Your Yoga Practice Exeter

Would you like to practice Yoga at home but don't know where to start?

Find yourself starting and stopping?

Struggling to access group classes or to find what you are looking for?

Or want to take your practice further?

Come chat to me!
With personal lessons we work towards your goals, creating and developing a bespoke practice that respects your needs:
- Concise and relevant practices designed to fit into your day
- Lessons providing you with the confidence to practice independently
- Continuing support to respond to changes, to adapt and to develop.

I'm here for the journey, for long term change, walking alongside you.

Personal lessons available on Mondays and Wednesdays. An initial consultation is free. Lessons booked ad-hoc so you're never tied in.

You can contact me through Facebook, via my website at www.youryogapractice.co.uk, by email at [email protected] or on 07866329829.

“What appears as Yoga to
an outsider is mainly the
physical aspects of our practice.
They will not be aware of
how we breathe,
how we feel the breath,
and how we co-ordinate
breathing with physical movement.
They tend to be interested only
in our flexibility and suppleness.”
– TKV Desikachar 1976
https://yogastudies.org/2024/05/what-appears-as-yoga-to-an-outsider-is/

I protect this moment on Wednesday mornings as much as possible, as a deliberate Stop - Pause - Breathe in the middle of the week. I drop the boys at school then head to the Lilac bakery for coffee.

I deliberately slow down my walking pace after the inevitable rush to school and notice people hurry past me. I like to sit in the window to watch the world rushing along, to be still in a little island of peace in the middle of all that movement. Allowing my mind to clear.

Sometimes I write: how I am feeling, what's bothering me, which different parts of me are fighting for attention and what they want. Sometimes I make lists, so that my mind can release its death grip from trying to hold every little detail in case I should forget something.

Intentionally curating space: space to breathe, space to meet myself, to process, to feel. It only takes a few minutes. Then I move on with my day: more gracefully, more slowly, with more clarity.

What do you do to create space in your week? A quiet cuppa? Listening to music? Getting outside? Stopping to look up at the sky or listen to birds between one place and the next? It doesn't have to be much! X

Hello! How are you all? How were the Easter holidays for you? If you have children heading back to school how does that feel?

I love the school holidays, however the change in routine makes it hard to keep up the daily practices, routines and rituals that anchor and support me. So I was looking forward to setting my alarm back to it's school pattern, claiming back that time for myself. I won't pretend it was easy to get out of bed but I'm glad I did!

Strictly speaking, the goal of any practice is consistency, without interruption, but we live in the real world where this often isn't realistic, and pushing too hard can lead things that should be a joy to become a chore. Then to judge ourselves when we don't meet our own expectations. So the real skill is in *how* we return to a practice or routine. How we can chose to show up for ourselves. How we can be intelligent about the process so that it works for us.

This morning I left extra time, to take things slowly. Adding in extra breaths as pauses between postures, helping me to reconnect with my body, with my breath, to focus on being present and unhurried. I cut out a more challenging posture later on and chose a simpler breathing practice at the end. I am looking forward to practicing again tomorrow morning. I feel more space, more peace, more presence as I move through my day.

I had hoped for a beautiful sunrise to share with you but the ancient Oak tree in the park is awesome whatever the weather.

Get in touch if you'd like to learn more about Yoga as a Personal Practice and how to get started.

KRIYĀ YOGA…
“Kriyā Yoga –
To do – Tapas.
To examine what we did – Svādhyāya.
To accept what we did – Īśvara Praṇidhānā.”
– TKV Desikachar on Yoga Sūtra Chapter Two verse 1
https://yogastudies.org/sutra/yoga-sutra-chapter-2-verse-1/

Come and learn Yoga on with 121 lessons:
🌱 Time totally dedicated to you
🌱 A practice designed around your needs
🌱 Moving at your pace
🌱 Tailored to fit into your day
Individual lessons work from your unique starting point, moving towards your personal goals. Lessons are typically booked every 2-3 weeks allowing you time to practice and progress at home in between.
An initial consultation is free, come work with me at the Tiny Teaching Space!

Beautiful Sunrise from the tiny teaching space this morning, Venus visible in the morning sky ❤️
Teaching restarts from this week on Mondays and Wednesdays, so get yourself booked in! And if you are interested in starting lessons please get in touch, I have space for up to two new clients at the moment # # #

Happy New Year everyone!
I always found the whole New Year's Eve thing difficult, but I love to watch the sun come up on New Year's Day. It always brings me a sense of peace. Also very relieved that it finally stopped raining....
Lots of love # # #

The holidays turn everything upside down, the routines and rituals that we rely on to nourish us go out of the window in an instant. Don't then let that be another stick you beat yourself with! Find space in each quiet moment. Breathe with intention. Move deliberately. Slow it all down. And as the dust settles, you can start to build back those practices that support you, without guilt, being gentle with yourself.
I restart teaching from the 8th Jan if you need a bit of help getting moving again!
Have a wonderful Christmas everyone # # #

Autumn is all around us and we are fully immersed in the flow of work, school runs, clubs, illnesses and everything else. So much is going on that it can feel impossible to slow down, to make or even justify any time for yourself. If you’d like practical, individualised support to curate time and space and develop simple supportive practices that work for you then I have two offers for you:

I am offering a new 6 WEEK ONLINE GROUP COURSE on Yoga: An Introduction to Home Practice. This will be delivered weekly via Zoom on Wednesday mornings starting on 1st November, and aims to support people who would like to be able to practice Yoga at home but don’t really know where to begin, or how it is even possible when we feel like we don’t even have time to p*e!

Over the 6 weeks we will work on developing a short, simple and accessible practice within a supportive space in which we can discuss the issues around what Yoga even is, what it isn’t, what forms a “practice” can take, the problems of making space in our day, what helps lift us up and what gets in the way. We can share our progress, our questions and problems, providing support without judgement.

I currently also have space for one new CLIENT FOR 1:1 WORK. Lessons are available on Mondays and Wednesdays and an initial consultation is free so we can discuss the process, your goals and the practicalities before making any commitment.

I am an intensely practical person, and in the Viniyoga approach we take each person exactly as they are: working slowly step by step towards their goals, adapting and developing the practice around them in order to respond intelligently to change and making Yoga accessible to anyone.

You can contact me to register your interest for 1:1 work or the online course via WhatsApp, at [email protected] or via the contact form on my website www.youryogapractice.co.uk. Course bookings will open soon!

This!!!

“Contact with breath
is contact with life.”
– TKV Desikachar
https://yogastudies.org/category/cys-journal/collected-yoga-practice-posts/

Last week I was really poorly, and although I'm still really lacking in energy the main impact has been on my mental health, from the stories I tell myself about always being in control, always being capable, always being useful and productive.
Today I decided I couldn't face my daily practice, the early start was feeling like a chore rather than a celebration. So instead I made space after the school run to get into comfy clothes, light a candle, celebrate the turning of the season and do my practice slowly, with a sense of reverence and ritual that is often missing when something becomes a habit.
I choose to be kind to myself today, reminding myself that I am worthy of nourishment and rest, even when the list of things to do is endless.
# # #

Do you ever wake up with the intense experience of a painful memory? Not knowing what took you back there? Why it is still so powerful even if you have done a load of work to move beyond it? That's where I am this morning. Wanting to hide from the world and hug my boys tight, to keep us all safe.

These seeds persist inside us, waiting for the tiniest thing to link us back to them. A smell, a dream, some small action or reaction to something totally unrelated and we are straight back there. Lost in memory and suffering that we thought we had dealt with.

The Yoga Sutra talks about these karmic seeds, and how something as subtle as a smell can cause them to sprout again in a cycle of action - fruit - seed - affliction (1:24). In chapter 4 Patanjali discusses the power of memory "smrti" and our sense of self "asmita" and how they drive this cycle.

This morning I offer l these words from my teacher Paul Harvey on Yoga Sutra 2:12:
- we are constantly churning up seeds, even when we cut the grass!
- we all contain imprints that will continue to manifest and catch us unawares, we have no idea what will be triggered and when
- when seeking the light, take care lest we forget the power of our roots.

Images from yogastudies.org

This is my lovely Dad. I'm at my parents this week with the boys and I knew it would be a stuggle to keep up the routine of my Yoga practice here, so instead I am joining my Dad for his daily 6.30am swim!
He goes every weekday morning and has kept this up through 7 cycles of chemotherapy this year. What a legend! Having that routine in place, staying fit and having the community of his early swimming crew around him is so important. Love you Pa!

Very true for me at the moment, with the children always here and a to do list a mile long!

Summer holidays - how do you feel about them? Love it? Hate it? Both of these at once?

Love the freedom but then miss the lack of structure?

Feel the pressure to be doing all the fun stuff but also create space to do nothing?

Still juggling work and childcare and all of the other stuff?

Love having the children at home but struggling with having even less time to yourself?

We are in this transition, trying to find ways to anchor our days using small rituals and routines.

Looking for a balance between planning and space for sponteneity.

Finding the small spaces that allow me to have a moment to myself AND finding things to do in those spaces that nourish me, rather than just doom scrolling on my phone.

Accepting that we will all be bored at times and that is valuable too.

Managing expectations that we do something exciting every day.

Embracing the small things.

What do you love about the holidays? What do you find hard? How are you looking after yourself and not just everyone else? Do you allow yourself to ask for help?

Use this thread to tell us how you are feeling, what's frustrating you, or what's gone well so we can all witness, support and celebrate you # #

Atha.
Now.

The first word in the first chapter of the Yoga Sutra:
"Atha Yoganusasanum" - Now follow the teachings of Yoga.
• To begin.
• To be brave enough to take a leap, to embrace opportunity and possibility.
• To know that this is your moment.
• If not now, when?
• Are you waiting for the perfect time? Letting perfect get in the way of perfectly good?

This single word encompasses not just an instruction but also the goal:
• To be present.
• To be still.
• To be fully aware.
• With a sense of clarity.
• To be able to choose where we direct our attention and to hold it there.

”The term Atha signifies auspicious beginning,
uninterrupted continuity and an appropriate end.”
– T Krishnamacharya on Yoga Sūtra Chapter One verse 1