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Bristol Yoga Centre

10 Park Row
Bristol, England, BS1 5LJ
07855941166
in the heart of Bristol

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Bristol Yoga Centre

  • Welcome
  • Booking
  • Class Info
    • Prices
    • Online Class Guidelines
    • Prenatal and Postnatal Classes
    • Private Lessons
    • FAQ
  • Workshops
  • Courses
    • Yoga for Beginners
    • Reiki and Yin Yoga: Journey Through the Chakras
  • Retreats
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    • Contact Us
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Somatic Movement and Yoga Class

August 23, 2024 Naomi Hayama

We’re starting a new somatic movement and yoga class soon, so I thought it would be helpful to share some information about the style.  

What is Somatic Movement 

The word soma means ‘the body as perceived from within’. Somatic practice focuses on what you’re feeling in the body instead of form or outcome. Sarah Warren, the author of the Pain Relief Secret describes it as: 

‘A movement that’s practiced consciously with the intention of focusing on the internal experience of the movement rather than the external appearance or the end result’. 

You are encouraged to pay close attention to your body so that you can develop sensitivity and internal awareness. Somatic movement is deliberately slow and easy so you can take time to feel and undo unhelpful habitual movements patterns. The practice is designed to calm the central nervous system and re-educate the way our brain senses and moves the body. 

The term ‘Somatic Movement’ was coined and popularised by Thomas Hanna in the 1970’s. He was a dedicated student of Mosche Feldenkrais (1904-1984) and was greatly influenced by his work.   

Feldenkrais was an engineer, physicist, and expert in Judo and Jiu Jutsu. He had developed a whole system of physical therapy; his aim was to improve human function by increasing self-awareness through movement.  

Why Somatic and Yoga? 

There are many similarities between Somatics and Yoga. Both practices place importance on breathing and have a holistic view of the body, mind. They also use movement for better self-understanding.  

What defines somatic movement is the belief that less is more. In other disciplines we are often encouraged to achieve certain moves or postures, but in this approach, you’ll be guided to use minimal muscular effort with easy movements. This can be liberating but it can also be challenging, as many of us have adopted the ‘no pain no gain’ motto. It can be a real shift to change our intention from achievement to curiosity. We will look beyond the outer form and cultivate an internal awareness. This genuine connection with your body will help you find new ways to cope with life challenges and changes. Combined with yoga’s philosophy of kindness and acceptance this practice can play an important role for aiding transformation.   

What the class will be like  

 The class will be very relaxing and at the same time revealing, as it’ll gently expose our habits and how we commonly move. You’ll often be encouraged to practice with your eyes closed to minimise sensory stimulations and to take plenty of breaks in-between. This will help you to feel, absorb, and digest your experience and notice any changes from the practice. Much of somatic practice is done on the floor or in sitting but most importantly you’ll be asked to find a comfortable position that suits you.  

This class will be beneficial for people with chronic pain and fatigue or those recovering from injury or illness. It’s also great for beginners and those that just want to take it slow and cultivate mindfulness. It can be a very transformative experience so really understand what the class will be like, you’ll need to experience it for yourself.  

I hope to see you in class! 

  • Our new community Somatic Movement and Yoga class with Naomi starts on 12:15-1pm every Wednesday from 25th September 2024

In Bristol Yoga Centre, Community Class, Mindfulness, Practice, Somatic Movement, Yoga, Yoga Therapy Tags Somatic Movement, Somatic Movement Practice, Feldenkrias Method, Yoga, Therapeutic Yoga, Yoga Therapy, Relaxation, Mindfulness, Connection, Recovery, Chronic Pain, Fatigue, Injury, Illness

Beginners Mind

August 16, 2018 Naomi Hayama
Mindfulness meditation and beginner's mind at the Bristol Yoga Centre

"In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert's there are few. "

- Shunryu Suzuki, Zen Monk

I have just completed a  Mindfulness Meditation teaching course at Yoga Campus and one of the first handouts we were given was on Zen’s way of Beginner’s Mind. This reminded me of an excellent article on the subject that I was given for my BWY Foundation course in 2003 with Sally Worth. It’s written by Eric Gregory in 1986 and I believe he is one of the oldest members of BWY (he’s 100 years old and recently featured in their magazine!!).

The writing is simple and I love the way that it beautifully describes mindfulness in our everyday life and yoga practice. It’s one of the documents that I give to my Foundation course students, now that I teach the course. I thought I would share this excellent writing on mindfulness in our yoga practice and life.

Beginners Mind by Eric Gregory (1986)

In his book "The Dancing Wu Li Masters", the author Gary Zukav records a conversation he had with AI. Huang.  Al. Huang is a famous teacher of Tai Chi in America.

"I asked Huang how he structures his classes. ‘Every lesson is the first lesson,' he told me. Every time we dance, we do it for the first time.’ ‘But surely you cannot be starting new each lesson, I said.  Lesson number two must be built on what you taught in lesson number one and lesson number three likewise must be built on lessons one and two and so on!’ ‘When I say that every lesson is the first lesson’, he replied, ‘it does not mean that we forget what we already know. It means that what we are doing is always new, because we are always doing it for the first time.’
This is another characteristic of a Master. Whatever he does, he does with the enthusiasm of doing it for the first time. This is the source of his unlimited energy. Every lesson he teaches (or learns) is a first lesson. Every dance he dances, he dances for the first time. It is always new personal and alive."

This approach is what is known as 'Beginners Mind which is a term used in Zen to indicate the way in which one should approach life. It means having a fresh uncluttered approach to everything, free from prejudices, ideals, and preconceptions. Unfortunately our minds are cluttered with prejudices ideals and preconceptions and these colour everything we do and think! All this clutter means that we do not approach anything with an open mind. We always expect something or other.

We all have a Yoga posture that we find difficult or do badly or just plain do not like. So when this comes up in class, our mind immediately fires back to the last time we did it - and didn't enjoy it - and so we approach it with foreboding. We say to ourselves "That always hurts, (or is uncomfortable)" or "Everyone else can do this better than I can and I shall stick out like a sore thumb!", and so on. Whereas, if we could do it with ‘Beginners mind’ we would simply experience the posture without making any judgement as to whether or not it was easy or difficult, comfortable or uncomfortable, or whether or not we were doing well or poorly. And we would do it to the very best of our ability.

Bikram Choudhury wrote "Perfection is the very best you can do at the time". Unfortunately we all have the ideal performance in our mind and become very disappointed or desperate or push ourselves too hard, when we fall short of our ideal. This idea is not meant simply to apply to our practice of the postures. It applies to life as a whole. We all look back, I am sure, to early childhood when the world was a fascinating place to explore and full of things to discover. I love to see a young child watching, with intense concentration a bee in a flower or an ant walking up a piece of grass. There is total absorption and one can apprehend the feeling of wonder the child is experiencing. Alas, as we grow older we become ‘more sophisticated’ which means we have our mind full of value judgments against which we measure everything. Thus the bee on the flower or the ant on the grass stalk are hardly noticed or if they are, they are noted as ‘just a bee’ or ‘an ant’ and not worthy of attention - we have "more important things to do!"

If you think about it, you will see that we are living in the past, judging the present in terms of past experience. So we never have the present as it is here and now - to be experienced and enjoyed. No two situations in life are ever the same. No two sunsets are alike, no two flowers are alike – all is changing as we ourselves are. If we crystallise our response to everything in terms of the past, we loose precious opportunities of experiencing the wonders of life around us. The most sophisticated person is also the most blasé and bored person. The most powerful way of becoming aware of the wonder of life is to be told one has only few months to live. Then one looks at everything with a new eye! So why don’t we start whilst we have (hopefully) a bit longer to do it in? How often do we pour ourselves a cup of tea without much attention. Next time, pay close attention. Notice the stream of tea as it leaves the teapot, see the colour of it, how it glitters in the light, how it flows into the cup notice the curl of stream. Enter fully into the experience.

I always tell my students that they do not come to class to do Yoga! They come to learn the techniques of Yoga – they do Yoga in the rest of their lives – in the remaining 166 hours of the week! In a Yoga class one should learn something about oneself. Do you approach the posture aggressively trying to lambaste your body into doing your will! Do you ‘freewheel’ at the more demanding postures – making a good show but not really trying? Do you become tense in a posture? Do you use more muscles than are needed? Have you found that a relaxed approach enables you to go further? Do you ‘throw it away’ – i.e. as soon as the teacher tells you to stop, do you whip out of it, thankful that it’s over? All your reactions to how you do the postures will mirror the way you approach situations and problems in life.

If on the other hand you can start to work with a ‘Beginner’s Mind’, you will approach each posture or each situation in life with the attitude of “let’s see what this feels like today” or “what are the possibilities in this for me today”.  Of course, past experience is useful, but only as something to use in present circumstances where it can help. The wrong attitude is where our past experience is allowed to colour or prejudice our attitude and so prevent us from fully experiencing or learning from, or solving our present involvement in a situation. A further complication can be that a lot of our past experiences that colour our attitudes are not even our own. We are greatly influenced by the opinions of others – our parents, our brothers and sisters, our teachers, our school friends, TV, Films, advertisements, books and a host of other prejudices, ideas over the years. So, by the time we are adults, we have very little of our own, that is, that which we have arrived at independently of other influences. All these things we must learn not to throw away but allow them to stop us from experience life, freely, joyfully and to the full.

I hope you enjoyed reading this article!

In Bristol Yoga Centre, Yoga Therapy, Meditation, Mindfulness, Practice Tags meditation, Mindfulness, yoga, beginner's mind, Zen, Buddhist

Insomnia and Yoga by Meera Watts

June 16, 2018 Naomi Hayama
Yoga for Insomnia and better sleep

Yoga offers many health benefits and one of them includes alleviating insomnia. Through stretching, breathing, and mindfulness yoga improves your strength and flexibility, breathing, reduces stress and enhances brain functions. A recent study has also found that yoga can help you sleep if you have chronic insomnia. The Harvard Medical study looked into how doing yoga every day could affect people with insomnia.

The study conducted began with subjects learning how to do basic yoga. They were then asked to maintain the daily practice for eight weeks. Diaries were kept before the yoga began for two weeks before. They also took notes during the eight weeks of daily yoga. In total, twenty people completed the eight week study. Researchers then analyzed the information given to see if yoga helped with their chronic insomnia.

Types of Insomnia

Primary insomnia is the inability to sleep that occurs on its own. It is dependent on health problems or a sleep disorder. Secondary insomnia occurs as a system when there is another medical condition within the patient. This can be anything from cancer to chronic pain to depression. Some of the medications taken for acute health conditions can also cause insomnia.

How Yoga Helped Patients with Chronic Insomnia

The study found that for those who finished the eight weeks of yoga, they experienced improvements in:

  •    Their sleep efficiency
  •    Their total time of sleeping
  •    Their total waking time
  •    How long it took them to fall asleep
  •    When they would wake up after falling asleep

While there hasn’t been a lot of research conducted on yoga and how it affects sleep, it is possible that yoga can be used as a treatment for sleep issues.

A Yoga Practice Before Bed

The reason you’re not sleeping could be for many reasons. Some have fibromyalgia so their chronic pain keeps them up at night. Some people just can’t seem to ‘switch off’ and they lie awake ruminating about things. Whatever the reasons, there is a yoga pose for pretty much every issue that is causing you to lose sleep. These basic poses are specifically to calm the body and mind before bed. You may also want to incorporate poses that help your specific medical conditions also.

Start with a Meditation

To get ready for bed, put you pajamas on. Turn the lights down and get yourself comfortable. Sit cross legged or in a comfortable position. Close your eyes and start to focus on your breathing. Do this for a few minutes. When thoughts come up, don’t hold onto them. Go back to the breath. This is to bring you to your center and to quiet the mind.

Simple Spinal Twist

As you sit cross legged, inhale and make yourself as tall as possible. As you exhale, you will twist your midsection to the left. If you have something to grab onto, you can use this to go slightly deeper into the stretch. Remain in the twist while breathing a few times. As you exhale, return your torso back to center. Inhale and then exhale your twist to the right side. Repeat this a few times. Take it slowly.

Cross Legged Bend

With your legs still crossed, bend forward from the hips and stretch your hands out in front of you. If you can get your belly to your feet and your head to the floor, that’s ideal but this may take some time to master. Stay here for a few breaths and notice the stretch your experience in your hips and back.

Seated Forward Bend

Bring your legs out in front of you so they’re straight with a slight microbend in the knees. Sit up high as you inhale. When you exhale, reach your hands out to your feet. You want to keep your back flat which means you may have to bend your knees. This pose stretches out the hamstrings which alleviates pressure in the lower back.

Knees to Chest Pose

Lie down on your back and put your head on your pillow. Bring one knee into the chest and grab your shin to pull it closer to you. Stay in this pose for a few deep breaths. Switch legs and repeat a few times. Then head both your knees into your chest. Rock side to side onto your back, allowing your whole back to relax and release. Knees to chest pose lengthens the extended knee while loosening tight hips. This is where stress lives so releasing it before bed can be quite helpful in relaxing you.

Doing these poses before bed can help you sleep. They are deeply relaxing and help to calm the mind as you are doing something physical. When you do yoga daily, you are also going to alleviate some of the pain or discomforts you’re experiencing that are the cause of sleep loss.

Bio:

Meera Watts is a yoga teacher, entrepreneur and mom. Her writing on yoga and holistic health has appeared in Elephant Journal, CureJoy, FunTimesGuide, OMtimes and others. She’s also the founder and owner of SiddhiYoga.com, a yoga teacher training school based in Singapore. Siddhi Yoga runs intensive, residential trainings in India (Rishikesh, Goa and Dharamshala), Indonesia (Bali)

Website:  https://www.siddhiyoga.com

In Yoga Therapy, Yoga, Tips, Relaxation Tags Insomnia, Sleep, Yoga, Meera Watts, Guest blog, Chronic insomnia

Therapeutic Yoga

April 26, 2018 Naomi Hayama
Therapeutic Yoga at the Bristol Yoga Centre for general mental and health wellbeing

“The success of Yoga does not lie in the ability to perform postures but in how it positively changes the way we live our life and our relationships.” - TKV Desikachar

We have just started a new therapeutic yoga class at Bristol Yoga Centre. Therapeutic yoga is a slower pace class, which focuses on mindful movement, breath awareness and relaxation practices. Space is given to explore postures and to encourage a deeper awareness of body and breath - which has many benefits for physical and psychological health and wellbeing.

One regular student commented, ‘Since I started yoga classes, I have gained more mobility, can deal with my painful joints better and am sleeping better at night’.

Therapeutic yoga class is great for beginners as well as those returning to yoga after a break. It’s also beneficial for people with injuries and those wishing to improve energy levels and combat insomnia. Regular practice can help to reduce pain, lessen worry and manage stress levels.

Rather than pushing and forcing, more gentle purposeful movement is used to heal the mind and body. Relaxation is the key to opening and letting go, and it’s one of the most important aspects of yoga practice. When you’re relaxed, you are able to remain calm and focused, and pay greater attention to your alignment and posture. As Josie’s student Roz commented:

‘When I go to a yoga class I don’t just want a work-out, I want to connect my mind and body. After Josie’s classes I can tell that I’ve stretched and toned pretty much every muscle in my body, but at the same time I’m totally relaxed from the inside. I don’t know how she does it but it feels amazing!’

By practicing slowly and mindfully, you will naturally get incredible results and bring progress to your practice. It’s a lovely safe method to release tension and learn how to manage pain in a compassionate way. We believe that everyone will benefit from learning to practice in this way.

Therapeutic Yoga class with Josie is on every Tuesday from 10 – 11am. She is a qualified Yoga Nidra teacher and is currently undertaking a two year course in Yoga Therapy for mental health with the Minded Institute. Please feel free to get in touch with her for more information.

In Bristol Yoga Centre, Relaxation, Yoga Therapy Tags Yoga Therapy, Therapeutic Yoga, Healthy Lifestyle, Mental wellbeing, Relaxation, Yoga for Stress

Bristol Yoga Centre, 10 Park Row, Bristol, BS1 5LJ