Tune in with your own body, enjoy a special time with your baby.
Beginners/confirmed practitioners: all welcome!
Group/one to one sessions available on request.
Breathing awareness and techniques can help you during labour and delivery.
Regular practice helps with concentration and relaxation.
Simple stretching exercises relieves backache and make you stronger physically and emotionally.
Please contact Laurence on
01865 407 661 or 075 546 35 112
yogin67@gmail.com.
Come enjoy our friendly sessions.
Tariffs
CLIFTON HAMPDEN Drop in: £9 each session (90 mins) Four classes card: £32 (to be used within five weeks) Four Pregnancy classes: £40
Ten classes card: £80 (to be used within eleven weeks. If used within 10 weeks, eleventh class is FREE)
Group and One to One sessions also available. £25/ one to one. £36 / one to two. Milage not included.
Went to Richard Freeman’s workshop in Oxford last week-end. First time with the “world famous guru”.
Learnt about joining coccyx and the pubic bone via the “pc” (no connection with Bill Gates’ desktop.. ) pubococcygeus – muscle (pelvic floor muscle) (in orange).
Learnt about prana and apana which I still have to explore further.
Learnt about bringing my shoulders further back.
Heard about Astanga being cheaper than Iyengar, because using no props.
Heard about a lot of images helping you into the right posture right (hoodie on your head – feel how to hold your head; kidney wings to open with the breath).
Learnt about preparing for headstand, kneeling first and placing your hands crossed behind you head, extending the elbows towards the ceiling and away from the shoulders, making space between the ears and the shoulders and pushing the wrists up.
Richard Freeman is famous. You can follow his teaching on Youtube. Several times. He looks so “cool”.
He’s been practicing Yoga for the last forty years, studying various philosophy movements. His popularity makes him an all powered man (we were fifty in the hall and Vishnu knows how many on the waiting list?)
Richard Freeman was late. Started late, finished late. But the majority of us didn’t mind. In the meantime, students were giggling at his jokes. They were not all funny, but he tried hard to make us smile. Release the mouth, the jaw, the palate. It works. RF is aware of so many connections in his own body. he sadly hoped we can follow his pace of mind.
I felt slightly battered after two days. It went well but I still think a guru has the right (duty?) to start and finish on time. Respect!
Went to Brian Cooper ’s workshop last Saturday in Oxford. Great time. Brian chatted just the right amount. Spoke about his tongue becoming longer after practicing Khechari mudra (Yoga technique where you turn you tongue into your mouth so as to have its tip against the back of the palate). “Soon I won’t be able to speak anymore…”
We practiced Mulabandha, contraction of the anus and perineum + more if possible. Lift of the pelvic floor, something which you need to experience before being comfortable to talk about.
” How many of you pratice mulabandha in each posture?” Not often, I thought but cowardly didn’t tell. Since, I’ve practiced the dog pose (up and down) with legs tightly pressed against each other. It helps the mulabandha . Once you’ve got that muscular contraction, you can introduce uddiyana bandha, where you also contract the abdomen and try to hold the stomach in at the end of the inbreath. Have been trying every day for a week with raised arms before breakfast. Must be quite hard on a full stomach.
I missed the third bandha(in the throat which was taught on Sunday). I also missed some of the navasana and ardha navasana practice ( the boat posture). Brian says he holds it for 60 breaths. Good for him. I can just hold it for 15. I’ll speak to you in a few weeks , see how I’m getting on.
Back from Oxford. “Happy breathing!” Spent four hours practicing with Richard Adamo. Richard is a British Wheel of Yoga teacher trainer. He introduced his Astanga class by justifying the “speed” test he was going to submit us to. We then did one hour fast practice with Astanga primary series. No relaxation, half an hour pause and back to it.
We focused on Navasana (the boat). With a round back which was a very helpful alternative to bring the legs higher and work on the abdominals. Usually, when you start Yoga you stretch you back and take your chest out to lift yourself up. Here you try to absorb your navel back stretching your arms forward and lifting your legs with the strength of the abdomen.
We practiced balancing forward on the wrists, keeping the legs straight a few cm behind the hands, to prepare to lift the legs into handstand
or to jump back into chaturanga.
Richard also had a chat (slightly too long though very relevant) about the joy we should feel practicing, forgetting about the worries one usually has about not “performing” in one or the other posture.
Once again, Yoga is not a performance, it’s a life experience. It is enjoyable.
I knew Liz Lark from a book. One of my students once brought me Yoga for Kids in Dutch and I later bought it in English to read it. The book describes Yoga postures you can try with children.
It’s well illustrated and I used it a few times with my own children. It never really worked, not because of the book, but because some kids choose a different path from their parents to build their identity.
On Sunday (October 11th), I tried one of Liz Lark’s adult workshops in Oxford. I made the mistake of choosing one morning session on backbends, instead of the two-days workshop. It’s always a bad idea to buy a quarter or half a workshop.
I missed the Yoganidra session in the afternoon, and felt much too energised for the rest of the day.
Laurence qualified in Vinyasa Yoga with Gérard Arnaud, Paris, in 2008 after 12 years of regular practice in the UK, Japan and France. She also qualified in Pregnancy Yoga with the British Wheel of Yoga in 2011. For her own practice, Laurence regularly attends workshops at the Iyengar Institute in London and in Oxford.
Opened to various styles, Laurence has a preference for Vinyasa sequences which involve connecting postures with breath-synchronised movements. As a teacher, Laurence is aware that Vinyasa can be too strong for complete beginners or students with a medical condition. Her close experience with Hatha Yoga and Iyengar "styles" allows her to adapt her practice to mixed abilities. Her classes are up and running in South Oxfordshire, where she lives with her husband and three children. She loves teaching and hopes to share all the benefits she gets from yoga with her students.
First time with the “world famous guru”.
We focused on Navasana (the boat). With a round back which was a very helpful alternative to bring the legs higher and work on the abdominals. Usually, when you start Yoga you stretch you back and take your chest out to lift yourself up. Here you try to absorb your navel back stretching your arms forward and lifting your legs with the strength of the abdomen.
one morning session on backbends, instead of the two-days workshop. It’s always a bad idea to buy a quarter or half a workshop.
the Yoganidra session in the afternoon, and felt much too energised for the rest of the day.