It’s been a really tough couple of years on so many fronts, hasn’t it? My mat has always helped me ebb and flow with the good and more challenging times in life, but this year I’ve needed it more than ever to live well and stay positive. During this time I’ve been particularly drawn to a combination of Yin Yoga and gentle somatic stretches. It is these self-compassionate embodied practices that I’ll be sharing with you in this blog and inviting you to enjoy with me this summer.
Yin Yoga to balance body and mind
Yin Yoga is a wonderful restorative and balancing tonic for body and mind, reducing stress and anxiety. It works on the deep connective tissues and joints within our bodies using longer-held passive stretches and poses.
Yin Yoga promotes a meditative-like space to turn inwards: to tune into the all-important relationship between brain, body and mind.
Tension within the body is released; flexibility and joint mobility improve through fascia release. The slower pace of Yin Yoga promotes a meditative-like space to turn inwards: to tune into the physical sensations of your body and the all-important relationship between brain, body and mind.
Introducing the beauty of Somatic stretches
Soma in Greek refers to ‘the living body’; and somatic means ‘embodied’ or ‘of the body’. Somatics is a therapeutic movement practice, which helps re-educate the way our brains sense and move muscles. Over time, these can become tight or restricted through habitual use, injuries and emotional tension, for example, in response to trauma.
Soma in Greek refers to ‘the living body’; and somatic means ‘embodied’ or ‘of the body’.
I am now able to include some gentle yoga somatic stretches to re-educate your brain to relax; this in turn helps those restricted muscles regain their functionality and a fuller range of movement. You will start to notice what you’re sensing in your body as you stretch as gently and compassionately as possible.
Somatics is a therapeutic movement practice, which helps re-educate the way our brains sense and move muscles.
After a few classes, you will appreciate the way your body is moving with more ease. I love to use the word ‘delicious’ to describe the sheer joy I and others have experienced from this freedom of movement!
Inviting the healing power of nature to flow within
I’m bringing all of this to the great outdoors on St Giles Hill in Winchester this summer.
You will flow with ease through a series of accessible Yin Yoga and Somatic stretches, drawing on the gifts of nature to nourish, restore, ground and re-energise.
We’ll be absorbing nature’s energising gifts: sunlight warming your body, the breeze caressing your cheeks, and that magical dense canopy of green as you gaze upwards from your mat towards a clear, azure blue sky. We’ll draw this energy or Prana, as it known in yoga, from nature inwards to nourish and restore. You will flow with ease through a series of accessible Yin Yoga and Somatic stretches. Finally we’ll be using our connection to the earth, to ground and re-energise.
NurtureYou’s Small Group Outdoor Yoga classes return this summer to St Giles Hill, Winchester, Mondays 18:15 to 19:15. To book your place, please visit the Classes page. Private outdoor classes are also available to book in your garden and for guests at local glamping sites in Hampshire to book directly with me. Please get in touch.