Finding Your Flow in 2025

With the pace of modern life showing no sign of slowing, more of us seek ways to integrate wellness into our routines. We unrolled our yoga mat to sit with Katie Ray, dynamic yoga instructor at Hotel Café Royal, and learn more about the benefits of mindful practice as we enter a new year.

Quieting a busy mind

In a world of constant challenges and mental noise, dynamic forms of yoga are effective in managing stress, lowering blood pressure, and improving sleep quality. This can help us feel calmer and more energised, with a greater ability to focus and be more emotionally resilient.

Katie Ray’s journey to mindfulness began at a Covent Garden Ashtanga yoga class in 2001, before she travelled to India where she became a student of world-renowned Paramaguru, Sharath Jois. Later, through an apprenticeship with author and dynamic yoga pioneer Godfrey Devereux, Katie discovered what yoga was at its core: “I finally understood, by stripping back everything I had learnt, to truly listen to my own edges. To appreciate my own boundaries. Mostly I learnt how to be soft whilst remaining strong like water.”

As we navigate the complexities of the everyday, mindful movement is a powerful tool for gaining a deeper understanding of ourselves, enhancing our well-being and even contributing to a more harmonious society. Katie is passionate about the link between yoga and healthier communication:

“Everything we do physically is connected to our mind. If we stop and take a moment to observe our breath and notice our body, we are inviting the mind to calm, to notice. I think becoming more conscious of our actions and movements is key to relating to others as it helps us to be more calm and perhaps kinder in moments that feel challenging.”

Inhale, exhale

Breathwork as a dedicated practice goes back thousands of years, with a focus on nourishing the body and mind when inhaling and releasing toxins and stress on the exhale. Key to dynamic yoga, focussed breathwork centres us, improving mental clarity and overall wellbeing:

“Yoga is about regulating movements with breath – it is never forced but simply comes once we begin practising regularly. When that is understood both physically and mentally, we realise that the breath leads the movements. The breath is the one controlling. I often say, ‘let your breath be the leader’. From this, we know when to rest and when to keep moving, when to calm down and when to take flight.”

Katie shares the benefits of dynamic yoga for driven individuals and multitaskers: “If like me you have a busy brain, moving is the way to slow the mind down and to connect inwardly. By focusing on body parts moving through space, the brain can have a break from thinking about work or the laundry! I hope the students who come to my classes at Hotel Café Royal feel a sense of relief and opening from this kind of flowing practice, as I do.”

Set an intention

The arrival of a new year often feels like a time for reflection and a fresh opportunity to envision the life we’d like to live. Katie suggests yoga is ideal for supporting positive change: 

“If you want to feel more grounded and connected, yoga is the key. Setting realistic and positive intentions for the new year after you’ve practised yoga is so nourishing, it feels as though it seeps into you, deep into your tissues. In that sense, yoga may just help you keep your New Year’s resolutions!”

Embrace a mindful new year with wellness experiences at Hotel Café Royal’s Akasha Spa.