Yoga Terms and Weekly Emails
I teach yoga classes in five and six week terms, where the practices are designed and sequenced around philosophical themes like the different chakras, mudras, mantras, vayus, and more. We are currently in a pancha kosha term!
I write weekly emails to connect with everyone and share the details of the week’s yoga philosophy theme, with a hope to deepen our practice and honour the roots of yoga. You can read a sample on my blog or subscribe below!
Hatha Yoga Term
pancha kosha - the five bodies
May 4th - June 8th,
Sundays at 6:30pm
Thrive, Greystones
A six week exploration of what the yogis called the ‘pancha kosha’, our five layers of perceived reality. A system of acknowledging story, impermanence, inner knowing, and cultivating balance. We will work with the five primary elements as a way to accessibly understand and explore the koshas. All practices will be breath-focused and beginner friendly, with elements of strength building, flow, and relaxation.
Steal my yoga playlists!
Steal my yoga playlists!
The Pancha Kosha - Week 1 - Physical Body
I hope that you are well and enjoying this spontaneous heatwave, long may it last! I am writing to you today to announce that our new six-week yoga term will begin this Sunday, May 4th! Woohoo!!
I began these classes in Greystones with my eyes closed and my fingers crossed, knowing that it might only be a one term sort of thing. I cannot adequately express my amazement and delight that we can now go for a second term! Thank you so much to all who have shown up to classes, for the support and warmth, and for your gorgeous dedication to enjoying your weekends and taking some invaluable time to check in with yourself and your body.
I have designed this term's theme around the yogic concept of panchakosha; which translates in english to mean the five layers (pancha = five, koshas = layers); the five layers of the individual self. Last term we worked with the primary elements of earth, water, fire, air, and space, and explored how these correlated with the first five primary energy centres (chakras). This term, we will work in a similar way, as the panchakosha also ties in with the elements in a really fun and accessible way - yay!
You can think of the pancha kosha (five layers of the self) as something like a Russian doll surrounding your inner being...
The physical layer is thought of as the outermost layer, and you work inward from there. This physical layer of our reality, the 'food body', is known as annamaya kosha, and it is linked to the quality of earth. Going closer in towards the self, the atman, we see that the second layer, known as pranamaya kosha, is linked to the element of water, because it is the energetic body. A layer deeper lies the manomaya kosha, the mental/emotional body, which is linked to fire. Then there is the vijnanamaya kosha, the wisdom body, which is linked to air. And finally, the anandamaya kosha, the bliss body, linked to space.
The wisdom of these koshas, these layers of our self, is the understanding that each of us spend our lives primarily living in only two, maybe three, of our bodies. Most of us perceive reality only through our physical body and our mental/emotional body...perhaps our energetic body also. But all five bodies exist simultaneously, almost independent of each other, and we have access to them if we can align ourselves inward. The yogis believed that even if your life is in turmoil, even if you are feeling depressed, even if you are sick, there is a place deep within you that is wise and knows the way. And if you go even deeper than that, there is a whole and pure part of you that is living, constantly, in a state of bliss. Unconditionally. Modern day new age healers will call this your 'inner being', some will call it 'soul', some could even call it 'god'.
There is a lot to explore here! But don't worry, as in the end these will just be simple Hatha yoga classes where we connect to our breath, explore movement, think about alignment, have fun in different shapes, and take time to relax and rest. These philosophical themes are just a fun way for me to honour the traditions of yoga and remember that the practice of yoga goes so muchdeeper than just exercise and stretching.
Every practice will be beginner friendly, and I will do my utmost to support all bodies and moods in the space, offering modifications whenever I can, and freedom of choice always.
If you haven't signed up already, just send me a little email or text on whatsapp 0834585714. The price of the six classes together is €90, and the drop-in rate is €17. If you would like to participate in the term but know you can't make a class - let me know! We can talk about it and adjust the price in a fair way :)
The Guest House
This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.
Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.
~ Rumi ~
Le grá,
Macha
Week 2 - Pranamaya Kosha - The Energetic Body
Hello everyone,
Thank you so much to all who came for practice last Sunday for the first class of our brand new term! It was an absolute joy to be there and facilitate as we moved with the element of earth through the annamaya kosha - the physical layer of the pancha kosha! Ah, sooo cool! We grounded down, explored physical sensations, and threw ourselves off balance a few times ;)
In today's world, where it's so easy to live primarily through the mental/emotional body and try to think our way out of problems, balancing postures can be a powerful reminder to anchor into the moment, and let that anchoring be the answer. There are few more true 'yoga' moments than when you are falling - because you're in a state of surrender. To get back up and try again, this then becomes the counterpart of stirha (steadiness) and sadhana (dedication to practice). And this is what it's all about!
This Sunday May 11th we will explore the second layer of the pancha kosha: the pranamaya kosha. You may recognise the word prana as it relates to the well known word for breathwork in sanskrit: 'pranayama' - which literally means to consciously guide one's life force...
a.k.a....to breathe!
So, the word prana means life force, your energy, and the word maya (as in pranamaya kosha, the energetic layer of the panchakosha) means illusion; as in, a perception of reality. Pranamaya kosha can then be described as the energetic perception of our reality; our energetic body.
Have you ever walked into a room and felt immediate tension without knowing why? Or felt a stranger's suffering on the train as surely as you might feel your own? Have you ever indulged in a bath or a shower after a long day and experienced the immediate, undeniable relief? This is the pranamaya kosha. It is associated with the quality of water - because it is fluid, changeable, easily contamable, buoyant, and free.
I was once told by a teacher that my pranamaya kosha (energetic body) was so dominant that she could see me swaying even as I tried to sit still, and that my energetic boundaries were almost non-existent. She told me that water needs structure to hold its form - if you pour it out on a flat surface, it will go everywhere and disappear. I was training to be a yoga therapist at the time, and she asked me bluntly how I could expect to hold space for someone if I was constantly pouring myself into them and becoming their suffering.
Put the water in a strong glass, she said, and it will hold its power.
In other words, balance is key. The energetic body can be an amazing tool when the fires of the mind get too hot and you need something to put the blaze out. This is why swimming, sweating, showering, yelling, crying, can all be so healing for an angry heart. Empathy and compassion are skills that cannot be undervalued in our world. But living too much in the energy body can be like walking around with no skin - painful, exposed, and without the power to help those whose pain you take you on so bravely.
Woah, okay - a lot to uncover here in the pranamaya kosha! Essentially, however, this Sunday we will simply work to focus on energy and what that means to you. Practically, we will explore several fun breathwork practices, discover stirha and strength in standing postures, and cleanse any pent up stress you may have with age-old Kundalini techniques and a grounding meditation/relaxation to close :)
I can't wait to see you there! If you haven't signed up already, please send me a little message to save your spot. If you have any questions at all, just let me know :)
Where Many Rivers Meet
By David Whyte
All the water below me came from above.
All the clouds living in the mountains
gave it to the rivers
who gave it to the sea, which was their
dying.
And so I float on cloud become water,
central sea surrounded by white
mountains,
the water salt, once fresh,
clouds fall and streams rush, tree root and
tide bank
leading to the rivers' mouths
and the mouths of the rivers sing into the
sea,
the stories buried in the mountains
give out into the sea
and the sea remembers
and sings back
from the depth
where nothing is forgotten.
Le grá,
Macha
Week 3 - Manomaya Kosha - The mental/emotional body
Hello everyone,
Thank you to all who flowed with me last week for our exploration of the pranayamaya kosha, the energetic body. It was an invigorating practice, offering an invitation for release and renewal - just like the beautiful full moon last night! The May flower moon is a threshold time, potent, mysterious, and deeply regenerative. As the sunny days grow longer and more delightful, a moon-lit sky asks us quietly: what are you willing to let go of?
A negative belief pattern? A hard-held, stubborn goal? An over-packed schedule? A need to control? Write it down on a piece of paper and burn it. Or bury it. Turn it into compost and watch what grows. I know a teacher who says that a thing cannot be released if you continue to hold it with your attention. Forgive it to let it die, and turn your mind to what can take its place.
This week we are returning to the element of fire, but in a very different way than last term! Now we are incorporating the layer of the mind - manoymaya kosha, into our journey through the koshas. The mind body is linked to the element of fire for obvious reasons. Fast. Controlling. Destructive. Powerful. Transformative. Busy. Wild. Purposeful. Emphatic. Clarifying. Whereas in March last term we utilised the fire element to ignite energy, agni, in the body - give a spring to our step, if you will - this week, in light of a steady summer flow, we'll instead use the awareness of fire to calm, cool, and focus the mind.
If you've ever watched the movie 'Kung Fu Panda' (yes, Kung Fu Panda), you may remember the scene where grand master oogway, the tortoise, tells Po that your mind is like a shallow pond of water through which you are trying to see your own reflection. When the water is agitated, all you see is illusion. But if you can still the water, allow it to grow calm, the answer becomes clear.
When we work with the manomaya kosha, which is to say; when we work with the mental/emotional perception of our reality, this is the wise way forward. Calm the busy mind. Allow the likes and the dislikes, the worries and agitations, the futile resentments, the obsession with identity, the desire to be understood, accepted, validated - let it all relax, and observe through clear water that you are something far more and far deeper.
Yoga teaches us that the only way to quiet the mind is by consciously returning your focus to something that is happening in the present moment. Your breath. The noise in the room. The space around you. A mantra. A mudra. A sensation. A feeling. But sometimes, when the momentum of the mind is truly strong, the easiest way to come into presence is with a bit of swift, structured movement. A balancing pose where we can focus our dristi, gaze, on the floor, and rise up by rooting deep. If you light a fire of awareness in the body, it takes that energy away from the mind. That's why people love to run, go to the gym, seek adventures climbing rocks and jumping off tall things - the mandatory attention to the present moment allows space in the mind, and if there is space in the mind, there is clarity in life. And also a great, buoyant relief.
So, all that to say that this Sunday May 18th, the name of the game is stress relief! It will be a good one. Expect to breathe deeply, move camly, find balance, and enjoy a special invitation for a guided meditation, taught to me by my loveliest teacher ever, Sadhu Shri.
If you haven't booked in, feel free to send a little message to save your space :) Class is as always at 6:30pm at Thrive, Greystones. Wishing you lots of ease and light!
The Peace of Wild Things
When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.
By Wendell Berry
Le grá,
Macha
Week 4 - Vijnanamayakosha - The wisdom body
Hello everyone,
Wishing you all a very happy Tuesday! Thank you so much to those who came for practice last week, where we endeavoured to explore yoga as a tool to calm the manomaya kosha, the mental/emotional body. As we continue inward now through the koshas, the yogic layers of our perception, we arrive at the vijnanamaya kosha - the wisdom body. And this is where it starts to get really interesting!
The wisdom body is the fourth layer of our koshas, which are the sheaths of reality surrounding the atman, the true self. We all know this body well.
The wisdom body is a sensory body, a feeling body. It is the right instinct to run without first having a rational cause. It is the whisper on the wind that says go there, not that way, not just yet, this is it, wait, go now. If you have read and felt Clarissa Pinkola Estes' book: Women who Run with Wolves, then you will have a very deep understanding of the wisdom body. If you haven't read it - do yourself a favour! It has absolutely nothing to do with yoga - ha! But it is a worthy read; a Jungian psycho-analyst's take on how ancient mythical stories parrell the feminine journey from unconscious to conscious. In the book, she speaks with incredible detail on what it means to have deep, inner knowing, and how to trust it.
While the vijnanamaya kosha (the wisdom body) is mysterious, subtle, changeable, and based in sensation, even a sixth sense - you may also recognize your wisdom body as being the place where your higher moral guidance dwells; your conscience, your compassion, your discipline, your purpose. The yogis described it as your intellect, your 'higher mind'. The manomaya kosha, which we explored last week, was then described as your 'lower mind' - full of thoughts, emotions, and reactions. I think it's interesting to point out that Carl Jung (who defined a lot of the psychology we understand today) made a very similar distinction between emotions and feelings. He said that emotions are unconscious reactions to a situation, and that feelings are in fact a form of true and rational communication of what the situation is. Essentially, where the manomaya kosha/emotional mind can be full of illusion (suffering, bondage, fear, desire) - the vijnanamaya kosha/feeling mind is always pointed towards truth, and the ability to create with purpose in the world.
Abraham Hicks, another non-yogi, speaks wonderfully about something very similar; calling what the yogi's refer to as the wisdom body, your guidance system. The idea is to simply use your present moment feelings (good feelings vs bad feelings) as your guide, and understand that the universal law of attraction will bring more of whatever you give attention to and follow. Basically, follow what brings you relief. Essentially, if something feels good, then it will lead you somewhere good. And visa versa.
I like to think of the wisdom body in this way; not so much as an 'inner voice of divine wisdom' in my head (because I think this can get so messy!), but rather as a simple feeling of: oh, that's a bit of a relief, I might just follow that. And, oh, that's even more of a relief, maybe I'll choose to let that go and do this instead. Maybe I'll say no this time. Oh, thank god (!!) I said no! Now, this feels great. And now, okay, maybe I'll say yes to that. That feels really fun. That feels really easy. That feels free. That feels a lot better.
I think we need to come away from this esoteric idea of spirituality. Some of the most spiritual, present, wise, healthy people I know are just everyday people. You do not need to go to an Ashram in India to experience your wisdom body, and you definitely don't need to take ayahuasca in Brazil to know your purpose or experience your true self (ha!). Spending quiet time in wild, open nature is usually enough for most people to feel it. And loving and appreciating another, I think that's about as good as it gets.
Ahhhhh these emails are getting cheesier and cheesier every week! My apologies. I really love to write these letters - so if you are still reading, thank you!
Yoga this Sunday is on at 6:30pm in Thrive, as usual, and there are a handful of drop in spaces available so please reach out if you'd like to save your space :)
All the blessings in the world,
In Blackwater Woods
Look, the trees
are turning
their own bodies
into pillars
of light,
are giving off the rich
fragrance of cinnamon
and fulfillment,
the long tapers
of cattails
are bursting and floating away over
the blue shoulders
of the ponds,
and every pond,
no matter what its
name is, is
nameless now.
Every year
everything
I have ever learned
in my lifetime
leads back to this: the fires
and the black river of loss
whose other side
is salvation,
whose meaning
none of us will ever know.
To live in this world
you must be able
to do three things:
to love what is mortal;
to hold it
against your bones knowing
your own life depends on it;
and, when the time comes to let it go,
to let it go.
Mary Oliver
Le grá,
Macha
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