The Power of Light

I could write for hours about how light has been present in November & December!

In a bid to keep things as short & sweet as possible, here is a list of some of the things that have combined to bring light into my days: Christmas lights, the morning & evening skies, exploring the duality of light & dark, light & heavy, inner light, candle light, illuminations, phospherecence, sunlight landing on mountains with shadows…

As we’ve been travelling towards the darkest days (I don’t know if it’s because the topic of light is present in my mind!) it seems the idea of light seems to be quite universal at this time of year. In one of the Christmas films I’ve watched (you know the kind, channel 5 kind of ones where you know exactly what will happen!) there was a line:

“That Christmas Eve I realised in the vast black night even a little light shines brightly and all we can do is our best to find that light and share it with others.”

I had to pause, rewind & make a note, as it seems so relevant with our current theme of cultivating light and reminding ourselves of our inner light, our place of consciousness, our heart centre (hrydyam), our being.

In reference to yoga philosophy, this is from the Bhagavad Gita & was the seed for the classes we’ve been practising together.

"As the darkness of night vanishes when the sun rises, so too the darkness of ignorance & delusion is dispelled when you gain knowledge of your True Self."

Ch. 5, v.16 - The Bhagavad Gita

To remind you of your light that resides within, under the layers of the thoughts & stories. Tying this in with our golden light visual as our dharana ~ focus for the mind, connecting to your breath & your inner light.. particularly in these dark & maybe somewhat heavy days.

Whilst classes are designed for bringing balance to the whole of your body physically, we have had quite a focus on our neck, shoulders & thoracic spine over the last few weeks - the cold weather possibly adding more tension into these areas! For the remainder of this block of classes we will be getting a little more restorative…

You can join me for weekly in-person classes in Comberbach and Hartford, and also from your home with my Gentle Mat & Chair live online classes. 

1-to-1 and Corporate classes are also available.

Shifting Seasons

This current theme of the 6 week block is Grounding. For those of you that are newer here, I like to write up what we’ve been exploring and why as this part of the yoga isn’t something we can get too much into the why’s within class… I think I talk enough 😆 But I intend for this to bind everything together.

• Grounding - The shift in seasons can feel turbulent and sometime s this may be reflective of what some of us may be experiencing in our smaller worlds. Grounding and encouraging our senses to feelings of stability can help in creating  something to return ourselves to in any situation. Rooting; taking from nature the fact that the tree roots remain steady even thought the leaves all and the branches may become weathered, the roots remain stable.

• Visualisation - Using the physical awareness of our bodies in contact with something stable, feeling the earth beneath us. From this place allowing the breath to merge us, the visualising the breath rooting into the ground and watching the breath rise up through our bodies. The visualisation always brings in our practice of Dharana (to focus consciousness of a single object, idea or place) by giving you something else internally to direct your awareness to when you notice it’s wandered.

• The foundations of my practice and teachings are rooted in philosophy, the cultivation of Grounding ourselves has come from the concept of the Gunas (Rajas, Tamas & Sattva) which are three essential aspects of nature that are constantly changing. Summer is generally a rajastic (busy) time of year and it may be that we carry that energy into the change to autumn. But along with nature as it starts to change in our outer environment, we need to acknowledge our smaller more personal environment and bring more of the tamas (heaviness/ rest) to ground and balance ourselves from our rajastic tendencies.

• Physically, we have started each class in various ways, standing, seated in a chair, and lying down. As we experience the colder temperatures this may begin to change our posture so there’s also been more of a focus around the neck and shoulders. It’s important to acknowledge the change in seasons by allowing ourselves more stillness and a restful practice but to ensure we don’t bring a feeling of heaviness, to still balance it with practices to energise gently & leave with a feeling of restoration.

You can join me for weekly in-person classes in Comberbach and Hartford, and also from your home with my Gentle Mat & Chair live online classes. 

1-to-1 and Corporate classes are also available.

Reflecting on Summer

What have we been exploring over the last block of yoga sessions leading to the end of Summer?

• Balance - Cultivating balance has been at the core of this block. Juggling all of the roles we play in life, all of things on our to do lists and everything else is hard to maintain balance especially in looking after yourself! Physically noticing the weight in the body and the interaction with gravity, playing with some balancing movements/ postures, transferring the sense of balance within; noticing if we feel balanced or unbalanced and using our practice to bring an overall feeling of equanimity.

• Visualisation - Colour of Calm - Making your visualisation personal to you.. I’d love to know what colour your colour of calm was? Did it change each week? Connecting the colour to the observation of the movement of air and the breath adds to our breath awareness as well as the benefit of visualisation. The visualisation always bring in our practice of Dharana (to focus consciousness of a single object, idea or place) by giving you something else internally to direct your awareness to when you notice it’s wandered.  

• We had also implemented a lot of flowing, circular motions in the last few weeks. I wanted to add some elements that represent water after spending my last little break by the Northumberland coast & to link with the philosophy aspect. Thinking about the qualities of water, all the different bodies of water, the way it moves, how it makes you feel whilst adding some vocabulary to tie this in.. the wave of your breath, the ebb and flow, how the breath ripples through the body, let the thoughts flow..

• As the foundations of my practice and teachings are rooted in philosophy, the cultivation of balance within & water aspect has come from the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali yoga philosophy book:

• 1.12- abhyasa-vairagyabhyam tan-nirodah - The states of mind are stilled by practice & dispassion - It discusses how the stream of the mind can flow two ways; towards its upliftment or towards its downfall; analogising the mind to a river. How we have integrated this into our practice: the noticing of our thoughts and not getting carried away into the thought stream, not resisting but building on our awareness in bringing ourself back to being present, to our colour of calm, to the wave of our breath.

• Physically, we have started to bring in the chair as an additional prop and way to experience different shapes and postures. Keeping a mix of standing, sitting, lying… we will gradually start to implement more chair and lying down into our practice as we move towards winter. It’s important to add the right amount to acknowledge the change in seasons and continue to bring balance to reset our nervous systems. And another addition of Samavrtti (equal breathing) has been in some of our weeks too.

The next block will bring a new theme from what I have been leaning towards and practising…

You can join me for weekly in-person classes in Comberbach and Hartford, and also from your home with my Gentle Mat & Chair live online classes. 

1-to-1 and Corporate classes are also available.