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The welcome mat

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The welcome mat

I'm Sharon O'Connor and I set up the welcome mat to help you discover movement, whatever your starting point.

Teaching Pilates, Yoga and Yogalates and Children’s yoga classes and workshops on and offline.

01/10/2025

☕️Happy International Coffee Day☕️

I've been drinking coffee for a long time. The quality of my coffee has improved, the consciousness with which I make it has increased and the quantity (ahem!) has fluctuated!!

What hasn't changed is that it's part of my morning routine.

Last year, I posted a pic of lovely mugs I received as gifts. 😊 Today, it's two I gifted myself.

Because my morning coffee is a constant, I wanted a reminder that checking in with myself can/ should be too.
'Conas atá tú' means how are you in Irish.

✨️Such an important question that can be followed by: what do I need in this moment?
Could this be a prompt for you to pause and ask ✨️

I haven't posted in a while - a conscious break to ask and answer that question more 💛

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23/04/2025

Excited to announce that booking is now open for my yoga and yogalates classes.

⭐️Monday 6pm: Yoga (intermediate) online. Series starting 28th of April.
⭐️Friday 7.15am: Yogalates (open level) in The Schoolhouse Monkstown, Dublin. Series starting 25th of April.

Monkstown movers have the added bonus of a free coffee at the lovely Pine Cone Coffee shop after class.

BOOKING:
⭐️Choose what works for you - 6 week series at a reduced rate or pay as you go to suit your schedule.
⭐️Booking link in bio.
⭐️Feel free to DM or email with any questions: hello@thewelcomemat.ie

Looking forward to seeing you on the mat 😊

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22/04/2025

Today got me thinking about the subtle, often unacknowledged power of waking up to a blue sky, hearing raindrops on a rooftop, feeling grass or sand beneath my feet.

The colours of autumn, the newness of spring, the excitement of summer, the depth of winter...there's so much for us to learn about rest, hibernation, awakening, presence, light, and darkness.

Nature truly does nurture us. We, too, can nurture nature. Jane Goodall's jigsaw puzzle comparison is both comforting and empowering when sometimes the task and the ask can feel overwhelming.

Happy Earth Day💚

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07/04/2025

No two days are the same in our minds, hearts, or bodies.... and only we know what that looks like for us.

When you check in with yourself, do so with empathy, patience and kindness.
You deserve it 🩵

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20/03/2025

A moment on movement

Pilates, walking, yoga, dancing, running, playing...it's all movement.

Choosing how and when to move should be based on: (1) what makes us feel good and (2) what works with our lives, preferably in that order.

If more of the things that make us feel good combine in a moment of movement, all the better!

They did for me last weekend at an Annie Mac gig in Galway.

⭐️I danced with I would proudly say, reckless abandon!
⭐️AND spent time with great people
⭐️AND listened to an epic set from a DJ that knows what she’s doing and loves doing it
⭐️AND ate lovely food
⭐️AND forgot about to-do lists and jobs and the other things that fill our minds most of the time

Movement can offer us much more than physical health and wellbeing. But admittedly that is a pretty solid starting point ☺️

In summary, don’t forget, you move for you 🩵

11/03/2025

⭐️'When you love what you do, it almost always shines through'⭐️

This is true of every job or task... loving or liking even just elements of it creates energy around you and that task.

Rosannagh has been moving with me for over 6 years. She was one of my first students in Ireland when I returned from New York and was subsequently one of the first to sign up to my online classes. During lockdown, creating an online space for movement when in-person classes were no longer an option was daunting. It was a big decision for me as I had no experience leading online classes and I, like a lot of people, grappled with Zoom functionality, background noise, what was in and out of shot etc.! Now my Monday evening class is an anchor in my week. It's wonderful to hear it is for my students too 😊

Giving a compliment to someone or taking the time to provide positive feedback is so important. The less than positive news/ experiences/ feedback tend to get more attention. However, thankfully, that's a ratio we can work on in our own lives by simply paying someone a compliment today. It's empowering to think we can make someone smile or feel empowered or more confident just with our words.
Have a great day 😊

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❤️

06/03/2025

Happy World Book Day!

I read How to Fail last year.

This book is a lot of things; brutally honest, funny, humble, and inspiring. It covers a lot of ground. Actually, just looking at the chapter names alone would make you curious…
’How to fail at Anger’
'How to Fail at Success’
‘How to Fail at Being Gwyneth Paltrow’
'How to Fail at Your Twenties'

I underline sentences I like in books so that if I go back to that book, I can see at a glance the things that resonated with me when I read it. That can bring an almost nostalgic feeling of inspiration, encouragement, affinity, and agreement, OR it can highlight a difference in now vs. then - how I am and how I feel.

How to Fail will be one that I suspect will resonate forever.

**The picture is my copy, which I think already illustrates this 🙂

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03/03/2025

A new Monkstown morning routine starting this week 😊

Wednesday and Friday could look like this:
⭐️7.15am: take time for yourself on your mat to move, connect & strengthen
⭐️Grab a lovely coffee around the corner at Pine Cone Coffee
⭐️Then, 'start' your day

The classes are a fusion of Yoga and Pilates: Yogalates. I love this kind of movement because it incorporates strength, flexibility, and mindfulness on the mat, making it an amazing way to start your day. Classes are suitable for all levels, including beginners.

So grab your mat and your mug and join me in the old Schoolhouse, in the middle of Monkstown village on Wednesday and Friday morning.

Booking link in bio or drop me an email: hello@thewelcomemat.ie

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28/02/2025

We talk a lot about time - spending it, respecting it, wasting it, using it, wanting more of it.
How much of our precious time is spent consciously and intentionally?

When I delve a little bit deeper and think about the amount of time spent on certain activities vs. the benefit I receive from them, things get interesting!

A good example is eating, is it usually…
⭐️a thoughtful act of self-care, or a test of multitasking?
⭐️a pleasurable event, or a baseline necessity?
⭐️something to look forward to, or something easily forgotten?
⭐️planned or not?

Considering our own time vs. benefit ratio introduces a little more awareness and consciousness into the choices we make every day.

Not every minute of time spent is a choice. But when we pause, we might find more choice in our day than we realised.

Food for thought as we face into the weekend 🙂

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23/02/2025

⭐️I have news⭐️
I'm starting 2 NEW morning classes in the heart of lovely Monkstown village.

The classes will be a fusion of Yoga and Pilates: Yogalates. I love this kind of movement because it incorporates strength, flexibility, and mindfulness on the mat, making it an amazing way to start your day. Classes are suitable for all levels, including beginners.
..and that's not all!! I'm excited to collaborate with a fabulous new addition to the Monkstown coffee scene: Pine Cone Coffee. So after class, pop around the corner and get a yummy speciality coffee and then (and only then), start your day ☺️

Join me in the recently refurbished old Schoolhouse, in the middle of the village on Wednesday and Friday mornings at 7.15am.

Booking link in bio or drop me an email: hello@thewelcomemat.ie

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22/02/2025

I love this definition of self-care!
What we need to care for ourselves in any given hour/ day/ week, changes because we change, our environment changes, the weather changes...I could go on!

A simple Q asked frequently is the start of self-care: 'What do I need now?'

Self-care for me this week included:
⭐️time on my mat
⭐️revisiting this gem of a book from my first yoga teacher training with
⭐️prosecco
⭐️a great session with
⭐️tea & cake
⭐️asking a wonderful friend for help
⭐️blue sky walks
⭐️teaching a lovely group of yogis .community.centre
⭐️sleep *not pictured ☺️

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11/02/2025

How many times a day do we do something without a goal or an aim in mind?

I've been thinking about this lately. It's almost unusual to undertake any activity in our day to day lives without defining the reason to do it.

There can be discomfort in not having a plan to justify how we're spending our time.

Sometimes, lying on our mat and breathing leads to movement. Sometimes, it doesn't. Both are the right outcome because the aim was to simply listen to ourselves.

✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️

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