September 2012

It is so lovely to be back after the summer break.  Autumn is definitely on its way with the morning and evenings becoming cooler but oh how lovely the days have been.

It has been such a joy to get back on the mat and share in the joy of Yoga with both new and familiar faces.  I have seen a few students return to the mat after some time away and how lovely to hear a common thread of “I have come back to class and it has been so lovely.  I have been asking myself why was I away for so long?”  

I came across this quote today and thought it so apt

“ Every class is a good class.  The worst class is the one you dont come to”

Yoga brings so many people from all abilities and all walks of life so much Joy.  It helps make you feel wonderful.  I really miss it and notice the difference in my self, my attitude and my physical body if I do not take the time out for myself and my practice.  I hear the same story from so many of you.  So why is it that sometimes we take so long to get back on the mat?  Life gets in the way.  We are so busy, our lives tend to be a constant juggle of activities and deadlines.  How funny is it then that when we make time for ourselves, when we are finally able to get on the mat, that things seem to flow better in our lives.  Yoga gives us head space, life just seems to flow easier.

“Yoga is more than just exercise... When I am on my mat, I remember to just be.”

It is so important to your wellbeing to take time out for yourself and it truly has a knock on affect to every element of your life.  As I mentioned before life just seems to flow.  Yoga for me helps me to put life’s chaos into perspective.  Become the person I want to be, happier, more patient and understanding.  Yoga helps me see the Joy in life surrounding me, helping me to focus on the positive of life, rather than focusing on what is missing.  We all should practice that.

This week with it being my little girls 3^rd birthday I have really been thinking about the Joy that she has brought me since entering this world.  Children are so innocent and do not carry around the baggage that we as adults tend to.  It is so easy to love children unconditionally.  The challenge in life is cultivating that feeling for others around us especially those that we have most difficulty with.  We have been focusing on opening the heart chakra, the centre of where we both give and receive love.  We have been practicing cultivating love in our heart and sending it to those in our lives, those that we find it easy to love, friends partners etc.  Those that we are indifferent to, the person sitting next to you in class, the person you passed in the street, the postman etc, and then the biggest challenge of all to those that we have difficulty with.

Life is easier when we do not hold on to negative emotions that eat us up from our core.  Learn to let go, learn to experience Joy.  The hardest thing about your Yoga Practice is getting on the mat!  Make your intention now, i’d love to see you, you know you are always welcome! Xxxx

Classes

Monday

Inner Space, Maude Grey court (off St Benedicts) 7:30pm

Wednesday

Catton Church Hall, Blacksmiths Way, Old Catton 9:30am

News

Pregnancy Yoga

The next Pregnancy Yoga course commences 6:30pm  17 October

Learn how to have a gentle birth experience with breathing techniques, relaxation and visualisation techniques plus birthing positions. Stretch your pregnancy aches away, help insomnia and a great way to meet new mums to be. £50 for a six week course includes all equipment and refreshments

Contact Jessica@blissyoganorwich to book your space.

Baby Yoga

The next course commences 1:30pm 18 October

Learn Songs and rhymes to gentle Yoga moves. Aids sleep, digestion co-ordination and much more.  £42 for a six week course, includes all equipment, handouts and refreshments

Contact Jessica@blissyoganorwich to book your space.

Active Baby Yoga

The next course commences 1:30pm 18 October

Be more active with your baby.  Lots of new songs and Yoga moves for both you and your Active Baby.  £42 for a six week course includes all equipment, balls, scarves, noisy toys etc. handouts and refreshments

Contact Jessica@blissyoganorwich to book your space.

Workshops

Birth Preparation workshop

For you and your birthing partner to learn breathing techniques, birthing positions, relaxation and massage techniques.  Plus loads of handy information to help you on your baby's birthing day.

When:  Saturday 27 October 1:30-4:30pm

Where: Baptist Church Hall Silver Road

Cost: £35 per couple 

Contact jessica@blissyoganorwich.co.uk for further information and reservations.

Last but not least a BIG thank you to those that came along to the Forum and/or donated money for the Yoga Aid challenge.  The wonderful Yoga community within Norwich has managed to raise a massive £590 for several well deserving charities around the world.  For more information you can check out Yoga Aid

Bliss Yoga Norwich Summer Newsletter

Dear Friends and Yogi’s

The summer holidays and the Olympics are here!  I am especially enjoying the gymnastics. For most we are experiencing new routines with the children being out of school, imagination is running wild with new adventures to be had.  Enjoy the sun, when it peeks out from behind the clouds.  Norfolk is such a beautiful place to live.  Woodland, broads, coast all within half an hour of the city centre.   Why not check out http://www.enjoynorthnorfolk.com for inspiration and ideas.

Thank you to all of you that attended the Yoga Nidra Workshop on Saturday.  I really enjoyed teaching the workshop and seeing my different groups come together  Feedback has been most encouraging and there is interest to attend another Yoga Nidra workshop or similar in the future so watch this space for future workshops and events. 

I am always happy to hear feedback so if there is a particular area or subject that interests you please let me know.

Most classes have now finished for the Summer. I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your dedication and commitment to your practice.  It is so wonderful for me to see even subtle changes to each and every one of you. Looking stronger in poses, bringing softness to your face during meditation being more receptive and experimenting more with your individual posture, listening to your body, even being able to move your toes for the first time.  If you attend Pregnancy Yoga it is so wonderful for me to see you connect with your baby growing inside you or hearing about your gentle birth experience.  If you attend Baby Yoga I may get to see your baby roll or laugh for the first time.   It is so rewarding for me and I thank you for being a part of my community.

Will you miss Yoga during the holidays?  Bliss Yoga Norwich is teaching Yoga and Baby Yoga at the Harlequin Fayre 10-12 August.  Visit http://www.harlequinfayre.co.uk for more information. It would be lovely to see you there.

Classes return 03 September.

Monday 

- Inner Space, off St Benedicts  19:30hrs

Wednesday

-          Catton, Blacksmiths Way 09:30hrs

-          Pregnancy Yoga, Silver Road 18:15 &19:45hrs

Thursday

-Baby Yoga, Silver Road 13:30hrs

- NEW! Active Baby Yoga, silver Road 15:00hrs

BLISS ACTIVE BABY YOGA STARTING IN SEPTEMBER

Exciting news.  Starting 06 September 3pm

For babies from around 9 months until approx 18 months.  This is for babies that are sitting, crawling or walking. Get more active as your baby does.  This course follows on from Bliss Baby Yoga although no experience is necessary. Mums , dads or carers welcome.

Learn songs and nursery rhymes to yoga moves that you can take home and play with.  Meet new people. Bond with your child.  Yoga helps co-ordination, build confidence and strength, helps sleep. Enjoy a relaxation at the end of the class.  Have fun with your baby and get fit too. 

 

INTRODUCTORY OFFER!! Join Bliss Yoga in celebrating the start of a new adventure, a six week course only £35 – usual price £42 including all equipment, mats, balls, scarves, musical instruments, handouts and refreshments.

Contact Jessica@blissyoganorwich.co.uk for further details and reservations.

YOGA AID WORLD CHALLENGE

On Sept 2nd I am taking part in a 2hr Yoga Aid World Challenge to raise money for an Orphanage in the Himalayas. 2hours non-stop yoga posture practice in a variety of yoga styles by teachers from across Norfolk.
Manjushree Vidyapith Orphanage is set in the Himalayas almost 11,000 feet above sea level, in a village called Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh, India.
Manjushree is home to 150 children of Monpa ethnicity (Buddhist with a close cultural and spiritual relationship to Tibet). These children study, play, grow vegetables, learn yoga and look after each other all in this place. Over the past five years, Yoga Aid has had a close relationship with Manjushree and this year a new dormitory, funded through Yoga Aid Challenges as well as through the Foundation will finally be completed! This dormitory will provide extra living space for 80 children, as well as study space for the older residents.

There are two things you can do to help.

1) Sponsor my efforts here
2) Come and join in and get yourself sponsored here

Happy holidays

Much love xx

Yoga Nidra Workshop

 

Saturday 28 July

The Baptist Church Hall

Silver Road, NR3 4TE

10:30am-1pm

This is a fantastic opportunity to share in an extended practice.  We will focus on our breath, starting to allow the mind to calm.  We will share in an extended asana practice, detoxing our physical body, strengthening our muscles and increasing flexibility.  We will then practice an extended blissful Yoga Nidra.

Yoga Nidra is a conscious state of deep relaxation that enables you to de stress and reduce tension and anxiety. It uses guided imagery and body scanning to aid relaxation, release muscular, emotional, and mental tensions. Yoga Nidra helps to bring an inner calmness and clarity. Yoga Nidra can help with depression, insomnia, digestive disorders and all stress related disorders that can drain you physically.   Yoga Nidra is a form of meditation that helps to gently focus the mind, while allowing thought patterns, emotions, sensations, and images to arise and go on.   You can train the subconscious mind and release old habits. In Yoga Nidra, you leave the Waking state, go past the Dreaming state, and go to Deep Sleep, yet remain awake.  It is said that 15 minutes of Yoga Nidra is like having one hour of deep restful sleep.

Come and share in this wonderful opportunity to really heal and nourish yourself and your mind.

Workshop £25

Seniors/early bird booking (before 08 July) £20

Contact Jessica@blissyoganorwich.co.uk  07501 303 546 for reservations

Bliss Yoga Norwich June Newsletter

When was the last time you looked at the clouds and just watched them sail by forming shapes with them in your mind?  

Time is a funny concept.  It seems like forever that we have been living in our new house yet it has only been a matter of weeks.  Yoga teaches us that time is an illusion.  The present is fleeting and cannot be grasped and the past and the future are non-existent in the present but when we are fully present (here now) time passes unnoticed.

See Swami Sivanandas explanation below....

‘ When the mind is fully concentrated, time passes unnoticed, as if it did not exist. When the mind is focused, there is no time! Time is nothing but a modification of the mind. Time, Space, and causation and all external experiences are mental creation.

All happiness achieved through the mind is temporary and fleeting; it is limited by nature. To achieve that state of lasting happiness and absolute peace, we must first know how to calm the mind, to concentrate and go beyond the mind. By turning the mind's concentration inward, upon the self, we can deepen that experience of perfect concentration. This is the state of Meditation".

The Techniques of Meditation

Meditation is an experience that cannot be described, just as colours cannot be described to a blind man. All ordinary experience is limited by Time, Space and Causation. Our normal awareness and understanding do not transcend these bounds.

Finite experience, which is measured in terms of past, present and future, cannot be transcendental. Concepts of time are illusory, for they have no permanence. The present, immeasurably small and fleeting, cannot be grasped. Past and future are non-existent in the present. We live in illusion.

The meditative state transcends all such limitations. In it there is neither past nor future, but only the consciousness of "I am" in the eternal NOW. It is only possible when all mental modifications are stilled.

During the several weeks that we have been living in Horning home improvements have been constant, family have visited and at times my head has been spinning.  I have felt the need to meditate, cultivate happiness and let go of the future and the past more than ever.  We will be exploring more on meditation in the coming weeks.

This week we have been looking at how Yoga is not just exercise but is so very healing for the mind and the body. Yes we can nourish our physical body but as explained in the Yogic concept of the body (a multi layered Jacket) each layer or Kosha nourishes the next.  There are 5 layers or Koshas each becoming more subtle as you travel inwards.

Anandamaya Kosha – The physical body

Pranamaya Kosha – The energy body

Manumaya Kosha – The lower or thinking mind

Vijnamaya Kosha -  The higher or psychic mind

Anandamaya Losha – The bliss Body – our Inner Self

If we do not nourish our subtle inner layer the outer manifestation of our body becomes disordered and unharmonious.  So how can we nourish our Inner Self.  Take time for ourselves.  Sit and breathe. 

Nadi Shodhana or alternate nostril breathing is a very balancing healing pranayama practice.

Sit comfortably.

Raise your right hand in a fist. Extend thumb, little and ring finger.  Place Ring finger and thumb to your nostrils.  Thumb closes the right nostril and ring finger closes the left.  Try and keep your thumb and finger in connection with your nostrils throughout the practice.

Take a deep breath in through both nostrils then out through both nostrils.  Block your right nostril and inhale with the left, at the top of your inhalation block both then release the right nostril and exhale out through the right. Inhale right, at the top of your inhale block both then release the left nostril and exhale out through the left.  That is one complete round.  Continue in your own timing breathing full and deeply into your belly and chest.  Never force the breath, keep it flowing with ease.

Continue for several minutes (15 or more if you have the time) then release your hand and place it gently onto your thigh.  Focus your breath on both nostrils noticing the sensations here.  When you are ready slowly open your eyes keeping your gaze soft.

You are ready to head into your day feeling fresh, recharged and revitalized.

UP AND COMING WORKSHOPS

 

I have had some great feedback about practicing Yoga Nidra in class, except that it is not long enough!  This gave me an idea and I would like to offer a workshop 2.5 hours of practice including Pranayama (breath awareness) Asanas (postures) and a lovely long Yoga Nidra.  The workshop is to be held on Silver Road at the Baptist Church Hall on Saturday 21 July, 10:30-1pm. Cost £25 Seniors/concessions £20

Birth Preparation Workshop

For you and your birthing partner to learn breathing techniques, birthing positions, relaxation and massage techniques.  Plus loads of Handy information to help you on your baby's birthing day.

When:  Saturday 30 June 1:30-4:30pm

Where: Baptist Church Hall Silver Road

Cost: £35 per couple 

Contact jessica@blissyoganorwich.co.uk for further information and reservations.

SUMMER CLASSES

The current Baby Yoga course runs until 26 July.  The following course will commence 6 September.  If you are interested in booking on this course please contact Jessica@blissyoganorwich.co.uk  

Check out the new photos www.babyyoganorwich.co.uk

Pregnancy Yoga.  The next course runs 11 July-15 August inclusive.  The following course commences 5 September, please contact Jessica@blissyoganorwich.co.uk for further information and reservations.

General Yoga

Currently the final InnerSpace class is 23 July although I may be able to run a class on 30^th July, please let me know if you would be interested in booking onto this class – I will keep you posted. Classes resume 3 September.

Catton.  Final class is Wednesday 18 July due to the hall being unavailable on 25^th.  I may be able to run 2 extra classes 4^th & 11^th August, please let me know if you would like to book onto these classes.  Classes resume 5 September.

NOTICE BOARD

This is a new feature of the Newsletter where you can really get involved.  This is an opportunity for you to share information about events, services or people in your community.  Share readings, poems or anything that you find of interest.  This week I would like to share a reading that was given to me by one of my students – so lovely, so perfect.

Doha

by Ven. Lama Gendun Rinpoche

Happiness cannot be found through
great effort and willpower,
but is already there, in relaxation
and letting go.

Don’t strain yourself, there is
nothing to do.
Whatever arises in the mind has
no importance at all
because it has no reality whatsoever.
Don’t become attached to it.
Don’t pass judgement.

Let the game happen on its own,
springing up and falling back
- without changing anything -
and all will vanish and reappear,
without end.

Only our searching for happiness
prevents us from seeing it.
It is like a rainbow that you run
after without ever catching it.
Although it does not exist.
It has always been there and
accompanies you every instant.

Don’t believe in the reality of good
and bad experiences;
they are like rainbows.

Wanting to grasp the ungraspable,
you exhaust yourself in vain.
As soon as you relax this grasping,
space is there -
open, inviting and comfortable.

So, make use of it.  All is yours already.
Don’t search any further.
Don’t go into the inextricable jungle
looking for the elephant
Who is already quietly at home.

Nothing to do,
nothing to force,
nothing to want -
And everything happens by itself.

...NOTICE BOARD

I would also like to share my recent Farm Shop discovery.  Hill Farm fruit and veg.  Either produced on the farm or locally sources.  I have found the prices to be so much cheaper than the supermarkets and the taste is heavenly.  I was told that the carrots are hand picked each morning – cant get much fresher than that :0)

Hill Farm is on the North Walsham Road just after Crostwick.  Well worth a visit if you are in the area.

Last but not least... One of my students makes bunting that she donates to the Cats Protection charity.  If you have any oddments of material lying around your house that you would like to pass on please bring them into class and I will ensure they are donated.

Many thanks for taking the time to read.  Enjoy the sun, and remember to take time to watch the passing clouds [remember not to look at the sun ;0)  ]   

Much love xxx

March Newsletter

Spring has well and truly sprung! The snowdrops have been and gone, the daffodils are in their full beauty at the moment. The warmer days have begun and the longer days are here.

The transition from Winter to Spring can be a difficult one. We can often feel heavy and sluggish, like a cranky bear coming out of hibernation. We need to shed our winter coat. Spring is a time to reap the benefits of the seeds sown over winter, a time to emerge feeling transformed and reenergised.

Revel in the magic of Spring. All you have to do is look around to be inspired at this time of year. Renewal and transformation are literally bursting from the ground. The natural world is going through a rebirth, so be creative and forge a connection to this awesome process.

Connecting to nature can go beyond the edges of your yoga mat. Why not head outdoors to a place of beauty and observe a period of silence. Take the time to slow down to examine the buds and shoots poking out. Watch them over several days and see them bloom, discover a deeper appreciation for this fresh, new season. Anything that gives you time and space to appreciate the beautiful transformation that's happening around you will fill you with inspiration, energy, and light.

After popular demand here is the quote I read in class last week “Yoga is simply not about exercise, about the physical relief of physical ailments, it is about the attainment of a deep peace, an inner calm that stems from achieving a harmony between your mind and your body, between yourself and the world around you. The ideal is to be harmoniously balanced centred, happy calm and freely creative.” ~ anonymous

Classes over Easter

There will be NO classes 2^nd -12^th April inclusive.

From 13^th April a 6 class pass will be £37.50 – take advantage of this offer and gain one free class. You have 8 weeks to use a 6 class pass. Valid at both Inner Space and Old Catton classes.

Alternatively just drop-in to class when convenient to you at £7.50

I will also be introducing Tea and chat after Inner space & Catton classes. A lovely opportunity to have a quick catch up with everyone from class or just have a mellow moment before heading off into your busy day.

Birth Preparation workshop

I am taking expressions of interest for a Birth Preparation workshop on 15 April. This is a lovely opportunity to really get your birthing partner involved. Learn breathing techniques, birthing positions, relaxation and massage techniques and much more. Price £35. Time 1:30-4:30pm at St Mary Magdalene Church hall (where Pregnancy Yoga is held)

Items for sale:

Birthing pool £60. Regular size 'Birth Pool in a Box' with internal seat. External Dimensions 76" x 65" (L193 x W165 cms x H76 cms) suites ladies up to 6'2"

Also included:

Big manual pump for inflation.

Electric submersible pump for emptying water after use.

Protective ground sheet.

Thermometer unused.

Sieve unused.

15 m Hose

Multi purpose universal tap adapter - to fit either square or round taps.

Moses basket - Toys R Us - My Favourite Things (suitable more for a boy) hardly used, very good condition, with some sheets and a stand for £30.00

Maternity jeans Size 12(?) only £5 – welcome to try before you buy

New Popolini organic cotton birth to potty nappies x 2 includes x2 organic cotton booster liners and x2 popo wrap covers in bugs and jungle design £20 - worth over £50

Girls bundle of clothes 0-3, 3-6 mths John Lewis, Marks and Spencer, Monsoon & Next

Quality used but as new. 8 x beautiful items only £12

Mackays all in one warm coat with hood and mittens. 6-12 mths Colour, claret with fun heart and flower lining. £6

Marks and Spencers blue and beige corduroy dress with butterfly and flower detail 3-6mths £4

Gorgeous Mothercare blue crushed velvet style party dress with purple trim 3-6mths £4

Grobag 2.5tog up to 6 mths £5

Fisher Price dolly moses basket and stand £6

Please contact Jessica if you are interested in viewing any of the items.

Enjoy the newness of Spring.

Much Love

Jess xx