Letting ourselves be happy is at once the simplest thing in the world but it can also be a challenge. At this time of year, the season itself calls us to be joyful and so we may meet this juncture within ourselves.
There are two doors before us: one is surrender and one resistance, one is […]
This class has been especially devised to open the heart. Focus on surrender throughout, holding the mind in the moment, in stillness.
Trikonasana: a lovely spring heart opener.
Parsvakonasana: continuing the theme from Trikonasana.
Prasarita Padottanasana: focus on calm and surrender through the breath.
Adho Mukha Svanasana: use a yoga brick or block to support your head.
Balasana: Quiet surrender.
Purvottansana: […]
(‘that which goes before you’/front body or eastern body/intense stretch)
This pose strengthens the core body and opens the chest.
Have your legs extended out in front of you with your heels an inch or two away from a yoga brick.
Place your hands six to eight inches back from your buttocks with your fingers pointing towards you […]
Extended side angle pose
(parsh-vah-cone-AHS-anna)
parsva = side, flank; kona = angle
This pose increases stamina, stimulates the abdominal organs and stretches the legs, groins, spine, waist, chest and shoulders.
Step your feet into a wide stride – about four to four and a half foot (depending on height).
Turn your left toes in and your right foot and leg […]
(trik-cone-AHS-anna)
trikona = three angle or triangle
This asana strengthens the body, opens the hips, shoulders and chest, and stretches the legs.
Step your feet into a wide stride, about four to four and a half foot (depending on height).
Turn your left toes in and your right foot and leg out.
Ensure your right heel lines up with your […]
Wide-legged forward bend
(pra-sa-REE-tah pah-doh-tahn-AHS-anna)
prasarita = stretched out, spread, with outstretched limbs; pada = foot; ut = intense; tan = to stretch or extend
This pose eases mild back tension as well as strengthening the inner legs and spine, and calming the mind.
Step your feet into a wide stride (around five foot depending on height).
Make sure your […]
(oosh-TRAHS-anna)
ustra = camel
This challenging asana stretches the front of the body: the ankles, thighs and groins, abdomen, chest, and throat. It also strengthens the back, improves posture and stimulates the abdomen.
Bring yourself onto your knees ‘standing’, with the knees shins and feet on the floor, with your knees no wider apart than the width of […]
by La-tzu
There is something formless yet complete
That existed before Heaven and Earth.
How still how empty!
Dependent on nothing unchanging,
All pervading, unfailing.
One may think of it as the Mother of all things under heaven.
I do not know it’s name but I call it “meaning.”
If I had to give it a name I should call it “The Great.”
Join Steve Willis in engaging in simple yoga practice; moving in, stretching and letting go.
Wednesdays, 10.45am to 12 noon at the Alexandra Dance Academy, 11 Howard Road, Brighton.
Cost: £5 (£4 concs, NHS and social care staff)
A spontaneous Vajra song
by the Venerable Lama Gandun Rinpoche
Wanting to grasp the ungraspable,
You exhaust yourself in vain.
As soon as you open and relax this tight fist of grasping,
Infinite space is there-open, inviting and comfortable.
Translation by Sir Edwin Arnold
By passion for the “pairs of opposites,”
By those twain snares of like and dislike , Prince!
All creatures live bewildered, save some few.
Buy the Bhagavad-Gita (Thrift Editions)
Both practice and non reaction are required to still the patterning of consciousness. Then pure awareness can abide in its very nature. Otherwise, awareness takes itself to be the patterning of consciousness.
Buy The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali
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