Week One - Introducing the Chakras and a New Term

Hello everyone,

I hope that you all had a gorgeous Christmas! I am writing to you this evening from my mother's tiny office on Inis Mór, with a hot water bottle in my lap and no sense of what day it is. I think this time of year is magic. Soft days where even small tasks feel enormous, and so all is graciously put off in place of sleeping and eating and cosying up to watch movies. I hope that you are taking precious time for yourself. For myself, however, I am aware that tomorrow morning I have to walk down to the pier painfully early and leave on the ferry.... I'm gearing myself up for that. Time to wake up. I have a new years eve party to go to! 

Thank you from the bottom of my heart to everyone who has signed up to our two new yoga terms at Thrive in Greystones. We will begin this Sunday the 4th and move together every Sunday evening until February 1st. I can't wait! There will be a Hatha Yoga practice at 5pm, and a Soft Stretch Yoga practice at 6:30pm. Both practices are all levels friendly, but the Hatha class is a little more fluid and focused on strength building and energetic alignment, where as the Soft Stretch will be a slower paced practice, with mostly floor-based poses, and we will make full use of all our lovely yoga props and bolsters for cosy supported stretches and deep relaxation through meditation and pranayama (breathwork). There is still a tiny bit of space left in both classes, if you'd like to sign up! Just let me know - there is a drop in option for €17, or you can commit to the full five week term for just €75 :) 

I want to keep this letter short today, but as per tradition I would like to introduce our yoga philosophy theme for the new term! For each yoga term we move with a different intention and focus, honouring the deeper roots of yoga and opening the door for the potential mind-body connection that studying yoga philosophy can offer. *don't worry, most of the philosophy is shared via this blog and is completely optional! I like to keep the classes themselves focused on physical embodiment and breathing, which makes this blog the dedicated place for intellectualising the term yoga theme and bringing the sadhana into your daily life - if you'd like to. 

I'm really excited for this term's theme because it is one of my all-time favourite topics: demystifying the first three yogic chakras. 

You have probably heard of the chakras. If you haven't, this course is a great place to start. The chakras in western yoga can get a strange reputation...they can come off a little mystical and woowoo. I was once guided not to name a yoga class 'chakra alignment' due to how much it would put everyday people off. Which in retrospect was a wise piece of advice. But I think this is due to a big misunderstanding about these energy centres (that's what chakras are, by the way! Swirling circles of subtle energy or prana, moving at specific points along the spine and completely invisible to the naked eye...okay...I can see how that might come off a little woowoo). For me, though, the chakras offer an essential system for connecting my physical body to my psyche and observing how they relate to and heal each other. Everything I've ever studied about psychosomatics in psychology, which is the observation of how the mind can have direct and real effects on the body and vice versa, ties in seamlessly with what was observed and written about the chakras some 3,500 years ago in the Vedas. 

The gist is this: our thoughts affect our physical health, and our physical health affects our mental health. The chakras are the doorway to understanding this connection deeper and in a more systematic way. In simpler terms, we have seven primary energy centres called chakras running along our spine. Each energy centre is linked to a physical space (and its physical functions) as well as a psycho-emotional space (specific emotions and how we feel about ourselves in different areas of life). In yoga, it is believed that to release an energy centre in one sense (i.e. to heal your relationship to home and safety) will automatically have a beneficial physical effect in the area of your body where that chakra is located (improving excretion, digestion, skin, bone health, low back pain, fertility etc.). And it goes both ways! That's where the physical yoga practice comes in. What if we moved in a way that could physically open our heart space...flowing through a sequence that was fun and enlivening, with backbends and balancing postures...but that would simultaneously empower us to feel more courage in our relationships? More open? I have felt it. To connect mind and body in this way has been an irreplaceable practice in my life. It's why I love yoga.

So that's our theme! We have five weeks to look at the first three chakras. This Sunday, we're keeping it simple with a gentle introduction to prana. This is the essential energy that runs up and down the spine and which makes up an energy centre (chakra). Both classes this Sunday will be easy-going, welcoming, fun, with lovely breath-work and lots of invitations for cultivating greater awareness, intentional movement, and soft flow. It will be fantastic for energy levels, setting new year intentions, opening up your posture, and stabilising core and back muscles. I can't wait to see you there! 

If you have any questions or concerns, or if you would like to sign up for a class or for either yoga term, please get in touch :) I am wishing you a very happy new year. I'll sign off with my favourite poem to read at the end of December…a beautiful thing to read when beginning again.

FOR A NEW BEGINNING

In out-of-the-way places of the heart,

Where your thoughts never think to wander,

This beginning has been quietly forming,

Waiting until you were ready to emerge.

For a long time it has watched your desire,

Feeling the emptiness growing inside you,

Noticing how you willed yourself on,

Still unable to leave what you had outgrown.

It watched you play with the seduction of safety

And the gray promises that sameness whispered,

Heard the waves of turmoil rise and relent,

Wondered would you always live like this.

Then the delight, when your courage kindled,

And out you stepped onto new ground,

Your eyes young again with energy and dream,

A path of plenitude opening before you.

Though your destination is not yet clear

You can trust the promise of this opening;

Unfurl yourself into the grace of beginning

That is at one with your life's desire.

Awaken your spirit to adventure;

Hold nothing back, learn to find ease in risk;

Soon you will home in a new rhythm,

For your soul senses the world that awaits you.

John O'Donohue

Le grá,

Macha