Friday 26th July 6.45 to 8.45 PM
Join us for an Evening of Cacao, Kirtan & Community with Molly Anne Chinner
You’ll be guided through an intentional journey of songs and ancient mantras to forge a deeper connection with your heart.
Singing mantras, especially in community, is a tonic for the awakening soul. It allows us to drop into the field of the animate everything and commune with the pulsation of all that is, within the heart.
No singing experience is necessary!
Opening Circle
We will open our circle with supportive sharing and drinking a warming and heart-opening elixir of ceremonial cacao infused with seasonal herbs and spices. Ceremonial Cacao opens our hearts to receive a higher frequency – that of unconditional love and compassion. She gently guides us towards a more conscious and connected experience, through the softness of our presence and the portal of the heart. She is reaching her arms around our Earth now during this time of great suffering, singing her sweet song in the ears of those opening to a deeper and more united love. We will drink Cacao in ceremony to welcome in an abundant and supportive energy, and to open the heart.
Heart Songs / Mantra
Sing through your soul, sing with the voice of love. Drop into deep awareness and witness the medicine of your own pure resonance. You will be guided to explore a selection of beautiful mantras and intentional heart-songs to awaken the energy of love.
Reflection
We will close with reflective sharing and community hugs!
*Cacao is very safe and gentle. The higher doses can be inappropriate for those who are currently pregnant, breastfeeding, have serious heart/autoimmune conditions or are taking antidepressants, antipsychotics or SSRIs. Please let us know before arriving if you require an alternative.
Please wear clothes that you feel comfortable, warm and supported in. Please along bring a drum or rattle (if you have one!)
We look forward to the evening in community with you.
Everyone is welcome, all that we ask is that you come with an open heart and mind.
For those with low-affordability or limited resources we are offering a small number of discounted tickets. This will be on a first come first serve basis. Please email us at info@bayoga.co.uk
6 Week Course – Wednesdays, 11 September – 16 October 9.15 – 10.30am
Enjoy a gentle and compassionate practice focused on comfortable movement, breathing techniques, meditation and relaxation for the body and mind.
Beginners are welcome and classes can be adapted and modified for injury.
A gentle yoga practice can support recovery with considered and careful movement. Yoga nurtures and inspires and can be encouraging when we are suffering from fatigue, lack of confidence and general aches and pains. The time in our practice can lighten and re-vitalise us. The being cared for in a quiet, accessible, place with a trusted teacher and our familiar group of people, who are supportive and concerned for our wellbeing, helps us feel encouraged to recover and to generally feel better. This is a time when it’s good to be enjoying company, support, laughter and the nourishment that brings, especially after our experiences of the pandemic and the unsettling in the world, which for so many has been so challenging and exhausting.
Join Tara for a short course to explore the practice using breath, movement and meditation in a gentle, grounding, practice.
£89
or mix and match this class with other classes by joining as a member or purchasing a class card
Monday 3rd January
Getting back into your yoga practice post the festive season can be challenging! Caroline & Jayne have come up with the perfect solution to get you going again, starting with a RETREAT DAY, followed by 4 morning Mysore practices and led Primary on Saturday 8th January.
RETREAT DAY Monday 3rd January
07.00 – 09.00 – Mysore Ashtanga with Jayne and Caroline
09.15 – 10.15 – Coffee, cake and conference, with Jayne and Caroline
10.30 – 11.30 – Where the breath goes, the mind goes, with Caroline.
A mix of traditional Ashtanga and other breathwork practices, followed by a short breath-focused meditation. Suitable for all levels.
LUNCH BREAK
13.00 – 15.00 – Workshop: Springboard into Second Series, with Caroline & Jayne.
Second series is a wonderfully healing practice. However, there are some places where almost everyone gets ‘stuck’ for a while – leg behind head postures, deep backbends, and complex inversions. In this workshop, Jayne and Caroline guide you through a series of gentle openings to unlock these challenging poses. You’ll learn where to focus your attention in Primary series to develop ease in Second Series, and you’ll find playful and nondogmatic methods of approaching these poses
15.15 – 16.30 – Yoga Clinic with Jayne and Caroline
Bring your asana puzzles and yoga queries! Lotus not blooming? Headstand a headache? Frustrated with flexibility?
16.45 – 18.00 – Sunset restorative with Jayne, assisted by Caroline
A deep, nurturing practice that releases stress, relaxes the mind and body, and rebalances the nervous system.
You can book the whole day or half day
FULL DAY RETREAT £85 – early bird discount if booked by 20th December £75
HALF DAY RETREAT £55 – early bird discount if booked by 20th December £45
Caroline & Jayne will then be offering a 4 day Mysore (Tuesday – Friday) + Led Primary on Saturday to complete your 6 day practice. What a fabulous way to start the year!
Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday 07.00 – 09.00, Friday 08.30 – 10.30, Saturday 08.30 – 10.00
Unlimited Members Tuesday to Saturday £45
5 classes/month members, Tuesday to Saturday £75
Non members, Tuesday to Saturday £95
Tuesday 4th January – Saturday 8th January
Caroline & Jayne will be teaching together, ashtanga yoga Mysore, Tuesday to Friday and full primary on Saturday. Add this onto your Retreat day on Monday 3rd and you will have a full 6 day week ashtanga practice to kick start 2022!
We are blessed here at BAYoga to have 2 such good ashtanga yoga teachers, so don’t miss this opportunity to have them BOTH teaching you!
Tuesday 4th, 7 – 9am – Mysore
Wednesday 5th, 7 – 9am – Mysore
Thursday 6th, 7 – 9am – Mysore
Friday 7th, 8.30 – 10.30am – Mysore
Saturday 8th, 8.30 – 10am – Led Primary Series
Unlimited Members £45
5 class/month members £75
Non members £95
Learn the basics of Ashtanga second series in this 2 hour workshop with Caroline and Jayne
Practicing the Ashtanga second series demands dedication and discipline, leading to profound physical and mental transformations.
Join us and learn the fundamentals for the Ashtanga second series
£30 in studio
An afternoon of yoga to raise money for the Hospice of St Francis. Come along and give different styles of yoga a try.
Saturday 11th September, 2-4.00pm
This is the perfect opportunity to do something for charity and also find out which type of yoga is right for you. At BAYoga we appreciate the extensive benefits of yoga for your body and mind. We teach a range of different yoga styles and we want you to discover the right one for you.
This is an opportunity to meet different teachers and all styles of the yoga medley are offered weekly at the studio. These will include vinyasa, ashtanga, hatha, kundalini and yin yoga.
If you want to take a break you can just lie back and relax. There will be short breaks between each session and a longer break for some tea and cake mid afternoon.
Spaces are limited so book asap to secure your place – just £15. All proceeds to the Hospice.
Beginners very much encouraged.
Bev has been a huge supporter of ours before and throughout lockdown and continues her yoga journey online with us now. Here are some words from her on her journey of wellbeing with yoga, and a pic of her cats who aren’t allowed in while she’s practicing 🙂
“I first started yoga classes in 1980 (!) and I have tried a variety of class types in a variety of settings.
I’ve taken classes abroad whilst working away from home or on holiday all over the world.
By 2019 with a routine of a weekly hatha class and vinyasa.
Then lock down arrived. Zoom classes began and I’ve learnt so much from this experience. Now I’m happy doing online yoga in my undecorated loft space unless it’s very cold outside. I spend much of the class with my eyes shut – unless I really can’t understand the instructions. So I don’t need a big screen to follow the teacher. I’m deaf, so as long as the teacher speaks clearly and the sound is clear then I’m happy.
My impression of BAYoga is that the teachers are well trained and highly expert in their own styles. Moving to north of Aylesbury curtailed my trips to BA Yoga since the rush hour traffic meant the journey was at least 1 hour long, but I now join online!
As my yoga practice develops I see how the transformational breath can really become part of your practice. I think that’s why I love ashtanga class – I can try and focus on the breath now I’m more accustomed to the poses. I love the regime of the breath work as part of the practice and my balance poses are improving. Similarly with kundalini yoga, the repetitive movements are great for breath work.
The best classes are those where the teacher makes you feel as if you are actually in the same room with the teacher. Teachers that watch your movement and comment on your positioning help achieve this.
Yoga isn’t “ another exercise class”.”
Thank you Bev! If you’re inspired by her comments about yoga, grab a 2 week unlimited pass and give it a go.
Have you ever tried walking meditation?
Here’s a tip from our ashtanga mysore teacher, Caroline:
“An important part of wellbeing is connecting with nature. Although getting out into green and wild spaces of the UK and beyond may still be a way off for most of us, nature can truly be found everywhere, and taking just a few minutes to appreciate our natural surroundings can foster a sense of calm and joy, reduce our stress levels, and boost our mental health.
One of the ways I like to do this is to take a mindfulness walk. Mindful walking is a form of mindfulness (or meditation) practice that uses the everyday activity of walking to help you become more aware of the present moment. Rather than simply tuning out or allowing yourself to become distracted, a mindfulness walk involves paying close attention to the fine details of your environment and the sensations in your body, which can improve your attention and mental focus as well as interrupt unhelpful and repetitive thought patterns. Although mindful walking is most rewarding when done out of doors, you really don’t need access to big spaces or long distances to get the benefits – in as little as 15 minutes, you can take a mindfulness walk in a public park, along a riverside or canal path, or even in your own garden. Nor do you need good weather – rain can add an astonishing richness of sights, sounds, smells and textures to the experience. Even the walking part is optional; I have experienced some deeply nourishing mindfulness practices with a sensory focus during bus rides or train journeys.
If you’d like to give mindful walking a try (and why wouldn’t you!) here’s a 15 minute mindfulness walk recorded in my garden.”
Here are some lovely words from Dave who has been attending Tara’s Wed 9.15am gentle yoga class:
“Yoga helps me with balance and flexibility, and I feel like it helps to prevent back problems. The main benefits, though, are mental. I always finish a yoga class calmer than I started it. Recently I went to a class feeling angry and finished feeling happy and relaxed. During the pandemic it helped to keep me sane. My weekly class (on Zoom) was like a port in a storm.
I’m currently the only man in the class, although in the past there have been others. There isn’t any competition between the students, we just focus on the teacher and try to get the most from the class at the level we’re at. In general I would say that men have lot to gain from yoga, so I hope to encourage more to join!
When I started out I attended 3 different classes, 2 at BAYoga and one in a local community centre, in order to find the one which was best for me. I chose Tara’s gentle yoga class, as I felt that Tara seeks to nourish her students mentally and spiritually just as much as physically.”
Tara’s class is very popular and we run it as a course, so keep an eye on the courses page to see if there’s a course starting soon. You can also join one off sessions, but they can often be busy so if you’re very keen definitely book the course in advance.
Berkhamsted yoga
Many people think about the physical benefits of yoga and tai chi, but have you considered how they can also support your mental health? Here are 4 ways they can help.
Most exercise triggers the release of “feel-good’ chemicals in the brain such as dopamine, serotonin and nerepinephrine, which help to boost our mood. Whether you practice in a more dynamic or a gentle way, the movements can elevate your heart rate, get your muscles working and stimulate the release of these brain chemicals. As a result, you might feel happier, which can make these practices a great addition to your mental health toolkit.
Did you know that yoga and tai chi can support your mental health by moving you from the sympathetic nervous system to the parasympathetic nervous system, or from flight-or-fight to rest-and-digest? When we’re in the rest-and-digest mode we enter a more relaxed state.
As we practice, we get to know ourselves and cultivate a more nonjudgmental relationship with ourselves. Practices like tai chi and yoga and really help to us to be kinder to ourselves, and develop a healthier, more balanced relationship with ourselves.
The tightening and relaxing of muscles can reduce tension, and the breath training included can be especially helpful as there is a relationship between stress relief and learning how to breath properly.
If these inspire you to give yoga or tai chi a try, grab a 2 week unlimited pass now.