Michelle Finlay Yoga

Michelle Finlay Yoga Yoga Teacher located in Plymouth, Devon. Your Yoga Your Way. Inviting you to engage with the philosophical teachings of Yoga though a physical practice.

Made my day when I got this news!Chair Yoga at ELM Community Centre and Wellbeing Hub is coming back on Friday 9th Jan 2...
06/11/2025

Made my day when I got this news!

Chair Yoga at ELM Community Centre and Wellbeing Hub is coming back on Friday 9th Jan 2026!

See you there! 💚💚💚

03/11/2025

The yoga pose is not the goal.

The pose is a tool. Something for you to engage with as you watch the coming and goings of your mind.

Ultimately, a yoga practice is concerned with hushing up the mind enough that you can watch what it does.

Ever thought that shutting the mind up completely is impossible? Yeah, me too. The mind is designed to think.

I'm not sure you ever switch it off completely. But with practice you can slow your thoughts enough to gain a different perspective.

This is yoga.

A huge thank you to everyone who joined me yesterday for the Autumn Yin and Nidra workshop. We reviewed the main princip...
02/11/2025

A huge thank you to everyone who joined me yesterday for the Autumn Yin and Nidra workshop.

We reviewed the main principles of Yin Yoga which are all about finding the right place in the pose for your body in that moment and being there fully with whatever comes up, by that stillness or impatience of whatever.

We took our time. There was space and an over-riding vibe of slowing down and not being in a rush. A welcome counter to how many of our lives can be.

The Yoga Nidra was offered for them to receive rather than do - Yin like qualities of allowing and being. Autumn themed, Autumn being the start of the most Yin time of year.

Afterwards, over something sweet there were comments about feeling the immediate benefit and needing to do this more often.

Let's do it again soon!

💚🙏💚

Hello November!I've not done one of these for a long while!So here we are well into the belly of Autumn. The time of yea...
01/11/2025

Hello November!

I've not done one of these for a long while!

So here we are well into the belly of Autumn. The time of year for slowing down and getting cosy. Whilst I am a summer lover through and through, there's something to be said for cosy socks, winter coats, log burners and hot chocolate!

Oh and candles! Anyone else get really excited about it being dark enough to light the candles?

October was very much an extension of summer over here. We had a late summer holiday to the Greek Island of Kos. Off-season so very quiet. Just what we both needed after a really busy year so far.

I guess I'm lucky because getting back to work after a holiday never really feels like a chore. I miss our classes and your faces when I'm away.

The studio classes at Yoga Blend are ticking along nicely. And we've welcomed a couple of new faces to the community class at St Edwards on Tuesday mornings over the summer. Chair yoga goes from strength to strength at Tothill, Plymstock, St Budeaux and online. If any of this has piqued your interest, pop me a message.

This afternoon I'm teaching my final in-person workshop of 2025 - Yin & Yoga Nidra at Yoga Blend - still time to join us at 4pm if you're not booked already. See pinned post for details.

A very happy November to you and I hope to see you soon!
Michelle xx

So you're all the way down to the floor in your splits, but what use is that when you make yourself sick over a presenta...
31/10/2025

So you're all the way down to the floor in your splits, but what use is that when you make yourself sick over a presentation you have to give at work?

Your perfectionism tendencies kick in and you're so caught up in making sure it's exactly right and worrying over what might go wrong on the day that you make yourself sick.

A yoga practice rooted in philosophy can help you to see your unhelpful patterns and where they're causing you to struggle.

The perfectionism that has you tied up in knots, losing sleep and becoming snappy with your loved ones because you need to know that it's going to turn out exactly as you want it to.

Understanding Yoga can help you let go a bit. To release the need to control the outcome of the situation.

Helping you to see that you've done all you possibly can, you've given your best - and now it's time to let be what will be.

With this grounding in yoga you start to realise that you can't control how other people receive your presentation and accept that you delivered it to the best of your abilities. What happens next is beyond your control.

And you're better for this - no sleepless nights, no sick feeling in the morning. Just you, going to delivery your work, knowing you've done your best.

Working on your splits won't get you to this place, but learning some Yoga philosophy can.

Are you coming to join us? There are still spaces available for Saturday! 🍂🍁🍂
30/10/2025

Are you coming to join us? There are still spaces available for Saturday! 🍂🍁🍂

29/10/2025

You’re in OVER-DRIVE again!

Saying yes to all the things. Allowing your boundaries to get blurred.

Staying late a work to help a colleague or picking up after a family member for nth time this week. Sacrificing much needed sleep, telling yourself you’ll catch up later.

Then your body starts to show the signs.

The sore throat
The headache
The body aches

Bam - 3 days in bed for you to recover.

What if you didn’t wait until burnout hit? What if you took action before it got to that point?

Right now, you’re snapping at your partner over something small, zoning out in meetings, everything feels hard.

Does this sound familiar?

What if I told you it doesn’t have to be this way? That I may have just the thing to help you find the re-set button.

Imagine taking a couple hours for yourself and actually feeling like you again.

You know that moment—you come home lighter, patient instead of irritable, able to laugh at the things that used to drive you up the wall.

You’re present. Things feel easier.

The re-set isn’t a luxury. It’s a necessity.
Take the time now - you, and everyone around you, will feel the difference.

Join me this Saturday for a Yin Yoga & Yoga Nidra workshop DM and I’ll send you the link.

26/10/2025

Ever felt conflicted trying to force your body into a shape because you're told that's how it's supposed to look?

Or hold a balance that just feels impossible today?

This negates what yoga is trying to teach.

Which is honouring your experience of the moment and making choices based off that.

To show up and do your yoga practice for the sake of practice regardless of the outcome.

Releasing attachment to needing things to be a certain way - tree pose and all!

Tuning in to felt experience rather than external performance.

The poses are not the point, they are a tool for you to explore yourself just as you are.

24/10/2025

There is always choice!

You don't always have to hold Downward Facing Dog in your Sun Salutations.

Some days it might not be appropriate during asana practice for any number of reasons: sore wrists, low energy, just not wanting to weight bear on your hands.

Might you tune in to your reality? Your present moment experience, and make choices based off the experience at hand? Rather than any pre-conceived ideas about what should happen or what you're told should happen?

"The yoga begins the moment you want to leave the pose."I’m not sure who said that, but I respectfully disagree. Here’s ...
22/10/2025

"The yoga begins the moment you want to leave the pose."

I’m not sure who said that, but I respectfully disagree. Here’s why...

If you know my posts, you know yoga is much more than asana.

When you want to leave a pose, notice what’s happening inside.

Your body has wisdom, you can trust it.

Say you’re in a deep backbend like wheel or bow. It’s fine for a moment, then your breath shortens, your muscles tremble, your back aches.

Then the teacher quotes that line, so you stay, thinking this is the yoga beginning.

But those sensations are your nervous system signaling stress, even danger. Discomfort can be useful in certain situations, but is ignoring your body’s intuition really Yoga?

Yoga teaches presence and acting from awareness. It’s about moving toward steadiness of mind and that’s hard to find in an enforced stress response.

When you practice really being with what is.

Meeting reality as it is.

Seeing yourself as you actually are.

You begin to see the patterns of behaviour that are hindering you.

You start to make better choices.

And when you get it wrong - you forgive yourself more easily.

It's these lessons and practiced skills that change your life, not your ability to endure endless struggle and strain in a pose.

Sat 1st November. 2 whole hours of Yin and Nidra. An opportunity to slow down and tune in. Perfect for this time of seas...
21/10/2025

Sat 1st November. 2 whole hours of Yin and Nidra. An opportunity to slow down and tune in. Perfect for this time of seasonal shift.

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Plymouth

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Monday 9am - 9pm
Tuesday 9am - 9pm
Wednesday 9am - 9pm
Thursday 9am - 9pm
Friday 9am - 9pm
Saturday 9am - 9pm

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