August Theme of the Month

Summer gives us the opportunity to embrace the lighter side of life and feel the connection we have to joy, playfulness and gratitude that often we feel in the warmth of the summer days. Allowing some of the qualities to develop and explore through our classes can allow us to approach our practice with a sense of light-heartedness and gratitude.

Summer is a time to embrace the active energy of the season, and we can allow ourselves to gently gather some of this energy and store it for the colder months to come.

Poses and sequences that allow us to approach them with a playful approach, and creating heart and shoulder opening spaces can create a connection to enjoy the abundance of the present moment. Focusing on surrendering to what is, letting go of what no longer serves us and embrace a peaceful lighter energy.

Yoga for the summer can be about expansion and playfulness, gentle flows, cooling postures and mindfulness practices that allow us to balance the energetic nature of the season. Morning and daytime classes will bring in more movement and energy, and the evening classes will be more slower and grounding. Going with the flow of the weather on the days where it is warmer a few cooling practices will be added in.

The Lighter Side Of Life

Week 1 – Playful Spirit
Light-heartedness and playfulness in yoga can offer a way to transform our practice into a more joyful and spontaneous experience. Develop joy, creativity and connecting more to the present moment. Variations in poses are great ways to explore something different in your body in a posture or allowing the body to move in interesting ways such as soothing circle movements taking our awareness deep within our body.

Week 2 – Heart Centred Calm
This theme focuses on heart-opening poses to help to release stored up emotions and cultivate compassion. As you soften the mind you can tap into the calmness of the heart. When life gets tough, we feel the effect of that in our bodies and in our minds. Rather than turning away from tension or challenging moments you can use gentle playfulness and compassion. Allow yourself to open your heart centre mindfully with compassion.

Week 3 – The Abundance of the Present Moment
Allow your practice to be a constant stream of moment to moment, present awareness. In the essence of the present moment, we can truly relax. To be able to stay centred in the moment of now is often a difficult thing to do but by practising this it gives you a fuller and richer experience of being alive.

Week 4 – Mindfulness and Gratitude
The word Santosha in yoga means contentment. When you focus on the quality of gratitude, we allow more contentment in our practice and our lives. Yoga can serve as a foundation for cultivating mindfulness as we encourage the focus on breath, movement and sensations in the body.

Related Videos

Creating Space
Wind Down Calm & Meditate
Be Grounded Stay Present
Surrender Your Shoulders
Yoga For A Happy Heart
Upper Back & Shoulders

This Month’s Music

Here’s a selection of the music that Vicky has been enjoying this month.