Hot Power Yoga

 (Urdhva Dhanurasana)  

Wheel Pose

After having a delicious 3 egg omelette at the hotel restaurant for breakfast, I searched my yoga show manual to plan my day ahead. I was in need of an energizing vinyasa style class so I began to hunt one down. I stumbled across Hot Power Yoga with Dylan Ayaloo.

He describes his class as; “Brief but powerful vinyasa flow style suitable for all levels. You will be encouraged to tune into your body to discover what is right for you rather than seeking the perfect posture.”

He had me at “powerful vinyasa flow!” This is exactly what my body needed at that moment in time and as I read on, I felt recognition in the rest of his description. I always encourage students to tune into their mind and body and advise them to ease into postures and do what feels right for them.

What feels right for one student may not feel right to another student. Yoga is non-competitive and you should work within your comfortable limits rather than striving for a posture your body may not be able to achieve.

Instinct and intuition assured me this was the class for me to start my final day at the yoga show.

We began with a short meditation then quickly moved through a vinyasa flow that gradually got faster. My heart rate was elevated within the first few minutes and energy was soaring through my body. 

In between each vinyasa flow, Dylan instructed us to add arm balances such as side plank and crow, twists and leg balances. He structured the 30 minute class very well to incorporate a lot of postures. Dylan wanted us to leave his class full of energy so we ended the practice with bridge pose and then 4 consecutive wheel poses. 

After breaking my back I really struggled with backbends and to this day have to be careful with them and make sure I am fully warmed up first. For many years I thought I would never be able to do upward facing dog again let alone wheel and camel poses. Poses like this petrified me as it brought on a hell of a lot of pain. 

I practice wheel and camel poses very rarely but today I was feeling strong and in tune with my mind and body so I decided to look fear in the face and go for it!

I stayed up for the full duration of 8 breaths and then we took a very brief savasana. To my surprise as I released from wheel pose, I felt the posture most in my wrists. Listening to my body, I gave my wrists a little rest and chose to do bridge instead. I managed to lift much higher in my second wheel pose as one of the lovely yoga assistants lifted me higher opening my heart even higher to the heavens. 

I lay in savasana to bask in the achievements of overcoming one of my fears. It felt so good knowing that after all these years of not being strong enough to practice backbends, I can now practice poses that I always thought were out of my reach and unattainable.

Anything is possible if you put your mind to it! :)

xXx Namaste xXx 

The Face of Yoga

I was very eager to get to Olympia on the Saturday morning as I was so excited about gathering information to start planning my retreats.

Always keen to be early, I was the first one there so fortunately I got a seat at the front of the conference room, I wasn’t missing a thing!

After reserving my seat I ran down to the cafe to get some water and saw this gorgeous yoga outfit I saw the day before. I briefly told the lady I would be back later on in the day to buy the outfit but she assured me it would probably be gone as she didn’t have many.

I had 10 minutes before the conference was about to begin so I decided to quickly try the outfit on.

It looked great, just my style. Nicola said she loved how it looked on me and asked if she could take a picture of me in the outfit to promote her clothing line. I was very flattered and honoured so I happily obliged.

The pant are a lovely style and are very comfy, there were many other styles and colours to choose from.

I loved how the top fitted so perfectly without the need to wear a bra! I loved the top that much I went back and bought a leopard print one the next day! :)

Evolution and Integrity for your lower back

Urdhva Mukha Svanasana

(Upward-facing Dog)

For many years I suffered with chronic back pain after breaking L2 & L3 in my lower back. I was told repeatedly by specialists and doctors that I would always be in pain and that I had to learn to live with it. For so long I believed this advice but it got to the point where I decided I can and will get over this disability.

My yoga teacher helped me with a 20 minute sequence that I was to practice every day. I knew this wouldn’t be enough on its own, so I decided to design myself a 6 week detox plan and agreed to myself to do daily affirmations and meditations.

After being on this programme for a few days I started to feel less pain in my back so I continued very hopeful and in high spirits. At the end of the programme, apart from a couple of days I was virtually pain free! Going from being in pain nearly every single day for 4 years to having no pain at all was exhilarating and I felt like I was alive again. 

Back pain can leave you feeling miserable and alone and unable to do the things you want to do. I had my life back. I was so happy! :D

Being pain free didn't mean I was fully healed. I had deep rooted fear of backbends due to the pain I used to feel when I attempted them. This stayed with me for a long time. I was restricted in my movements and a lot of the time afraid to push myself too far. I was continually apprehensive. Over time and with plenty of patience I allowed myself to discover new depths to my sphinx pose and started to lift my elbows away from the ground. I was determined to experience the feeling of lifting into Urdhva Mukha Svanasana (Upward facing dog) once again. Some days I could lift higher than others. There were days when I didn't feel up to lifting at all. I just listened to my body and allowed myself time to develop strength and mobility again in my lower spine. As you can see from the photo above, I really enjoy this pose now and it is an integral part of my practice.

I have been sharing my experience and knowledge with patients now for several years and they all have more movement and less pain in their lives.

I find it essential to continually develop my skills and knowledge in the field of back pain so it was a must for me to book on this workshop.

From the moment I entered the workshop room I felt Dr. Elena Voyce’s passion for working with patients that suffer with back pain. She expressed her knowledge clearly and gave us all enough time to explore each posture fully. It was interesting to learn some new techniques on how to release the lower back and integrate certain muscles to improve postural alignment.

I found this workshop very informative and look forward to incorporating the techniques into my patient’s programmes to add extra variety and to help speed up the healing process. 

xXx Namaste xXx

Feet Up

Headstand is the king of all asanas and is a hugely rewarding posture.

How does the thought of dong a headstand make you feel?

It may make you feel excited, nervous or even scared.

Feet Up makes inversions easy for everyone. This was such a fun workshop and I took advantage of the extra stability you receive while balanced on your shoulders to deepen my own headstand sequence. 

I have been working on doing the splits in headstand now for several months and the feet up table made me feel extra support and confidence in going that little bit further. I found this to be an easy, safe and fun way to practice headstand and luckily for my students I am now a proud owner of feet up table. I will be incorporating this into my individual and small group programmes. 

As you can see by the pictures I was having a blast! :) 

xXx Namsate xXx