Level 1-2

The purpose of this class is real, deep relaxation. Nourishing your nervous system and replenishing your energy.

We use a mixture of simple meditation and hatha yoga techniques, including some kriyas (which are defined as cleansing exercises - cleansing to the nervous system).

By working with our bodies with intelligence and understanding of the nervous system we can all bring ourselves to deep relaxation.

Our feet and lower extremities carry and support us throughout our day. Let’s devote some time returning the favor by strengthening, lengthening and caring for them in return.

Get right into the practice and keep connecting to your centre through strong standing work. Then use the wall to take some of the wobbliness out of some of the most common balancing postures like Warrior III and Half Moon pose, so that you can focus on extending into the space rather than ‘holding on’ not to fall over.

We begin to challenge our sense of proprioception by adding a twisting element to standing postures such as Utkatasana, Parsvakonasana and Parivritta Trikonasana. Then come back to the wall and practice extending into a slightly more challenging twisting standing balance. Practicing twisting postures also allows us to keep the muscles around the spine supple and mobile, which is so important for our overall wellbeing.

This week we begin to shift the weight into our hands and take flight. In this class, we connect to and bring awareness into the fingers, hands, wrists, arms, shoulders, core and how to pull everything in towards the center. Using therapeutic movements to warm up the wrists, and breath work to connect to your core, this class can be used on its own, or as a warm-up practice to prepare for another arm balancing sequence.

Keep working with the wrists, arms, and core while connecting to the inner legs so that you can attempt to take flight in Bakasana, one of the most fundamental arm balances. You already have all the tools you need, so just trust yourself enough to shift the weight forward, think light and happy thoughts and take flight. If you already have a Bakasana practice, this class will allow you to refine it.

Giving the wrists a little bit of a break, we return to connecting to the earth through our feet and legs. Warming up with sun salutations, we then move through a strong standing sequence, touch upon some standing balances we have yet to cover, and expand upon the ones that we have. Includes Tree Pose, Warrior III and Half Moon away from the wall. Expand into spaciousness.

For the last class of this week we come back both to our twisting poses and our hands. Beginning  on our backs, we then move a little to create heat and warm up the spine, which then leads us into a progression of twists. We end with playing around Parsva Bakasana or Side Crow, an arm balance including a twisting element. Please take some time on your own to quieten down and take Savasana after practice.

Welcome to week 3, where we revisit and expand on our balancing postures and move towards balancing upside down on our head, and begin to explore how the breath can assist us in creating  an inner balance by working with the two halves of the brain and the nervous system. Includes variations on Extended Side Angle, Tree Pose, Revolved Triangle and Moon Rise.

This is a short preparatory class and Headstand tutorial. Headstand is often a long journey, and if it feels like too much of a struggle to get yourself up there, most likely we need to remain for a while with the preparatory steps until a sense of lightness begins to present itself in the process. Please practice patience and follow the instructions carefully. Options are given for working around any problems with the neck.

A short pranayama sequence accessible to anyone for working with balancing the right and left hemispheres of the brain, as well as the sympathetic and the parasympathetic nervous system. This can be used several times a week at any time of the day, on its own or following an asana practice. It is also a good entry for the mind into a seated meditation.

Congratulations! You have made it to the end of week 3, and hopefully, you have begun to feel a greater sense of grounding and trust in yourself and the space around you on your mat, and possibly in your day to day life. Here we bring everything that has become familiar to you over these weeks together into a longer practice, and we add some new elements so that you can notice how perhaps now you respond a little differently to the unknown.