supported his instincts to explore the colours and brushes as he wanted to (although not so much when he wanted to paint the wall!) I wasn’t focussed on the outcome, I was focussed on supporting him to enjoy the process and teaching him new skills. And look … IT’S GLORIOUS!!! Isn’t this just the most wonderful sugar pot you’ve ever seen?!

How do you feel when you let go of your ideas of a final product when offering a creative activity with children? Let me know. 😊
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These packages were delivered to educators on my Storytelling Yoga and Wellbeing Support funded by
I bought PDFs on of these incredible cards designed by .co which I packaged up with chocolate for my participants and delivered, Postman Pat style, to lots of wonderful schools. So much rich learning has come from these cards, and the poses will soon be used to create some magical, and very possibly, utterly bonkers yoga stories in Gloucestershire! 🥳
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school

My toddler’s celebrating his 21st!
Any other pandemic parents out there? It often feels like my first year of motherhood was stolen from me. And still, The Vid lingers, bobs around, the uninvited guest at my party of motherhood.
My son has been at nursery for quite some time now, and what a great decision that was. The provision they set up for him is incredible, the kindness the practitioners show Ru and us is magic and we know He loves playing with other children there. Although, it is difficult to fully grasp who he plays with and what he does sometimes. Yesterday his summary involved what sounded like ‘Jesus’ and ‘wine’, and he seemed delighted by it!
Covid has meant that parents have been dropping children off at specific times and it’s been difficult to get to know the other children and parents so we decided to curate a reason to gather with them. What better celebration than 21 months of my son on the planet … he’s having a 21st!!! Thanks so for making this so speedily and beautifully. Ain’t no party like a toddler’s 21st party!
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Inspired by I invited my Early Years students to have a play and be creative yesterday making these self portraits (alongside other things). It’s interesting to see the response to an open ended activity vs. a prescriptive activity with a clear goal. All good moments of reflection to remind ourselves what it can feel like to be a learner in a classroom. At times the unknown is exhilarating, at times, incredibly frightening!
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Working with children, particularly babies can be incredibly unpredictable. But this is one of the joys of working with new mothers and their babes … you don’t know what’s around the corner. An unexpected moment of peace and focus as a mesmerised baby watches her mother paint … she’s an artist!
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It’s a sort out day over here. Working with on their project requires a unique toolkit. Today I’m putting everything back where it came from, but I paused for a as I played around with some photography. This is a slice of the ‘kit’ I take with me but for me, these are some of the essentials.
I always need …
• something to tie things together
• something to cut things
• something to make marks with
• something to eat
What will it become? Sometimes we know, but often we’re surprised at the unexpected outcomes an invitation to make marks, write or talk can lead to.
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Last week I invited some new mothers to splatter a canvas suspended between trees in a park with paint. Utter joy! Today I’m washing out the tins and jars we used. Another thing on my to do list, which turned out rather nice. Sloshing the paint around, mixing the watery colours together was actually lovely … and cooling too -phew!

I’ve been lucky enough to work with many dream boats lately. One of them is who is absolute magic! She’s been bringing her rig to set up this activity for mothers and their babies as we work together on the project with this week.
Every time she brings it out, I convince myself a little more that I need one of these for my garden! Anyone else?

::: TIME FOR CREATIVITY :::
Cat from sent the team packages to open in our meeting this week. We spent 15 minutes making a photo collage. What a treat to have an activity planned and prepared, ready to get stuck into. All of my work involves preparing activities for others, it was quite incredible to have that done for me. To be CREATIVE. So what can you do to be creative this week?

What an honour it has been to work as an artist facilitator for new mothers over the last 6 weeks. This project with has been incredible. I’ve walked, laughed, cried, twerked, sang, listened, danced, smiled until my cheeks ached, and learned such a lot.
Be kind when these new mothers as they appear into the world. They’ve had it tough, and there’s tough stuff still to come. I’ll save the essay for another time.
Evidence of the magnets I made for the mothers to plonk on their fridge. As I step out of their lives, their fridges will have to do the work for me and tell them that they are magnificent every darned day!

YEP. I think.
This is the question that’s been flying around my head for a few weeks. And it’s really hard to deal with it whilst being kind to myself.
I look back at that time and wish I’d got out more, made the most of mask free, anxiety free baby classes. I wish I’d visited all of my friends, to make sure everyone important to me had met him. I wish I’d sat on the sofa with and our tiny babies to share our favourite films and eat pancakes all day. I wish I’d taken the baby to the aquarium. I should have let him meet more babies. I should have made the most of cafes being open. I should have met up with my uni friends. I should have ... can you see what I did there? Before I know it, I’m being awful to myself. MY BABY WAS TWO MONTHS OLD. I was just learning about life with a baby. How could I have done all of these things? It’s so hard to look back, without regret or sadness. But it’s important to try and do it with self compassion. We didn’t know.

Can anyone else connect with this tree?

This tree is quite a special one for me. The first day we were let loose after Lockdown 1.0 I took my little baby and we lay under the tree together watching the blossom dance and sway.

To now see this tree needing a little support to keep growing doesn’t take away it’s magic. We all need support to help us to grow and spread our branches stronger and higher. Sometimes it looks like quite a physical support, sometimes it’s less visible. Whatever it is, make time to make something happen that will support you.

You can’t grow and thrive without support.

There’s a lot going on here at the moment. New work and new projects is bringing joy and challenge (as they should do!), whilst requiring things to be reshuffled at home.
Extra days for the baby at nursery to be arranged.
Carefully timed nappy washing must happen to ensure we don’t run out!
Food needs to be quick and easy (whilst also keeping nutritious... remembering those sneaky tryptophan foods 😉 !)
Also, must remember to shower.
Hair washing, it’ll happen one day.
Must do own washing, can’t run out of pants again. 🥴
Also, also .... mustn’t forget ... IT’S GONE.

We’re all juggling a lot at the moment. So take some time to write things down. Whether it’s a to do list, a shopping list, a brain tangle from gang or a list of people you’d like to reach out to, I think it might make you feel a little better.

Hello friends, it’s been nearly two years since I started Pyramid Adventures Yoga and lots has changed ... let me tell you a little about what’s going on at PA HQ these days!

• I’m working with some pretty spectacular people on a pilot scheme to train teachers in Gloucestershire schools as Wellbeing Ambassadors to bring yoga and mindfulness to their children. .art and GHLL. What a line up!
• I’m now an FE Early Years Lecturer. It is such a privilege to support, nurture and inspire the next generation of Early Years Educators.
• I’m delighted to be part of the family for their incredible project supporting new mothers. We’re bringing creative outdoor wellbeing groups to locations in Gloucestershire and South Bristol. It’s going to be nothing short of glorious.
• I also seem to be using this platform for sharing the songs I write on my ukulele to deal with my thoughts and feelings. Sorry about that.

So stick around if you’re interested in primary yoga, early years, nurturing mental health and wellbeing (for creatures great and small) and ukulele songs, obvs.

With my early years hat on I’m endlessly interested in the way that we choose words and what they mean to us and the people around us. I’ve been playing around with this recently and suddenly I feel so much better. Saying “I haven’t had time” makes me feel I’ve lost control, like I’m a failure or a victim of poor time management.
Try saying “I haven’t prioritised it”. Suddenly phrasing it this way, I feel in control. There are still things that need to be done, that I haven’t done, but I’m able to reframe it so I’m in charge. It’s also made me wonder about my to do list, why is it that I haven’t prioritised it? Maybe it’s not that important. Maybe it’s not the right thing. Either way, using this language has made me feel more confident in saying I HAVENT DONE IT BECAUSE I PRIORITISED BAKING A CAKE WHICH WAS MORE IMPORTANT FOR MY WELL-BEING!!!
#2021

I will never tire of shouting out about voice notes. The joy and sense of connection they have brought me over this last year is something really special.

I recently sent a voice note to someone I used to work with, who I hadn’t spoken to for years. I sent it. Kept checking. Then the double ticks appeared. My heart fluttered. Does she hate me for sending a voice note? Eek!!! And then ... my favourite sight on ... RECORDING AUDIO.
It was so magical hearing her voice again. The joy of reconnecting carried me for the rest of the day. ✨
Today I dared a friend to do the same. Send an ‘out of the blue’ voice note to someone she hadn’t spoken to for ages. She did it. She had a reply and she felt wonderful. She told me about it in a voice note and I could hear in her voice the joy it had brought them both. Spreading joy one voice note at a time!

For transparency, I must clarify that my voice notes are not all full of joy and magic. Sometimes I use them to share with my pals how things REALLY are. It can be quite cathartic to chat away, in a rather self indulgent, personal podcast kind of way.

So, that’s my long winded way of telling you to send a voice note today!