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Lucyogini

Yoga classes, workshops and inspiration for every body

Yoga is BACK this September!

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It’s been a while, you guys! But whilst the summer might be coming to a close, yoga is BACK!

Our regular Saturday morning class resumes this Saturday, 7th September, 9:30-10:30am at the usual place, The Good Health Clinic in Selby. Flowing movement, mindful meditation, whole body living – yoga for *real* life!

There’s lots more ahead too.  Evening classes, including our Mama Yoga classes, daytime classes, and more Sunday Santuary sessions – I loved sharing the one we did in August with you, I hope to run more on a semi-regular basis.  There’s more info below!

Sunday Sanctuary – special extended classes

Special extended classes guiding you through movement, including flow, yin and restorative yoga, and meditation to explore deeper levels of rest and inquiry. 
Sound and silence, space and softness, stillness and flow.

Mama Yoga

I’d like to start a Mama-centred yoga + relaxation weekly class later in the year.  Whether your babes are tiny, not so tiny or in school – the overwhelm is real! They would be a mix of yoga, some breathing/meditation techniques and a place to be honest and share with other mamas and just be. A place to unwind a little bit. Have a cup of tea and a biscuit. 
Would you be interested? Or know anyone who might benefit? Please share and let me know! 

I’d love to hear from you and hear what YOU would like from our classes.  If you’d be interested in either a daytime or evening class, Mama Yoga and/or the Sunday Sanctuary extended classes please do get in touch and let me know.  It’s always been my aim to build a yoga kula that is supportive, useful and founded in JOY.  Thank you so much for being part of it!

Here’s to the seasons ahead!

With love,

Lucy x

 

 

The same, but different

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Each September, I find myself hesitating at the thought of the new term ahead  – longing for the return of Summer, reluctant to get back to the familiar turns of the days and weeks.

There is something about the mid-Summer months that feels different; routines are cast by the wayside, there’s a certain degree of topsy-turviness to life.  All is a riot of colour and bloom in the height of warmth and light.

And when September and the cooler months come along, it can feel a little flat.

The return to old routine…

But things are not the same.

Because we are different.  The same, but different.

Whatever our experience of this Summer, the past few months, even days, even minutes, becomes a part of who we are.

Each of our reactions, inactions, interactions effect us deeply, become part of our consciousness and what we take forward with us.

We might well feel the same, the routines soon feel familiar and the hazy days of misrule of the Summer soon feel like long, long ago.

But fear not. They are not gone.

They are a part of us, things to be cherished for the things we have enjoyed; lessons to be cherished for what we have learned.  The big, the small, the joyful, the disappointing, the heart-breaking.  All of it experience.

And so it will go on.

Once we find ourselves back in the routine of daily life, it can be easy to overlook the subtleties and differences in the everyday.   We as humans are so deeply adaptable, it is almost a human condition to take things for granted.

Including the fact that we have these tools – yoga included – of awakening to living a more conscious life and finding the path to true happiness.

I listened to a TED talk recently that proposed to reverse the formula for happiness and success, suggesting that it is not SUCCESS that makes us happy, but HAPPINESS that makes us successful.

Doesn’t this make perfect sense?

How we process our experiences, how we process our experience of the world – as positive or negative – has a direct impact on our productivity.   The more positively we view our place in the world, the more inclined we are to think bigger, reach higher, believe in our potential.  The more successful we might become and the more successful we understand ourselves to be.

And luckily, the tools of yoga are perfectly designed to enable this mind-shift:

  • Practicing gratitude makes us more aware of the rich abundance of our lives
  • Meditation helps us to unplug from the frenzied pace of life and learn focus
  • Exercise teaches our body that our behaviour matters
  • Practicing kindness: Random acts of kindness to others create ripples of positivity beyond ourselves.

These simple practices retrain our brains to look for the positive first, and to scan the world around us to see positive, rather than negative.

Things might look the same; same body, same routine, and yet things are constantly evolving on the inside.  We can choose how we evolve.  We can choose subtle shifts to live more positively and become more awake.

We are the same, but different.

Autumn Equinox: a spiritual Harvest Festival

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Happy Autumn Equinox everyone! This week we welcome the new Autumn!

Here we are again, the nights drawing in and the mornings feeling a little bit nippier each day…

The Spring and Autumn equinoxes mark points in the year where the day and night is of equal length. They are the point of balance between the two solstices: the summer solstice where the days are longest, and the winter solstice where the nights are longest.

It’s easy to think that the dark nights and cold weather mean there’s nothing going on. But no! This is the time for composting! Deep, rich nourishment. We can take inspiration from the rhythms of the earth and the cycle of the sun to enjoy rest, reconnect to our intuition and rejuvenate. The dark isn’t a bad thing, it is nature’s way of restoring, replenishing and quietly preparing for re-growth. We should take the hint :)

The Yin and the Yang

The Autumn marks the beginning of the Earth’s move into the yin cycle of the year; that which is darkest.  The equinox is the point of union and balance, of dark and light, fire and water, the yin and the yang.  We live in a world that is highly yang driven – all about our outer world, the perceived world, that which is closest to the surface.  So often we disconnect from the yin – those aspects of ourselves (and of nature) which are deep, intuitive, feeling and hidden.  Yang isn’t bad – it’s necessary – but there must be balance.  A seamless flow between strength and softness, inner and outer, surface and depth.  A little bit of softness in the strength; a little bit of light in the darkness.

Balancing poses are a lovely way to take inspiration from the equinox as the earth balances perfectly between light and dark; growth and rest; sun and moon; external achievements and inner reflection. Experiment with incorporating balancing poses to your practice; reflect on balance within…even if the body feels a bit wobbly!  Take your time as you move between and into poses – where can we soften? How can we harness strength? How can we embody a sense of fluidity between the darkness and the light?

Cultivating a Sense of Completion

As we move into this quieter, darker time of year, the seasons are our perfect guide and inspiration.  Autumn is the perfect time to contemplate and take stock.

Make time for reflection – for all that we have achieved throughout the busy growth seasons just past.   So often our lives become an endless to-do list, never allowing ourselves time to recognise completion, but rather we rush headlong on to the next undone thing.  How frequently do we feel like we’ve achieved nothing in a day…usually on the days we’ve been the busiest.  Achievement is not reserved only for grand gestures.  The little things, the things that allow other things to tick along, the small acts of kindnesses and understanding; these are the things that make the world go round.  Could we adjust our way of thinking to cultivate a sense of completion, to recognise our acheivements even with the little things in life?   Might this allow us to focus less on what hasn’t been done and see that we are already whole and complete, just as we are?

Harvest festival

It makes sense that as nature harvests, we should do the same.  A harvest festival of all things – big and small – that we have found!  Realised!  Learned!  Achieved!  Conquered!  It might just be for a few seconds, a few minutes, making time to pause and recognise with gratitute where we have travelled from and to; to recognise the shift in the season; to remember that we are a part of this incredible ever-changing Universe, aiming to live consciously, in rhythm with the natural world we are intrinsically connected to.

Embrace the Autumn and the loveliness of what is happening right now. The natural world shows us that change is part of life, that Summer cannot be without the Winter, light cannot be without the dark. Everything unfolding just as it should. Perfect harmony and balance.

“Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.” 

Albert Camus