Yoga Vocal - Issue 8

YOGA VOCAL

September 2019

Issue 08

where good news is the news

E K

A DS M N # IE R F

What's Inside?

COMING SOON

NEW COURSE

NEW TIMETABLE

Awaken the feminine. Discover authentic decision-making

Are YOU ready for YOU…post lockdown?

Returners or Beginners Course.

Carve out time to befriend your Self.

Make it sacred.

Sign Up

Create Space

Book Now

THE PATH OF TRUE FRIENDSHIP

by Josie Steedman One of the qualities of true friendship is to understand and be understood. So, how often do you hold up the mirror, see what you see, without judging. Can you sit comfortably with yourself? Hold space for the emotion, sensation… get to the truth of who you are, and be open to find something new and fascinating? It’s important to me that yoga is recognised as more than a physical practice – it’s a process of discovery – meeting your Self, befriending your Self and not giving up on yourself. I mention this because I struggle with my idea of what a yoga teacher should look like, falling into the trap of not feeling good enough and wanting to give up. In Yoga this is called Avidya. When our perception is clouded and there’s a disconnect from our truth. Yoga reconnects me back to the feeling of belonging to something bigger than myself, that believes in me – even when I have trouble believing in me. But the process of finding true friendship is ongoing. If you relate pull up a mat!

MAKE FRIENDS MONTH! Let me help you treat your Self or a Friend to a coffee. More Inside.

July 2020

Issue 8

FROM THE ARCHIVES

Everything starts with a seed. A seed of creativity, imagination possibility. Even the dream of a yoga studio started from an idea. A sense of what if, an intention to create, a thrill of imagining and daring to try.

by Josie Steedman

YOGI IN TRAINING: STEP ONE SOW SEEDS. As the saying goes – If you always do what you’ve always done you will always get what you’ve always got.

So, it’s time to make different choices. It’s time to accept that I am the author of my story and I can turn the plot in any direction I want.

According to my yogic guide, Deepak Chopra, what I need is a vision – a clear outcome. If I’m specific about my intentions, whatever I focus my attention on will expand in my life.

Deep meditative breath … … here it is. This is my intention:To find happiness and fulfilment in my life and share that experience with others so that they can find happiness themselves.It helps to be specific so this is how I’m crystallising that vision: By exploring The Seven Spiritual Laws of Yoga and bringing them into action each day.

By learning and regularly practicing meditation techniques, mantras, breathing exercises, and yoga poses at home and one-toone with my teacher, Charlie.

By stepping out of limiting beliefs to access my own greatest potential.

By sharing my experiences in this blog.

By becoming a certified yoga teacher and taking my practice and understanding of yoga and conscious living to another level.

By one day becoming qualified to take yoga classes throughout the world.

It seems I’ve arrived in the field of possibilities and some seeds have been sown.

JX

THIS BLOG WAS WRITTEN ON OCTOBER 1, 2013 - LESS THAN A MONTH BEFORE I QUIT MY 25 YEAR CAREER AND WHEN EVERYTHING CHANGED FOR ME.

July 2020

#Dream YOUR MONTH AND ME

by Josie Steedman Don’t give up on the dream.

This was the big heavy-duty pin holding most of the teaching together here at the studio in June as our first birthday was marked in lockdown.

But underpinning our asana were the bhandas our energetic roots or locks that awaken the core and bring stability and integrity to our practice.

When life throws us off course, off balance or doesn’t go the way we want it to we can still get to have a hold of our centre.

And, as you all found your rainbow (you had to be there) you discovered the support that would give you success in other poses – boat, plank, crow, wheel.

In Week 1 that meant using our senses to find connection with our centre – to get the visceral connection and control of our pelvic floor and deep abdominal muscles. In Week 2 we used the yogic tools of Sankalpa and intention to see ourselves in each pose and bring colour and depth to our vision of success.

Week 3 we started practice with a radical reimagining of ourself and the belief that we have way more potential than we give ourselves credit for.

And in Week 4 we dared. Dared to dream, dared to show up and fail, dared to try and let go of attachment to outcome.

Spot on universe for the timing of this one!.

Josie. x Issue 08

GET READY FOR YOUR POST LOCKDOWN SELF

by Josie Steedman The YL studio doors may have been closed for 3 LOOOONG months but we're still here, open-hearted and ready to serve you LIVE AND ONLINE!

What helped me get my 'self' together in that confusing, uncertain time? A yoga and meditation practice.

Now there's so many studies out there (just go type a search in Google) that give us the science on why these ancient teachings, trainings, wisdom can support you in your pursuit of health and wellbeing.

And I'm not just talking being free from disease. Health is way more than just not being sick.

by Paul Warner

Want to join the LIVE classes?

Need help signing up?

Want the app on your phone?

Struggling to add a membership?

Confused by the timetable?

Want to bring a Friend for FREE? You can now get help with any queries, concerns from a real person (and fellow yogi)

The BIG question is...

Are YOU ready for YOU?... The post lockdown YOU? What do I mean?

I'm guessing in the three months of lockdown you've had time to reflect a bit about your wellbeing and what it actually means to be healthy?

For me this happened seven years ago when life stopped due to my own health crisis. As big pauses in your normal, habitual routine tend to, this led to a big shift... in everything, career, who I thought I was, what I wanted to do with my life, how I ate, exercised - all of it.

You can maybe relate having experienced this enforced pattern interrupt in your life?

A YOGA ASSIST

I know, it's a BIG topic and can feel overwhelming. But we have to start somewhere. So today I'm here to ask you to just get in the game.

BEGIN! With three months of online teaching here at YL we're ready to support you in your pursuit of health and growth with our first ONLINE LIVE BEGIN yoga course.

It's been reworked for the online environment and is especially for new or returning students who want to start building a solid yoga foundation and get set up themselves up for either a studio or home practice.

This four-week progressive course will walk you through everything from alignment, awareness, posture, and breathing techniques to following cues and using props.

And you'll get a recording of each class so you can continue to practice in your own time.

paul called me and talked me through the whole thing thank you Don't struggle, we are here to help. email assist@yogalocal.co.uk or just call Paul on 07764151368

TREAT YOUR SELF

by Josie Steedman

It’s #MAKEFRIENDS month. So Bring a Friend for Free during July and, as well as getting your usual £5 credit on your account, I’ll throw in a voucher for a coffee that you can treat a friend to at The Garden Deli here at Nene Court. You can come to the studio to claim your voucher during lockdown or wait until we’re back offering classes in person. Either way. It will be waiting for you. Remember, Bringing a Friend for Free is something you can do at any time using your unique referral code which is on your dashboard in your Team Up account. (Terms and Conditions apply).

You'll start to create time to reconnect with who you are and figure out where your body and mind is at post lockdown.

And that my friend is when you’ll find the confidence to consciously move into stability, strength, flexibility balance, resilience and all of the other stuff that will help you feel ready to take on life in your new normal. Places are limited and the first 2 spots have gone already.

You can BOOK HERE

July 2020

#makefriends Issue 08

CLASS SPOTLIGHT

by Josie Steedman

Class: AWAKEN Description: A class to awaken the feminine energy - the part of consciousness that is responsible for nurture, intuition, empathy, community, collaboration, emotional strength and selfmastery.Better tune into this aspect of your ‘Self’ and discover a powerful guide in authentic decision-making and expression.

Practice Stage 1 Key Poses: Quirky flows and gentle stillness will be combined with specific wellbeing practices to bring all characteristics of the feminine energy into harmony. Expect breath work, mudra, meditation and light conversation.

Mood: Relaxed, gentle and supportive.

Pick this class if: • You feel co-dependent in your relationships • You suffer from being over-emotional, irrational, hormonal • You make sacrifices to your own detriment • You feel disorganised, confused and lost • You regularly experience burnout or lack of productivity • You have a ‘damsel in distress’ mentality and struggle to complete projects.

Here's the link to book https://goteamup.com/p/2620513-yogalocal/e/26109256-live-online-awaken/

MAY 2020

MORE NEW STUFF

by Josie Steedman

We’ve made it into Year 2 and ….YES, we’ve got even more ways for you to practice starting in July!!

I'd hoped this exciting news would be timed with the announcement that the studio was coming out of lockdown, but with a big dollop of acceptance combined with that stubborn will I've been talking about in meditation, we're cracking on in the pursuit of what matters… you…So... here are some more new classes for you to explore yoga as a practice of health, spiritual wellbeing, emotional wellbeing... err all the beings of being human in fact! You know….male energy is great (and just so you know, regardless of gender we have both) but we’ve honoured the First up, Awaken. Now if you've met masculine way of working for quite a Olivia you'll understand why it took while now – maybe at the detriment of hardly anything to persuade me to find room on the timetable for this class. We our feminine. It’s time to recognise the whole! Can’t wait. are all individual expressions of energy and consciousness, and Olivia is born to teach this stuff.

What stuff? Take a look at the description opposite. This class will run on Tuesday evenings from 6:15pm to 7:15pm and will edge right into Rest at 7:30pm. (A great double act don’t you think?) You can attend this class with a 5 or 10 class pass pack and with your complete Kali membership. Single Class passes are also available.

So what else is new?

So last month we put out a survey on bringing the Ashtanga Yoga tradition to our programme here at Yoga Local. Thank you for taking part! We had a huge response, so, Kat (our amazing Ashtangaqualified teacher) and I have been busy working on creating an incredible offering that is not available anywhere else locally… Including A six-week Ashtanga Vinyasa Half-Primary Course. A weekly Mysore class (self-paced practice with 1-1 guidance). A weekly CountedLed Ashtanga class. (Group-led practice) Our first intake of the Ashtanga Course is just about to graduate and this offering is now on the timetable with full descriptions and details on how to book. Go check it out here www.yogalocal.co.uk/timetable

Issue 06

THE VEGAN VIRGIN

by Paul Warner

Guilty as charged??

Last night, I fell SO far off the wagon that the wagon wasn’t even is sight. Here are my mitigating circumstances, you decide if I am guilty.

Have worked all day in the shop, I arrived home to a couple of DIY tasks that I had been putting off. In the middle of the second task, I heard the doorbell.

If your house is like ours, the kids always assume it is someone elses job to get the door, so when the bell went for the second time, I bundled down the stairs, muttering on every step, whipped the door open with what I can only guess was my angry face, to be greeted by a vision. No, it wasn’t Josie with her surfboard, it was Pretty, our neighbour. She had a carrier bag in each hand and said ‘I have a delivery for you’. My puzzled face caused her to continue, ‘if you remember when we first moved in, I promised you a home made curry, so here it is’ Gosh, these things still happen?

We have proper neighbours?

There are people in this world who truly care?

YOUR TIMETABLES

by Josie Steedman With all the new exciting stuff we've got going on I've re-worked the timetables so you can see at a glance what's on offer moving into July.

Please work with the yoga principle of Sadhana and create the discipline and commitment you need to show up for (and make friends with) yourself this month.

Carve the time, get some buy in from those you need to support you in your pursuit of life-long wellbeing, health and happiness.

DREAM BIG. Think of what's possible if you just take the necessary steps at the right time, consistently.

Make this the month you make the choices and the habits that will lead you towards success.

From July I'm switching my day off to Friday and will be covering all classes on Thursday.

Big thanks and love to Maz for keeping these classes going during lockdown. And guys, if you want to make sure all your classes remain on the timetable please do your best to support them. Bring your friends. Let them know about the community that's waiting here to welcome them. There's a coffee in it remember! X

If I could have hugged the poppadoms out of her I would have but that’s not allowed currently…

So why the need for the jury, why the not guilty plea? It was an authentic home made CHICKEN curry, with rice and naan bread, a recipe passed down from her mum’s mum… did I eat it?

I scoffed the bloody lot!

Join me next time on this rocky road I now call veganisn’t

July 2020

Issue 08

YOGA LOCAL, 5 NENE COURT, EMBANKMENT, WELLINGBOROUGH, NN8 1LD