An easy practice to help you to sit well

If you have ever wanted to sit for meditation or prayer, you may have found that it is harder than it looks.
The answer is to:
a – sit on a chair or
b – try relaxing your hips and thighs.
I hope this video will help. I’ll take you through a breath focussed practice, releasing tension from the hips and thighs.
I really enjoyed leading this session.
I hope you like it as much as I did making it.
Stay within your capacity and work optimally for your body’s needs.
Love and light,
Lucy

A 1 hour Yoga class at Porthmeor beach St Ives

Yoga outside in the sunshine above West Beach Cafe, Porthmeor, St Ives. This was the first class of the summer.
Standing poses are a main stay of these sessions because they are pretty accessible to all I hope you enjoy your practice alongside the St Ives crew, as much as we enjoy being there.
Listen to your body’s needs.
Love and light,
Lucy

Iyengar yoga Standing poses and Shoulder stand using a wall and props

In light on yoga there is a 300 week programme. I have followed the sequence using Yoga, a wall and props.
Although props are not necessary, they do improve sensory feed-back, ease, and the awareness of internal energy asana, making each yoga pose an entirely new somatic experience.
I though it would be fun to follow last week’s sequence again but showing it in a different light.
This practice has been amazing for me, re-visiting it nearly 30 years after first practicing it.
Reading BKS Iyengar’s words as if for the first time but knowing my body and the poses in a deeper manner.
Tadasana, Vrksasana, Utthita-Trikonasana, Utthita- Parsvakonasana, Virabhadrasana 1&2, Parsvottanasana, Salamba-sarvangasana, Halasana and of course I leave you with Savasana.
Enjoy! Have a beautiful day.
Love and light,
Lucy

Sun, sea and standing poses

If I could only explain the joy a few good standing poses brings to my body, the captured image would be it.
With a strong and well balanced action in the legs we have support for our spine and the rest of the yoga practice.
Standing poses are key within the Iyengar yoga system and yet soooo easily forgotten when we become obsessed with more complicated asana.
The late summer sun, the sound of the sea and the standing poses brought a great sense of grounding with upliftment, the play of opposites!

As always listen to your body and work to your own capacity.

Love and light,
Lucy

Balance and breathe

Trees are the lungs of the earth. Trees help our planet breathe. Vrksasana (tree pose) enables our chest and lungs to open more, enabling us to find a deeper fuller breath too.
Forests around the world are also our planet’s air conditioning system and help keep the planet cool. In Vrksasana try to breathe through the nose to filter and prepare the air before it enters the lungs. Breathe out through the nose to gently cleanse the nasal passage of any dust or debris.
Practice makes better.
Root your feet into the ground, prepare your base, trunk and mind for a short practice that will help you breathe more easily.
Work to your own capacity and capability.
Breathe and enjoy,
Love and light,
Lucy

Just Savasana by the sea

At the end of this morning’s session, Sam said “that was lovely! Just lying there at the end of the session with the sun on my face and the sound of the sea. So relaxing”. Sam then went off with a few others, for a quick swim in the sea.
Savasana is such a special pose. It is the one that give us so much when we give it the time it requires.
Learning to relax is not “being lazy”, it is learning to let go of tensions that no longer serve us, things that we can do nothing about and acceptance of where we are in every moment.
Give yourself some time to breathe, release and let go.
This pose is always time well spent. Take a look in BKS Iyengar’s “Path to holistic health” to see how to set yourself up for a comfortable savasana. Alternatively take yourself off to bed..
Enjoy.
Love and light,
Lucy

Standing in your legs

Right… at the beginning I say this will be a 10 minute practice… my timing this time was not so good, it is more like 15.
The legs hold us up, keep us grounded, mobilize us and motivate us. They need to be a stable and flexible.
Let’s give a great big cheer for our legs and celebrate the amazing work they do every day.
Here’s a practice to help you get to know them a little better.

Turning my world upside down

Simply working towards some inversions, I do give other options if you don’t fancy or cannot go upside down.
I find going upside down really quietening for my busy brain. Always a good thing for me to do when my mental chatter becomes all encompassing (plus I love the feeling too 🙂
If you have never been upside down, get a teacher to guide you up the first few times, with extra eyes on the puzzle you will get to know the correct actions required.
As always, regard your body and the feed back from your body with utmost reverence.
Practice to your own capacity.
Enjoy,
Lucy