This term we’re working on freeing up the spine, the pelvic and the shoulder girdles. By doing this with focussed awareness all those superimposed muscle imbalances which we live with will start to peel away, revealing the beautiful natural functional alignment of your body. We’ll use the idea of lengthening, softening and flowing into more space rather than pushing or pulling.

By coming back to awareness again and again hopefully we’ll start to break those old unhelpful patterns. Doing this needs concentration and a certain amount of objectivity so we don’t get cross or frustrated with ourselves (which then sends us into the old holding pattern again). So, stress reduction techniques will be emphasised this term, not just because they are delicious, but because they are very helpful for changing habits. Releasing all the imposed bonds around the ribcage and shoulders opens the door to a huge range of benefits including easier breathing, better digestion, better balance and a brighter outlook. Hip opening, shoulder releasing, chest release and inversions are big players in reduction of feelings of anger, fear and stress, so here we are again with evidence of the positive feedback loops in yoga.