‘SHADES OF SUMMER‘
Report by Judith Lynch, with additional words by Kathryn Smith.
Please click on the images to enlarge.
A busy day of hatha yoga sessions and associated disciplines was held at Woodley Civic Hall. Nineteen people attended and enjoyed the interesting, fun and stimulating day of yoga and learning.
“Flying High with our Feathered Friends” which Anne Goldstraw
The programme got off to an excellent start with the yoga session “Flying High with our Feathered Friends” which Anne Goldstraw had previously devised and which she delivered with clear instructions, expertise, aplomb and lots of fun. Anne researched lots of asanas named after birds and, together with information about the character of each bird, she led us in practising and exploring each posture. We began seated with some easy movements representing dove, eagle, chicken and owl and progressed to the more stretchy heron, swan, pigeon and sparrow.
There were helpful modifications introduced as the poses became more challenging. The standing postures included the very amusing “penguin totter”, an ostrich lunge and an albatross sequence. Further representations led us away from birds but with an extra focus on balance as we tried to represent a bird of paradise (flower) a twisted tree, a spider, a lizard, and a caterpillar.
The final flourish was the dynamic dragonfly shape (see group photo) A stunning introduction to the day’s activities. Thank you Anne.
Session two offered a choice of topic. One group chose to “Let the Sunshine In” sharing a meditation with Christine Royle.
Let the Sunshine In with Christine Royale
We began our Meditation session with Christine explaining about positive and negative energies in the body and of the seven major Chakras whose colours form the spectrum of light. We heard about Manipura which is one of the major Chakras. This is where emotional stress resides and is also the fire energy. To keep the energies flowing we need to be in balance and to work the positive and negative energies together. In order to do this we were seated and placed the tongue in the roof of the mouth just behind the lower teeth. Inhaling from the base of the spine (negative energy) up to the crown of the head (positive energy) over the head and exhaling down the front of the body back to the base of the spine. This closed our energy loop. Our Pranayama continued with Nadi Shodhani (alternate nostril breathing) using the fingers for a while and then without. After a
time the two nostrils become as one balancing the negative (left) and positive (right) energies so that there is no positive, no negative, no day, no night. Our Pranayama continued in Savasana, moving up the body visualising a rainbow and inhaling each band of colour out of the rainbow to its corresponding Chakra to open each Chakra. This stimulated each Chakra and also brought light energy to the body for us to absorb. Christine mentioned how breathing a rainbow round and up the body would relieve SAD in the winter months.
Moving on, our awareness was focused on the solar plexus Manipura Chakra which is yellow. We were instructed to inhale and exhale at this point as Christine guided us through a Meditation. We were refreshed during this process with rose water.
A wonderful session, enjoyed by all.
Sitting in Sunshine with Diana Davidson
The other group chose “Sitting in Sunshine” – seated yoga with Diana Davidson. This group shared Diana’s more recent and valuable experience leading classes who largely wished and/or needed to exercise from a seated position. Diana mentioned some of her solutions to encouraging students to stretch more by using a mat in front of the chair and/or placing a block between their knees to widen the leg position. As her students tend to have knee or neck/shoulder problems she concentrates on their feet and movements to open up the chest. Breathing exercises are used and students have acknowledged how helpful they have found these when attending hospital procedures.
After lunch the full group were introduced to the Alexander Technique by the experienced and empathetic Jenny Fox-Eades. Aptly entitled “Walking on Sunshine” this event was a workout for the mind and the emotions. The “hands on” experience and all the teachings were subtle, yet deep. It made you think about all sorts of things. We learned a lot from this session through being encouraged to observe ourselves and to question ourselves about particular behaviours and habits. This was demonstrated through “simple” walks around the room which challenged us to think and observe ourselves. Some anatomical elements were introduced encouraging awareness of the back of the body eg though taking more weight to the heels. An interesting challenge was to adopt a “soft gaze”, rather than close the eyes, when relaxing or using the “quieting technique”. We were encouraged to focus on deep quiet in ourselves so our bodies can breathe well and thereby perhaps react to everyday situations with improved outcomes and with empathy and compassion. We finished lying on our backs with knees raised and either arms out at shoulder height or resting on hips. As we relaxed we enjoyed the imagery of “softening with a smile” across the collar bones, across the brow and smiles resting on the feet, hips and each hand. Thank you Jenny for providing such a stimulating experience and giving us all lots of food for thought.
David Glover provided the closing “gentle” yoga event. After sitting for some time it was helpful to stretch again. There were a number of interesting postures with add-ons. For example pelvic tilts followed by bridge, followed by thigh stretch in bridge. An alternate knee to chest with chest/head raise repeated with arms stretched out in front certainly worked the abdominals. A cat sequence with raised arm twist and thread the needle provided another thorough sequence. The side bend with foot over foot and the goddess pose were effective and challenging. Frog posture, low lunge, forward bend and a standing twist were good additions to the session. Of course being David it was all planned and delivered competently and thoroughly but also with lots of fun and laughter.
The yoga nidra was of course more serious and a fitting ending to a busy and absorbing day. The visual elements introduced were interesting and helped to maintain focus at that stage (especially the ice cream!) Thank you to David for ably drawing an excellent day to its conclusion.
Thank you to all who attended and contributed to the day’s activities. Thank you to the CYTA committee for organising the event.
During the event we took many more photographs than are shown here. David Glover will be uploading a selection to the CYTA Facebook page for you to enjoy.