Viewing entries in
MOVE
Body of Water: A slow exploration of the fluid body and the internal patterns of motion that precede our movement through space; cellular breathing, sponging and pulsation. Explore how attuning to this micro flow of motion beneath the surface initiates fluid, strong and soft movement of our whole body. We work with a focus on side seams, outer legs, spirality and figures of eight and close with a lovely rest.
Follow your Gut - Backbend Flow: A practice attuning to our gut intelligence and bringing awareness to the soft support along the front of the spine. We move from the ground into a strong flow working with backbends in a variety of contexts, whilst finding a sweet sense of support, containment and freedom. A good one when you could do with a reminder to follow your gut and trust your instinct.
Heart Attunement: A practice supporting attuning and connecting to the rhythms of presence through embodiment of the lungs and heart. Starts with a supine backbend over blocks which slowly mobilises and frees up space in the arms and upper back before unfolding into a strong practice playing with balance and arm- over -head backbends. Closes with a long rest and one of my favourite poems. This class closes while you are in savasana so you can stay as long as you like. Props: Two Blocks
Spiral Body: A practice exploring how spiral patterns repeat throughout our body on every scale, from the microscopic to the shape of our bones and the directions of movement through our tissues. With a particular focus on arms moving overhead for backbends, this practice starts with supine mobilisations of the upper back and builds into a strong flow with spacious side body work, balancing twists and options for wheel at the end. Props: Two brick type blocks if you have, can be done without.
Waking up the periphery: Wake up awareness in your hands and feet and play with how this opens up communication to our centre and through our whole body. A strong and playful sequence that explores the mobility and sensitivity of hands and arms, crow pose preparation, strong leg work, camel variations and a long seated hip release sequence before a relaxation to close.inversions along the way if fancy.
Power & Grace: A strong and subtle practice exploring backbends in a variety of contexts and cultivating power to move with strength and grace. Begins on the ground with micro movements and opens into a flowing sequence exploring the relationship between the axial and appendicular skeleton in motion. Strong, steady and playful with a variety of options for arm balances and inversions along the way if fancy.
Align and Flow: A practice exploring alignment from a variety of perspectives. What does it mean to find alignment that suits our own unique architecture? How might we be able to sense our way into alignment from within? What’s the difference between local and global alignment? Working with the principle of yielding contact, we move from the ground into a strong practice playing with twists, backbends, inversions, balance, and ‘whole body core’.
30 minute circular flow: A short and sweet movement practice moving you around the mat in a creative circular exploration, moving through hip releases, spinal articulations and flowing side plank transitions. A delicious movement snack with plenty of floor work and a brief meditation to close.
Form & Formlessness: A journey into exploring the relationship between form and formlessness through our movement. A flowing practice that weaves hip release work and balances into a creative twisting sequence. Find the feeling of your own unique vibration that brings you home to yourself in a gentle and profound way.
Quiet, Steady, Strong: This practice weaves strong and steady movement into a slow flow that offers quiet time and space with less of me talking. Though there are lots of options for balancing (arm balances, standing balances, inversions) we cultivate an anchored groundedness and close with a meditation.
Cultivate Heartfulness: A practice dedicated to cultivating heartfulness. What does it mean to perceive from our heart? How does initiating movement from our heart shift our experience of being? What does it take to re sensitise to a fully feeling heart, and how do we cultivate the strength to do that? In this practice we awaken into the heart and explore our movement from there. A slow meditative start unfolds into a strong, grounded somatic vinyasa that builds our power, resilience and sensitivity.
Inner Ear & Balance: A practice exploring the vestibular mechanism, and how our inner ear relates to our sense of self, organising our relationship to space and ground via balance. We start with sound, and move slowly into a flowing practice that stimulates a heightened awareness of our balance system, weaving backbends into our flow and playing with dynamic standing balances and half moon variations.
Sneak into Backbends: This practice explores spinal extension in a variety of contexts. On the ground, standing, and balancing. We use the practice to bring our awareness into the back of the brain, and inquire into how that affects how movement emerges. Builds into a stronger flow, with less demonstrating and more verbal cues. Options for inversion play and/or forward folding depending on todays needs.
Spacious & Connected: A steady and calming practice inspired by my dear teacher Jean Hall. A sequence that invites a sense of returning to centre as we move slowly and steadily from the ground into some standing work with a focus on spaciousness in the hips. Builds into a strong flow of side planks, prone backbends, balancing postures and twists.
Moved from Within: The potential for movement arises in response to containment. As we push up into boundary, tone builds in our body. This inner motion precedes outer movement. In this practice we explore what it feels like to be moved from within, venturing into a varied asana practice that flows from the ground into lunges, half moon, tree variations, and offers the opportunity for inversions if you like. Closes with a deep rest and chanting.
Embodied Voice: A variety of movement explorations to support free expression of our voice. A great practice to ground and settle agitated energy, and often helpful in processing stagnation/frustration. We move and sound and then rest into quiet, before closing with some chanting together.
Movement Snack - Foot Flow: A 25 minute flow practice with a focus on waking up and moving from our feet. Short and sweet, we start with some foot activations and then get straight into a balancing flow before bringing it down to the ground for a nice long stretch out of the font of the legs and a little inversion to close.
Slowly open into movement: This practice starts with a grounding awareness practice and stillness, slowly opens into micro movements and then sneaks into a flow that will get you warm, strengthen your legs, and challenge your balance, with a yummy dose of backbends, twists and stretchy lunges in between.
