February – a practice in discernment

February is just around the corner and I’m slowly coming out of hibernation.
How about you?

It’s time to have a seasonal stretch and a yawn and begin to gently expand our horizons again, and that includes our yoga practices. Maybe take a slightly deeper breath? Reach out a bit more? Move a little bit more? ….but gently does it!

Let’s be grateful for every wonderful movement our bodies are able to express. Enjoy the simple delight of being fully embodied, fully aware and able to discern our own degrees of comfort and expansion, in tune with the season. 

The next block of online and in-person classes begins next week. Reserve your place with full payment by Friday 27th January. More details here and email me to book.

I’m a late-comer to loving winter. It’s taken me a long while to recognise the quiet delights of nature when everything is stripped to the bone.

Living by the sea is a lesson in embracing the winter weatherscape, whatever it brings! And my beach is definitely a winter beach rather than a summer one. It comes into its own when the light is slanting and the wind is raging the hailstones across the bay and it’s an effort to stand upright. It really is the most breathtaking place and I am constantly reminded of how lucky I am to have landed up here.  From the depths of winter, February arrives with a glimmer of more light and the anticipation of things beginning to shift. The Gaelic festival of Imbolc on the 1st February marks this mutable time in nature. Midway between the winter solstice and the spring equinox, we celebrate the first stirrings of life pushing up through the soil.

Imbolc is spring-cleaning time too! – dusting down the cobwebs that have grown in the corners during the darkest months. The sun shines in and nudges us towards a slow and gentle re-emergence into the light. 

Come and join me on the yoga mat for a deliciously nourishing practice in discerning what we need at this time of year. It’s time to awaken from our deep winter hibernation and sniff the air for the scent and sense of the year to come.