Durham Yoga Group

15/11/2025

22 yogis gathered on this cold and blustery November morning to be guided through a beautiful Dru Yoga session with Mandy.

We began with calming, grounding breathwork, followed by a thoughtful Energy Block Release sequence. From there, we flowed into gentle stretches and postures, before being gracefully led through The Seat of Compassion and the Earth Sequence.

We closed our practice by relaxing into stillness with a soothing guided relaxation.

A huge thank you to Mandy for leading her first session with us — 120 minutes of absolute bliss to carry with us for as long as possible.

21/10/2025

Our next DYG 2 hour workshop at Belmont Parish Hall will be on Saturday 15th November, 10am to midday, with the lovely Dru Yoga Teacher Mandy Smith.

Mandy first discovered yoga through DVDs and YouTube to improve her balance and soon found it eased her back pain and asthma too. After discovering Dru Yoga through the Durham Yoga Group, she was instantly hooked and went on to train as a Dru Yoga teacher. With a long background in teaching swimming, aerobics, as well as teaching in secondary and 6th form, she brings warmth and experience to her Dru Yoga classes. She’s also qualified in chair yoga and enjoys making yoga accessible to everyone.

In this session we’ll explore Seat of Compassion, a Dru Yoga sequence that opens the heart centre, or Anahata Chakra. It encourages kindness, emotional balance, and a deeper connection with ourselves and others. The sequence works by gently awakening energy in the lower body and guiding it upward to the heart, helping us feel calmer, more open, and a little lighter inside. Physically, it’s a lovely stretch for the spine, front of the hips, and thighs. The practice is also about softening that inner voice and finding a gentler way to be with ourselves because that’s where compassion truly starts.

Look forward to seeing you all in November 🙏

18/10/2025

Live this morning, all the way from beautiful Shillbottle, the Durham Yoga Group had the joy of welcoming the lovely Lucy Maresh, who guided us through a gentle and thoughtful practice.
We began by grounding and settling into the space, before flowing into Cat—and for those who felt called—an optional Dog. As always, everything was offered by invitation only, with kindness and care.
Lucy then shared a simple, nourishing variation of Surya Namaskara (Sun Salutations), gently building the flow over several rounds. Together, in a supportive circle, we explored ferocious yet kind Warriors, and returned to the rhythm of the breath with a few more sun salutations.
We closed with a beautiful, restful Yoga Nidra—leaving us feeling deeply connected, calm, and whole.
Thank you, Lucy, for travelling all that way to share your practice and presence with us. 🙏✨

07/10/2025

Schedule 2025/2026

Durham Yoga Group meet, at Belmont Parish Hall, on Saturday mornings 10-12, once per month. The meetings are suitable for everyone, and all are welcome.
BWY members - £6
Non members - £8
For more details go to our webpage at: www.yoga-durham.co.uk/?page_id=272

18/10/25 Lucy Maresh
15/11/25 Mandy Smith
13/12/25 Samantha Lavery
Christmas session 10am -1:30pm

17/01/26 Tracy McPhail
21/02/26 Steve Sanders
21/03/26 Val Thorman
18/04/26 Samantha Coe
16/05/26 Tarra Sellars
20/06/26 Pat Howes
18/07/26 Pam Snowball
22/08/26 Jacqui Gunnion
19/09/26 Laura Ridgeon
17/10/26 David Atkinson
21/11/26 Jacqueline Stevenson
09/12/26 Lynn and Roy Moor
Christmas session 10am -1:30pm

16/01/27 Zoe Guy

  Durham Yoga Group is a non profit-making organisation set up in 2010 by local British Wheel of Yoga teachers to promote yoga in and around the Durham area. The group is presently organised b…

06/10/2025

We are looking forward to seeing you all for our next session on Saturday 18th October 2025, 10am to Midday at Belmont Parish Hall.

Our teacher for this session is Lucy Maresh

Moving Into Stillness with Lucy Maresh
We all know how important it is to keep moving, and to move well, but the real power of yoga is revealed in the art of stillness.
During the first half of this session we will explore a slow and meditative approach to surya namaskar, along with some common standing postures. The second half of the session will include a long relaxation with breathwork and meditation.
Please bring a blanket and cushion along with your mat. You may also wish to bring a block and bolster if you have them and an eye pillow, mask or scarf for covering the eyes in relaxation (optional).

Lucy is the owner of A Space to Be Yoga Retreat in Northumberland, where she lives and works with her husband and two children. Her practice is anchored in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali and the late teachings of Sri T Krishnamacharya. This approach emphasises movement synchronised with breath and an individualised, therapeutic practice.
Lucy started her yoga journey in 1998 and completed the BWY diploma in 2010 with her formative teacher Tara Fraser. Since then, she has studied intensively with Uma Dinsmore Tuli, Judith Hanson Lasater and Ranju Roy.
Inspired by the natural world and the changing seasons around us, Lucy’s practice invites us to embrace the ebbs, flows, and changes within us. Her teaching may challenge you in ways you are not expecting. She hopes to guide you home to your felt sense of what’s right and true, and your passion for a purposeful and intentional life.

20/09/2025

🌧️✨ A huge thank you to Helen for leading our monthly Durham Yoga Group workshop!
It may have been rainy outside, but Helen’s smile brought such a welcoming light into the room. She gently stretched us on the floor before guiding us through a thoughtful seasonal transition — flowing sun salutations into moon salutations, helping us move gracefully from summer into autumn.
We all left feeling grounded, uplifted, and ready for the shift in seasons. 🍂🧘‍♀️
Thank you, Helen! 💛

03/09/2025

Looking forward to our next monthly session Belmont Parish Hall at 10am to midday on Saturday 20th September 2025 with Helen Beeson. We'd love to see you there 🙏

After many years as a group exercise instructor teaching a variety of classes both high and low intensity, Helen qualified in Pilates in 1999 and straight away saw the benefits for both her participants and for herself. From here she started to explore different methods and styles to enhance her teaching. Helen suffered a serious injury, a full rupture of her achilles tendon through doing many high impact classes. This led to her not being able to teach for a year. Helen started attending Yoga for rehab and her passion for mind and body classes was ignited. She firstly carried out a 200 hr Yoga training with the Himalayan yoga institute and soon progressed her teaching and practice by undertaking the 500 hr (level 4) diploma trading with the BWY.

This session will be called Autumn Equinox and finding balance between the sun and the moon.
We will start with a sun salutation to generate heat with some grounding postures to follow for some standing strength work into a moon salute for some cooling as we shift towards the season change.

Helen will do a guided meditation and relaxation at the end of the session.

Join us in celebrating the change of seasons and reconnecting with balance, energy, and stillness. 🍂✨

16/08/2025

The DYG were treated to two teachers today. Amanda, who is half way through her 500 hour BWY training, impressed everyone with her natural, confident and clear communication style. She led us through a series of seated and standing warm up sequences, and some reclined leg stretches, ensuring that we were fully prepped for our peak pose of Downward Facing Dog. Amanda invited us to marry all movement with the breath to fully reap the benefits of the practice. Well done Amanda on successfully teaching to your largest group yet and best of luck with the rest of your course! Jacqueline then took the helm, guiding us through a lovely practice during which we energised out chakras; we found it to be calming and nourishing. To end the practice, we had some fun practising Zen walking, which tested out brains as well as our balance! Thanks and well done to both teachers.

12/08/2025

This month's event, at Belmont Parish Hall at 10am to midday on Saturday 16th August, will be a charity event, with all monies paid for entrance to be given to charity. If you can't come along but would like to add to our total, please send your donation by bank transfer and let us know on durhamyogagroup@gmail.com

(If you don't have the bank details, contact us and we'll send them to you)

The session this month will be a joint affair between one of the newest teachers in the region - Amanda Reynolds - and one of the oldest (!), Jacqueline Stevenson, one of our committee members. We are very glad to give Amanda this opportunity and hope you will be able to come along and welcome her.

Amanda will teach for the first 75 minutes and Jacqueline for the final 45 minutes.

Amanda

Discovering Yoga in 2018, I became fascinated and have decided to take my personal practice further by studying for the 500-hour BWY Diploma in Teaching Yoga. Now half way through my course, I have received my interim certificate and have begun teaching, sharing the benefits that yoga can have for our bodies and minds.

My classes focus on gentle and mindful mobility, stretching, and strengthening, a chance to work with our body whilst promoting calm and relaxation.

I will be sampling from my present course assignment of creating a 10-week lesson plan.

"A Self-Compassion Journey - an anatomically led and mindful practice for whole body and mind health."

Week One - I start to notice. The benefits of Yoga.

This session will begin with a breath awareness practice, followed by a dynamic warm-up, basic vinyasa with focus on Ardho Mukha Svanasana, and dynamic cool down, ready for Shavasana.

I look forward to practicing with you.

Jacqueline

I have been teaching yoga now for many years and my yoga has certainly changed to move towards more gentle and meditative practices. We will be working with enhancing the Zen walk that Marcia Ash introduced us to in her session some months ago, bringing an enhanced sense of balance, concentration and contemplation to the practice. And if we have a laugh as well, all the better!

After that exercise of the mind, we will move the breath through the body in the (now traditional for August) Yoga Nyasa: q breathing, chakra energising and meditative practice.

26/07/2025

🌞 Saturday Morning Yoga Bliss 🌿
Our lovely monthly Saturday morning yogis were treated to something truly special today, thanks to Ros Beaumont. 🙏
Ros guided us through a beautiful blend of mat and chair yoga, starting gently in the chair with mindful breathwork. We eased into seated car stretches and gentle twists—just what we needed to settle in and arrive on the mat (or chair!).
She then broke down Sun Salutations into two accessible flows—one standing, and one using the chair. We practiced each a few times, then enjoyed combining both into a flowing, self-guided sequence that left everyone feeling connected and grounded.
To close, Ros offered a thoughtful explanation of Yoga Nidra, then led us through a deeply restful 40-minute practice. I think it’s safe to say nobody wanted to leave after that. 😌💤
Thank you so much, Ros, for such a nourishing and balanced session.