Physical practices

VINYASA YOGA: A flowing, breath-led yoga class, where a series of poses are linked together. A slightly faster paced class which can be helpful for people who are new to yoga and struggle to switch off their busy minds.

Benefits: Aims to improve strength, flexibility, deep sleep, cardiovascular and respiratory health, as well as building energy and warmth within your body. Can help improve mental health and reduce chronic pain. Beginner, injury and pregnancy friendly (sometimes with adaptations).

YIN: A slower class where poses are typically held for 3-5 minutes, to stretch the fascia (body’s connective tissue) before resting in a rebound between poses. It is helpful to bring props like bolsters and yoga blocks to class, but you can modify with pillows, cushions and sturdy books if you don’t own them.

Benefits: Helps calm the nervous system, release physical tension and improve circulation within the body. Activates the parasympathetic nervous system (rest and digest), and helps improve feelings of calm, clarity and body awareness.

RESTORATIVE YOGA: A gentle practice where you hold poses for five to 10 minutes to encourage a deep release in the body. Using props, we support the body to bring about deep relaxation.

Benefits: Aims to calm the nervous system, reduce stress and promote deep rest. Can reduce stress, anxiety and feelings of burnout. Can lower cortisol levels and improve sleep quality.

Mental health practices

MEDITATION: A calming and relaxing practice where we focus on different techniques in order to detach the mind from our normal thought processes. There are many different types including mantra meditation, loving-kindness meditation, body scan and visualisation meditation.

Benefits: Aims to calm the mind, reduce hyper stimulation, regulate your nervous system, manage stress and cultivate deep inward attention.

BREATHWORK: Consciously manipulating your breathing with coached practices to change your mental, emotional and physical state. Also known as pranayama in the yoga, practices you may have heard of include box breath, alternate nostril breathing, the physiological sigh, and belly breath. My classes are taught with the Just Breathe method and involve moving from one technique to another in order to create a deep sense of calm, relaxation and inward quietness.

Benefits: Help calm the mind, reduce hyper stimulation, regulate your nervous system, manage stress and cultivate deep inward attention. Can be used to downregulate, de-stress, prepare for sleep, for inner balance or to energise, depending on the specific techniques used.

YOGA NIDRA: Lying down, you will listen to a guided relaxation designed to move you into a deep rest known as ‘yogic sleep’, the space just between being awake and being asleep. A deeply restorative, calming and energising practice, which moves through intention setting, visualisation, body scans and other techniques. A 30 minute class is said to be equivalent to two or more hours of sleep.

Benefits: Aims to reduce stress and tension, restore your nervous system, reduce feelings of exhaustion and improve sleep.

Most of my meditation, breathwork and yoga nidra classes will include some combination of the above three techniques.