Jolou Yoga

TRUST THE JOURNEY
Trust in the journey of your yoga practice and forget about the destination.
Sometimes our practice can feel hard and heavy and yet at other times light and easy. Explore your practice with an open mind and maybe pausing to find something a little deeper not just in the pose but within yourself.

YOUR BREATH is like an ocean:
vast and ever flowing. There are times when it is rapidly moving and tumultuous, and times when it is soft and smooth. Your breath tells a story of each moment. Your breath's ability to calm and soothe teaches you the value of slowness to create. Your breath's depth offers you the experience of expansiveness. Your inhaling and exhaling remind you of the rise and fall of everything in life. Focusing on your breath can calm you, energise you, and offer you a sense of the wonder of your own body. ~ Susanna Hardwood Rubin

HUMAN FLAG PRACTICE
Let's just say it's progressing slowly for the vertical, it hasn't got much further than this. Trying to find the balance as something feels off centre. Using awareness, observation and proprioception. One day many years away it might happen!

OBSERVE
The breath. Observe without judgement, without reaction. Allow awareness to become absorbed in the breath, just as it is. When breath becomes the object of this kind of attention, a small miracle happens: the breath naturally settles.
Whatever aspect of the breath one observes, it's length, quantity, or region of activity, the effect is to make the unconscious conscious. It's rhythms no longer dictated by internal commotion, the observed breath begins to soften and spread out in each of it's phases.
Stephen Cope ~ The Wisdom of Yoga

MOTIVATION
I'll admit there are days when it's harder than others to get motivated to move my body but when this happens I remember the feeling I have once I'm on my mat or warming up in the gym. When I have taken a few deep breaths and have moved through a few poses, the good stuff starts to happen so quickly, I feel that prana, that good energy moving through me. Before I know it 90 minutes have passed and I feel energised, balanced, focused and calm. I know with a surety that I made the right choice. I do it because I love it and need it in my life.
If you too struggle sometimes, just remember how good it feels once you have started and even if it's just twenty minutes, you will have made those connections with yourself.

"When we spend time being still in nature, we harmonize our systems to the organic rhythms of earth, water and sky. We learn to listen and yield, and rediscover our place in the universe."
~Swami Ramananda

Weekly Classes
Non members welcome

MOVEMENT TO FEEL GOOD
Today I closed off my personal practice today with my dharma wheel, (over splits). Video to follow in the next few days. Moving my body definitely lifts me to a better version of myself. A little self exploration without a set agenda or programme just moving where my body took me and felt good.
~Think of each pose as an offering that celebrates your embodied existence. Your practice becomes a gesture of thankfulness for what you have been given, spoken elegantly and reverently through your body.~ Susanna Hardwood Rubin

Last week's yoga and meditation spot 🧘‍♀️🙏
I always feel at peace when I am by the sea, it's nostalgic and comforting. That's the joy of yoga, you can take it anywhere! Sitting still with our thoughts it's not easy for some, some shy away from it. Is it because we then might confront some issues we have not yet processed in our lives? Is it because life is moving too fast and to stop observe is no longer normal? There's always a starting point to everything, take small steps, just close your eyes and stay for a short while, observing just your breath or sounds around you, anchor your thoughts to one or the other each time the mind starts to wander. A little at a time it becomes more comfortable and more accessible and eventually a part of your everyday life.

Yesterday I celebrated my 50th birthday 😁
I have enjoyed glorious sunshine and relaxation for the past week here in Paphos with my Jörg 💕 I have still practiced yoga everyday right by the shore, which was simply wonderful. Today I am grateful for my health, family, friends and yoga. I guess I can't type anymore 😉

URDHVA HASTASANA/UPWARD SALUTE
This pose is a key posture for Sun Salutations. Of course it has many physical benefits but for me it draws me inward towards a meditative state, it gives me a sense of power yet calmness, as I inhale and bring my arms up and overhead and my chest rises my ribcage expands, I feel so alive, I feel steady, I feel balanced and I have a massive sense of gratitude.
How does this pose feel for you?

STILLNESS
Become aware of only bare sensation, inner stillness, the quality of your breath and allow time to evaporate 🙏

"Be a lamp to yourself. Be your own confidence. Hold on to the truth within yourself as to the only truth." ~Buddha
Last week, at Shell Island, Florida, a few yoga poses on the whitest of sands, and watching dolphins at sunset.

LIVE YOUR BEST LIFE
This phrase came up a few times last week! Yoga is a big part of my life and has given me so much, it has provided me with the tools to do exactly that, live my best life and be the best version of myself 🙏
Playing with Eka Pada Koundinyasana at Cypress Springs Florida ☺️ what an amazing place

SUNRISE YOGA
Today's sunrise from the studio, what a joy to teach so many beautiful yogis who join me every Wednesday morning at 7am. Yoga is a wonderful way to start the day, setting you up mentally and physically, allowing time to connect to yourself.
BREATHE, RELAX, WATCH, FEEL, ALLOW

BUNNY EARS ANYONE 🤣
Fun with my bestie! During class this morning we came into sphinx pose and I offered that the class could lift their feet, Jo observed herself in the mirror and noticed her feet looked like they were coming out of her head! We had to try it together after class and had some giggles doing it 🤣💖 sphinx/bunny 😘