Lead Practice Sundays 8am - 10am from 6 February 2016

Yoga is an inner exploration of experience. We can learn some forms - like scaffolding, if you like, or vehicles - with which to make those explorations. We have classes for that - but there is a very real sense in which we are not yet doing yoga at that point. It is when we take that vehicle and do our own individual practice, that we really do yoga: here we can turn our attention entirely inward to our experience, and observe and explore it. Our practice can be a place to meet with ourselves, discover exactly where we are and what we need, and experiment with responding to those messages. Over time this builds a tremendous inner resource that we develop within ourselves, one which is independent of any external circumstances.

Practising together forms a bridge between classes (where we learn how) and our own private practice (where our real yoga takes place).  There are two ways of practicing together: Own Practice, and Lead Practice. Each provides a culture of support for the journey of our practice, but whereas in Own Practice each person follows whatever sequence they need/wish to that day, in a Lead Practice everyone follows the sequence offered by the leader, who calls and demonstrates each pose but doesn’t offer any instruction about how to work in the pose. In both forms you are taking more responsibility for your yoga than in class - and hence building, little by little, that self-reliance that makes yoga your own. You will grow to like and appreciate the silence in which to observe your inner process.

Students commonly cite a lack of confidence about doing yoga without a teacher guiding them, let alone choosing their own practice - and perhaps also there is self-consciousness about having their uncertainties observable in a yoga room… but it is by having a go that confidence is built - and the rewards are rich indeed. (And in fact, everyone else is too absorbed in their own process to be looking around to see what you are doing!). To begin with in your Own Practice, it’s a good idea to follow sequences from a book, or perhaps that you have written down after a class you have attended - you will learn more than you might suspect by doing this.

An opportunity exists for you to participate in both types of shared practice at Moore Street on Sundays. Every first Sunday of the month will be a Lead Practice, with the other Sundays being Own Practice (you can ask for a “cheat sheet" to follow if you like). You are welcome to come for less than the full two hours, and/or to vary parts of a Lead Practice to suit yourself.

If you would like to come along, email or phone Jenni (4210 6139) to discuss: you do need a minimum of yoga knowledge already; and as it’s a small group, it might not be on if you don’t let Jenni know (she is very happy to open up even for one other person though).

$10 - goes directly to the Yoga Room for props, rent, laundry, etc.