Screen Shot 2017 11 24 At 13.33.28

Author Archive

one-to-one

yoga is a life enhancing practice of movement, breathing and presence which helps us develop an authentic connection with ourselves and the world around us.

i have been practising yoga for over forty years and helping others with their practice for over thirty.

my initial teacher training with the British Wheel of Yoga has been enriched over the years through study and practice of a traditional approach with Paul Harvey, and for the last five years in the refreshing, poetic approach of Sandra Sabatini, herself a direct student of Vanda Scaravelli.

all of these experiments have nurtured a creative and easeful approach and i enjoy helping fellow practitioners to sow their own seeds of yoga sensitively and in the spirit of personal possibility

flexible one to one sessions are available by arrangement

let me know if this interests you

leila@theyogastudiosomerset.co.uk

unfolding

find your way into your favourite standing forward bend

ease your body into the posture slowly – like water flowing to find a level

meanwhile become aware of your breath

breathing in – let the upper body rise a little – the back extending
breathing out – lower down deeper into the fold

when you are ready to unfold find an out-breath to support you as you rise

you could repeat this several times

smoothing out the tight winter pleats of your body and breath

blossoming

‘Air: source of the breath
That enables flowers to flourish,
And calls the dark, rooted trees
To ascend into blossom.” John O’Donohue

the lifting light and the abundance of new life can all inspire our own expansion, our own blossoming
which begins with deep roots

so come to the mat

take time to find your footing – can you feel your roots spreading deeper?

after a while

breathing out allow your arms to move away from your sides, investigating the space around you

breathe into your new shape

move a little further on the next out breath – breathe in to this new shape

breath by breath

until your arms feel wide enough, high enough to form an open canopy

repeat repeat repeat

“The liberation of the upper part of the body produced by the acceptance of gravity in the lower part of the body, is the origin of lightness.” Vanda Scaravelli

review

many of the rules of yoga have filtered down to us through generations of teachers and practitioners, across borders and through time

do the yoga rules you are sticking to feel relevant?

would it help to review the rhythm, form, breath, timing, content or spirit of your practice?

there should be room for manoeuvre. rules and guidelines can be wide enough to include all the tribes and variations – baggy enough to let us breathe within our own twenty-first century, northern hemisphere circumstances, whatever our gender, age, race, and belief system

so why not…

be curious – be creative – be rebellious

a rule which feels too strict becomes a prison

and spring can be a good time for review

falling awake

the perception that meditation only happens in a cross legged position can make it feel out of reach for some people

if this is you, and you would still like to feel the groundedness of being on the floor rather than sitting on a chair

try

lying down with your knees bent and feet on the floor

or

lying in savasana

using any meditation practice you like, or simply returning your attention repeatedly to your breath

and even though you are lying down and feeling comfortable

notice yourself

falling awake

‘Mindfulness means being awake. It means knowing what you are doing.’ John Kabat-Zinn

today

Today

If ever there were a spring day so perfect,
so uplifted by a warm intermittent breeze
that it made you want to throw
open all the windows in the house
and unlatch the door to the canary’s cage,
indeed, rip the little door from its jamb,
a day when the cool brick paths
and the garden bursting with peonies
seemed so etched in sunlight
that you felt like taking
a hammer to the glass paperweight
on the living room end table,
releasing the inhabitants
from their snow-covered cottage
so they could walk out,
holding hands and squinting
into this larger dome of blue and white,
well, today is just that kind of day.

From Aimless Love: New and Selected Poems by Billy Collins

full emptiness

i recently visited an exhibition, where a watercolour by Cezanne
Montagne Sainte-Victoire was commented on by the artist Phyllida Barlow. she remembered a lecture on the painting from her student days

“look at how little there is – the economy of colour, line, space, and where an empty space is in fact full.” Michael Andrews

looking at the painting made me think of simple yoga practices, where very little apparent content, can offer us so much if we are able to attend to it

empty space becomes full and in the same way, fullness empties

yoga shorts

imagine a passageway leading from the knee cap to the back of the knee

as you practise forward bends imagine sending your exhalation through the passageways from the front to the back of the knees

and then let your inhalation return through the passageways from the back to the front

look for signals – from your back and your breath

use carefully – this changes everything

lighter

‘A Light exists in Spring
Not present on the Year
At any other period –
When March is scarcely here

A Color stands abroad
On Solitary Fields
That Science cannot overtake
But Human Nature feels.’

Emily Dickinson

painting ‘spring light in broken fields’ by Clare Haley

simplified practice

if your practice has lapsed or you are feeling scattered and don’t know where to start, simplifying things might help

choose three complimentary postures that appeal to you, for example

seated forward bend, seated twist, sitting with legs outstretched

or

bridge, knee hold pose, lying hand to foot/leg pose

or

mountain pose, standing forward bend, warrior

settle

practise your chosen three postures slowly for 5 or 10 minutes – moving from one to another in an order which feels right

repeating and resting when you need to

resting for a while when you finish

repeat this several times a day…

same postures, same process

see what emerges