Yoga is personal
Over the Easter break I have been reflecting on my teaching. I have not found my yoga teaching home since leaving the very special loft space at Yanley Court. I have tried different halls for larger groups and my home for small groups but they just haven’t been the right fit. Numbers have waxed and waned and I did not feel my teaching was what I wanted it to be. In the New Year I stopped teaching in person classes and returned to two online classes.
My yoga practice has always been personal. Yoga has helped me recover from the effects of a serious road traffic accident, a traumatic childbirth experience and chronic fatigue. It allows me to moderate my scoliotic pattern and day to day stresses. It brings space to my relationships. It improves my physical function, my mental stability and regulates my nervous system.
On more subtle levels, it connects me to Other and something beyond. In the yoga glow, I experience connection, a sense of being beyond time and increased internal space. I touch and I am touched. The physical aspect has always been someway down the list of benefits to practice. What has become evident with time is that it is not necessarily what I practice but that I do it, with the right attitude, presence and compassion (YS3.6).
A weekly yoga class has never provided for me in the same way my home practice does. In a group of other bodies, I can be pulled away from myself. I do not focus as well on my practice, my body, my breath. If I am on retreat or practising online however, the group experience can be different, it is easier for my focus to be on me and my relationship with myself and Other.
Home practice is the holy grail. Classes online has been the most accessible offer for people to have the commitment of a weekly class and cultivate a home practice using the class recordings if helpful. It is different from working with pre-recorded videos online. We are building a community and receiving teaching and feedback. The groups are small and personal, we know each other. I know it hasn’t worked for everyone but it has worked for some and it has definitely worked for me. I feel inspired by the practice. I feel connected to the centre of practice: the ability to direct the mind without distraction (YS1.2). I feel connected to the individual students as I watch them focus on their own practice.
If you are interested in joining the groups, please send me a message. A new six week term starts next week (Mondays at 10.00 am and and Thursdays at 6.00 pm). If you are already booked, thank you for continuing your journey with me.
I am available for individual lessons. These can be instead of or as well as online classes. The teacher-student relationship is central to yoga practice. My yoga teacher has been a central part of my practice and development. I am honoured to provide this space to others.
