As humans we all have one thing in common. No matter our race, class, gender or religious belief, we all have the same basic needs. After our basic needs are met (food, water, warmth) what do we all strive for? Happiness, contentment and connection. But in a world that is becoming increasingly more challenging to thrive in, a world that is overly focused on productivity and work and a society that has become more disconnected than ever before, how many of us truly feel like we are fulfilled and thriving?

There may be pockets of our days, weeks and years that we feel fully fulfilled and present in our experience of life but how many of us feel fatigued, sad, withdrawn, anxious and stressed for much more of our time than we should. We have accepted these feelings as normal, we get through the days awaiting for the next burst of excitement so we can feel “happiness” and then we go back to just simply surviving. What if there was a way to switch the default from survive to thrive, what if we could feel magic in the mundane and spend much more of our time feeling fulfilled.

Over this 6 week course we will explore some tools, techniques and movement practices to help us navigate our daily lives out of survival mode and into a place of true contentment. We will draw from Vinyasa and Yin yoga along with somatic movement practices to foster a sense of Joy and Ease in all we do.

WEEK ONE: An introduction to the course. Develop a vocabulary for how you feel. 

We will begin with some simple breathwork and presence exercises to bring us into the here and now. An opportunity to write some thoughts and feelings down on paper and a full body practice that explores natural movement patterns and helps us to befriend our feelings, even the more uncomfortable ones.

WEEK TWO: Get curious and build trust. 

Learning to trust yourself is a huge part of thriving, not just surviving. When we are disconnected from ourselves and we no longer trust our own judgment we start to outsource our decision making and we give all our power away. Or on the other hand we make decisions and then we create a narrative in our heads that it was a bad decision and that we are useless or unworthy. This kind of story can destroy our self esteem and our sense of curiosity and playfulness. We will explore a practice that strengthens our core and grounds us, bringing us home to ourselves and giving us an opportunity to get curious in movement, listen to our bodies and respond skillfully.

WEEK THREE: Let go and accept 

Learning to let go of what is no longer serving us is a skill many of us wish we could foster but doesn't seem to be very intuitive. We tend to hold on to every experience, person, feeling and idea because at some point in our lives it had a purpose. We are ever changing and evolving which means nothing is permanent. In fact the only constant is change. When we learn to accept every thought, feeling, sensation and experience for what it is we can paint a clearer picture of what is no longer needed, what is actually in our way. When we learn to let go with ease we create the space externally and internally for newness. When we create that space new opportunities for joy, peace and ease will come flooding our way. We will explore this through an upper body practice that works with the neck, shoulders and lungs as so much of our tension and grief lives here.

WEEK FOUR: Get out of your head and into your heart. 

They say the heart can't be trusted and the mind is more sound when making important choices but actually this couldn't be more misguided. The mind is very good at coping and accepting the more positive emotions and feelings but is not so good at navigating the more uncomfortable ones. But the heart holds paradox, the heart can take on so much and even in the most severe discomfort the heart can guide us and help us to recover. The mind tends to worry and is overly anxious, it creates stories and narratives that shape us so it is so important to lead from the heart. We will explore getting out of our heads with a somatic practice that is led from the heart.

WEEK FIVE: Self love and compassion. 

Learning to be kind to ourselves is something that can seem so simple but yet all of us at one point or another have spoken negatively to ourselves. Whether that be about our bodies or physical appearance or be it the choices we make or our performance at work or in social settings. Anger or self violence doesn't have to be our default and in fact when we learn to cut ourselves some slack and to speak kindly to ourselves this comes back to us tenfold. Self love fosters universal love so before we give it all to others let's start with the person who deserves our love more than anyone. Everyone around us will benefit from this and joy will be abundant. We will explore this with a lower body practice that grounds us and gives us a sense of stability, as after all, what is rooted is easy to nourish.

WEEK SIX: Build resilience to stress. 

We will wrap up the course with a practice that awakens the rest and digest branch of the nervous system and helps to calm the fight, flight branch. Inevitably stress and difficult situations will come to us in life, we can't control everything. But what we can control is our response to those situations. Learning to respond and not react and to move through difficulties with ease will naturally awaken trust, joy, peace, ease and our ability to thrive through it all. We will explore this through the spine, the central riverbed that runs through us all. A chance to get pen back to paper and see how we have progressed through the 6 weeks and a long Savasana.

These sessions are each 60mins in length and the course is priced at £85 for 6 weeks.

Please bring your own mat if you have one.