colourfest and buddhafield festivals

This year we’re branching out to two great Yoga festivals, thanks to the wonderful Sheila Coombes.

SHEILA COOMBES: YOGA FROM THE INSIDE OUT

‘And I said to my body softly ‘I want to be your friend’……     It took a long breath and replied: ‘I have been waiting my whole life for this’.

This quote from Nayyirah Waheed inspires my work as a yoga tutor and therapist, working one-to-one and in small groups with people who arrive on the mat with a physical pain, a troubled mind or a deep longing for spiritual connection.

Few of us are truly ‘kind’ to our body. We expect it to behave to order all day, every day regardless of what we do with and to it.   Repetitive movement, be it seated in front of a computer or standing over a garden fork, misaligns the spine and puts tension into major joints (hips and shoulders) with resulting pain and restriction. Repetitive thoughts create stress in the mind driving us constantly to reach for the next thing….and the next….. A promise of satisfaction that lies always just out of reach. In addition, there is often the memory of past trauma held deep within the body which needs to be brought to the surface and released.

I shall be offering 2hr sessions of a deeply personal style of yoga developed over many years of study and practise. The group will be small – for a festival that is (fifteen max) – and we shall be practising in a comfortable indoor space. What we shall actually ‘do’ will depend on the needs of the group. I don’t have a set routine of postures. I prefer to think on my mat and be spontaneous. Most likely I shall ask everyone at the start of the session to throw something into the yoga melting pot, and I’ll mix it and cook it up into a delicious practise.

I have taught yoga since the late ‘seventies, training initially with the Bihar school (India) and later with Paul Harvey who brought the teachings of Krisnamacharya to UK under the name of ‘Viniyoga’. My lifelong passion is in health and wellbeing which has led me to study Ayurveda and to learn various massage and healing therapies. I have recently added Neurogenic Tremor Release to my list of skills.

In addition to my yogatherapy work, I run teacher training courses in classical Hatha Yoga accredited by Friends of Yoga (Int) a member of Yoga Alliance.

For more info click Colourfest and Buddhafield.