The Yoga Shala

🧘🏽‍♀️Fancy adding some yoga into your week? 🧘‍♂️

We got you yogi 🌟

 

Choose from the following classes and feel zen before you know it:

 

Tuesday

💚 Rev & Restore - Fringe.flow Vinyasa with time for yin. 6.30 - 7.25pm with Mia.

💙Fringe.HypYo - A fusion of pregnancy yoga and Hypnobirthing. 7.30 - 8.25pm with Mia.

 

Wednesday

💜Fringe.flow - Vinyasa Flow with a focus on a different element each class. 6.30 - 7.25pm with Courtney.

 

All classes are held at St. Mary's Church Memorial Hall, South Woodford and starting from 12th April.

 

⚡️️If none of these class times suit you, then sign up to the On Demand library for just £14.99 a month and create a schedule that suits your lifestyle⚡️

 

• Click on the link in bio to book • DM for more details •

 

Tag any friends in the comments who might like to join 🌟

•

•

•

• 
.yoga

💫 N E W • C L A S S E S 💫

We are excited to announce 3 new classes starting in April.
We have found a fantastic venue - St Mary's Church in South Woodford - and are excited to meet a lovely new bunch of yogis.

In the new class line up we have:

Tuesday
💚 Rev & Restore - Fringe.flow Vinyasa with time for yin. 6.30 - 7.25pm with Mia.
💙 Fringe.HypYo - A fusion of pregnancy yoga and Hypnobirthing. 7.30 - 8.25pm with Mia.

Wednesday
💜 Fringe.flow - Vinyasa Flow with a focus on a different element each class. 6.30 - 7.25pm with Courtney.

• Click on the link in bio to book • DM for more details •

Looking forward to seeing you there ✨

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a joyful New Year. See you in 2022!! 🎄🎅🏼

Remember, if you want to move a little between Christmas and New Year you can always sign up for our 7 day free trial and access a library of classes. Link in bio 🎄🧘🏽‍♀️🎅🏼

🌟Come flow with us!

🌈Join our online studio for access to a growing library of classes and a practise timetable that suits your schedule.

🌟This months 5 NEW videos are up!

🌈Still not sure? Try 7 days for free by clicking on the link in the bio!

✨ Let's turn yinwards ✨

Oh how I do love a yin related pun, but also seriously, who here loves a bit of Yin?!

Not only do I love the deep stretches and the mindfulness aspects of the practice, but I also love knowing why the long holds are so good for me.

Holding poses for a prolonged period of time allows the stresses we are creating to sink past our yang tissues and deep into our yin tissues (yin tissues being our bones, ligaments, fascia and joints; yang tissues being your muscles).

These tissues are rarely targeted through the more yang, high energy exercises we are used to doing. These yin tissues need to be worked in order to build strength and its just an added bonus that we can make our yin practice so relaxing and sometimes meditative while doing this.

Let me know in the comments what your favourite yin posture is ☯️

🌬 Its air week 🌬

The air element is linked to the Anahata chakra, which resides in the heart space. It is all about love. Love for others and love for yourself. 💗

💚Here are some affirmations to say to yourself daily, to get the love for ourselves flowing. 💚

🍂Today and tomorrow is the Autumn equinox. It is a time of equal day and night. It signals the end of the summer and invites in those cosy evenings. It is a period of transition between not only the seasons but also ourselves.

🍂It invites you to reflect on the balance in you own lives. What do we wish to take with you into the new season? What no longer serves you and needs to be left behind?

🍂Use this time to find some space to turn inwards and reflect or practise a little gratitude before the new season gets into full swing.

Ain't that the truth 🎨 🙌🏼

Don't let anyone dull your shine! I've felt overwhelmed this week and this is the reminder I needed that I am in control and need to say yes to the stuff that makes me shine and say no to the things that don't align ✨✨

What some of our lovely Yogi's have to say about our classes ✨ 😍

Forever grateful that we get to share our practice with such wonderful souls each week!

Come get involved with a class this week:
🌿 Tuesday, Vinyasa Flow, 6.30 - 7.30pm, via Zoom, with Mia. Dm for details

🌈 Tuesday, Yin Yoga, 8.30 - 9.30pm, with .yoga, with Mia. Book via MindBody

🌙 Saturday, Vinyasa Flow, 9.30 - 10.30am, via Zoom, with Courtney. Dm for details.

☆ Virabhadrasana I☆
••• Warrior 1 •••

The translation of this pose is a bit of a head scratcher- Warrior....

Yoga philosophy is known for its quest for peace and non violence so it's strange that a series of the foundational poses are named after battling warriors.

The Warrior poses are named after a fierce warrior named Virabhadra, and actually commemorate the idea of 'the spiritual warrior' bravely doing battle with the universal enemy - ego and ignorance, which are the ultimate sources of our suffering.

There is a longer story there, but we'll save that till next time!

Benefits of this pose:
◇  Stretches the chest, lungs, shoulders and psoas
◇ Strengthens the shoulders, arms and back muscles
◇ Strengthens and stretches the thighs, calves and ankles.

Tips and Guidelines:
♡ Position back foot at a 30 - 45° angle
♡ Keep the bent knee stacked over your ankle and in line with your second and third toe
♡ Keep your hips as square to the front of the mat as possible
♡ Hug your ribs in, try not to arch through the back.

The root chakra could be argued to be the most important of all the chakras because it forms the foundations all the other elements build upon and rely on. This is what we have been thinking about in our Earth classes this week.

Having strong foundations is important in all areas of life - they allow us to stand strong while havoc abounds around us, allows us to know and accept ourselves  and allows us the strength to deal with difficult situations.

Sometimes we may need to remember to go back and check that we're nurturing those foundations ✨

☆ Sukhasana ☆
••• Easy Pose •••

Easy pose is not actually always that easy! The idea is to sit still and turn your attention inwards coming into a meditative state and revealing the immense joy present within your heart.
(Also HOW was this taken only earlier this week?! ☔)

Benefits of this pose:
◇  Opens the hips
◇ Stretches ankles and knees
◇ Can be a very calming pose.

Tips and Guidelines:
♡ Slide shoulder blades down your back , moving shoulders away from ears
♡ Lean back and forth and from side to side a few times to find align shoulders directly over hips
♡ On every inhale, feel the spine growing long
♡ With every exhale, root down through your sit bones.

This week in class we are thinking about embracing.... embracing the present moment, embracing ourselves  exactly as we are,  embracing what is and equally what is not.

This isn't always easy as we often find ourselves reaching and grasping for things in the future, wanting things to be better. Or we keep our minds in the past, wishing things had turned out differently.

So often we miss the beauty of the present moment.

So today let's become present and embrace ourselves exactly as we are in this moment. And maybe we can try to begin embracing all parts of our lives, no matter how messy.

What helps you to stay present?

✨ New class alert ✨

Start your weekend the right way with Courtney for some mindful movement in a new Saturday morning vinyasa flow class.

Class is at 9.30am over Zoom, we will be flowing through the elements with the .yoga method.

First class free, Dm to sign up or for more details.

☆Ardha Chandrasana☆
••• Half Moon Pose •••

🌙  allows you to draw on the peaceful, balancing energy of the moon, while simultaneously engaging the core and stoking up your fiery third chakra, Manipura.

Benefits of this pose:
◇  Strengthens the ankles, legs, core and spine
◇  Opens chest and shoulders
◇ Promotes a sense of coordination and improves concentration.

Tips and Guidelines:
♡ Make use of a block to bring the ground up to you - not everyone's anatomy allows them to do this pose without one
♡ Keep back foot flexed, imagine you are kicking into an imaginary wall
♡ Open your chest out to the side and imagine your back is flat against the wall, or even do this pose against a wall to begin with
♡ You don't have to extend your top arm up to the sky if you don't feel stable, another good option is to keep your hand on your hip.

Bit of wisdom for your Wednesday ✨

This is something that I've had to remind myself of a lot recently.

It's not always easy to remember when you're putting yourself out there, but don't let fear dominate your decisions 🔥

🔥🔥 This week in class we're working with our third chakra, Manipura, which relates to the fire element.
This is the seat of our personal power, the seat of our drive, our self confidence.

We'll be building heat in the body, with lots of twists to stoke up our inner fires and strengthen this chakra so we can develop more self belief, compassion and drive to help us achieve all we wish to.

If this sounds like a bit of you, come join in. Dm for details 🔥🔥

☆Shaylasana☆
••• Water Pose/ Side Plank Variation •••

Emotion. E-motion is simply Energy in
motion.
Our second chakra - Svadisthana- is focused on opening up through the hips and pelvis area. This helps to get energy and emotions flowing as they should.

Benefits of this pose:
◇ Strenthens and stretches the wrists
◇ Improves balance
◇ Opens up the hips.

Tips and Guidelines:
♡ Step front foot halfway down mat, toes pointing to the long edge. Come onto little toe edge of back foot
♡ Push ball of back foot away from you, keeping strong in the bottom leg
♡ Drop hips low
♡ To come deeper into the pose, bring arm down in front of the shin and reach towards the back foot.

"This being human is a guest house. Every morning is a new arrival. A joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor. ... Welcome and entertain them all.
Treat each guest honourably. The dark thought, the shame, the malice, meet them at the door laughing, and invite them in. Be grateful for whoever comes, because each has been sent as a guide from beyond".

- Rumi ✨

So amazingly grateful for the ☀ this bank holiday weekend 🙏🏼

If you're in need of some movement after the long weekend then join me tonight for either:

♡ Vinyasa Flow, 6.30 - 7.30pm, via Zoom. First class free   OR
♡ Yin Yoga, 8.30 - 9.30pm, via Zoom and in the Studio, with .yoga. Book via MindBody ☀️

☆ Uttanasana ☆
••• Standing Forward Fold•••

"Let go of your worries and cares and invite, with each breath, stability and balance into your life" - Root Chakra Meditation

Benefits of this pose:
◇ Stretches the back chain of the body
◇ Said to alleviate anxiety, improve digestion and relieve headaches
◇ Calms and quietens the mind
◇ Stretches the hamstrings and calves

Tips and Guidelines:
♡ Keep feet either together (big toes touching, slight gap between heels) or have feet hip distance apart and keep them parallel
♡ Keep back straight, finding length in the spine
♡ Invite a slight bend in the knees, ensuring not to lock them
♡ Keep hips aligned over heels
♡ Can have hands flat to mat, on blocks, resting on shins - whatever suits you.

In class this week we have been focusing on the theme of perspective, and how your perspective can build you up or tear you down.

Our perspective is everything. It's the thing that changes a problem into a challenge, a rejection into an opportunity or a failure into a learning experience.

We can start to shift our perspective by focusing on the positive, on what we can do, what we already have.

And when we start to change the way we look at things, the things we are looking at will start to change ✨

Tuesday is my favourite day of the week, and that's thanks to all the yogis that join me on the mat 🙏🏼

Join me tomorrow for Yin and/ or Vinyasa and start the week right ✨

♡ Vinyasa Flow, 6.30 - 7.30pm, via Zoom, first class FREE
♡ Yin Yoga, 8 - 9pm with .yoga, in studio or on Zoom. Book via MindBody.

Dm me for details ☯️

☆ Bhujangasana ☆
••• Cobra Pose •••

Bhujangasana is the sanskrit word for snake. It is derived from the root "bhuj" which means to bend or curve.

The king cobra glides forward whilst keeping its upper body upright. This is a powerful pose which stretches the intercostal muscles and allows the rib cage to expand, increasing our capacity to breathe.

Benefits of this pose:
◇  Stengthens the spine
◇ Stretches chest, shoulders and abdomen
◇ Is said to soothe sciatica.

Tips and Guidelines
♡ Hug elbows into body. Elbows should point behind you, not wing out to the sides
♡ Press into tops of feet and thighs and into p***s
♡ Use the core to lift you up, and then press into hands to come up further
♡ Shine collar bones forwards, roll shoulders back and draw the chest through.

"The first rule of kindness is to be kind to yourself" - Bryant McGill

A mid week reminder for anyone who needed it today ✨

Join me tomorrow for an Air class to open you up through the shoulders and chest 🌬

♡ 6.30 - 7.30pm Vinyasa Flow, Zoom. First class FREE
♡ 8 - 9 Yin Yoga, Studio (yay) or Zoom with .yoga. Book via MindBody.

If these times don't suit then sign up to The Yoga Shala and gain access to On Demand yoga classes and practice around your own schedule.

Here's a sneak peek of our May video for Air ✨ 5 new classes are added each month and members also have unlimited access to the ever growing back catalogue of classes.

Sign up in May and get the membership for £10.49 a month (usually £14.99)