We are moving so quickly now towards the summer solstice and our longest day of the year! I’m very excited to be attending a Silent Retreat with QiGong offerings, meditation and yin yoga at the Land of Medicine Budha this June in the beautiful Californian mountain region of Santa Cruz with a teacher I met when studying my Yin Yoga 100 hours qualification in Thailand in 2020. I’m sure I am not alone in not being totally at ease with silence for any length of time so hope to embrace the experience of letting go, disconnecting and enjoying the solitude alongside other like minded attendees. As a teacher I hope to keep sharing new experiences within our classes.
In March I attended the Oxygen Advantage Training programme in Brighton and met some very interesting fellow students from all aspects of the health industry all keen to learn more about functional breath work with the science and knowledge to support it. The intensive three days involved a great deal of theory and practical work and equipped us with some understanding of this to then take up and self study some more at our own pace – I therefore hope to be able to qualify as an Oxygen Advantage Coach once this is all completed. The emphasis being on breath work that creates a tolerable air hunger which in turn creates a larger build up of carbon dioxide (which is often considered a negative component to breathwork) in the respiratory system which is in fact is hugely beneficial in helping to act as a catalyst in releasing oxygen from the red blood cells. Breathing slowly and lightly also enables nitric oxide to build up in our nasal cavity by closing our mouth and again allowing a more permeable diffusion, and hence release of oxygen from the cells to take place more effectively in the lungs and feed your tissues and organs. With accurate recording tools you can set yourself easily paced exercises to enhance your breath and its ability to help you restore a more efficient homeostasis in your body. Some of these principles are explored regularly now in our yoga practice and I hope to teach more working alongside case studies with individuals who have volunteered to learn with me.
Other News –
Ten Year’s Party Launch
HAY – “10 Year Anniversary” – Hot Yoga Guernsey was the first to launch in Guernsey in 2013 having trained as a hot yoga teacher in Florida in 2011 with – The Hot Yoga Barkan Method. We trained for a month and attended twice daily hot yoga classes in a purposely heated room in excess of 32 degrees with added humidity as well. It made sense working in the heat based on the passage of yoga from India and it’s warm climate. I was very excited to bring this yoga sequence to the Island then and I really liked its adaption to a softer yoga flow vinyasa with less emphasis on the strict aesthetic models that were popular at the time which often over looked the functionality of a safe yoga practice in its entirety. It has now expanded into HAY Yoga – this being an integration of Hot flow sequencing and the colder, deeper side of Yin Yoga as well as coaching in the science of breath work as we continue to keep growing and learning.
I hope to send out invites shortly for a summer morning of yoga. breath work & an optional cold water immersion session – all followed up with a complimentary & nutritious brunch to help celebrate our ten year anniversary!
Please save Sunday, 3rd September, in your diary. The morning will also offer an opportunity for myself to say thanks for all your ongoing support and a chance for attendees to catch up on new ideas going forward, provide feedback as well as discuss offerings for the year with our new, small and functional yoga studio space.
HAY Yoga Retreat 2023 – Please note that we do have spaces left for the HAY Herm Retreat and hope to bring back some of the same from previous years but will be adding a new breath work workshop and cold water immersion work based on learned principles. As it’s Winter we will embrace newly themed offerings from local artisans with pottery, food. massage and art. Please take a browse and view the bookings here for more information
Otherwise enjoy the long, lighter days.
Stay Bendy
All the Best
Vanessa
