Yoga

I learned Yoga using the Scaravelli approach of being in a state of curiosity and allowing the body to unfold through mindful exploration.

The Scaravelli approach cares less about how poses look and more about how we feel during them. It's an authentic way to practice, to honour the body. Learn to listen to your body and work with it. Move mindfully and remain present through awareness of gravity and the breath. Gravity is our anchor to the earth and the breath our anchor to the moment. We are at our very best when appreciating the moment.

Yoga postures or asanas are frameworks to find connections within the body.

We don't stretch when in asanas - the muscle lengthens from the middle and outwards. We need to have patience and investigate what's going on deeper in the body underneath larger surface muscles. This approach is transformative. You are encouraged to make friends with your body, feeling it opening, strengthening, flourishing.

We explore the body and the mind-body-breath connection through asanas, pranayama (breathing techniques) and meditation. Sometimes we focus on hip-opening, sometimes balancing, sometimes glorious back bending as the spine extends in an arc. We always create a strong foundation and confidence in our practice by connecting to the earth and feeling the rebound effect of the earth's energy. Then the body can safely blossom into its true state of being.

I want people taught by me to be able to go to any other Yoga class and find it familiar and I want them to be confident in their own practice.

I teach asanas thoroughly, breaking the elements down, and either in a slow flow or stopping briefly between asanas. So many of my students told me they had been to other classes and not been able to keep up, which discouraged them.

Through our Yoga practice we develop an intimate knowledge of ourselves. We are taught to compare ourselves to others from a very early age, mainly in a self-judgmental way. Yoga shows us how to be self-aware in a loving, compassionate way, and that comparing ourselves to others is missing the point of Yoga, which is to be with ourselves in the best way we can.

Yoga takes us on a journey and transforms us.