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Vinyasa Flow Celebrations

Posted on 11/06/2014 by in cleanse, healing, nutrition, psoas, retreat, spine, sunrise, vinyasa flow, workshop, yoga

I have just finished my second Teacher Training Diploma (200 hour Yoga Alliance), specialising in Vinyasa Flow Yoga. I celebrate and live this beautiful experience everyday, as it truly was transformative, rich and inspiring. Our group of 22 beautiful yogis were guided by Claire Missingham, a wonderful teacher and human being, who instilled passion, knowledge and confidence into each of us. I feel wholly grateful for this enlightening and enlivening experience, which I intend to share with the community yogis around me.

Vinyasa Flow Yoga is a creative, energising, flowing form of yoga, guided and led by the breath. Graceful movement rises with the inhale and falls with the exhale, creating fluid, flowing transitions between classical yoga postures. Read More…

Alignment Enlightenment

Posted on 11/06/2014 by in psoas, spine, vinyasa flow, workshop, yoga

image Anatomical alignment of yoga asana creates a sense precision and presence in the body, ensuring that the sadhaka (yogi) experiences the optimal physical benefits of each pose. When a yoga posture is performed correctly, the skeletal and muscular systems are safely aligned and supported; organs and glands are massaged and stimulated; the body is opened and stretched; the breath is deep and rich, purifying, oxygenating and energising the body. This is annamaya kosha, the physical layer of our being.

The esoteric body, the layer of our being beyond the physical, the spiritual body, is pranamaya kosha. This layer of our being has its own complex esoteric anatomy, consisting of seven major chakras, or energy centres; 72 nadis, or channels which distribute prana throughout the body and chakras; marma points, or smaller energy centres. There are a myriad of other aspects, which create our unique being. Read More…

The Psoas

Posted on 20/05/2014 by in psoas, spine, vinyasa flow, workshop, yoga

imageI was delighted when I first came across Liz Koch’s amazing work because it confirmed much of what I’d been intuiting on my own. I had begun to open and close my yoga practise with hip opening poses with the specific intention of releasing tension in my psoas and hip flexors. I’d breathe and imagine tension flowing out of constricted muscles to be released as energy into the torso.

It worked, I’d feel my body soften yet somehow grow stronger.

Reading Liz Koch I instantly realised what I was doing – by learning to relax my psoas I was literally energising my deepest core by reconnecting with the powerful energy of the earth. According to Koch, the psoas is far more than a core stabilising muscle; it is an organ of perception composed of bio-intelligent tissue and “literally embodies our deepest urge for survival, and more profoundly, our elemental desire to flourish.” Read More…