Week Five - Sacred Foundations, A Lower Chakra Practice
Hello everyone,
Just like that - we are already coming to our final practice of the term this Sunday at Thrive. Thank you all so much for being there this month and for moving with me :) We will be flowing straight into a new term after this - so if you missed the term in January there is an opportunity to start fresh with a new Sunday evening rhythm on February 8th :)
The new yoga term will run February 8th - March 1st. A four week block of Sunday classes with your choice of Hatha Flow at 5pm, or Soft Stretch Yoga at 6:30pm. Only €60 for all four weeks when you sign up for the term - but of course there is also a drop-in option for €17 (subject to availability). If you're interested in signing up for a class or a term, please let me know and I'll save you a space :)
If you've been coming to class and/or following along with these emails recently, you know that for the past few weeks we've been exploring the first three subtle body energy centres, known as chakras, during our practices together. Because there are often thought to be seven primary chakras in the body, I've decided to continue with this theme into our new term! So, in February, we will carry on walking slowly up this subtle body path, exploring the higher chakras which are heart, throat, third eye, and crown centres - in sanskrit these are anahatha chakra, vishuddha chakra, ajna chakra, and sahasrara chakra. Check it out!
*There is still absolutely no experience or knowledge of yoga necessary to join these classes, by the way! Both Sunday yoga practices will remain beginner friendly and open to people of all levels and interests. Most of our fun philosophical yogic chat will be focused here in this email each week; my way of offering a gentle dive into the fascinating world of yoga philosophy and psychosomatic connection; how the mind and body connect and relate to each other - a universal relationship of interdependence and equilibrium discovered by ancient yogis as early as 500B.C.!! Woohoo!
This Sunday for our final practices of the current term, though, we will be honouring and revisiting the three lower chakras of root, sacral, and solar plexus centres...manipura chakra, svadhisthana chakra, manipura chakra...in what will be a special 'foundational trio' yoga class. By nature, our first three energy centres are related to the physical world, and therefore are fundamental for our overall health and wellbeing.
Root chakra, spins at the base of your spine = safety and trust. This is the feeling of EARTH.
Sacral chakra, spins in the bowel of your pelvis = pleasure and creative joy. This is the feeling of WATER.
Solar plexus chakra, spins in your low belly (your gut) = success, balance, and power. This is the feeling of FIRE.
As the chakras get higher up the body, the focus slowly peels away from the physical and moves up towards the realms of personal relationships - the mind with its many restraints and tools - and eventually towards more expansive places of loving awareness and spirituality. The highest chakras, specifically the top two, are often the most scoffed at and/or the most obsessed over (!), because they deal with these realms of ether, spiritual intuition, and more celestial concepts like energy (prana), the universe (brahmāṇḍa), and the divine or a deeper consciousness (purusha). In fact, the top chakra isn't even thought of as being inside the body, but rather floating above it!
For our class this Sunday, to close out the term and prepare for new beginnings (hello spring!), you can expect to ground down and anchor to your breath (root), enjoy fluid movement that feels free in your body (sacral), and connect to your unique central alignment for inner power and knowing (solar plexus). It will be a fun one!
Let me know if you'd like to come along, I have a few drop in spaces available this week for both the Hatha and Soft Stretch practices :)
Wishing you lots of light and love.
"Within the grip of winter, it is almost impossible to imagine spring.
The gray perished landscape is shorn of color.
Only bleakness meets the eye; everything seems severe and edged.
Winter is the oldest season; it has some quality of the absolute.
Yet beneath the surface of winter, the miracle of spring is already in preparation;
The cold is relenting; seeds are waking up.
Colors are beginning to imagine how they will return.
Then, imperceptibly, somewhere one bug opens and the symphony of renewal is no longer reversible.
From the black heart of winter a miraculous, breathing plenitude of color emerges."
From 'To Bless the Space Between Us'
by John O Donohue.
Le grá,
Macha
