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Lucyogini

Yoga classes, workshops and inspiration for every body

Special Summer Yin Yoga classes

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Hellooooo Summer!

We’ll be taking a little break from regular classes over the summer, but we’ll be back in September with NEW weekly classes and workshops on offer.  Stay tuned – more on that to come!

In the meantime, there are TWO delicious summer YIN YOGA classes in August.  Summer is a great time to practice yin (…although, in my book, any time is a good time to practice yin!) – when it’s warm outside and nature is in full bloom, this calming, cooling practice is the perfect way to add balance to your days, your mind and your body.  Yin yoga is largely floor based, and rather than using lots of muscular effort to hold postures, we just…let go.  Finding a shape and allowing the body to be supported by the floor and by props, which allows deeper tissues of the body to open, to stretch and to be refreshed.  We also stay in poses for longer – up to 4 or 5 minutes – which gives the body time to soften.  And if you’ve ever tried yin before, you’ll know that slow and steady doesn’t necessarily mean easy!  In creating this quiet space for the body to gently open, it is also a deeply meditative practice, a journey within; practicing patience, compassion and understanding.  It’s enlightening for sure!

Summer Yin Yoga classes are on:

  • Saturday 5th August, 9:30-11am @the Good Health Clinic, Selby (£12pp)
  • Saturday 19th August, 9:30-11am @the Good Health Clinic, Selby (£12pp)

Please get in touch to book your place!

Until then, wishing you beautiful summers of love and light xx

Maternity Leave

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I am now on maternity leave!  Thank you so much to everyone who has shared classes with us, read these posts, practiced with us online!  My heart is full of gratitude.

This is not goodbye!  I will be back! Please stay in touch and check back here and on the facebook page for details of when classes will return.

We celebrated Spring and transitioning last Sunday at our last class (just for now!), and spoke about the time of ‘zwischen’ – the German word for ‘in between’ – the space between here and there, between sleep and awake; before we let go of who we are in order to become what we might be.  

This is of course particularly poignant in these final days of pregnancy.  But we all go through these transitions, every time we approach a change, big or small, by choice or circumstance. It is easy to try to rush ahead… culturally we resent waiting!  Much less honour this time to transition, of becoming.  And yet, there is a necessity to waiting and honouring this time of inbetweeness, where we wait to be called upon to become what we might be.  It gives our intuition space to develop and strengthen. And naming this time helps us to listen to this deep intuition and it’s guidance.

And so now, I wait. With open heart, body a little achy, emotions a little raw, into this time of Zwischen, honouring, listening, watching, reminding myself to trust in the flow of all things. 

This is not goodbye, my friends, only au revoir! I will be back – how could I not?!

Until then, wishing you all beautiful shining summers! I hope you will make time to play, to move, to be full of lightness! (…and you can practice with me online, to help stave off those yoga cravings!)

‘Practice and all is coming’
Trust in the divine truth that we already have all the answers we will ever need; trust in this simple practice – no mats, no lycra, no enlightment required: Get your feet on the ground. Live in this breath.

Everything else…comes next.

To the continuing adventure!
With deepest gratitude and fondest 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.

How to take a Yoga Staycation!

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Beachside cabanas…dawn yoga by the infinity pool…mountain top chanting…mmm! There are lots of exotic and tempting yoga holidays and retreats out there.  But if you’re not going away this year don’t get down!  You can make your own yoga staycation just as tropical, enriching – and a LOT cheaper – and you won’t even have to think about what to pack.  With the Summer underway and the sun shining you can create your own little piece of yoga retreat heaven right where you are! Here are some ideas for making and taking your very own tailor made Yoga Staycation!

1. Take your practice outside

There is nothing more affirming, nurturing and grounding that getting outdoors and connecting.  Get your mat outside – or don’t even bother with the mat – get your hands and feet into the grass and dirt and FEEL what your body and mind needs.  Sit and listen – and then move – let nature inspire you.  Rise up and open your hands and heart to the sky; bow down and release into the ground; expand and breathe into the space around you – without the boundaries of walls and ceilings.  Stop, drop and yoga wherever the mood takes you! 

Set a week, or a weekend, or a day to get up early and practice outdoors – listen to the birds, enjoy the morning light.  Or switch things up and get out as the sun is setting and flow as the temperature cools welcoming the easy summer night.

Go to the park or out in your garden, or if space is an issue, just open the windows and let the outside in!   Involve the kids; get away from the kids! Make it an hour or just ten minutes – be a part of the world outside.  Forget the ‘rules’ and let nature move you.

2. Expand your yoga horizons

Studios and teachers often alter their timetables during July and August, so places you wouldn’t normally go might be accessible to you during these months.  Check out different teachers and studios you wouldn’t usually go to and expand your yoga world!  There’s something to learn from everyone.  You might have more time to travel further afield, or in the spirit of a Summer Yoga Staycation, take a couple of classes a week rather than one – or as many as you fancy!  Summer is a time of light, optimism and opportunity – be inspired to expand your yoga horizons.  You never know what (or who!) you might find…

3. Be a localaterian!

Our communities, what we eat and our impact on the environment is just as much a part of living yoga as throwing shapes on the mat.  Find out what your local markets, shops, cafes, and other independants have to offer.  Interact and be a part of where you live. Support your community!

It’s all a way to send love out – and what you send out comes back to you tenfold!

4. Walk!

Walking is so theraputic.  A way to be outside, increase your vitamin D intake, increase circulation, heart rate and seratonin levels.  Walk in the sun; walk in the rain.  Walk around your nearby streets; walk for miles over hills and dales.   Let stress melt out through the soles of your feet with every step and let walking become a meditation.  Enjoy the journey.

5. Digitally Detox

Taking time to consciously unplug from emails, mobile phones and social media is the mark of a proper holiday for me!  Even if you’re not leaving the country this Summer, pretend you’re out of signal range for the duration of your staycation (a pleasing rhyme!), or check in with your messages just once a day if you have to – replying only to anything urgent.  This can be a tough one at first, but letting go of these daily habits can help you to unplug and recharge yourself…

6. Rest

As the weather warms up, my dogs get lazier and lazier, and who can blame them.  Basking themselves in the sun, then digging holes in the garden to lie in and cool down….they are my little Buddhas!  They know what instinct is telling them.  Factor in time to rest; give yourself permission for it; unapologetically sink into it.  Covering yourself in soil under the shrubbery might not be your thing, but whatever it is that allows your mind and soul to unclench and rest easy…get some of that.

Enjoy the Summer, yogis!  Share how you plan to spend your yoga staycation below!