I’ve got some new daytime classes starting this week.
Evening classes remain the same but in addition I am teaching a dynamic hatha class on Tuesday mornings and a gentle class on Thursday mornings starting on 10th and 12th June.
Hope to see you there!
With Scott YoungThese ceremonies are an opportunity to step back for a few hours and drop into a space of deep, communal relaxation.
I love to offer a space of simplicity, for people to drop into the heart and soul, working with the Cacao medicine to help with this journey.
Cacao, in it’s purest form has been used as a medicine to open the heart consciousness and open us up to inspiration and higher creativity for many centuries in South America, and i’ve been inspired to open up to this over the past few years, so we can work with it, in a modern context.
We will share in a Cacao drink, which is a beautiful blend of high grade Cacao Beans and organic herbs and spices.
We begin with a simple guided meditation and exercises to harmonise as a collective.
We then have a few hours to just lie back and absorb really refined sonics, both from a live acoustic sound healing journey and recorded, sacred ambient soundscapes and sacred chants, out of a really fine quality Hi-Fi soundsystem…. We will end the evening sharing in sacred songs and chants.
Our mantra was
OM Gam Ganapataye Namah
OM and salutations to Ganapati (Lord Ganesha, remover of obstacles)
Our reading was from Courtney A Walsh
” Dear Human: You’ve got it all wrong. You didn’t come here to master unconditional love. That is where you came from and where you’ll return. You came here to learn personal love. Universal love. Messy love. Sweaty love. Crazy love. Broken love. Whole love. Infused with divinity. Lived through the grace of stumbling. Demonstrated through the beauty of… messing up. Often. You didn’t come here to be perfect. You already are. You came here to be gorgeously human. Flawed and fabulous. And the to rise again into remembering. But unconditional love? Stop telling that story. Love, in truth, doesn’t need ANY other adjectives. It doesn’t require modifiers. It doesn’t require the condition of perfection. It only asks that you show up. And do your best. That you stay present and feel fully. That you shine and fly and laugh and cry and hurt and heal and fall and get back up and play and work and live and die as YOU. It’s enough. It’s Plenty.
I’ve had a request for the mantra and prayer I used at the “My Healing Space” workshop on Wednesday, and it seems like a good idea to publish them here for everyone. I will do the same each month.
ॐ असतो मा सद्गमय
तमसो मा ज्योतिर्गमय
मृत्योर्मा अमृतं गमय
ॐ शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः
Om Asato Maa Sad-Gamaya
Tamaso Maa Jyotir-Gamaya
Mrtyor-Maa Amrtam Gamaya
Om Shaantih Shaantih Shaantih
Meaning:
1: Om, Lead us from Unreality (of Transitory Existence) to the Reality (of the Eternal Self),
2: Lead us from the Darkness (of Ignorance) to the Light (of Spiritual Knowledge),
3: Lead us from the Fear of Death to the Knowledge of Immortality.
4: Om Peace, Peace, Peace.
“For Now”
I open myself
to being alert
in the present moment
and to being
completely alive
and responsive
to whatever happens
I am ready
to stop avoiding
my experiences
and internal states
of thought emotion
sensation and intuition
as they occur
I am ready
to slow down
so that I can
be centered
within myself
and live close
to the bone
I am ready
to give up
acting as if
past memory
and future wishes
are a satisfying substitute
for right now
I open myself
to being alert
in the present moment
and to being
completely alive
and responsive
to whatever happens
We are delighted to be hosting our first open day on Sunday 15th September. In the Moment will open its doors to friends old and new for free taster sessions! In The moment teachers will be on hand to answer your questions as well as teaching fantastic free movement and wellbeing sessions. throughout the day.
We have sessions in Yoga, Biodanza,Five Rhythms, Nia and Mindfulness. All free for you to try.
In addition, we will have a chai stall where you can buy authentic Indian chai, herbal tea and healthy(ish) sweet treats.
We are also offering 20 minute therapy tasters for only £8.
Jude will be teaching a new lunchtime yoga class starting at In The Moment on Thursdays 12:30 – 1:15 pm – from 23rd May.
Taught by In the Moment Glasgow’s senior yoga teacher Jude Murray
£5 drop in
I have news of a couple of changes to my yoga classes at In the Moment, starting in April (which is almost upon us)
The Tuesday evening classes remain as constant as ever and continue at 6:15 pm every Tuesday evening until I drop, so panic not 🙂
So what IS changing?
As of the beginning of April I will no longer be teaching a weekly Yin Yoga class on Wednesday evenings.Awwwww 🙁 – I know!!!!! But it seems my passion for the practice doesn’t seem to be widely shared, so time to try something else.
I am going to be offering a MONTHLY, two hour, workshop style class kicking off a whole range of offerings called “My Healing Space” . This class will feature Yin & Yang yoga sequences, plus mantra, meditation and the ever popular Yoga Nidra. Each workshop will have a seasonal focus.
This class will be on the FIRST Wednesday of every month, and if it proves popular then I will take it up to fortnightly, but in the meantime classes will be on the following dates
Wednesdays 3rd April
1st May
5th June
6:30 pm – 8:30 pm at In The Moment
The cost for this two hour class will be £10. Those using their six class ticket will pay an additional £3 for the class.
So, just what is involved?
Yin & Yang Yoga – Mindful asana practice. Working with the deeper connective tissues and energy channels.
Mantra – Using sound, chant and specific words and phrases to explore the power of vibration and intention
Meditation – Seated mindfulness practices, breathing, visualisation,
Yoga Nidra – A deep guided relaxation technique, often translated as “Yogic Sleep”. Longer than the usual relaxation in class, usually 20 -30 minutes. We also work with “Sankalpa” – a resolve or affirmation. Deeply healing.
Also appears on my mindfulness blog Switching Off
photo by Sarahlizamoody on Flickr.com
I have just completed the eight week MBCT (mindfulness based cognitive therapy) course. Over the weeks, the techniques of mindfulness are revealed in what feels like a gentle process of evolution. It was wonderful to see that evolution in myself and others as the weeks progressed. I’ve said it before, this mindfulness stuff works!
In the beginning – for those new to meditation – there was scepticism and the beginner’s frustration of “not doing”. And you could almost see the process of this unravelling – much to the surprise of the participants. “I feel better, but I don’t know why” . This is because there is no actual sense of process, or progress, or moving towards any particular goal. In mindfulness, there is no “end” in mind, only being with what is there. In the moment.
The miracle of mindfulness indeed.
One exercise that we did on the course was to write down everything that we did in one day. I chose a Tuesday because, curious to see where we were going with it (OK not quite in the moment) I chose my busiest day. Most people were finished their lists when I was still only at lunch time!
And then we were asked to go through our list and mark them with an N for nurturing, a D for draining or and M for those activities, nurturing or draining which we felt we had mastery over.
The word I think I used to describe what I revealed, was “startling”
Try it.
There was only one activity that just had an N next to it. There were many that had both Ns and Ds – as teaching can be both. There were quite a number of Ms, draining as some of the activities are, I think I’ve got Tuesdays down to a fine art. However, the one wholly nurturing activity – other than going to bed at night time – was making a cup of coffee in the morning before I left for work.
There are no answers provided in mindfulness training. Only questions and explorations. The lists, the Ns and Ds and Ms revealed all that was required. And what is required is always either a shift in behaviour, or a shift in thinking.
On the final day of the course we were all asked to bring in an object that spoke of our experience. People brought in beautiful, interesting and fascinating things. Things they had made, things that spoke to them of their experience, things they were wearing.
I brought in two objects – the first: a piece of sea washed pottery that I had beach combed. All to do with expression and activities I love and my unique sense of beauty and not being bothered whether others think differently.
And the second?.
…A coffee cup.
