Iyengar Yoga With Rachel Lovegrove

Join Rachel in March for two workshops – one in Northampton and the other in Winchester.

Saturday 6th & Sunday 7th MARCH 2010 – BALANCE Studio, NORTHAMPTON

11am to 1.30pm & 2pm to 4pm Saturday
1pm to 3pm Sunday

How to sequence yoga postures to calm the mind & help alleviate depression

The Saturday morning session is now fully booked so clients are invited to attend the afternoon session (only for students who practice inversions such as headstand and shoulderstand) or the extra all-levels session on Sunday 7th March from 1pm to 3pm.

Prices £18 for each session (suitable for all levels) or £35 for whole day on Saturday.  To book, contact Rachel at rachel@orangetreeyoga.com or call 0207 5588658.

13th MARCH 2010 – WINCHESTER, HAMPSHIRE

10am to 12.30pm, Church Rooms, St Mary’s Church, London Road, Kingsworthy

Yoga Morning for All Levels including Beginners.

£18 or £15 for unwaged – Please bring yoga equipment if you have it or contact Rachel to borrow kit.

Location details to be confirmed. Please contact Rachel to enquire.

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A message from Odanadi – a charity set up to prevent human trafficking throughout the world.

YOGA STOPS TRAFFICK is a one-day global Yoga event to raise awareness about human trafficking in India and arcross the world.

On MARCH 13th 2010 Yogis everywhere will roll out their Yoga mats to take a stand against trafficking and show their support to its millions of victims.

Kicking-off from the grounds of the Mysore Royal Palace, YOGA STOPS TRAFFICK INDIA will be led by a group of young people from local anti-trafficking organisation Odanadi Seva Trust, many of whom are survivors of slavery, domestic abuse and forced prostitution. Over the years Astanga Yoga has come to play a vital role in their rehabilitation program: building their physical and mental strength, restoring a sense of peace, confidence and self-worth.

Get involved by organising your own YOGA STOPS TRAFFICK event at your local yoga centres, living rooms, parks or any other public spaces – just use your imaginations.

To request more information, promotional materials, fundraising suggestions or to find out more about Odanadi please contact Sean Cleere or Sarah Harris at yogastopstraffick@gmail.com. Or just visit our website www.odanadi-uk.org.

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Please find below a link to the newly launched Curracloe House Yoga Centre website, where we will be hosting our first of I’m sure many Iyengar Yoga holidays in Wexford, Southern Ireland.  The Centre is run by the wonderful Iyengar teacher, Christine  Fisk, who has turned her beautiful space into a retreat for yoga and nature lovers.  Here is a small extract from her new website:

Curracloe House Yoga Centre

Curracloe House Yoga Centre is situated at the rear of an Irish Georgian Farmhouse and has wooded grounds and farm environment. The estate is situated at the edge of an area of great natural beauty and is habitat to one of the largest migrant bird populations in the world.

Curracloe Beach & Raven Wood

There is a 12-mile long sandy beach 5 minutes walk from the front gate, excellent for walking and swimming. The Centre is adjacent to Raven Wood, 300 acres of forest planted on the sand dunes about eighty years ago to stabilise the dunes at the point.

Time at Curracloe House Yoga Centre is quiet, peaceful and refreshing. As Gibran notes:

“In the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed.”

www.curracloehouse.com

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One of our favourite brunch recipes from the Quinta Mimosa (Portugal) kitchen.  Thanks to Carol for this GORGEOUS chocolate cake which contains NO WHEAT but ACRES OF CHOCOLATE and is best served with fresh fruit & crème fraîche or alternatively lashings of cream/ice cream/chocolate sauce – well, why not?  After an invigorating morning class of backbends, holiday guests were very appreciative of this healthy-ish treat.  Enjoy.

200 gms butter

1 cup sugar (white or brown or mixed)

400 gms dark chocolate

grated peel of 1 orange

half cup of coarsely chopped hazlenuts

2 tbsp finely ground hazlenuts (you can also use walnuts, almonds or chopped cherries or a combination)

6 eggs whisked together

Set over to 150°c.  Line a 12″ (approx) tin with greaseproof paper.

Melt butter, sugar and chocolate and stir in the orange.  Leave to cool for 5 mins.

Add chopped and ground nuts and eggs.  Whisk well.

Pour into tin and cook for 12 mins.  The cake will puff up high and the surface will crack.

To test if cooked (other than eating it), insert a sker and it should come out clean.

Eat and enjoy!

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Forthcoming workshops at BALANCE Yoga Studio in Northampton, East Midlands Iyengar Group, Milton Keynes, Masonic Hall in Lyme Regis and many other events are planned from 30th January 2010 onwards.  Please visit the main Classes and Events page for more information and bookings.

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Saturday 28th November 2009

BALANCE Yoga & Pilates Studio, Northampton

We had a wonderful yoga day today in Northampton with the studio full to capacity for the morning session and an enthusiastic group staying for the afternoon session.  The theme this month was Inversions & Backbends.  We spent the morning studying different preparatory postures building strength, flexibility and understanding for the more advanced inversions such as Headstand, Handstand and Elbow Balance.  One lady was able to achieve a headstand for the first time in her 47 years, even though she had been practising yoga for around 30!

In the afternoon we looked at a variety of back-bending postures such as upward facing dog (urdhva mukha svanasana), camel pose (ustrasana) and upward facing bow pose (urdhva dhanurasana).  Lots of preparatory work was done to stretch the thighs and open the groins as well as opening the upper body and strengthening the arms and shoulders.  We finished with a lifted back arch to help those who had trouble lifting up and straightening their arms.

Thanks to everyone for coming, it was a wonderful day and I look forward to seeing you all again in February.

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We enjoyed a great morning of yoga at the lovely Yoga Akasha Yoga Studio in East Grinstead, West Sussex.  I hope to return there next year for more of the same!  When we arrived the early morning class were just leaving and everyone looked very calm and relaxed – so we began the morning with a lovely atmosphere left to us by the previous class.

My mother accompanied us and as always, inspired all the younger students to carry on with their yoga – although in her late 70’s she is still fit and active and puts it down to her years of yoga practice, swimming and walking.

The morning began with a few moments of quiet reflection, shoulder and chest opening poses followed by standing postures supported at the wall to give focus on the back body, postural alignment and opening across the pelvis.  The two pregnant ladies appreciated the wall support too especially when it came to the balancing posture, Ardha Chandrasana!   The last third of the morning consisted of extended supine and recuperative postures with deep awareness of the connection of the body and breath to still the mind and deeply relax the body.

Yoga Akasha is a wonderful city centre yoga space and I look forward to returning there next year for more workshops.

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YOGA HOLIDAYS DATES 2010
April 25th to May 2nd – Turkey
May – Wexford, Ireland – Date to be confirmed
June 5th to 12th Quinta Mimosa, Portugal – Booking Now
July 10th to 17th Quinta Mimosa, Portugal – Booking Now
September 4th to 11th Quinta Mimosa, Portugal – Booking Now
September 18th to 25th La Hacienda, Spain – Booking Now
October 9th to 16th Quinta Mimosa, Portugal – Booking Now

EARLY BOOKING OFFER:  We welcome early payment to secure bookings.  For all 2010 holidays  (sorry, except Turkey) we are offering a €15 discount on all holiday deposits received before the end of January 2010.  To secure your place and receive your discount, please pay your deposit via PayPal using the button below, or contact Rachel for other payment options.

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This month’s focus is on seated forward bends.  When practised regularly, seated forward bending movements have many benefits:

Let’s look at a classic forward bending posture, Pascimottanasana (intense stretch of the West). If you have a back or hamstring injury, please only practise this posture under the guidance of a qualified teacher.

1. Sit on the edge of a folded blanket or yoga foam block with your legs extended away from you. The legs should be together but can also be a little apart if you are a beginner or are pregnant. Toes look at the ceiling and heels stretch strongly away. The more you extend your heels, the stronger your legs will feel.
2. Using your hand beside your hips, turn your fingertips towards your feet and press into the floor – the elbows should be slightly bent, not straight. From the base of your spine, lift up, lift the chest but keep the shoulders back and down. See that you’re not leaning backwards but lifting straight up from the hips.
3. On an inhalation, raise the arms up above your head, stretching strongly to the finger tips and feeling the chest lifting higher, the trunk extending upwards. Keep the arms straight, extend forwards from the hips towards the feet. If you can reach the feet easily, catch the outsides of the feet with the hands or use a belt to catch the feet. Keep the arms straight, head lifted up and chest extending upwards.



4. If you can go further, bend the elbows out to the side and move the trunk further forwards, finally releasing the head down last.  Once you have adjusted your pose and reach your final extension, try to stay quietly without fidgeting.  Relax your belly, your jaw and gently draw the shoulders away from the neck. Stay for between 1 and 5 minutes.
5. If you are stiffer, have back ache or are heavily pregnant, stay sitting up with the belt around the feet, arms straight and practice the leg extension and the trunk lifting up. This preparation work will progress you towards the final pose but don’t rush or force yourself to bend forwards – it will come in time.

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Yoga Workshop with Rachel at BALANCE Studio, Northampton 31st October 2009

Thank you to everyone who made the day so enjoyable.  It was lovely to see so many familiar faces as well as meet new people – yoga is such a great way to meet and make friends!  The morning session was packed with not much space to spare and we worked on our standing poses with the back foot at the wall for stability and strength and to create a strong foundation from which to extend.  Some students who had not experienced an Iyengar Yoga class before, had not worked in shoulderstand (sarvangasana) with a lift under the shoulders, let alone a belt around their elbows, but all were open to working in ways unfamiliar to them and all benefited as a result.  There was a feeling of more space in the neck area, better lift and less compression.  The relaxation (savasana) at the end was most welcomed after a hard mornings work.

In the afternoon we had a smaller group who stayed for another two hours of posture work. Supine poses to start with to allow for the digestion to settle and then we worked on forward bending poses, learning how to create more extension and length in the trunk (“extension not tension!”) whilst keeping again a firm foundation to work from.  After a lot of forward bending postures, it was sensible to do some twists to release the spine, again, with a focus on the foundation, rather than the end result.  Relaxation came as a welcome end to the day and students left smiling and perhaps slightly taller!

The next workshop at BALANCE is on 28th November but next week, 7th November, I travel to Lyme Regis to my sister Hannah’s neck of the woods for a day of yoga by the sea.  For further details, please contact me at rachel@orangetreeyoga.com or visit my sister’s website on www.hannahlovegrove.com.

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