Group Yoga Classes

Group yoga classes enable clients to access high quality sessions at an affordable price, by splitting the cost of tuition across a number of people.  Like all good teachers, members of our team are able to adjust their delivery to meet each individuals learning objectives.  All attendees of group yoga classes will also receive support materials that can be referred to outside of class.   If you are new to yoga or believe that you would benefit from a more personalised service, please refer to information on our private yoga classes.

I am not very flexible, will I be able to do yoga?

Yes absolutely!  Being extremely flexible, does not mean that you are good at Yoga.  It merely means that you have kept active and not engaged in activities that have shortened your muscles or damaged them.   Anyway, yoga is not about being able to scratch your nose with your toe (would you want to do this anyway?).  The physical asana are just part of a bigger picture which involves breathing exercises (pranayama) and meditation, amongst other things.  The reason that yoga is the short hand term for all the bendy stuff is that it is stage one in the journey, a stage that a majority of people do not look past.

If I meditate, do I need to separately practice mindfulness?

In our experience , if the former occurs with an open heart, the latter will quite naturally follow. Indeed not behaving mindfully when you are away from “the mat”, can be likened to cooking a tasty meal, but not eating it. You’ve spent all that time preparing, but you’re missing the main event… And to some of us, thats just what life is, the main event, and it will happen to you, regardless of whether you appreciate or hide from it…

I am new to this, how do I get started?

We will discuss your reasons for becoming interested in yoga, what you are looking to get out of it, as well as your expectations.   You are free to engage as deeply as you wish with subject, some clients just like to attend a weekly session, whilst others appreciate the reading lists & video lectures which we offer.

Client development is regularly tracked and a portion of time is allocated to reflect on what is working and what is not.  These adjustments are made and the changes will be evaluated at a later date.

Where does yoga come from?  What is its history?

The origins of what we now call yoga cannot be pinned down absolutely, but It is generally accepted that the first people to formally practice meditation a core part of what yoga is, lived on the Indian subcontinent over 7,000 years ago.

Many people point to the view that meditation – which forms a huge part of Yoga – is a tantric practice originally followed by devotees of Shiva. Indeed the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, from the 15th century, states that it was developed by a tantric sage with the same name. Other written sources, such as the Shiva Samhita, claim the same thing. That is why in India, Shiva is called the King of Yoga. He is believed to have lived on the subcontinent during the first Vedic Aryan invasion of India over 7,000 years ago.

Subsequently meditation became integrated within wider Hindu society and overtime also became part of Buddhism, itself a development of that societies practices. Approximately 600BC, Siddhartha Gautama (Buddha) reached “enlightenment” by meditating under a Bodhi Tree. The major break between Buddhism and Hinduism occurred, as Buddha’s followers did not believe meditation to be a means of getting closer to a higher being – a God, but rather as a means of realising one’s interconnectedness with all things.

More or less in parallel with the development of Buddhism, Daoism (also known as Taoism due historic issues in translation) was on the rise in China. Daoism, is a philosophical tradition of Chinese origin which emphasises living in harmony with the Dao. Dao is a word signifying the “way” or “key”. Dao is the intuitive knowing of “life” that cannot be grasped whole-heartedly as just a concept, but has to be known through actual living experience of one’s everyday being.

Unsurprisingly, when followers of Buddhism and Daoism met, they had quite a lot in common, and started to adopt each others practices. Culminating in Zen Buddhism. Zen emphasises rigorous self-control, meditation-practice, insight into Buddha-nature, and the personal expression of this insight in daily life, especially for the benefit of others. It de-emphasises knowledge of texts, and favours direct understanding through Zazen – the nature of existence.

In more recent times people like Tirumalai Krishnamacharya studied the 196 Yoga Sutras of Patanjali and brought them to life for the modern world.  The 8 components or limbs of yoga Patanjali identified were later incorporated into Ashtanga Yoga by  Pattabhi Jois, a student of Krishnamacharya.  Ashtanga is one flavour of yoga among many, the classes tend to follow prescribed sequences that increase in difficulty as you move through the classes.  Yoga Wellbeing does not teach Ashtanga yoga specifically.  We put together specific classes that suite the requirements of each client.