The Yoga Space Perth & Online

13/06/2021

Interview with

**Latest Article**

Having practiced yoga in Perth since 2001, I have come to know various schools around the city and teachers that are knitted within each community.

Jean Byrne PhD (Jean Byrne) was a teacher I had never had the opportunity to meet but one that I had watched from afar. Her online presence always reflected one that inspired my curiosity and revealed a very interesting, scholarly teacher.

Jean is also the studio owner of the The Yoga Space Perth, Australia a longstanding studio which, unlike so many of the other studios around town, also opens its doors to those much less fortunate.

This caught my attention.

Attending a yoga class, seeking out experienced teachers, is a wonderful, supportive wellbeing practice but, sadly, one that not all can afford or possibly are physically unable due to chronic disorders. As a sufferer of an inflammatory, bowel disease I have a small window of insight into the lives of some where even going out of one’s door presents large amounts of anxiety.

I was excited to ask Jean about her journey into yoga, especially as a woman who had studied under many teachers nationally and internationally. I also wondered how her university studies inform her yoga teaching.

No matter how far along you are in your yoga practice, Jean offers wonderful insights into a yoga practice that has “leapt from the rubber mat” and rippled out to create a supportive community.

I hope you enjoy!

https://simpleaspi.yoga/a-thirst-for-knowledge/

20/05/2020

Podcast!
Together with Chandrika Gibson and Wisdom Yoga Institute we are delighted to bring you the Peaceful Embodiment podcast...

Welcome to the Peaceful Embodiment Podcast: Yoga, Mindfulness and Living Well.. Brought to you by Wisdom Yoga Institute this podcast explores the intersection of research and practice.

08/04/2020

Free Your Mind: Practical Philosophy

Free Your Mind Click the link above and listen to a talk by Jean Byrne PhD on the intersection of Yoga, Buddhism and Western Psychology. Identify some unhelpful thinking styles and learn about samskaras, deep ...

05/03/2020

What to do when a pregnant woman comes to class?!
Pregnancy Yoga is not covered on most trainings - but there are definite contraindications to be aware of.

Mindful Birth offers in person Yoga Alliance and online Yoga Australia accredited training to yoga teachers and health professionals worldwide. We create communities of educators who support woman through yoga and mindfulness based classes and workshops. Our trainings are evidence based and informed...

25/02/2020

Angry Women, Yoga & Social Change

Thanks Magnolia Zuniga for the share. Our society doesn't like angry women, not at home, not at work, not in yoga communities.

Anger I do believe can be a motivator. And it is an important part of the process which can ignite change. Angry women got us the vote, angry women initiated , angry women are fighting for our rights everyday.

"The fear of a woman’s anger is just one facet of a larger fear of women breaking the normative bonds of social control, of shirking their duties as peacekeepers and boat-righters to put themselves first. In short, it is terrifying, particularly to men, and so the history of women’s anger goes hand-in-hand with a history of oppression. Angry women were tried and burned as witches and fitted with contraptions that literally silenced them. They were hustled off to sanitariums, medicated into submission, and gaslighted until they turned their anger back on themselves."

We are so opposed to the expression of anger in yoga communities. It is like a sickness, bright shiny positivity with an underbelly of abuse and narcissism - but please don't be outraged. Outrage is not yoga, outrage means you need to practice a little more. If you are outraged there is a strong encouragement to spiritually bypass.

I have seen a lot of yoga practitioners and teachers use their practice as a band aid. Thats ok, it is needed for a while. But at a certain point we need to start asking why our teachers aren't up for having the difficult conversations? Where do they stand on reproductive rights? On same s*x marriage? How do they articulate their relationship to an abusive lineage? What do they believe stuff just cause their male teacher says so?

Questioning is everything. Get comfortable with not all questions having answers. And if you are angry? Channel it into social change...

What do you think?

https://www.bitchmedia.org/article/its-time-embrace-feminisms-anger

25/02/2020

Italy Retreat Planning
An intimate and grounding Ashtanga and Cultural Retreat in Italy. Early Planning stages for this journey in 2022.

Sicily: Yoga & Cultural Retreat
Elena and I are planning an exquisite retreat in a medieval town surrounded by orange groves in Sicilia - an island in southern Italy near the majesty of volcano of Mount Etna. It is the early planning stages but this will be an intimate yoga and cultural immersion. Elena was born in Italy and I am delighted to be creating this experience with her!

September 2022.

08/01/2020

Women, Yoga & Divinity
Finding a spiritual practice outside of patriarchal traditions, is it possible when all of the world's religions are deeply patriarchal, male centred with misogynistic tendencies? What do you think?

For me spiritually I live in a world which has a deep forgetting of the maternal feminine, in religious and philosophical traditions the search for higher self, enlightenment, god includes a forgetting or debasing of immanence. As a women I am reminded of my fluidity, my immanence regularly with the rhythms of my body. Mainly it is hard to articulate and experience divinity or whatever one might call it in traditions which are patriarchal. The origins of yoga are deeply and painfully patriarchal in Hinduism, as in all major world religions.

I grow tired of hearing about the trauma male teachers in positions of power have created. I know that is a privileged position to be in. I know this is just one woman's story. But I also know there are many stories like her, about many male yoga teachers.

Moreso, I grow tired of the way in which women are not taught to resist and become so deeply immersed in surviving in patriarchy they are unable to truly support other women.

For me the litmus test for spiritual teachers is their ability to be in healthy relationships. Sustaining relationships over time. That requires presence, steadiness, unconditional love and compromise.

What is your litmus test for a teacher?

Jean

To see a certain predatory yoga patriarch thrive on denouncing that of which he is guilty troubles me. Until recently, I felt my…

23/12/2019

Loving Kindness Meditation
Freely available to all who would like to use it.

Loving Kindness Meditation

20/11/2019

Pain Science, Yoga & Movement
(based on research)

A panel discussion on the latest when it comes to pain, movement and yoga. Learn about boom bust, pacing, the importance of language and how to work in a evidence based multi disciplinary way.
Moderated by Jean Byrne PhD, Yoga Therapist.
Panellists: Rob Schutze PhD, Clinical Psychologist & Pain researcher Curtin Universty, Emma Sulley Masters qualified Physiotherapist, Scott Murray, Masters qualified Physiotherapist.

12/11/2019

There are no words...
She expresses her opinion, she is patted on the head.

As I participated in a workshop, the story came to life right in front of my eyes, right in front of the TV camera for “The Weekly.”