We'd like to update you on the current situation. As per governmental regulations, we will not be able to open on 4th of July. We will keep you posted about when it's safe and compliant for us to return to the premises. We definitely can't wait to see you all in person! Meanwhile we've been working on our timetable and set up by reading and analysing the results of the survey. Thank you all who took part in it. If you have not already done so, have your say and shape a future Equilibrium that you want to be part of. The survey only takes less than 3 minutes to complete: This is what we've been busy working on:
We will soon send out a second survey with a suggested timetable for you to review and comment on. We'd like your input. Please remember that the survey is anonymous. If you want us to know your name, please put it into the comment box or write to us separately: sandra@equilibriumyoga.co.uk Finally, thank you all for your very encouraging comments and constructive feedback. Thank you all who have been supporting us through this very difficult time by taking part in our live streamed and recorded sessions. Thank you all who have shown kindness through your words and actions. They have been very much appreciated. Walk in beauty Sandra
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Gestalt therapy talks about the paradox of change, which at its core says that change only truly happens when we are fully invested in what is. The moment we push away our experiences and feelings and wish for things to be different, lasting transformation is elusive. This week I have witnessed beautiful examples in my clients and also in myself when there was a letting go and accepting of the moment, often a difficult reality, and how feelings and sensations organically shifted into the opposite direction. By allowing the dark, the light appears. By feeling the pain, excitement enters. By admitting the sadness, hope comes in. Sometimes, the sense is that when we do yoga, meditate or do other mindfulness practices, difficult feelings should not appear. Actually, all these tools help us to relate to what is happening differently, so that we can hang out in the present moment without running away or drowning in the experience. When we can be present with what is, shifts occur and lasting change surfaces - organically and sustainably. Whatever is arising is part of the process and it's pointing us in the direction of our next step. It's not something to get rid of, but something to pay attention to. It's about staying with the direct and immediate experience of what's going on. In that way, we hope you will be able to use yoga as a practice for true transformation. Enjoy this free session from us. Thank you Kate F. for making this possible: Free Recording of Live Streamed Class Finally, we'd like to remind you that we've reverted back to our regular refund and cancellation policy. We, however, continue to suspend our 24 hour notice of cancellation policy. You will be able to cancel free of charge up until the class starts. Classes will be charged in full if not cancelled at all. This policy is in place until 8th of May 2020. Please understand that we unfortunately cannot extend passes or membership.
Thank you all who have been supporting us by purchasing memberships, drop-ins and class passes! Walk in beauty + enjoy the weekend Sandra We hope that you and your loved ones are healthy and safe. I have done a lot of decluttering during the last four weeks. I'm a huge fan of Marie Kondo and just like she says: Once you declutter and tidy, you understand what is important in your life or what changes need to be made. After the clearing process, my triggers around not doing enough especially when it comes to owning and managing a studio have been staring into my face. There are also huge inadequacies around teaching and offering body psychotherapy. When I'm triggered or in psychotherapy terms when I'm in transference, it's like going down the rabbit hole. It has many complicated stages, thought processes, diversions, painful emotions, etc. Most of it is made up and old story. When reading Sharon Salzberg's Real Happiness, which is on the Forrest Yoga booklist, the following jumped out at me: the process is about starting again and again and again. The moment I want to go down the rabbit hole, it's about recognising it, being gentle with myself and then choosing not to go down there - again and again and again. Even though the rabbit hole might feel familiar, seemingly safe, diverting and somewhat comforting, it's not serving me. It has in the past, but not any longer. This is not about eliminating the rabbit hole either, it's about recognising earlier when I'm about to go down there. I love the following paragraph out of Alice in Wonderland: "... suddenly a white rabbit with pink eyes ran close by her. There was nothing so very remarkable in that; nor did Alice think it so very much out of the way to hear the Rabbit say to itself, "Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be too late!" (when she thought it over afterwards, it occurred to her that she ought to have wondered at this, but at the time it all seemed quite natural);...." It's about catching the rabbit with the waistcoat and the pink eyes earlier and understanding that something is not quite right; something got activated. It's about catching it earlier, looking at it, wondering about it and choosing not to go down the rabbit hole. We hope that the yoga sessions we offer can support you to stay out of the rabbit hole. Here is the link to the free class. Thank you Brian for making this possible: Free Recording of Live Streamed Class Finally, we'd like to remind you of our changed refund and cancellation policy. Until 1st of May, we will allow partial refunds back onto your client account, so that you are not losing any unused sessions. Please contact us by 30th of April to get this arranged. Your class pass needs to be valid in order for us to be able to issue the refund. We've also currently suspended our 24 hour notice of cancellation policy. You will be able to cancel free of charge up until the class starts. Classes will be charged in full if not cancelled at all. This policy is in place until 30th of April 2020. Please understand that we unfortunately cannot extend passes or membership.
Thank you all who have been supporting us by purchasing memberships, drop-ins and class passes! Walk in beauty + have a wonderful weekend Sandra I work a lot with Gestalt Therapy, which at its core looks at what is coming to the foreground, in other words what is emerging. Whatever rises to the surface is the next thing to look at and to immerse myself in. What has arisen in my life this week is "shame". It has been prominent in the work I'm doing with others, but also in my own process. Brene Brown's definition of shame in her book "Daring Greatly" is: "Shame is the intensely painful feeling or experience of believing that we are flawed and therefore unworthy of love and belonging." I also like her differentiation between guilt and shame: "Guilt = I did something bad. Whereas guilt can motivate us to do better in the future, shame often is very debilitating and results in us wanting to hide, not be seen and simply disappear. Even though shame is about the fear of disconnection, it actually keeps us imprisoned in the loneliness and isolation. Shame prevents us from talking to one another and thereby making it harder to get out of the spiral. And, we all have shame. Interestingly Brene Brown says that we can't eradicate shame, but we can be resilient to it, i.e. we can go through the experience and come out the other end being stronger and more courageous. Steps in becoming shame resilient are: recognition, awareness, reaching out and talking about it to the appropriate people. My personal experience this week was that I made a mistake and I felt ashamed about it. However, instead of trying to cover it up or try to make excuses, I managed to just fess up to it, feel the guilt around it, feel uncomfortable and sorry, but also know that I'm not a bad person, because of that error of judgment I made. I had my own back in that moment. The way I see the process: It's about snuggling up to the uncomfortable and unspeakable places, becoming aware of them, feeling them and then also speaking about them. My sense is that at the moment, a lot of deeper patterns and injuries are surfacing, accompanied by feelings of shame, anger, frustration and exhaustion. It's easy to move into isolation with that feeling that we are a bad person or that we have not done the work; that there is something wrong with us. I encourage to reach out to people you can trust and who love you and share with them what's going on for you. We feel the live-streamed classes are an opportunity to check in, to connect with one another and to feel less isolated. We also understand that finances might be a concern of yours, so we've made one recording a week available to especially those of you who truly cannot afford a session. For those of you who have the means, recordings are available daily through our website, where regular class rates apply. Even though recordings don't provide the platform to connect as much and you won't get any live and tailored feedback, we hope they are still useful. Here is the link to the free class. Thank you Janet for making this possible: Free Recording of Live Streamed Class Finally, we'd like to remind you of our changed refund and cancellation policy. Until 1st of May, we will allow partial refunds back onto your client account, so that you are not losing any unused sessions. Please contact us by 30th of April to get this arranged. Your class pass needs to be valid in order for us to be able to issue the refund. We've also currently suspended our 24 hour notice of cancellation policy. You will be able to cancel free of charge up until the class starts. Classes will be charged in full if not cancelled at all. This policy is in place until 30th of April 2020.
Walk in beauty Sandra We've had overwhelming support for our online sessions. Thank you all who took the leap to join. Clients' feedback has been great, too. People have commented that being in the live online classes had felt almost like being at Equilibrium. You still receive verbal cues and tailored instructions in the sessions. We feel they are the next best thing to being physically at the centres. Since the announcements one week ago, all online sessions have been broadcast from the teacher's home. Out of this necessity, the issue of the echo has been resolved and the audio improved. Thank you all who contributed to fine tuning the entire experience. We're now muting participants and spotlighting the teacher, so that the screen does not move between people. We're currently varying the timetable from week to week and we'd like to hear your feedback on what is on offer. We feel it's a fantastic opportunity to try different teachers, also. Here is the link for the timetable: Online Scheduler Currently, Julie B. is unfortunately unable to teach a class from home. She has kindly recorded a yoga nidra for you. Here is a link to her free recording: Thank you so much, Julie, for your gift!
See you on your cyber mat! With love, Sandra Thank you for your continued loyalty and support, even during these uncertain times. Our hearts go out to all of you who have been affected by this unprecedented situation. We hope you, your family and your friends are safe and healthy.
Our vision is to continue to support our community as best as we can. We've now put together an extensive online schedule. These classes are with Equilibrium Teachers and streamed live. They are capped at 16 clients for the time being. We'd love to hear your feedback on the schedule, i.e. times you prefer, teachers you'd like to see and styles and levels offered. Currently, the timetable is changing week by week. We've also amended our return and cancellation policy and made it more flexible, so that you are not missing out on the sessions you've already bought. Our amended terms and conditions can be found on our updated blog. At this time, we'd like to offer some pointers on setting up a safe space for doing yoga at home. These are recommendations and we understand that not all of them will work for you.
See you on your cyber mat! With love, Sandra Updated 20th March 2020 Unfortunately, we will need to temporarily close our doors at both centres in Huntingdon and Peterborough. However, we have had our first very successful online session with Julie H. this evening. We streamed her 90 minute Forrest Yoga class directly to people's homes. Thank you all who joined. There are two more online sessions available this weekend:
The last in person class with be tomorrow with Janet. After that everything will be offered online. We'd love to see you in our online sessions. Technology, zoom, is easy to use. Once you've booked into a sessions, you'll be sent a link one hour prior to the start of the class. If you've never used zoom before, download the software and then log into the session 10 minutes prior to the start. Just to remind you that we've updated our refund policy, which will be valid with immediate effect until 1st of May and be reviewed again at that point:
It's very easy to get swept up in fear and anxiety. It's therefore essential to get more, centred and to make a commitment to stay in one's body. It's a time to learn how to let go of control. Walk in beauty and with love Sandra Updated 19th March 2020 We wanted to give you a further update about the COVID-19 virus and the additional measures we've put into place. We still feel that Equilibrium both in Peterborough and Huntingdon are spaces where we can get grounded and centred, which is even more essential in these times of fear, anxiety and uncertainty. As much as we should not underestimate the current situation, it's also paramount to stay in our bodies, to breathe, to take one step at a time and to stay out of overwhelm. It's a time to make warrior's choices about one's behaviour and attitudes and there is this incredible opportunity to re-assess our priorities. In addition to what we've already put into place and communicated, here are some additional measures:
Let's all breathe together in these uncertain times, be kind to one another, be in our bodies and trust the process. Let's continue to create community, as it is in the relationship with one another where we can find support. Thank you all for your incredible support and encouraging messages. Walk in beauty and with love Sandra Updated 17th March 2020
We wanted to give everyone an update about the COVID-19 virus, there is a lot of uncertainty at this time but we wanted to assure you we are keeping a close eye on the developments of the Coronavirus and will continue to monitor the information and advice released by the UK Government and the World Health Organisation concerning the spread and containment of COVID-19. At this point in time, we are going ahead with our schedule as normal, as we feel that our centres can provide a space to get grounded, centred and into our bodies when there is so much uncertainty around us. We have compiled a list of points below that we would like students to follow whilst attending classes at Equilibrium, this list is also printed and on display at receptions.
Let's all breathe together in these uncertain times, be kind to one another, be in our bodies and trust the process. Walk in beauty Sandra I have been away in South Africa and one thing that has struck me is the amount of space in that country. The nature is stunningly beautiful and vast. During the retreat I taught there the themes were grounding, centring and boundaries resulting in a lot more physical, mental and emotional space - within the participants, but also within myself.
The interesting thing is what happened after the retreat. I had created so much space inside of myself, but then had a really hard time not to fill it again through films, food, work, shopping, etc. I have become so much more apt at creating space within myself, but I still struggle to tolerate the space when it is there. My challenge is about feeling into the emptiness and the vastness without needing to fill it, because that space is a fertile ground for integration, growth, creativity and newness. I encourage you and myself to create space and then have the courage to not fill it again. Be in the empty space in beauty Sandra One of the things that fascinates me the most is an emerging pattern in myself that is mirrored back to me by the people I work with. At the moment, I can see a lot of overwhelm - in myself and in my clients.
Last week I took some time off and noticed that on day two and three I started to get edgy and restless. Even though I was on holiday with my family I started to think ahead and go through a mental list of a million tasks that I needed to do when I got back. And I feel that is very much how overwhelm gets created: thinking ahead, feeling the gravity of what is to come with no opportunity to do anything about it in that moment in time. For me, it's not when I do things that I feel overwhelmed, it's when I start overthinking, overanalysing and thinking ahead, which creates a sense of paralysis and/or anxiety in my body. Often a perceived lack of time, resources or skill for all that needs to be done is a deciding factor, too. There is a dose of feeling helpless sprinkled in there as well. When I was on holiday, I kept reminding myself: Right now, I'm on holiday and that is what I'm focusing on. When I'm back at work, that's when I work. One of the most important tools to stay out of overwhelm is to focus on what is moving through the body in this very moment. The question of "What is happening right now?" is very useful in feeling one's body and anchoring oneself in the present. In Forrest yoga the basic moves of activating the feet and Ujjayi breath are great ways to sense into the body, too. Moving the body, like in the sun salutations, can also be a good method to move out of freeze or anxiety. When we are present there are limitless possibilities and we have the opportunity to create new approaches to old issues (Dan Siegel, The Mindful Therapist). Being mindful is "avoiding premature closure of possibilities". We really don't know what's coming next, so let's lean into what is happening now and trusting that we have the resilience and skills to deal with what is to come and by doing so, we will stay out of overwhelm. Walk in beauty and with presence Sandra When I was teaching the Forrest Yoga retreat in Prince Albert, I challenged myself by bringing in a new fairy tale. I love working with stories, as they speak to us on a very deep level. On the third day of the retreat, I picked the "Frog Prince", which was fairy tale I had not previously used. Unlike the modern version of the fairy tale, the one by the brothers Grimm does not involve kissing the frog.
The transformation happens when the princess throws the frog against the wall. In that moment when the frog hits the wall and before he touches the ground he transforms into a prince. In that moment where things could not be much worse, the metamorphosis happens. Sometimes the moment where we might feel that we have metaphorically speaking hit the wall, the point where we feel we are at our lowest, that might be the moment of fundamental change and transformation. I feel it's about re-framing - not pushing down or suppressing - the difficult moments: being patient with feeling what is and understanding the metamorphosis will happen at the most surprising moments where we least expect it. During this year of deep rooted change, where a lot of us re-evaluate our priorities and re-visit our visions, paying attention to the moments we just want to push away or get through, might hold incredible potential for turning the pain and struggle into something extraordinary. |
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