Friday 24 August 2012

Pelvic floor power

It's that time again... time for a little pelvic floor pulsing:
Wherever you are, whatever you're doing, right now try this:

1. Check in with your natural breath for a few rounds.
2. On an exhale, lift the muscles of the pelvic floor (for women, lift the muscles/walls of the vagina, a squeezing and lifting sensation - like you're trying to stop peeing and farting together - nice!).
3. On the inha
le continue to lift. Keep the face and jaw soft.

4. Lift a little more on the next exhale, then release at the end of this breath - release slowly, no thudding please!
5. Repeat ten times - rest between rounds for five to ten breaths if necessary.
Finish, if you're at home, by lying on the floor, corpse like, and just listen to the sound of your breath entering and leaving your body - count twenty breaths. 


Enjoy.

Am in the process of writing an article on the benefits of pelvic floor exercises but time is not on my side so I may be an old lady by the time I get round to it - hopefully an old lady with a great pelvic floor.

Thursday 9 August 2012

Class update

So we've been having a little break over the summer but from the 1st September classes are back on. Every Saturday from 9am, pregnancy yoga at the Cotswold Playhouse. Special introductory offer, bring a friend and the first class you both attend is half price.

From early Autumn I'll be starting a second Saturday morning class. This one will be Hatha yoga. The class will be a flowing sequence of postures with particular attention to alignment, all to a great soundtrack which I'll compile to help get you focussed.
This class will follow the pregnancy yoga class so probably at about 10.30am for one hour on a Saturday morning (maybe one hour and 15, details still to be confirmed). If you're interested please email me.

Sunday 1 July 2012

Inspiration for birth

What to expect when you're expecting doesn't have to be a painful labour, where fear has the upper hand. Yoga is one way women can help reconnect to their bodies during pregnancy. They can re-learn how their body moves, how it feels, and the relationship between the body and the mind. Through pregnancy yoga women can experience the glorious, expansive and powerful nature of 'the breath' – the giver of vitality, and enabler of control when the going gets tough.

I draw inspiration from many resources; the amazing Ina May Gaskin is, of course, on the list. Positive birth stories, stories that empower, are an essential part of my pregnancy yoga.

Recently I read to my class from Caitlin Moran's book, How to be a Woman:

"For this birth I don't lie on a bed, helpless – waiting for a baby to be delivered, by room service. I've been told to walk, and I do – I pace miles and miles like I'm on my way to Bethlehem. I use the hospital corridors like the slowest, fattest race track.... Gravity is the magic I couldn't find before, strapped to the bed two years ago. Gravity was the spell I should have invoked. I was looking in all the wrong grimoires.

"After four hours of pacing, everything changes, I know I have walked far enough. I climb into the pool, and push Nancy out in five, short bursts....  "'That was easy!' I shout, the first words out of my mouth, before she has even left the water... 'That was easy! Why doesn't anyone tell you it's so easy!'" 

I often dip into Ina May Gaskin's book, Spiritual Midwifery. One particular passage I like is Labouring mothers as elemental forces:

"The mother's state of consciousness goes through a very great change during the first stage of labour ... she becomes less of an individual personality and more like an elemental force, like a tornado, a volcano, an earthquake, or a hurricane, with its own laws of behaviour. This quality of women has been described as 'a great amorphous, gravity tides thing, electrochemical tropism, older and smarter than you, that always gets what it wants.'"

When preparing for birth, focus on the female as an elemental force, be it working with the power of gravity, movement, breath. You have the right, the strength and the ability to birth your baby without fear.

Wednesday 27 June 2012

Practice playlist

Music can have a profound effect on our mood and state of mind. So, when planning a playlist for a class I need to make sure that, firstly the music I use is music I connect with to ensure I teach from a place of authenticity and, secondly, that the music doesn't dominate but enhances the rhythm and pace of the class.

Music for home practice is a great way to help centre yourself and connect to your yoga. Music can help you focus and prevent the mind from wandering to the shopping list/planning your day/conversations etc while practicing your yoga.

My playlist for my latest pregnancy class is as follows, enjoy:

Shabda - The Purity by Rainer Tillman
Rag Desh - Alap by Benjy Wertheimer and Steve Gorn
Deeper Love (drums of life mix) by Bombay MC
Prescilla by Bat For Lashes
Teardrop by Massive Attack
Heart Sutra by Wah!
Song to the Siren by This Mortal Coil
Gayatri Mantra by Nada Shakti and Bruce Becvar
Chandra by Benjy Wertheimer and Steve Gor
Harmony by Tsering Tobgyai

Tuesday 8 May 2012

Flying

Making the most of the lovely space at the Cotswold Playhouse for a bit of self practice.

Monday 7 May 2012

My teachers...

My best students and teachers demonstrating Adho Mukha Svanasana and Urdhva Mukha Svanasana, Eka Pada Adho Mukha Svanasana and cow, and plank with a passenger.


Monday 23 April 2012

Pregnancy Playlist

Updating my playlist for the new Saturday morning class. Song to the Siren by This Mortal Coil has a great meditative quality so is on the shortlist, have a listen...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mUmdR69nbM&feature=related

Wednesday 28 March 2012

New class

Pregnancy yoga @ Cotswold Playhouse, Stroud
I have a new pregnancy yoga class in Stroud every Saturday morning, 9.00am to 10.30am at the Cotswold Playhouse on Parliament Street. It's a lovely airy studio and is a great place to practice. Please email for more information. Classes are ongoing so you can drop in any time, just email to reserve a place as you'll need an entry code for the building.

Thursday 22 March 2012

Home practice

A great new DVD is available to buy now from Anna Ashby. Anna Ashby is one of my teachers and I studied for my teaching diploma with her at Triyoga, London. She is incredibly grounded and this DVD helps students to practice safely at home with a 40-minute practice. The practice takes you through a carefully sequenced set of asanas that work the whole body and after a few runs through you should be practicing without realising you're even being guided by a DVD. Her verbal instructions are very precise and make it easy to not always be watching the screen to know what to do next. This means that, unlike other DVD's, you can immerse yourself in the practice, which is essentially what we want.

Also, accompanying the practice DVD is a guided meditation, a guide to terminology which is great for beginners as it covers some of the basics such as tailbone action, grounding of the hands etc, and a second disc which is for use in your computer and takes each of the asanas and allows you to study them in more detail with a 3D version of Anna and a guided run through of the posture with Anna and a student.

Click here for more information or to buy the DVD.

I would definitely recommend this to my students. I was given a copy for my birthday as well, living in Stroud I don't get to go to Anna's classes any more so this is the next best thing!

Tuesday 13 March 2012

Womb Yoga

Covering Uma's Womb Yoga class on 19th March, 7.30pm Subscription Rooms, Stroud.
It's a supportive class, exploring and nurturing  the power of the feminine no matter what stage in our cycle we are.

Wednesday 15 February 2012

Testimonials

"Thank you for your fantastic pregnancy yoga teaching.  I was a bit nervous at first as I had never done any yoga prior to your classes. But I needn't have been as I found your classes calming, relaxing and I have no doubt that the techniques I learnt from you helped enormously with the birth of my little girl.  I would highly recommend your pregnancy yoga classes for all expectant ladies."
Emma, North London


"I was thrilled that I could continue practising yoga with Emma throughout my pregnancy. Emma's teaching is calm and soothing and remains focused throughout the class. The sequence of stretches flowed seamlessly and by the end of each class I felt well stretched, calm and connected with my baby. The breathing exercises were wonderful for combating shortness of breath in later pregnancy and were also useful during labour. The various positions Emma taught us were also helpful during labour and the relaxation at the end of each class helped to focus my thoughts on my baby. My husband commented that I always came back from yoga serene and unstressed and I would recommend Emma's class to anyone who's pregnant, whether or not you've practised yoga before."
Sarah, North London

Sunday 12 February 2012

Waiting to exhale

Baby Iris was born in August after a speedy three hour labour from start to finish - she was in a hurry to see us I think. Humour, sound, breath control and movement all contributed to her enjoyable birth.

With our two daughters as our primary concern we decided to give up the London life and head for the country. In November we packed our bags and said goodbye to the circus and headed for beautiful hilly Gloucestershire. We've been incredibly busy since, with no time to spare, what with two little ones and a house in need of a lot of love and attention, so busy in fact that the physical practice of yoga seems a long way off. That said, I try to practice a little every day - even if it's just supported savasana at the end of the day,  basically collapsing in a heap on the floor when the two girls are in bed (but of course doing so while meditating on my sankalpa)!

I have every sympathy with my students when trying to find a class - life, work, children, relationships all demand our attention and there can often be very little time left to practice yoga and find a class with a teacher that we like, that fits in with everything else. The irony is that the busier we are the more we need yoga but the less time we seem to have for it. Equally being a mother of two (two years between them) is probably about the busiest I have ever been in my life and the most physically demanding time I have experienced - and (cruelly) at a time when energy levels are at their lowest. So if you're like me and aren't out there doing headstands or flying through vinyasas with abundant grace and energy - enjoy the exhale and make it a good long one - save flying for another day.