Workshops for Spring 2010

If you would like to book on to a Yoga Place workshop, you can do so by contacting reception on info@yogaplace.co.uk to request a booking form or calling 020 7739 5195 to pay by credit card.

All workshops must be booked and paid for in advance at Yoga Place reception to reserve your place.

In date order

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Yoga & Meditation

With Angelika

Saturdays 4th September / 2nd October / 6th November / 4th December 2010 / 3pm to 5pm / £20 for your first session, by donation for all subsequent sessions.

Experience: Open to all, no previous experience necessary.

How can I slow down? How can I bring more stability into my life? How can I be less affected by life's constant demands? How can I simply enjoy the lightness of being?

Workshop This day will include some simple practical Hatha Yoga to open the body and prepare it for sitting, followed by simple Pranayama (breathing techniques) to prepare the mind for sitting and stillness, concluding with an introduction to simple Meditation techniques. This is an introduction to the very practical and effective method of meditation in the style of the Himalayan tradition. This tradition employs relaxation, focus on the breath and very simple universal mantra techniques to lead the student towards a still, clear and relaxed mind

Booking: As payment for this workshop is by donation once you have been before, we ask you to come and pay on the day!

Vinyasa Workshop

Join a longer than usual vinyasa class with Olof

Sunday 5th September / 11am - 2pm / £35 / £30 concessions (£60 when booking both workshops on the same day with Olof)

Like many who live Yoga, Olof has an individual teaching style as he practices and teaches from the heart. Not many are like him, so if you’ve never experienced teaching that encompasses precision with lightness, exhaustion with humor, skill with self-effacement, have a go. You are guaranteed to learn something.

This Vinyasa workshop will take you deep, once warmed up with Surya Namaskar variations, you’ll go through standing postures, sitting postures, arm-balances and inversions. These classes are for all those who miss Olof’s weekly classes and those who want to try an alternative but nevertheless challenging practice. This practice ticks most boxes, physically challenging, technically precise, creative sequencing, without dogma the class brings you in the Here and Now. The class ends with deep relaxation and a moment of contemplation.

Olof’s sequencing is creative and usually challenging and provides a framework within which the practitioner can allow him/herself to let go of the mind by becoming at one with what they are doing. (Rupa-Anugamat).

RUPA-ANUGAMAT integrity in asana practice

With Olof

Sunday 5th September / 2.30pm - 5.30pm / £35 /£30 concessions (£60 when booking both workshops with Olof on the same day.

As yoga develops in the West more and more people are ready to take their practice further on a quantitative level, despite various opinions, this is not a bad thing. It’s just natural progression and as such a manifestation of reality. Even if it was considered bad, to resist it would be to resist reality, which is the antithesis of Yoga. This workshop will deal with how simple Yoga really is, how it is nothing to do with how advanced or not advanced your practice is. Whether you are aiming for the stars with your practice or are happy to touch your toes, both are equally worthy. The difference between moving your body and making it into a spiritual practice is minute and essential. It has nothing to do with burning incense, your dietary habits, listening to Indian music or learning to deal with old emotional scar tissue. The spiritual dimension of your practice has nothing to do with esotericism or guesswork; it is pragmatic and accessible to anyone who really wants it.

Olof holds a B.D.E (Bachelor in Dance Education) and was trained by Godfrey Devereux. His enthusiasm for Asana and Yoga is infectious and has helped many to deepen their practice while enjoying it more. His practice was praised as exceptional by Ana Forrest. Olof’s inspiration comes from the unlimited potential of the body as manifested all around us.

The Secrets of Lotus Hips

with Kate Hewett

Sunday 12th September / 10.30am to 1.30pm / £30 (concessions £25) or £50 when booking with Strong Core on the same day.

Workshop: Free your hips and liberate your lower back! Learn how Anusara's Universal Principles of Alignment can help you safely open up your hips to relieve everyday lower back tension & pain, take unnecessary stress off your knees and ankles, and release trapped creative and emotional energy. We’ll be exploring some anatomy as well as putting the principles into action in a deep hip-opening practice.

Experience: Suitable for anyone who feels their hips, lower back or knees hold them back.

Booking: To be booked and paid for in advance to guarantee your place.

The Secrets of Bending Backwards

with Kate Hewett

Sunday 12th September / 2.30pm - 5.30pm / £30 (£25 concessions) £50 when booking both workshops on the same day.

Bend back behind you with confidence and ease! Many of us find backbends physically or emotionally challenging, but by learning to apply the Anusara Universal Principles of Alignment you’ll learn how to safely open the front body, align the shoulders and hips, take the strain off your lower back and build the courage to go deeper. Moving from baby backbends towards more challenging poses such as kapotasana (pigeon) and backdrops, this workshop is suitable for anyone with 6 months+ experience in yoga who feels they could dive deeper in their backbending.

Introduction to Mysore Style Ashtanga Vinyasa / Self Practice

With Cary Perkins

Dates: Sundays 19th September/ 24th October / 28th November / Time: 11am to 1pm / Cost: £30 £25 concessions

Get in tune with the season and yourself and start your pre-work morning Mysore practice. Spring is the time to shed the winter layers and clean out the accumulated junk.  When practiced correctly, Ashtanga yoga ignites the fire within to shift the mind and body into a lighter state of being.

During Mysore style practice, you learn the Ashtanga sequence bit by bit and then practice it at your own pace. You have a qualified teacher there to guide you, and a group of other dedicated students in the room each doing their own Ashtanga self practice.

This workshop will give you a solid foundation in the Ashtanga sequence and allow you the chance to come practice for just ONE WEEK (normally a ONE MONTH commitment is standard for beginners).  This will give you the opportunity to see how a morning practice could possibly fit into your schedule and lifestyle in a less demanding way.

All levels are welcome! Please book through reception to reserve your place!

Birth Preparation for Couples

With Lisa Morris White

Saturday October 23rd / 5th December / 2.30pm to 5pm (but may be later!) / £70 per couple/£40 per person (cons £50 per couple/£30 per person)

This is a one off workshop for couples where the Yoga taught in class is put into a ‘Birth Story’ context. You will be guided as an individual and as a couple through each stage of labour, using the most suitable breath, movement and postures. Simple pain relief and massage techniques will be taught as well as a breath for second stage and birthing positions to allow for a more comfortable labour.

Cake and tea will be served after the session for questions and answers.

This is a fun workshop where a role is created for the birthing partner, so please come comfortably dressed and be prepared to get on the floor and join in with the funny walks!!!

Experience: It is beneficial if the pregnant student has had some pregnancy yoga experience, but not essential. Ideal for couples but students coming on their own are more than welcome.

Suitable from 32 weeks.

Booking: Please book and pay at reception to reserve your place. Full refund if baby arrives ahead of schedule!!!

HIPS for HALLOWEEN

With Amanda & Paul

YIN AND YANG YOGA: THE ULTIMATE PRACTICE THAT FREES YOUR BODY

Sunday 31st October / 2pm - 5pm / £30 (£25 concessions)

This 3 hour workshop will explore the idea of a total practice, that balances a 1.5 hour nurturing and yin (feminine) practice with a 1.5 hour active and yang (masculine) practice.

The workshop focuses on hip opening, and the many varied ways of getting into an area that is commonly referred to as the physical, energetic and spiritual seat of ones power. The hips are often the storehouse of ones cumulative life experience, so that by acknowledging where you are through asana (the yoga poses) and accepting that there are no negative or positive emotions, just e-motions, you will be better enabled to embrace life as it is happening right now.

To draw upon the ideas of balance and union with oneself and the world, the workhop will draw on similar postures. This will enable the practitioner to see what opening has occurred physically, which may be used as a pathway to the deeper layers of the body, energetically and spiritually.

Yin yoga gives you time to work towards being with all sensations and emotions non-judgmentally. It enables you to practice self-realisation, through acceptance, by letting go and just being with what is happening in the present moment. The yin practice will focus on the liver and gall bladder meridians, which are connected to emotions of compassion and anger. Yin yoga complements Dynamic yoga by increasing the pliancy and mobility of joints within their natural range of motion.

The Dynamic aspect will draw on hip openers and strength and flexibility conditioning in a more active and engaging way. Expect a hip opening arm balance to be thrown in, as well as creative ways of getting into all aspects of the hips.

Both Amanda and Paul are dynamic yoga teachers at Yoga Place. With the combination of two teachers in this workshop participants will be thoroughly catered for with adjustments and advice in both the yin and yang parts of the workshop. Amanda teaches Dynamic yoga on Mondays and Yin and Meditation on Saturdays, she is an enthusiastic and devoted yoga practitioner and an experienced and qualified teacher. She loves to teach bringing lightness to her classes, making them an enjoyable but learned experience. Paul teaches Dynamic Yoga on Tuesdays and Thursdays. His Dynamic classes are challenging vinyasa classes that draw on elements of balance, strength, equilibrium and flexibility in balanced and equal measures. Classes are always creative, challenging and based on the understanding that the practitioner must address areas in their practice that are challenging, rather than to sit within the bounds of what is already possible. In so doing, the many varied and beautiful aspects of yoga, beyond the physical start to open up to the individual.