You're standing with legs spread and hips lined up. You've sucked in your belly and lengthened your spine. You bend your front leg to lower into Virabhadrasana I and your hips begin to tilt - you have lost alignment. Although quite a simple looking standing pose, a well-aligned and deep Virabhadrasana I can be most elusive, where compressed lower backs and furrowed brows among yogis abound.

As we enter the season of coughs and colds, it's time to enlist some natural strategies for strengthening our immunity. Along with dosing up on the garlic and popping the Vitamin C tablets, yoga can help provide some much needed protection against the nasty winter ‘lurgy'.

Choosing what to eat is taken very seriously by many on the yogic path. But the endeavour doesn't stop there. In Ayurveda, the power of your digestion, known as agni or ‘fire', is the most important determinant of your health and longevity. "Whether your body makes good nutrients or toxins, known as ‘ama', from your food depends on the strength of your digestion," says Jacinta McEwen, Byron Yoga Centre Ayurveda teacher trainer.

When the cool winds of autumn begin blowing it is the season of vata, according to the traditional Indian natural health system of ayurveda. Ayurveda recognises that each individual’s constitution is a unique combination of three principles called doshas – vata, pitta and kapha – with one dosha usually more dominant. As vata predominates in autumn, vata imbalance is common to all doshas, with symptoms including anxiety, stress, restlessness, exhaustion and underweight. But there are plenty of tips and techniques you can use to rug up against vata imbalance.

With the grounds of the yoga school lit with fairy lights, Byron Yoga Centre was transformed on Saturday March 1 for the screening of Darshan - The Embrace. The film follows Sri Mata Amritanandamayi Devi, or Amma (‘mother’) to her devotees, on her 2004 worldwide tour. Commonly known as ‘the hugging guru’, Amma is famous for her tireless and indiscriminate spiritual embraces and received the Gandhi King Prize in 2002 at the UN in Geneva, in recognition of 30 years of selfless work through her vast network of charities and development programs.

One of the fundamental yoga postures adho mukha svanasana, or down face dog, is an asana that continues to evolve for both new and experienced students. It is very therapeutic, combining the benefits of an arm balance, forward bend and inversion. When the body is in perfect balance with minimal muscle tension, the mind and body come together in pure consciousness, allowing the flow of energy or prana.

The lucky bunch attending the upcoming Byron Yoga Centre teacher training and retreat in Vietnam will spend ten days in the salubrious Life Resort, set on a near-private beach twenty-five minutes drive from Quy Nhon town. Before arriving at Quy Nhon, students and teachers are most likely to fly into the thriving port of Ho Chi Minh city, otherwise known as Saigon.

Have you noticed that your yoga practice is becoming yet another task on your daily ‘to do’ list? If the answer is yes then yoga may, paradoxically, be adding to your stress levels! As we strive to stretch, strengthen and even contort our bodies into that illusive asana that we aspire towards, we may forget to provide adequate time for rest within our daily practice. When we give ourselves the time and space to balance our active practice with some restorative poses or sequences, we reap the rewards of rejuvenating our nervous system and reviving our depleted energy.