An Introduction To Chair Yoga
A one hour session for students to try out Chair Yoga and experience the benefits first-hand. If you have ever wondered about Chair Yoga, now is your opportunity to come along and find out all about it!
At Crowland Community Hall, Crowland on Tuesday, 9th January from 4:45pm-5:45pm. Numbers will be limited, £8:00 per person. For more information: Contact Sarah, or Telephone/Text/WhatsApp: 07817623330. Email: [email protected]. Facebook: Free To Think.
Classes cost £8:00 per session and run from 1:30-2:45pm every Thursday. Each class includes yoga postures, breathing, relaxation and mindfulness/meditation.
We are a very friendly group, of mixed ability, so it doesn’t matter whether you have a dodgy knee, a dickie back or have simply never got around to practising yoga before. If you fancy giving yourself a break from the everyday hustle and bustle, why not come along and join us.
For more information please contact Sarah – Telephone, text, WhatsApp: 07817623330. Email: freetothink.co.uk. Facebook: Free To Think.
Some Interesting Facts About Chair Yoga
If you have ever wondered what chair yoga actually is …
It is a form of yoga aimed towards the less able.
It is traditional yoga, with the aid of a chair.
You do not have to get up from your chair at all throughout the session.
It can be gentle, or not so gentle, and is easily adapted according to ability.
It is suitable for any age or ability.
It is practiced in welcoming and non-judgemental environment.
The aim of yoga is to allow things to happen in their own time, without force, self-criticism or judgement.
It can be silent or loud.
It is an opportunity to practice with others of similar ability.
Many yoga practices do not have to be changed, as they are naturally carried out in stillness some of these practices are: Pranayama (breathing); Mindfulness; Meditation; Relaxation; Visualisation; Yoga Nidra (yogic sleep); Mantra (vocal or silent repetition of one or more words); Mudra (hand and body gestures); bandha (locks or seals); philosophy.
It can be a lot of fun!
If you are curious and would like to give it a try, I am holding an Introduction to Chair Yoga session at Wake House in Bourne on Thursday, 24th August. The session will take place in the Baxter Room (so no stairs to navigate). No need to bring anything with you, just wear loose clothing.
Space will be limited, so please let Sarah know if you are planning on attending: Telephone/Text/Whatsapp: 07817623330, email: [email protected], or facebook: Free To Think
Because so many of you have asked me about when to bring bolsters and other yoga props to class, I thought I would simplify matters and recap on here, so dig out your yoga bag and get packing!
Most weeks we practice hatha yoga with a yang asana (posture) practice. For those classes you will need:
Your mat!
Ideally, you will also have:
2 x “brick” type blocks.
1 x a yoga belt.
1 x non-fluffy blanket.
Yin classes are held in the last week of the first month of each yoga term (so normally week four, sometimes week five). The primary focus for a yin asana practices is to work on the fascia in the body (including tendons and ligaments). The pace of the class is slower, allowing time for the fascia within the body to open and stretch. This often allows us to release stuck energy more fully. The intention of a yin practice is to “be” rather than ”do”.
For yin classes you will want to bring everything you would normally bring to a yang class. You will need blocks and a strap, so if you have neither, then please bring:
2 x small, firm cushions.
1 x dressing gown cord or similar.
Ideally also bring:
1 x yoga bolster, or 2 firm pillows.
Restorative classes are held on the last class of each term (last week of the second month – usually week eight or nine). A restorative class gives the mind and body the opportunity to relax completely. Postures are not held at all, as a range of props are used to fully support the body in the pose. The intention of a restorative class is to completely let go, rest, restore and drift off …
To be able to fully support your body in a restorative class, you will need to bring all that you would bring to a yin class, and also:
1-2 x extra blankets.
1 x thin hand towel.
1 x eyebag (optional).
Fluffy socks (optional)
Cotton or non-woolly scarf (optional)
So there you have it. Everything you need to know about props and when to use them!
Tonight, and Thursday morning, sees our usual end of term Restorative Yoga practice. As with the usual Hatha and Yin classes, each Restorative session varies. Having said that, every Restorative class is an opportunity to be completely held and supported physically, mentally and emotionally. Together we shall sink down into a place of peacefulness and deep rest.
Bring blankets and bolsters or firm cushions/pillows, eye-bags and head-scarves and prepare to simply be! 
Huge excitement for me today as my first Insight Timer meditation has just been published. It’s called A Meditation to Increase Gratitude and here is the link:
https://insighttimer.com/…/a-meditation-practice-to…
It is completely free to listen to, and if you would like to support me in my work, do please rate me afterwards as all ratings and comments will enable me to improve what I am doing. If you follow me, you will be notified each time I add a new practice, and I plan to offer a wide variety of yoga practices.
And if you don’t already use Insight Timer, why not? It is an amazing resource offering thousands of meditations, relaxations, yoga nidras, talks, etc. And best of all, they are all free!
Hi Yoga Friends.
For many of us, this has been an opportunity to become familiar with a home practice. Practicing alone, at home gives you the chance to move more deeply into your Self, as you explore your responses to the practice without the distraction of others. By creating your own space, you find yourself in your own energetic bubble and this allows you to drop more fully into the experience of your practice.
Practicing alone is a natural progression in yoga as you find yourself increasingly focusing inwards. Your inner world becomes fascinating and ever changing, and there is no longer the need for company in this exploration. Developing your home practice teaches you to become responsible for your practice – more disciplined in taking to your mat – as you are now accountable to yourself, instead of your teacher. In doing so, you deepen the connection to your Self.
This is my longstanding experience of practicing at home. I would love to hear yours, so do please click here: https://freetothink.co.uk/contact/ and share your experience!
Hello Yoga Friends. Here is the latest update from the British Wheel of Yoga regarding current yoga teaching rules and regulations:
https://www.bwy.org.uk/covid-19/
In his book Guided Meditations, Explorations and Healings, Stephen Levine talks of having a soft belly in order to feel from the heart:
“We are conditioned to suffer. The society of the hard-bellied and deeply pained conforms to this lowest denominator. We wander hard and lost through our lives until we awaken with a deep sigh of letting go and soften to the path of mercy.
“When growth has become the priority, soft belly becomes the context for our letting go. Observing the relative openness or closedness of the belly gives insight into when and how we are holding to our pain. When the belly is hard there is holding. Some degree of fighting or posturing is resisting and hardening to the moment, attempting to control. You may have to come back to soft belly dozens of times an hour.
The belly is an extraordinary diagnostic instrument. It displays the amoring of the heart as a tension in the belly. The deeper our relationship to the belly, the sooner we discover if we are holding in the mind or opening into the heart. Trying tightens the belly. Trying stimulates judgement. hard belly is often judging belly. Even trying to understand what is being said now, the belly may tighten.
“Don’t try to understand. Enter the process. In soft belly simply allow understanding to arise, all by itself, from your true nature.
“Beyond the mind is everything you long, in the mind, to know. But the great irony of the spiritual search is that what we are looking for is what is looking.
“It is difficult to see that which sees, but not impossible. It takes some work to let go of old ways of seeing. Softening the belly is a beginning.
“Indeed we are programmed to hold to our pain, to turn it to suffering. We are taught to harden the belly, to hide its fullness, its roundness, its spaciousness. Women in particular are programmed to be “attractive”. Encouraged to wear undergarments that compress the belly and decrease the sense of spaciousness. Men, too, can often be noticed “holding in the belly” to be acceptable. Implored to be hard-bellied by a culture which confuses hardness with beauty. It is a dangerous way to live if one wishes to be fully alive.
“The more ones thinks that he or she is the body, the tighter the belly will be at times. There are so many levels of letting go into the enormity of being, but when there is a holding in of the belly the heart is not so available.
“Ondrea and I have been doing this practice for years. And still we notice again and again that the belly needs to be reminded that it has unconsciously tightened to that which we wish to remain unconscious of. So you inhale down into the belly, And you exhale out past the heart. And the belly softens and you find room in your body for healing, for being, for liberation. The softer the belly, the greater the capacity to stay present and awake during the dense dream of heavy mental states. Soft belly encourages investigation of the body-patterning that accompanies such states. It allow exploration without getting drawn into their familiar, seductive thought-patterns. We cannot over-estimate the importance of softening …
“… Now, deepen soft belly to make room in your life for you life.”
