Breast Cancer Awareness Month: why this Saturday is an important fundraiser - a personal view

I was heartened to hear that Yogavenue are supporting the Oxford group of Bosom Friends this Saturday and donating 25% of all the class fees to the charity! I don’t often need encouragement to go to Yoga yet if you are sat at home this Saturday wondering whether you should venture out on a cold autumn day, this is a wonderful reason to both do some Yoga and support a charity which is run entirely by volunteers. Read More

Will Yoga help my bad back?

We get asked this question a lot. Will Yoga make my bad back better? Will it cure my back ache? The honest answer is maybe, and it can a fantastic healer of the spine! A lot of people start a Yoga practice because of a bad back and their doctor has advised them to start, or they are just sick of being in a state of constant discomfort. If you ask Alessandro or I, we will tell you that bad backs are what made us start Yoga and it saved our backs (and moods too!). Read More

Ganesha Mural

If you practise in the downstairs Vinyasa studio you’ll have seen the mural of the elephant’s face in the back corner. But this is no ordinary elephant — this is the elephant-headed Hindu god Ganesha. Ganesha is a very popular figure in India and has become significant even for non-Hindus, especially for modern western Yogi’s. He is most often considered as the remover of obstacles but we particularly like the help he offers when invoked for auspicious beginnings. Read More

Challenge Yourself!

I completed my 30 day Yoga challenge in October 2017 – about a year and half after I first started Yoga. I had been looking for an appropriate time to undertake YogaVenue’s 30 day challenge for a while, so I was really excited when the occasion finally arose. For various reasons ranging from personal relationships to the requirements of my PhD work, my life as an Oxford student has been quite nomadic. I feel lucky for the many travelling opportunities that I have, but this lifestyle can also be tiring and stressful. Read More

Cultivate a morning practice

What matters is not when we practice but that we can create a structure for a regular Yoga practice in our life (BKS Iyengar, the Tree of Yoga). The greatest benefits come from a consistent practice. That being said, there are many benefits to practising early an early morning Yoga class. Read More

Why is Yin so special?

Having practised dynamic (yang) forms of Yoga for nearly 20 years and been teaching them for nearly ﬁve years, I had struggled with the slower, less dynamic (Yin/Restorative) forms of Yoga until a couple of years ago, when I began to incorporate slower Yin and Restorative poses little by little into my practice. I trained last year to teach Yin and have gradually become increasingly taken with its gently revealing practices. Read More

Community

A regular student rushed in to the studio, obviously feeling very disturbed and upset. “I haven’t booked, but please can I do class if there is room?” The class was full and I said so. “Please, I’m begging you, I’ve had the day from hell and I just want to do Yoga. Can I do it in the hall way?” Read More

Hot Power Flow Yoga Teacher Training - Just Do It!

I’m so excited, it’s nearly time for the Hot Power Flow Teacher Training again! I think of teacher training as professional development. It’s an investment in my future and I have clear goals for what I want to achieve with each training. Some of the key strengths of this training are described below. Read More

Namaste

"My new favourite word is 'namaste' which is Indian for 'the Yoga is finished now'" -Sara Pascoe, Jun 2014. Not quite. We hear namaste at the end of class and it does, in some way, signify that our time together in class has almost come to an end. Derived from Sanskrit, it is used across India, Nepal and other parts of Asia in varying ways, ostensibly a respectful greeting but its meaning is a little different in the context of Yoga. Read More

Precision and alignment

After attending my classes, yogis occasionally comment that my explanations are “very detailed”. I didn’t think much about this until the 2018 Spiralling Crow teacher training graduates recently asked me why I give such detailed instructions in a dynamic vinyasa class, where a consistent pace or flow are key. Read More

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