weekly classes
weekly classes are made up of yoga asana, slow vinyasana, movement inquiry and restorative yoga. the menu is wide and ever changing, and i vary the focus and theme throughout the term. the pace is measured and classes are carefully structured. you will always be encouraged to work sensitively with reference to your own body, and to adapt and rest wherever needed.
weekly classes are open to beginners and experienced students, of any yoga tradition or none. age and movement ability are less important than you might imagine. if you are new to my work, please email me before attending your first class so i can advise which way in to my work might suit you best.
“A yoga posture can be simply a mechanical action, an exercise, that’s fine if that’s what you want. Is that what you want? If you desire more then begin not by diligently forcing yourself into the forms, but let the forms emerge from you.”
Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen
the physical practices many of us grew up with are a product of a culture built on competition and hierarchy and an understanding of physical practice as “somebody doing something to somebody” from the outside. for all that may be useful and wholesome in that, there may also be a desire, conscious or unconscious, to discipline, control, improve and correct. in this model, success is measured through the achievement of an outward form, of being “good at” something or “better than” someone else. indeed, this way of relating to the body may be subtly present even in yoga classes and as students, we may be working with this “inheritance” operating in us in some form. we could watch for it, and over and over choose differently, because so much is lost in this contracted viewpoint; expansiveness shrinks, and so does the fun! yoga is intimacy and wholeness. there’s nobody left to do anything to anybody else. separation falls away.
the glory of an embodied practice is this ever present invitation to arrive into the now though this “fathom long”, utterly mysterious and miraculous body. the possible pitfall is to identify with the form, to get hooked on the outward goal of “attaining” the pose, measuring success or failure through what our body can or can’t do. used wisely the form is rich. held lightly and playfully, a physical goal can provide direction and structure as a prop in our practice. a measure of effort is certainly required and we need to be present - really show up for ourselves. trying hard, however, contracts us, makes us overly serious, and obscures the huge, wild, totality of being in the body and the healing and joy available. the form could instead be a way in to the body, through the fundamental nourishment and rhythm of the breath, our body’s systems and innate patterns of movement, our relationship with earth and space.
it’s not always easy to practice, or teach, from this “inside out’” place, but i would be short-changing my students if i didn’t keep trying! listening inwardly, we stay close to ourselves and the body’s guidance - and it gets easier to hear it. we invariably emerge refreshed, steadier, happier, more connected to ourselves and our world.
