Rachel_vinyasayogaflow

11/09/2023

Sharing my Autumn yoga schedule with you at Le Hameau de Campan....contact me directly to reserve your place.

20/07/2023

Hello everyone, here is my summer yoga schedule starting next week until end of August. If you are interested in a private group class get in touch.
https://lehameaudecampan.com/yoga/
Have a great summer everyone x

06/12/2022

Remembering that yoga doesn't need to be the perfect pose or insta ready! Yoga is finding time for yourself and rolling out the mat and doing what you mind and body needs.

I'm back teaching in January in Bagneres de Bigorre and soon to be offering some classes at our new studio in Sainte Marie de Campan.

Looking forward to sharing yoga with you xx

14/04/2022

Hey everyone, just a little progress update on our Spring yoga course. Each week looking at each chakra energy system and understanding abit more about how to take yoga off the mats and into our everyday lives.

This week we've been taking a look at the heart chakra, associated with how we love and be more accepting of ourselves and others around us. Perfectly timed with the full moon coming into Libra on Saturday which calls us to be more balanced in our relationships with ourselves and others. I've shared a good article with more details on this.

Have a great easter everyone and remember to be kind to yourself as well as others xx

With the full moon in Libra, we are being drawn to explore what it means to be whole before asking another to do our work for us.

22/03/2022

Today we started our Spring yoga course, focussed on looking at each chakra (energy) system. The Root chakra it is the foundation of our body like the roots of a tree, supporting the other six chakras. It’s energetic purpose is to help us feel grounded and stable both in a physical and emotional sense.

Located at the base of the spine (tailbone) it governs our feet, legs, bowels, blood and bones. Element; earth and mantra is LAM. Colour is red, go on wear Red this week to show your connected and balanced in your root chakra. 😊

When out of balance, you may have feelings of insecurity or instability, you may feel that you do not belong in your body or the earth. You may experience eating difficulties, restlessness, fear or sense of lacking. May develop an imbalanced relationship with money.

The type of affirmations that maybe useful;
 I feel safe and secure
 I have enough
 I am enough
 I feel anchored and connected to the earth
 I am grounded
 I have a healthy relationship with my finances
 I have a good level of physical activity and eat healthily

The type of questions you may wish to ask yourself are:
 How do I connect myself to nature?
 What gives me stability and helps me feel grounded?
 Do I view the world as a safe place or dangerous?
 Do I feel a sense of belonging in my body and in this life?

The type of asanas to do that are grounding (Cat/Cow, Downward facing dog, Tadasana, Bridge, Malasana) so that when you feel unstable or insecure practise these asanas. We tend to do a lot of grounding postures in the winter season to help keep us connected to nature. As we enter into Spring add some vinyasas and sun or moon salutations to energise your yoga practise. Enjoy

24/02/2022

Ever wondered why you do certain asanas (postures) in yoga?

You maybe familiar with how they can help you physically but what about help your mental well-being, your every day thoughts and behaviour?

Yoga can be designed and delivered in many different ways. I'm excited to share with you that I've been working on a Spring based 6 week yoga course, bringing you energising & detoxifying yoga asanas. Also in this course, I'll be explaining how the asanas can help you build physical as well as mental strength and the link to the chakra energy systems in the body. So that when you feel unbalanced you can use yoga to balance your energy and bring a sense of calm. This course aims at giving you the tools & knowledge to take yoga off the mat and into your every day life.

As an example, you may be struggling with confidence in speaking up and expressing yourself or becoming self-critical of everything that you do? When you have conversations with others do you find it hard to concentrate on truly listening and find that the inner voice takes over and you don’t listen to that person as well as you really could. This is all linked to the blocked energy located at the Throat chakra.

If this sounds like something you are familiar with, there are questions to ask yourself about what are you thinking every day (something I’ll ask you on the course as well as the impact these thoughts may have on your behaviour and how you behave towards others affecting your relationships). We will go through some yoga asanas to help unblock the energy in the throat chakra e.g. shoulder stand, fish, camel, plough, cobra are all great asanas to help encourage the energy to flow more freely. We will also be doing this in line with energising Spring season to awaken and untie knots in the body and mind 😊

I'm just finalising some of the practical arrangements for this 6 week course. I'm looking to start after the Spring Equinox (20 March) so if you are interested to know more then please send me a message :)

14/10/2021

Hi everyone, I hope you are having a good start to the Autumn season. It's so lovely seeing the colours change and I just love those bright orange and red in the trees which brings a smile to my face. I'm heading off next week back to England to see family and friends for November, it's been so long and difficult with Covid that this trip is long overdue. Especially excited to share it with my daughter Isabella. I will be back the beginning of December and I will set up 2 pre-Christmas yoga classes at Le Hameau de Campan. If you are interested in joining let me know. Thanks everyone and have a lovely Autumn season xx

24/09/2021

21/09/2021

Since I have been teaching alot more recently I have been asked a few times what style of yoga do I teach and practise. It got me thinking more about the styles of yoga and my answer to this is ‘not one style' like; Vinyasa, Hatha, Iyengar or school like Shivanadana or Ashtanga’ and I personally prefer not to be defined by a particular style of yoga, because I’m passionate about all different ways of teaching and practising Yoga. I understand that yoga means many things to different people and it’s a way of understanding yoga, however yoga is not just the physical Asanas.

The asanas are just one limb of Yoga of which there are 8 (Yamas, Niyamas, Pranayama, Asanas, Dharana, Dhyana, Pratyahara and Samadhi). The eight limbs come from the yoga Sutra’s written by Patanjali outlining the yogic theory written around 500BC.
These are ways of living and being and how we behave not just to other people but to ourselves also. To truly respect the deep longstanding practise, it is important to honour its deep-rooted past and think of Yoga much more than just the physical movements.

My yoga teacher training did however have an emphasis on the Chakra system of understanding the energy systems in the body and mind; how asanas can help us feel more balanced both physically and mentally. It is also a way of helping us understand ourselves better and allows for Yoga to be taken off the mat and into our every day lives.

For example, Muladhara chakra is located at the base of our spine and governs our legs, feet, bowels, blood and bones. The element being Earth and colour Red with a sense of smell. This dynamic root system defines our sense of self. When it is in balance, we feel grounded, comfortable in our own skin and we know and feel we have enough. When this charka is out of balance you may feel insecure, anxious and a sense of lacking something. The type of affirmations you may wish to use in your practise of yoga and everyday life is ‘I am safe and I have enough, I am enough. I am anchored and connected to the earth. The type of Asanas that might be helpful for balancing out the Root charka are; Butterfly, Malasana, Warrior postures, Bridge, dragonfly, child’s pose and Shavasana.

I hope this helps understand abit more about yoga and our reasons for practising. At my yoga event tomorrow the theme is ‘The Art of Letting Go’ and fits with the Muladhara chakra.

14/09/2021

Hello everyone, wow where has the summer gone? I've spent the last two weeks teaching down in Bagneres covering Steve's classes for a year. It's a tad mentally taxing with the French but it's coming along nicely. Anyway, I'm thinking of running a last summer yoga and wine evening next Wednesday (22nd) out in the garden. Let me know if you want to come along and I'll get organised. I promise to make lemon drizzle cake again ;)