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Lucyogini

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Embracing Stillness and Darkness

December 1, 2017 by Lucy Leave a Comment

Deep breaths everyone – Christmas is here!!!
In the madness of the Christmas season, it can feel harder than ever to catch our breath as we get caught up in the whirlwind of presents! food! parties! shopping! The ‘must-dos’ and ‘should-dos’ before the countdown to Christmas runs out. All of these things are joyful and wonderful of course, but let’s face it, can begin to feel overwhelming too…

(I’ve a little Christmas class coming up to give you a couple of hours’ space to recharge…)

We’ve spoken before about embracing the darkness at this time of year, and I’ve spoken a lot in classes about noticing the moments of stillness…in poses…in the breath… and how we might go on to notice those tiny snippets of quietness in our busy daily lives.

Where can we find the moments of stillness..?
Feet on the ground and this breath.

Sometimes that’s all it takes to reset and reconnect to what’s really important, and what this is really all about:

Love. Being together. Gratitude. 
The little things.

What else is there? When you feel in the spin of it all, take a breath and remember the truth (in the frenzy of Christmas and beyond):

You already have all that you need; you are enough. 


 

Our last class of 2017 will be Monday 18th December.  We’ll restart on Saturday 6th January.

Thank you all so much for (re-)joining me this year to practice and continue to grow our yoga community!  Lucyogini 2.0!

Here’s to the continuing journey and evolution!

In the meantime, I wish you all very happy, safe, warm and peaceful Christmases, and a most abundant new year to come.

Hope to see lots of you in classes before then! 
With truest love and the jingliest of bells,
Lucy x

Filed Under: General Yoga Tagged With: breath, busy, christmas, darkness, focus, gratitude, little things, love, recharge, reconnect, stillness, truth, yoga

Dedication to Darkness

December 22, 2015 by Lucy 2 Comments

Thank you so much for all your kind well wishes over the past week – I am honoured to be part of the kula we’re building.  I’m really sorry to have missed our final classes of the year last week, but I’m on the mend now!

I am blessed to say that I have not had to deal with serious injury or illness too often in my life.  Some of this I am thankful to the teachings of yoga for; some luck also thrown into the mix I’m sure!  A week off my feet has been an eye opener.  A reminder of the fragility of this body, and the preciousness.

I’ve become so used to being able and self-reliant.  I’ve become so reliant on being able!  In my head is my own voice as I tell you – focus on the breath – this is enough – and yet, tears, frustrations, anger – I don’t want this!  I teach yoga – I can’t (shouldn’t!) be incapacitated!

And yet, things happen. We are human.

The Universe has a funny way of reminding us of the lessons we need to learn; times of darkness are often our greatest teachers.

And here we are at the Zenith of darkness: The Winter Solstice.

We tend often to only celebrate the light.

The other, darker stuff gets hidden away.

But what of this Darkness?  What of that which is hidden?

It is the darkness that makes us human.  Our flaws, our hidden fears, our deepest desires.

Darkness provides us the opportunity for growth and for strength which emerges from fathomless depths.  Only in darkness do we discover these potential truths. Only in darkness do we realise that we must strip away the built-up clutter we collected along the way (emotional…physical…spiritual…mental…); in darkness we get back to basics. 

We cannot be, can never be, full LIGHTNESS.

The Darkness makes us whole.  The Darkness offers us the chance to shine.

As a wise friend reminded me this week: Mine the gold!

And so back to basics I have been, trying the best I can to meet myself in darkness and mine the gold!  Nothing fancy; remembering the joy and relief of small, simple movement. Renewed compassion. Remembering to be thankful. Remembering to be gentle. Remembering that this too will pass.

This Winter Solstice and Christmas time I wish for you a time to rest and reflect.  What from this year are you ready to leave behind?  What are you inviting in for 2016?  There is no rush. No New Year deadline. Wait for the lighter days and months for action…for now, rest, nurture new ideas and nourish.  There is nothing more to be done.

Wishing you very happy, peaceful and restful Christmas times, my friends.

May we be happy,
May we be healthy,
May we be peaceful and free. 

Saluting the Moon

Filed Under: General Yoga, Mindfulness & Meditation Tagged With: christmas, darkness, gratitude, illness, injury, lessons, light, lightness, metta, metta bhavana, new year, nourish, winter solstice, yoga

FREE Yoga Celebration!

November 26, 2015 by Lucy Leave a Comment

Christmas and the Winter Solstice are approaching! On Sunday 13th December, I’ll be holding our annual Candlelit Free Yoga Celebration to celebrate the year gone by and welcome the returning light!

There’ll be Yoga by Candlelight! Meditating! Chanting!

We’ll rejoice in the darkness which reveals our true light!

Mince pies and chocolates! …All completely yogic, of course 🙂

Places are completely FREE!  Donations to The Salvation Army gratefully accepted.  Places are limited so please do let me know if you’d like to attend – and feel free to invite loved ones to join in too – no previous yoga experience necessary 🙂

Yoga by Candlelight: A Celebration for Christmas & the Winter Solstice!
Sunday, 13th December
5-6:30pm
Brayton Scout & Guide HQ

For more details, head over to our Workshops page!

Filed Under: General Yoga, Mindfulness & Meditation, Yoga for... Tagged With: candlelight, celebration, chanting, christmas, community, free class, free workshop, meditation, winter solstice, yoga

Throw Away Your Picture

December 18, 2014 by Lucy Leave a Comment

It’s Christmastime, all is sparkling and glistening and bright. From the moment Michael Buble’s honeyed tones start (somewhere around October) we’re already imagining the candlelight, the chunky knits, the hearts and eyes full of love.

And that’s a beautiful thing.

These picture postcards of Christmases past, or maybe of Christmases that never really happened are so powerful. They fuel our mad dashes round the shops; the intense menu planning; the hope – dream – wish that everything will be just perfect. That we can buy and shop and plan our way to that soft-focussed happiness. Every year I am caught up in the whirl.

At Christmas particularly I am reminded of some of the best advice I was ever given: Throw away your picture. We all create expectations of how we’d like things to be, especially once decisions have been made, plans have been set. These pictures can be valuable in helping to bring plans together, but once you’ve done all you can (realistically!), let the picture go. You can’t control the future, much less everyone else’s actions and reactions, and that picture postcard version of events you’re clinging on to can create unhappiness if it is not fulfilled. And disappointment can lead you to miss the silver lining of every situation you may find yourself in.

In truth, this is not always easy. Letting go of pictures we’d dreamed of becoming realities can be painful. Arguing in the middle of the John Lewis Christmas Shop isn’t quite the festive dream I had in mind. But releasing the perfect picture makes it, ultimately, easier to move on.

When we focus on the way things are supposed to be, we run the risk of missing the opportunities of enjoying things the way they are – or to have things surprise us for being wonderful in completely different ways from how we imagined.

‘We are not living in eternity. We have only this moment, sparkling like a star in our hand — and melting like a snowflake’ – Marie Beyon Ray

This is not detachment. Detachment is hard on us; a front for the fear of not getting what we hoped for. Detaching ourselves, making out that we don’t care what happens, is a defence against disappointment, and it can leave us cold and tight.

Non-attachment however, is our full, active engagement with what is happening right now, without being attached to an outcome – a perfect picture. It is open enough to hold longing and desire and it is the belief that anything is possible; that you have done all you can and whatever happens – you’ll handle it! Non-attachment is acting from a place connected to your heart’s desires, it’s going full-out, whole-heartedly; it is open and spacious enough to let creativity and fulfilment pour in.

‘…The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked, it has no choice, it will roll in ecstasy at your feet’ – Franz Kafka

Wishing you very happy and peaceful festive season, my friends. Soften to the possibility of right now; trust that things are unfolding just as they should.

 

‘Throw away the picture’ – a concept by the great Susan Jeffers, whose work started me on a path which changed my life. With thanks and gratitude.

Filed Under: Mindfulness & Meditation, Well being Tagged With: being present, christmas, creating happiness, disappointment, dreams, happiness, letting go, presence, silver lining, trust

Meditation for Stress Release

December 8, 2014 by Lucy Leave a Comment

Christmas is here!! Are you ready?! Are you?!

It’s a beautiful time of year, but there’s no denying that it’s also the time of year when stress levels – for countless reasons – can rise. It’s the end of the year and let’s face it, it’s just time for a rest.  The mad dash to the Christmas finish line can feel, well, like the last thing you want to be doing.

So here’s my first installment of my guides to getting our inner-selves ready for Christmas and the end of the year.   Over the next few weeks, I’m going to give you different ways to soften and release.  Ways to help get out of our busy, thinking minds and into our feeling selves; a little bit of quiet and intention-setting amid the bright buzz of festive preparation.

This is a guided meditation for stress release, to bring healing to deep parts of the body and help ease you into a place of more centred calm. It takes just 15 minutes and hopefully will leave you feeling a little lighter and a little more connected on the inside – so your light can shine on the outside too 🙂

http://lucyogini.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Stress-release-relaxation-meditation.mp3

(Tip: This practice is great all year round, not just for Christmas!)

Enjoy, my friends, and let me know how you get on!

Stay tuned – I’ve got more festive practices coming up!!

With love, and jingle bells x

 

(point-to-point meditation based on a practice by Shari Friedrichsen of Yoga International)

Filed Under: Mindfulness & Meditation, Well being Tagged With: anxiety, breath, christmas, festive, guided meditation, heal with the breath, holidays, meditation, meditation for stress, mindfulness, stress release, stress relief

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