Travel Well

In the depths of the pandemic, our lives transformed, shaped by the boundaries of lockdowns and social bubbles. As the world clamped down and travel came to a standstill, adventure acquired an entirely new meaning. Our local neighbourhoods became our worlds, as things we never noticed before grasped our attention. Whilst many homes were plagued by quiet loneliness, humans also developed an acute sense of appreciation for the familiar facets of their surroundings. Eyes wide open we discovered the beauty of our graffiti-stamped pavements, our back-alley murals, and neighbours' shape-shifting gardens.

The 11 February signified a pivotal date on the UK’s holiday calendar. Now our itchy feet are no longer hindered by legislation and heady dreams of exploring new territory can once again come to fruition. But where does this leave all that we learnt to treasure in lockdown? 

Whilst we yearn to travel elsewhere, we can’t forget what we learned from the shores of our own homes. From the simple pleasures of seeing new sights on daily bike rides to admiring the songs of birds at the feeder. Intrigue grew from our back doors, we began to notice the power of small things and the slowing of time. As the world beyond strolls at local parks finds us again; we must greet it with a newfound awareness of our surroundings, where seemingly invisible sights, sounds, and the joys of simple pleasures come alive.

As legislation eases, we will journey with a newfound appreciation and understanding. Our wandering steps may be slow, cautious and without a doubt uncertain. But if anything, we must continue to dig a little deeper and find pleasure in the little things which make up our planet.

New this month:

The Cleanse
vinyasa

This 15 minute class will work through some slow movements along the whole body - we start at the head and neck before moving through the spine, into our hips, and then down our hamstrings to our ankles and feet. Delicious!

Land
meditation

A short meditation that focuses on using the 5 senses to help ground us into the space that we're in. It can be so easy for us to only think of the destination of journey's that we're - whether that be geographical or more metaphorical - so hopefully this can be a meditation that will bring you right here, into the present moment. One to come back to throughout your day/week/month.

Repeat
vinyasa

This is a practice to return to again and again and hopefully in time see yourself grow through the practice. Maybe, by the end of the month, you'll know the sequence without needing to think about it - can you therefore shift your focus to the breath and to how each asana feels in each moment. We'll be working through a fairly simple flow that we'll repeat a couple of times over. How does it feel the first time around compared to the second? Although the intention here is to repeat this flow, try not to compare one practice to the next. Don't be put off if one day you feel as if you could fly and the next it's a struggle to just flow through a sun salutation. Each day is different and each practice is different.

Presence
meditation

Think about it, if you sit and do it with me every day this month, we'll have sat together for 128 minutes! This is all about creating a greater sense of presence to help you connect to all that you do throughout your day. It shows how powerful reframing our thought patterns can be in shifting our perspective.

Space
vinyasa

This practice has been specifically created so that we can take our yoga practice to whatever space we are in. It might be that you have lots of space or your home practice involves rearranging furniture in order to roll your mat out. For this flow, all we need is 30 minutes and a quite space as we're literally going to use the four corners of our mat as a little container. Great for kitchen yoga, hotel room yoga, home studio yoga...whatever your space looks like.

stillness
meditation

This meditation is a great practice for you to find at any time when you need a moment to centre yourself. Using a sequence of mudras we create and anchor for the mind.