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.
When I practice Iyenga Yoga, I spend time in the postures and continuously make the adjustments that Laurence suggests are right for my body. At the end of the classI feel relaxed, knowing that I have worked hard. When I then take the Vinyasa Yoga class, I am able to put into practice the learned adjustments from the Iyenga Yoga class, whilst flowing through the postures. I love the energy I get from Vinyasa Yoga.
I practiced the “no blinking” exercise with two students the other night. The idea is to fix you attention on a small object or here on the top of a candle flame and try not to blink for a few breaths, getting the mind completely involved in the small flame. When you are about to blink again, close your eyes and watch for the light to reappear in the dark
Process
Sit down and place a lighted candle about two feet in front of you with the flame at eye level. Gaze at the middle of the flame until your eyes water, internal Trataka can then be performed, by closing the eyes and allowing the image of the flame to appear. Try to keep the image clear and unwavering. Repeat the process until you can hold the image externally without blinking as well as internally, without wavering.
Possible benefits
Physiologically, Trataka “cures” diseases of the eye such as eyestrain, headache, astigmatism, and myopia. The eyes become clear and bright and able to see the reality beyond external appearances.
Psychologically, Trataka develops clairvoyance, telepathy, and telekinesis as well as strong will power and ekagrata, meaning single pointedness, without which concentration and meditation are not possible.
The Hatha Yoga practitioner uses the purified and tuned instrument of the body in order to gain true perception of reality. Swami Muktibodhananda writes in the Bihar School commentary on the Hatha Yoga Pradipika* that vision depends not only on the organs of the eyes, which are lenses or mediums for external perception but on the entire optic tracks. When you look at something, an image is projected onto the retina via the eyes, which stimulates the retina to fire impulses back to the visual cortex of the brain where an inner image is mapped out. When the image of the external object is stabilized on the retina, and held there for some time, without wavering, then the image will completely disappear and along with it a suspension of normal mental processes; in other words the mind will be turned off. More info here
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!
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.
Finding one’s energy
When I practice Iyenga Yoga, I spend time in the postures and continuously make the adjustments that Laurence suggests are right for my body. At the end of the class I feel relaxed, knowing that I have worked hard. When I then take the Vinyasa Yoga class, I am able to put into practice the learned adjustments from the Iyenga Yoga class, whilst flowing through the postures. I love the energy I get from Vinyasa Yoga.
Anne K., Abingdon, 2011