Balance Health & Wellness

Following the changes to the covid guidelines, life is cautiously opening up again and in person activities are resuming. The Harriers speed sessions on Mon and Tues, and the Wed club run nights, have been reconvened and the Tri club has switched its weekly club ride to Thurs nights now. 

In relation to my online classes that means some students are now torn between classes or in person club activities, so with that in mind I am planning to make some changes to my class timetable, offering different days/times that will hopefully suit most people.  

Please take a look at the new schedule above and get in touch if you are not registered with me and can now join one of the online classes, or if you are already registered with me but want to switch nights.  

*There is also the possibility that the class I run for the Southborough and District Wheelers on Mon nights at 7:30 pm will open up to general students and I will update as and when I know.   

And finally, going forward from week commencing Mon 2nd Aug the price of a yoga class will rise from £3 to £5. I have not altered the price of my classes since going online in April 2020 and I hope you will agree that, even at £5 per class, this is still good value for money. Anyone who has class credits will still get the classes at the old price until the credits are used up. 
 

See you on the mat.

Namaste

If you are new to yoga or you used to practice in a studio, pre lockdown, the chances are you don’t have any props to support your practice at home. If you don’t think you’ll stick with your practice when this situation ends then you can easily make do with a few homemade props but if you think you will carry on, either online or back in the studio, then I think it’s worth getting a few basics to make practice easier and safer. I say safer because I think it’s wise to take your own props to a studio now, rather than borrow some, assuming they are actually lending props out again.

If asked to pick the basics to aid my practice, it would be a yoga mat, block, brick and strap. You need a sticky yoga mat to help with balance and stability, alongside a bit of cushioning. A brick brings the floor closer to you and is an aid to balance and a yoga strap helps with mobilisation of the upper body or as an extension to your arms to make standing or seated poses easier.

If I were upgrading from the basics, I would probably add another brick, a blanket, a bolster and an eye pillow. The extra brick can help with balance if you find forward folds a challenge and a blanket on top of a block or in place of a block to lift the hips or to lie under for a meditation practice is handy. A bolster under the legs or back and an eye pillow, particularly a scented one, just complete the whole relaxation routine. 

Once you’ve decided what props to get, you can choose to go cheap and cheerful and get the basics from some of the larger supermarkets, but the quality won’t always be great, it will come wrapped in unnecessary plastic and the product will likely not be very eco-friendly. For not a lot more it is possible to buy good quality, eco-friendly products that will probably last longer as well.

It took me a while to find them but I now recommend Ekotex yoga to anyone who asks. They’re a relatively new British firm, they avoid unnecessary plastic and have great ethics, just read their blog https://ekotexyoga.co.uk/blogs/yoga. They support yoga teachers too with an affiliate programme, although this is not why I recommend them!

So, if you have decided that you want to set yourself up with some new kit, or upgrade your yoga props then go to https://ekotexyoga.co.ukand as an added incentive use YOGICLAIRE10 for a 10% discount. 

See you on the mat.

Namaste

How things change in the blink of an eye. At the end of a year that was strange for everyone, which saw us restricted in how much we could see my family in the North of England the decision was made to accelerate our plans to make a permanent move up there. Because any move we made relied on Stef finding a job first, and not knowing what would happen in that respect, he started the hunt at the end of the year. 

There wasn't a surplus of job vacancies out there but 3 stood out. 2 fell by the wayside, for various reasons and then there was one. Nothing happened over the Christmas period but in early January, the wheels started to turn. 3 interviews later and Stef had a new job as an IT manager with a company in County Durham and a start date of April 6th. So now, the focus turned to selling our house here and looking for a property to buy in Northumberland, to keep the commute reasonable and still be close to my family. 

Fast forward 1 month, 1 week on the market and 3 viewings we have sold the house and are moving onto the next stage of the process, trying to find somewhere to live. In a deal with the purchasers to speed things up we have agreed to break the chain and go into rental, not an easy task with 2 dogs and a cat!

One silver lining from the pandemic has turned out to be the decision I was originally reluctant to do, of going online with my yoga teaching. Rather than having to walk away from all my work completely, I can continue to teach online and will remain online, even when we eventually get back to the point when studios open and in person teaching is a thing again. And that feels wonderful.

I have so many friends down here, many that have joined me online and supported me in this last year and for that, I am truly grateful. You have kept me sane (although I am aware that occasionally I have appeared to lose the plot in a class or two!). 

This move has prompted me to get my act together (that's not the term I used when discussing this with Stef but it's too rude to write here!) so I am resurrecting my blog which will be updated regularly and added to the new website I am building. I am also creating a newsletter that will keep you up to date with my current online class schedule and will include any recipes I have found and adapted, or any bits of information health and wellness related that I think you might be interested in. You will of course have the option to opt out of some or all of it if you find it is not for you, but the newsletter will always begin with information on my class schedule so it might be worth sticking with that.

I hope you will stay on this journey with me. Looking forward to a bright and positive 2021.

Namaste