Can you practice self forgiveness and start over when you are giving yourself a hard time? Coming to your yoga mat, coming back to your body and your breath. Beginning again, starting over. We’re going to have to do it for ourselves.
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One of the foundational attitudes of Mindfulness Practice is curiosity. We are taught, and then we are guided to experiencing, a curious open mind. Curiosity is a powerful weapon in silencing the noisy mind and it's tired, old narrative. A curious mind helps us see things afresh, see ourselves anew, it expands our thinking, it exposes us to spontaneous moments of awe and joy. When we practice outdoors the stage is set for an immersive experience that continues to change in unpredictable ways from moment to moment and our job as participants is to notice the body sensations around all of that. How curious!
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Walking slowly along a chosen path can be an interesting and supportive way to explore mindfulness. It can be nice to be “on the move”, an alternative to sitting or lying still for mindfulness, especially when the mind is a little busy. Our usual way of walking can be associated with achieving. Many of us walk for exercise or to get from A to B as fast as possible. Mindful walking is very different. It is a practice in ‘being’ rather than ‘achieving’. We practice to be with ourselves in a way that encourages curiosity, spaciousness and awareness. We practice to dwell in all the aspects of our present moment experience, unfolding slowly as we move thoughtfully along a simple walking path. The changing sensations as we move provides lots of opportunity to ground ourselves in present moment awareness. If we are lucky enough to have a place to practice in nature we are indulged with a rich variety of ways our senses can connect with present moment awareness by simply noticing what is present. As with all mindfulness practices we notice what is happening from moment to moment, even that busy mind, without criticism or judgement.
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Hi, I’m Sylvia, your yoga teacher. I have been teaching yoga close to 20 years and I am also a Mindfulness Teacher teaching MBSR (Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction). The instructions I give you are invitational, I make suggestions and you move your body in a way that feels right for you. I will never call you out on anything, I will never ask you to do anything you don’t want to. I will always be supportive if you need to make modifications to how you move. My classes are for everyone. Thanks for considering my yoga classes, it is a huge honor for me to teach what I love.
All of my yoga classes are mixed ability. Typically at one of my classes you will find someone new to yoga, someone who is doing yoga a little while and ‘getting it’, someone who is doing yoga a long time and still learning, someone who is just back to yoga after a break. Old and young, male and female, with injury and without injury, a cross-section of humanity. Yoga is for everyone. Rule number one is, ‘it’s not a competition’.
As newcomers to yoga we often compare ourselves to others. We can feel inadequate and feel that we are somehow not ‘doing it right’ or ‘not good enough’. Don’t worry, that’s normal, we all feel that. So step one is nice and easy, there is no judge. You are just fine the way you are and nobody’s looking at you anyway. Don’t criticise yourself (or others), do your best, and don’t worry about how you look. Wear warm, comfortable clothing you can layer.
There are many options available to newcomers to yoga. Some do a specific ‘Yoga for Beginners’ course or a beginner’s workshop. Google search your nearest studio for further information. As a former Yoga Hub teacher-trainer I have trained hundreds of yoga teachers over the years and can happily recommend the Yoga Hub teachers. However, Dublin is full of amazing teachers so I highly recommend finding a teacher that suits you timewise and location-wise. Keep it as easy as possible on yourself.
Many, if not most, newcomers to yoga just come along to a class to give it a go. If you have no injuries or limitations (e.g. high blood pressure, a recovering injury, a pregnancy currently or in the recent past) this is fine. Accept that you won’t do it perfectly straight away; go with an open mind. If you have a limitation or an injury get your doctor’s approval first and then chat to your teacher about whether or not the class would be suitable for you. Often, with a little bit of common sense, it will be. If you’d prefer to try your first yoga class from home you can sign up for live online yoga or try a pre-recorded yoga class suitable for beginners.
Yoga is union. Union of breath and moment, union of mind and body, union of effort and surrender. Your first class might be different to what you expect. It will possibly be harder (I teach people to be strong) and more relaxing (we meditate from the moment you take your first breath) than you had expected. Learning more about ourselves and what makes us tick is one of the many benefits of a yoga practice. It’s slow, it’s subtle but it’s profound.
Wear loose comfortable clothing. Yoga is typically done barefoot. Don’t worry if you don’t have perfect feet, nobody will care … it’s also fine to keep sock on if you prefer!. It’s nice to put the effort into being well prepared with fresh, comfortable clothing you feel at home in. I like to think of going to yoga a bit like going on a date with myself, I make a bit of effort to show up clean and fresh in clothes I like.
Please bring a yoga mat (let me know in advance if you need to borrow one) and a small blanket you can sit on, or use as padding under your knee or your head, or throw over you for final relaxation. Yoga mats can be purchased in any sports shop, luxury mats such as Manduka can be purchased online, the cheaper ones tend to be a bit slippy. Buy your throw / blanket in Pennys! Bring warm layers for relaxation, a sweatshirt or hoodie, cosy socks, maybe an eye pillow to block out the light.
Take is easy and listen to your body. The teacher is like the waiter at a huge buffet, showing you the table full of choices. You are the discerning customer, choosing what suits you. Listen to your body. Listen to your breath. If it feels wrong or too hard, don’t push it. If you are gasping for breath, slow down. Staying in touch with the breath is what we, as yogis, do. But don’t worry if you don’t ‘get’ the breath straight away, just move and follow the class and the breath will come. Simply listen without trying too hard. It will just happen. And when it does, it feels great. Above all else, as you move through your yoga practice, it should feel good. With practice and consistent effort your entire yoga practice might become a moving meditation.
Typically we will move slowly to start, combining breath and movement. Then we might flow through some sun salutations and standing poses and you may find your transitions between poses are slow and awkward the first time, that’s normal. With time you will flow with ease and grace and fluidity, even if you aren’t doing everything perfectly. Towards the latter end of the class we might explore a peak pose, an advanced yoga pose. You can try it, you can watch, you can go a few stages into it; you will be given instructions and guidance on what to do at any given moment. Have fun, be adventurous and playful if you feel like it, but above all else use common sense and keep yourself safe.
Finally we relax; usually for about 5 minutes. Often the relief that the class is over is enough to enable you to take a deep sigh and lie down and just rest! If not I might guide you on where to take your thoughts as your body relaxes more and more with each exhale. Sometimes during the relaxation phase a teacher may talk you through a longer guided relaxation practice. Sometimes there might be music, sometimes silence.
If you have any questions. observations or feedback please do chat to me after class or get in touch by email. I love feedback, requests and questions.
My weekend and evening workshops have the same ethos, everyone is welcome, beginners are always welcome.
Please feel free to drop me an email here. Some of my courses are full and have a waiting list so if you’re not sure please check first. Classes, workshops and yoga retreats in beautiful locations are detailed on my website and announced on my Facebook page, Sylvia’s yoga.
I’m looking forward to seeing you soon on the mat. Imperfect and simply showing up. Just like me!
Namaste.
“When I am in the place in me where I am truly me, and you are in the place in you where you are truly you, there is only one of us.”
A part of Mindfulness is waking up to what’s happening around is. We are all in this together. In this post pandemic era we are all navigating the river of life anew. My question to you is, what are you doing differently in light of that?
What supports you? What healthy habits do you have that calm your nervous system in a wholesome, nourishing way. There are the baths, the massages, the books. There are the nuanced ones, the gym, the exercise, the people, the shopping, the chatting, the glass of wine. Think it over carefully. What is nourishing? What is depleting? What is new for you, in this era, that accommodates you from this place we are in of collective human hurt.
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Where can we explore this on our yoga mats? We can listen to the mental chatter, the stories we tell ourselves. Imagine you are in a pose experiencing a large degree of tension in a muscle that feels hard and stuck. Imagine the difference between being agitated by this, frustrated, imagine the mental talk and even the effects elsewhere in the body, a clenched jaw or frown. Now take the same scenario and imagine yourself cultivating a degree and patience and acceptance around what is, after all, a normal, common human experience, tension in the body. Imagine yourself letting go of the mental chatter and instead tuning into the sensations of breathing. Noticing the breath and softening with the inhales, as you release with the exhales, a bit of space might come in. Maybe something now can shift a little. Letting go of the stories and the mental chatter, we learn to let go of resistance and tension. The first arrow maybe be inevitable but the second arrow is optional. We can learn to let go.
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Do you need a little breathing space? Do you need time out to just be? Would it be supportive to immerse yourself in a day of hiking in the mountains, nutritious food in a luxurious dining room overlooking the city, yoga and mindfulness in a converted chapel amid long corridors and endless rooms with open fires and cosy armchairs. Lose yourself for a while with us.
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"Remember to use your body as a way to awareness. Just patiently practice feeling what is here until it becomes second nature to know even the small movements you make. This basic effort, which paradoxically is a relaxing back into the moment, gives us the key to expanding our awareness from times of formal practice to living mindfully in the world. Do not underestimate the power that comes to you from feeling the simple movements of your body."
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Newsletter sent by Sylva to students on 16th January 2022.
In mindfulness we have this ongoing invitation to begin again, each new moment a brand new fresh opportunity. Often this is taught with breath-awareness practices. The mind wanders off in our practice, this is not a mistake. It’s just what minds do. When we notice we simply come back to the breath. We begin again.
Your yoga mat, as your refuge, offers you this same generosity. Your yoga mat is that kind, forgiving friend, always welcoming. It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been gone, it’s always possible to pick right back up where you left off, entering this space of allowing, allowing you to land just as you are.
This week I began teaching my first MBSR course to an amazing group of curious, committed yogis. As our homework for this week we do a guided body scan daily, as well as some small mindfulness practices peppered in the day, and we record what we notice in a journal. Our journey is a shared learning journey, as the guide I am by no means the expert, I simply present the teachings, supported by the expertise I have acquired through study and practice, and off we go together to explore, and experience, and awaken. Another invitation in life to begin again, how exciting!
For those of you interested in learning more about mindfulness and MBSR I have a colleague starting an 8-week course in February with a limited amount of spaces. Please let me know if I can pass your details on to Catriona for further discussion with her if this course might suit you at this time. After my graduation I intend running an MBSR course, maybe you park this thought for the future.
In our online classes we are beginning a new 4-week block this week. We are sequentially making our way through the foundational attitudes of mindful living, qualities we can cultivate on and off the yoga mat to encourage a rich, full, meaningful life. This week we explore patience.
Patience… anyone else sense a little resistance to this straight away? There's so much to do, there's so little time, rushing is just what I do!! How will we respond to the invitation to move slowly at times, to pause, to feel what is there? Let's see!
I’ll weave the same theme and poses into all of our classes this week so those of you joining me on the mat have the choice and the freedom to attend class from home with the live online class recording. It’s never a problem if you have to isolate at home for whatever reason, your place in class will be there for you when you are ready to return.
Morning classes in Ballyroan are beginning new courses this coming week, Tuesdays at 10.45am and Thursdays at 9.30am. I have very limited space in both, if you are new to these classes please check with me before booking a space, regulars please go ahead and book in as usual.
Monday night’s 8.15pm class in The Park Community Centre is on pause for now, your places are all secure and it’s looking very likely we’ll be back on the mat soon, thanks to all of you coming on Thursdays and joining us online in the meantime. Thursday night’s 7pm class has a limited number of free spaces, please check with me as we have a waiting list for evening classes. Regulars please book as usual.
I’m really excited to be back in Mutton Lane Yoga Studio tonight for our Full Moon Meditation. We are outdoors in nature wearing our coats and shoes and wooly layers for the start of this practice unless it’s lashing rain. Then we make our way into the cosy fire-lit studio to get quiet. Typically we explore moving meditation outdoors, a quieter moving meditation indoors and a meditation in stillness, lying or seated. The practice is designed to be interesting, explorative, calming and grounding.
The coming weeks and months we have events in Mutton Lane and Orlagh House with some free spaces. My emphasis is getting us out into the beautiful nature that surrounds these venues as much as we can, breathing in our gorgeous, fresh, green, sea-scented Irish air and immersing our senses in present-moment awareness. I’m here to help your notice your nervous system quietening, your breath slowing, the small knots of tension releasing, and any and all sensations, the whole big bundle of all of you is always welcomed! You always have an opportunity to come exactly as you are and simply begin again.
I’m closing this email today with a little story below about patience and progress. It might prompt a little sadness. Maybe just hold whatever comes up for you in a spacious body as you let the story land. Maybe a bit of patience is required for this. Maybe a bit of courage. Maybe not today, and that’s ok too. We always have choices, we always have the choice to begin again.
Really looking forward to seeing you on the mat soon,
Kindest regards,
Sylvia.
The Butterfly
A man found the cocoon of a butterfly. One day a small opening appeared. He sat and watched the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force its body through that little hole. Then it seemed to stop making any progress. It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could and could go no further.
So the man decided to help the butterfly. He took a pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining bit of the cocoon. The butterfly then emerged easily. But it had a swollen body and small shrivelled wings. The man continued to watch the butterfly because he expected that, at any moment, the wings would enlarge and expand to be able to support the body, which would contract in time. Neither happened! In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and shrivelled wings. It never was able to fly.
What the main in his kindness and haste did not understand was that the restricting cocoon and the struggle required for the butterfly to get through the tiny opening were nature’s way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into its wings so that it would be ready for flight once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon. Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our life. If we were allowed to go through our life without any obstacles, it would cripple us. We would not be as strong as we could have been. And we could never fly. So have a nice day and struggle a little.
Author Unknown
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Dear Yoga Friends,
In this beautiful space between Christmas and New Year I invite you to roll out your mat for a daily ten minute savasana (lying down Corpse Pose) with an inquiry. Those of you who have experienced my classes will have received this same guidance into savasana many times. This guidance also contains a structured exploration of where you might focus your thoughts during the practice to experience wakefulness, compassion, curiosity, not-knowing and acceptance.
What is this, what is here?
This is a ten minute savasana with an inquiry practice. This could be something you do on it’s own, any time during the day, or it could form part of a structured, daily, disciplined practice. It might be nice after yoga, or a stretch, or a morning walk/run, whatever you fancy. The body becomes a little more interesting when it is more ‘awake’, however, any time is a good time for you to ask yourself, with kindness and curiosity, what is this, what is here? The intention for this practice is to cultivate a sense of allowing.
Start by lying comfortably, a yoga mat on the floor, the couch, the bed. My intentions for my practice plus the time of day determine the levels of padding I seek; if I think I might benefit from drifting off to sleep I’ll set myself up accordingly.
Allow the first little while to get settled, move around a bit as you need to. See if you can sense, or feel, the many different sensations in the body as is this happens. It’s calming and soothing to start by noticing the points of contact with the floor, starting with the feet. Sweeping your attention through and then just noticing what is the next most noticeable sensation in the body. For me I will often notice my legs feel heavy, my feet cold, my surface very soft, or hard, that kind of random awareness sweeping around. I notice how my breath is (usually fast to start), maybe noticing my heart beat, or not. Usually I’ll notice my overall tone if it’s very rushed or anxious or busy or stressed. Sometimes I might not even notice, my attention might drift to other parts of the body, the hint of a knot in my tummy, the subtle ache in my chest, a gripping in my jaw. What is this, what is here? Making space, allowing.
Pretty soon, for most of us, a thought comes and interrupts, we can even get swept away on a whole chain of thoughts. A memory, a plan, a day-dream, a longing or craving, something annoying us, we’re gone. This is not a mistake. This is exactly how the human brain functions: our patterns of mental processing repeat and take us off on habitual ways of thinking. Then, there’s the moment of realising that … an awakening … and then we have CHOICES.
1. After noticing your attention has drifted away you pull your attention right back to the breath or the body. This is often taught as a form of meditation called Focused Attention training. It’s a useful and interesting practice. This is often my ten minute seated daily meditation practice.
2. Notice what you had been thinking about, eg. planning, daydreaming, arguing, make a mental note to remember it, and then come back to what you had intended being focused on, eg, the contact points of the body on the floor, or the breath. Begin again with your practice, what is this, what is here.
3. Noticing what you had been thinking about and PAUSING. Hold that in your field of awareness and then open up to noticing if there is anywhere in the body you can feel sensations in reaction to what it was you have been thinking about, the place you got carried away to. Stay with that for a few breaths, a few moments. A few moments of curious not knowing, of gentle investigation, what is this, what is here?
What is it? Tara Brach calls it a field of sensation, John O'Donoghue a harvest of memory, spirit, and dream.
I find it helpful to have a little alarm to end my practice. A little stretch might be nice before slowly coming back. A journal might be interesting for approaches 2 or 3 above. Remember, we are not trying to change anything, or fix anything, or fix ourselves. Our practice is one of noticing, of acceptance, of allowing. Allowing things to be as they are, allowing ourselves to be as we are. From that place of acknowledgement and acceptance we then have a bit of space, a bit of wiggle room, a place where we feel held and supported and safe.
Wishing you peace in the coming days and time for you to come back to the quiet light shining in your heart. I'm closing my wishes for the season with the words of the Irish poet, John O'Donoghue.
"There is a quiet light that shines in every heart. It draws no attention to itself though it is always secretly there. It is what illuminates our minds to see beauty, our desire to seek possibility and our hearts to love life. Without this subtle quickening our days would be empty and wearisome, and no horizon would ever awaken our longing. Our passion for life is quietly sustained from somewhere in us that is wedded to the energy and excitement of life. This shy inner light is what enables us to recognize and receive our very presence here as blessing. We enter the world as strangers who all at once become heirs to a harvest of memory, spirit, and dream that has long preceded us and will now enfold, nourish, and sustain us."
Kindest regards,
Sylvia.
sylviayoga.com
Join me for online yoga in your home any time, on-demand classes here.
In the season of giving please remember to gift yourself with something indulgent and wholesome. Our Full Moon workshop this coming Sunday evening at 7pm in Mutton Lane has spaces left and all events and workshops in 2022 are listed on Eventbrite and are open for booking. Setting intentions to keep an eye on balanced living and healthy habits can really support us in the coming weeks and months.
For your loved ones I suggest a gift voucher for either online classes or an event. I can hand-write a voucher with a page attached for links to book or to choose an online package. Vouchers can also be sent you by email.
For December we look to the earth for our inspiration and intentions in practice. Yoga teaches us how to be stable and calm in the present so that we can be fully aware of what is happening in us and around us. We can ask ourselves: How am I walking? How do I open doors? How am I turning on the tap? Do I feel grateful for my food?
Each week in December we will look at a foundational aspect of our yoga poses with an up-close-and-personal curious, open mind. We do this to simply wake up awareness from a place of stability and allowing, noticing our experience unfolding from moment to moment.
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