Methodology

We are nature and to maintain balance we have to be aware of excess and deficiency.

If my body is too dry, I drink water. If there is an excess of expansive energy I need to come back to my centre.  If I have spent the morning being very physically active, I need to find some stillness in the evening. It’s obvious, right?

No, it requires deep awareness and willing to feel.  Your body is your wisest teacher, make an appointment with it on your mat!

Space element

Space is the container for everything. It is pure possibility and potential.  It feels like stillness, freedom, and awareness.  Space is both a cause and the result of a blissful yoga practice (and life).  It supports and fuels transformation by providing a place for the magic to happen.

Creating space requires discipline, but experiencing it is pure freedom. 

Creating space in yoga is a matter of being present and aware of what you’re holding in, up or onto – whether it is a thought, an emotion, or any form of tension – and allowing yourself to let it go. 

Air element

Air is pure movement, expansion and lightness.  The breath in and out of the body, the expanding and contracting of the muscles and the mind.  The element of air gives us rhythm, grace, mobility and a sensation of holistic openess and compassion.  Air fuels the body and stokes the fire of inspiration. 

Infusing air into your yoga comes from an awareness of the breath.  Pranayama or breath control is a great way to open and tap into the subtle channels of the body clearing the way for ideas, inspiration, energy and love to flow.  As you move through life and your practice, notice how the breath feeds the body and mind.  Breathe into the expansion and contraction of the muscles, joints, and connective and supportive tissues to create the sensation of lightness and openness. 

Fire element

Fire creates discipline, transformation and inspiration.

The fire in our practice is experienced as intensity and abundance. The heat and energy created is the result of the action, dedication and focus put into the practice.  Ultimately, our fire delivers purification.  It creates insight that allows us to see and engage with what’s important and burn the rest. 

Lighting the fire in your yoga is about… engaging bandhas (energetic and physical locks).  Moving from your center.  Fire lives in the belly, our center of power, intuition courage and will.  The use of our core muscles connects us to the spark at the center of who we are, and engaging the bandhas is fire tending, keeping the gleam a light.

Water element

Water creates fluidity, connection and adaptability.

It shows up in our ability to consciously hold on and at the same time, let go.  It fuels our practice with surrender and resilience that return to us as fluid movement, supple muscles, steady joints, agile minds. 

Bringing the water to your yoga means…Cultivating a softness in your practice (particularly in the joints), and nurturing a physical, mental and emotional sensitivity that favors response rather than reaction.

It also means moving fluidly through your practice, synchronizing movement with breath, opening, feeling and yielding in a way that is powerful and sustaining.

Or, in the immortal words of Bruce Lee: “Be water.”

Earth element

Earth is home.

It is structure, cohesion, and foundation.  It’s the centered, grounded, and authentic, expression of you and everything around you. Earth is the sensation that we want to return to, the physical stillness that creates mental and emotional stillness, and vice versa. 

Cultivating the earth in your practice is about…Establishing your foundation (feet, hands, sit bones).  It’s about maintaining an awareness of how the state and position of these physical landmarks contribute to your overall experience of stability and ease. 

And remembering that every pose right through to Savasana is an opportunity to return home...”