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MOVE
Self practice enquiry - Hyoid & Backbends: The hyoid bone has a subtle but profound effect on instigating front body support in back bending. This relationship goes right back to our infant development and movement patterns. In this class I share a few ways to explore this relationship. Awareness of the hyoid can profoundly change our experience of spinal extension, in my experience offering much more of a sense of ease, space and support as we backbend.
Actively do Nothing: A 10 minute reset for when you need to just stop and lay on the ground. Whether you are exhausted or agitated, this practice will give you a chance to rest into the steadiness of the ground beneath you and of your breath within you. A short and sweet moment of nourishing rest.
Creative backbend flow: This creative, slow and steady practice explores the specifics of arms moving overhead for backbends, finding the natural spiralling of the upper limbs, with just enough space and constraint for optimal join articulation! We release shoulders and upper back, and intersperse backbends with grounding warrior variations, whilst also weaving in a beautiful awareness practice to cultivate a grounded sense of presence. Props: Strap
Whole Body Core: A creative and challenging practice that cultivates supple strength from the centre outwards towards the periphery and back again. It’s a fun and varied flow of functional core work (i.e applicable and supportive of our every day movements) that will probably get sweaty and will challenge you to move in many directions and to play with balance.
Being with & Processing Anger: If you are feeling angry, this practice will give you some tools to work with seeing, being with and processing the emotion in your body. When we get into the raw sensory experience of emotion (energy in motion), it can give the emotion some space to be fully acknowledged and worked through. We will sit with it, get granular about finding where it lives in our body and will move, shake and use breath work to allow some pathways for the anger to move through.
Self Practice Enquiry - Xyphoid and Tailbone: A short class introducing a movement enquiry for you to then explore in your own practice and/or teaching. We explore the relationship between two small bones, the xyphoid and the tailbone. I find this exploration so rich, and it can really support us to cultivate a wonderful middle ground between space and containment through the torso as we move and breathe. Enjoy!
Xyphoid & Tailbone Inversion Flow: A fun exploration of the relationship between the front body and back body via the skeleton and two small bones: the xyphoid and tailbone. This practice cultivates awareness of these two bones as we move and breathe, to find a sense of containment and space through the torso. This can hugely support all of our movement as we find a sense of a ‘middle place’, and is particularly helpful in inversions. Starts slowly and builds into a challenging flow with inversion options to play with (or not!).
Sneak into a deep hip practice: We all have a unique ‘bony signature’ that gives us a particular amount of constraint and space. This class explores that range, with a particular focus on external rotation required to move into crossed legs, pigeon, figure of four and options to explore lotus (or not). Starts slow and sneaks into a varied and strong full body flow, with a hippy arm balance exploration and a wonderful, spacious seated sequence before closing with a long rest and a brief meditation. Woven throughout we play with an awareness practice exploring ‘spaces in between’; small windows that can offer a sense of the vast underlying ground of being that all experience arises from, is sustained within, and returns to.
Nurturing & Strong: Moves slowly and steadily from the ground into a satisfying flow practice exploring the relationship between our skin and nervous system, and how our hips articulate as we flow our way towards a spacious axis and half moon pose. A yummy chilled start that sneaks into a stronger practice by the end.
Levity through the axis: Finding levity through out axis in rotation via a small bone called the ethmoid that lives in the front portion of our skull. A total game changer! We play with a strong twist sequence that leads us in the direction of side crow whilst deepening our relationship to a spacious axis.
Strong & Fluid: A strong sequence for when you are up for a challenge with less instruction and more flow. A fluid exploration of arm balances, side planks, handstands, backbends and some yummy side bode releases to close. You might want to do a little more of a warm up before you start to play with this one. Just over 30 minutes :) Have fun!
20 minute all rounder: A full practice in 23 minutes for you here! Chant, breathe, move and a little micro meditation to close. Perfect for those days when you want a little bit of everything but you also only have 20 minutes. The movement is an all round full body slinky flows of spinal explorations, neck releases, lunges, hip openers and flowing twists to finish with a short and sweet rest at the end. Enjoy!
Density & Space: An exploration of the sensation of weight bearing into non weight bearing, and how this can open into a felt experience of the relationship between space and density. Yoga philosophy teaches us that we exist as part of a space/density continuum and this class is a strong and playful exploration of the relationship between the two. We play with asymmetrical shapes, arms balances, movement around the mat, momentum and a variety of movement possibilities before resting into seated side body openers and a long rest, with chanting to close.
Arms & Hands Exploration: Our feet are designed for weight bearing, and our hands are designed for mobility. Yet in yoga movement we seem to be very curious about making our hands into feet! This class is a deep dive into carrying weight through our hands, particularly when our arms go overhead in postures like downward facing dog, handstand and wheel. We harness the natural spirality of our design to move in a way that optimises weight bearing. This is an important class for wrist health and solid groundwork for inversions.
Unfurl: 10 minutes of restorative before unfurling into a steady flow that moves from the ground into standing with twists and triangle variations, and builds some heat as we challenge balance and proprioception in down dog explorations. Settle into stillness with seated forward folds at the end followed by a delicious rest and a little bit of chanting to close. Props: Bolster, block, blanket, strap if you have, you can improvise or do without as well.
Full body tune up: My current go to faves for a full body wiggle! Low impact and yet strong and satisfying, fully following what feels delicious. Ongoing, fluid motion in lots of different directions and with tons of variety. Starts with an upper back and side body release over a bolster and opens into a full body wiggle that cultivates a sense of inner coherence, continuity and presence. Yum.
Practicing Stillness: A restorative/yin practice to support the possibility of fully resting into stillness. We move through fully supported front body openers, side body releases, pigeon pose, wide legged forward fold and sit at the end. It is a nourishing practice that supports an exploration of rest, stillness and awareness.
Rest into Flow: Pure nurturance. This class starts off with some restorative postures and then sneaks into a delicious, well rounded movement practice. It is one of my absolute favourites: slow, steady, utter nourishment for your nervous system, delicious movement explorations and really honing our capacity to attune to presence. Props: Anything resembling a bolster, blocks, strap, blankets - get it all! I do give options for no props so don’t let a lack of props hold you back! I highly recommend practicing using the suggested playlist below.
