Jo Shaw
I first found yoga as a teenager. In my early 30’s I decided to deepen my practice, so in 2007 I enrolled on the Vajrasati yoga teacher training (Yoga Alliance Teacher Training Plus 500hrs). I completed my training in 2009 and became a senior teacher in 2018.
In my classes I like to explore building blocks of movement – finding fluidity in the body before coming into asanas (yoga postures). Everyone moves at their own pace, in whatever range of movement that’s available to them. We use props (blocks, bands, bolsters and chairs) so that we can come into postures without losing connection with the breath and in a way that is most beneficial to the body.
There are many physical and mental benefits to a yoga practice. The ultimate purpose of yoga is to find freedom – freedom from the cycles of action and reaction – our emotional/physical habits. We are often on ‘auto-pilot’, driven by habitual patterns of thoughts, breath and behaviour, which are not an expression of our real self. Though our yoga practice we can start to find freedom by tuning into the permanent, unchanging part of our self. When we connect with this, we experience peace and equanimity.
yogah citta vrtti nirodhah
‘yoga is the stilling of the fluctuations of the heart-mind.’
The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali