Welcome to Jiivana

Jiivana is Sanskrit for 'Giving Life'! Sanskrit is the ancient Indian language that all yoga poses are written in. Given my name, Zoe, means 'Lover of Life', Jiivana seemed the ideal name to deliver 'Bliss From Within', my prenatal yoga DVD and 'Baby Bliss' my Baby yoga and massage DVD.

Yoga means union, and during pregnancy a woman discovers the greatest union of all - the union of a mother and her child. Once your baby is born this union can continue through baby yoga and massage. Yoga works deeply on a mental, physical and emotional level. By doing yoga during our pregnancies we help open and strengthen our bodies, relieve various aches and pains and improve our sleep. Yoga also helps us to bond deeper with our unborn babies. Hopefully, when the time comes, we can then draw upon the techniques we have learned in our yoga practice to become calmer and more accepting during our labour. On top of that we will know that by doing yoga throughout our pregnancy, we are doing all we can to make the delivery of our baby into the world a positive one.

Once your baby has come into the world you can then enjoy the benefits of Baby yoga and massage, which are endless and the best part is that 'Baby Bliss' is great for parents, grandparents and carers alike.

During the creation of Bliss from Within, I carefully considered all the typical pregnancy-related discomforts and medical conditions. I then designed my sequences around relieving those aches and pains and considering those conditions. The two wonderful women who join me throughout the DVD, Noleen and Delvine, assist me with this by demonstrating variations to poses throughout both the yoga sequences.

My vision for 'Bliss from within' is that it will help pregnant women look after themselves, and their unborn babies, and find extra comfort and vitality during their pregnancy. This will help them to enjoy the journey, and feel prepared for the experience of labour. I also hope that being pregnant myself in the Prenatal Yoga DVD (and already a mother of three), helps to provide you with a sense of trust. You can be sure that the combination of my real life experiences and putting yoga to the test in all of my pregnancies and labours, has resulted in this work of passion, a complete Prenatal Yoga package.

My vision for 'Baby Bliss' is that parents, grandparents and carers will get great joy from using the DVD to guide them through a structured activity that is fun and engaging at the same time as having amazing physiological benefits. The reality is, when babies are really little, they don't do much more than sleep, feed and cry so a DVD that you can follow in the comfort of your own home at a time that best suits you (and your irratic sleep pattern!) can be a wonderful way of bonding and spending time with your new baby. I am immensely proud of Baby Bliss' as I know everyone will love the activities but I also know it will help parents through the tougher patches when they are struggling with sleep deprivation and adjusting to a totally new way of life or a new number of children. It is at times like these that a short interactive activity such as baby yoga and massage can help you connect with your baby and really indulge in the good bits of having a beautiful newborn!