Winter Yoga Day
Time To Rest and Restore
Sunday January 14th 2024
Yoga in Winter
- How will I go about nurturing and nourishing myself over the winter?
- Which yoga practices will energise me and help to banish the winter blues?
- Which activities nourish me, and which activities deplete me?
- How can I increase the nourishing activities and reduce the depleting ones?
Whilst Summer holds the peak of energetic, dynamic ‘yang’ energy, Winter is very much the opposite. This is the season for less ‘doing’ and more ‘being’. Wintertime is a wonderful time to practice yin yoga. The darker, colder days make for wonderful opportunities to turn inward—physically, mentally, and emotionally. Much like our brains, our bodies need time to recover from the past several months of activity. There is a natural desire to turn inwards and become more introvert.
Winter Yoga is all about Rest and Restoration
Restorative or Yin Yoga is what we need to practice over the winter months. It is a slow, grounding practice that helps to calm the nervous system and bring awareness to the body-mind connection. It is the opposite to Summer Yang Yoga, which is more active and dynamic.
The Winter Yoga Day teaches you how to nurture yourself in the Winter and bring about balance. It is also about building strength and warmth in the body, the joints, muscles etc. which support injury prevention followed by slow stretches and long resting periods, Savasana.
The Schedule And Theme
The Power of Yin Yoga in Winter
9.30 – Welcome and Registration
9.45 – 11.00 – Grounding floor postures and gentle back arching
Tea Break (Refreshments provided)
11.15 – 11.45 – Standing postures for strength and stability
11.45 – 12.30 – Cacao guided meditation
Lunch Break (please bring your own lunch)
13.00 – 13.30 – Mindful Walk – Winter awareness
13.30 – 14.30 – Core strengthening postures
14.30 – 15.00 – Yin-style seated postures for kidney detox
Tea Break (Refreshments provided)
15.15 – 15.45 – Winter Yoga Breathing and Gentle Meditation
15.45 – 16.15 – Yoga Nidra deep relaxation
Yoga Postures in Winter
The winter urge is to hibernate by including poses that draw the awareness inwards. You will learn what postures to focus on over the coming months and by the end of the day, you will feel completely relaxed and rejuvenated yourself. The postures we will focus on are restorative; Inversions, Sitting postures, Forward Bends a few gentle chest openers.
Yoga Breathing – Winter Pranayama
Much like our yoga postures, pranayama for Winter is all about bringing in warmth and brightness, whilst also practicing techniques that bring the nervous system into a state of ‘rest and digest’.
You will learn and practice Winter Yoga breathing techniques like Kappalabhati to awaken the senses and release any nasal or sinus congestion. It will leave you with a sense of balance and deep relaxation.
Mindful walk
A woodland walk around the area is especially wonderful during this time of year. We will take time to notice how trees manifest both the beauty of the season and the process of decomposition that is occurring. Mindfully observing what feelings arise in you in response to both the beautiful and the decaying.
Your Yoga Teachers
I will be joined with my colleague Karuna White to teach with me on this Yoga Day. We have run several workshops together and also Yoga Retreats.
We both trained with the Ruth White School of Yoga and Karuna has been teaching yoga for over 25 years. Karuna has a BSc Human Physiology. She is particularly experienced at helping her students alleviate back and neck problems through alignment, great posture and core strengthening. Her teaching allows you to reach a deeper state of relaxation and feeling revitalised in mind, body and spirit.
Yoga Day Testimonials
” Fantastic and rejuvenating day. I loved the mindful walk across the fields, the crystal sharing gem circle, the special guided meditaion and of course the yoga“
~ Suparna D – August 23 ~
” Simply a lovely day, rejuvenating my soul moving my body – a win win! The company of like minded people was a wonderful way to spend an Autumn Sunday “
~ Sandra M – October 22 ~
Venue
Winchmore Hill Village Hall, Amersham, Bucks, HP7 0PN
Date and Time
Sunday 14th January
9.30am – 4.30pm
Cost
- Sale!
