What springs to mind when you hear the word yoga? Beautiful thoughts of meditation, relaxation and flowing poses? Or feeling your aches and pains and tumbling over in a knot of limbs? Well for me it was both. When I saw that the Leeds University Union Yoga Society was offering a ‘Give it a go’ session I thought that I should take the opportunity to see what it was all about.
The teacher of our class was called Chelsey. She had what I think is the perfect Yoga teacher voice, very calming and soothing. She took us through a meditation at the start of the class to help us warm up our bodies and to tune in to how our bodies were feeling but also to try and clear our minds of whatever university degree thoughts might have been whizzing around. We then did a breathing exercise and went on to do some sun salutations.
At the end of the lesson I had a little chat with Chelsey and she told me about an event that she was running a few days later, a “Morning Rave”. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect but she reassured me that I would enjoy the event. So, on Thursday I got up at 7.30am, you have to bear in mind that for a student (even one that isn’t a party animal) this is rather early to be getting up. Off I went to LS6 Clock Café in my leggings, ready for some morning yoga. When I got there, it felt like everybody was happy to see me, lots of smiling faces introducing themselves. Lots of girls were wearing glitter make up which was really fun and beautiful decorations were scattered about the place. We did what I am going to call a morning wake up sequence, taught by a lady called Nat which was lovely, it really woke my body up for the day ahead. It involved lots of sun salutations and back bends. After our session we headed upstairs to find amazing music being performed (I can’t remember the name of the ladies!) and the local independent Vegan food company ‘Honest Edibles’. I had an amazing sweet potato pancake with chocolate sauce on and parsnip bacon (it may sound weird but trust me it was incredible). If that isn’t the perfect way to end a session of exercise I don’t know what is.
So, what did I take from my yoga experiences? I really enjoyed that it is very much about you. You can tailor the moves to suit your flexibility and any injuries so it is do-able for all levels of health and fitness. It is also all about you in the sense that you don’t have to worry about what anybody around you is doing (unless you’re unsure of a move and then you might have a cheeky peek) and you can fully concentrate on how your own body feels, which moves are easy, hard, how you can feel the positions changing your flexibility or stretching out your muscles. Most of all I really enjoyed trying out yoga because at the end of it I felt relaxed and in today’s world how often is it that you can do an activity that makes you feel relaxed?
I understand that there are lots of types of yoga that can be practised and so if you wanted to find out more it might be best to do some good old internet research. If you wanted to find out a bit more about Chelsey’s yoga and events then I would recommend that you have a look at her Facebook page “InnerSense Guru" as she runs lots of fun events and classes.
Namaste
Em x
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