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Classes suspended due to current COVID-19 crisis
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Lifelong yoga - relaxing restorative yoga for stressed-out people
I offer two types of courses for helping to reduce tension and stress, both based on Restorative Yoga, which is a series of yoga postures where you are supported by pillows / bolsters so your body can relax fully without strain, helping to remove fatigue. These are accompanied by breathing techniques which help to calm the racing mind. All classes start with some easy stretching to ease out tension areas of the body, and finish with a deep relaxation which will leave you calm yet energised. The classes are kept to a small number in order to keep things quiet and relaxing, so early booking is therefore recommended. Everyone is welcome, no previous yoga experience required. Yoga for Stress and Yoga for Relaxation The Yoga for Stress 6 week course is run as demand requires. The class structure is the same as the Relaxation class but offers some insight into what stress is and why is happens based on both research and yoga philosophy. It additionally includes some simple ideas to deal with stress, and each session concludes with a short meditation. Once you have an understanding of stress and the ideas to help reduce it, the Yoga for Relaxation class helps you maintain a level of stress reduction. However, it is not necessary to have attended the Yoga for Stress course to attend this one - you will still feel the benefit. What is stress? Stress is different for everyone because it relies on your own personal perceptions of a situation. An event is just neutral but your reaction to it is based on your past experiences; so the event is slotted into an old category in the mind, and you get the same old mental, emotional and physical reaction to that situation. However, if these old reactions can be stopped, there will be no instant automatic response. This gives the mind time to properly assess the situation and be more objective, altering the body's reaction ie. reducing stress. Insight into and awareness of our responses can be gained through yoga practices - calming the breath, stilling the mind and meditation. Please contact Margaret directly on lifelongyoga@gmx.co.uk for further information and bookings. |
About Margaret Robson
I originally trained as a Speech and Language Therapist and worked in the NHS for over 35 years specialising in Neuro-rehabilitation, originally with people who had had strokes, but in the last 15 years I specialised in progressive and terminal illnesses such as Multiple Sclerosis and Motor Neurone Disease as well as traumatic head injuries. Yoga has helped to keep me centred and calm in both my working life, where there was obviously an emotional component to working closely with people suffering from these illnesses, and in my personal struggles with the inevitable problems of everyday life. I first qualified as a Yoga teacher with the British Wheel of Yoga in the 1980's but recent years had not taught much yoga, until a family member became seriously ill with a stress-related illness and I began to research how stress affects the mind and body. On my retirement I updated my training with a Teacher Training course through Yoga Alliance because I realised just how much yoga, especially restorative yoga coupled with breathing exercises (pranayama), could improve the stress response and help both body and mind to relax. I now only teach Yoga for Relaxation and Yoga for Stress and the responses I receive from the people who attend confirm that this is an approach which can affect everyone's life for the better. |