Part of the Yoga for Stress Relief program - follow it here.It’s natural to be identified with our sense of self, the mind, and all the thoughts that we have. Planning, ruminating, and imagining are habits that are very alluring and addictive, but also completely normal, and very human. This simple, brief, and heartfelt practice is an opportunity to step out of the trance of the mind and remember the part of you that isn’t lost in the swirl of thoughts. Give yourself a break, and feel better.

It’s possible that one of the things that’s in the way of you taking time to stop and rest is the feeling of guilt. Maybe you feel you don’t deserve to care for yourself, or that your duty to others should supersede your own need for rest. The opposite of guilt is responsibility: to ourselves, to put on our life jacket first, and then be the best we can be for everyone else in our lives. Lie down, relax, and let yourself enjoy some guilt-free rest!

Sometimes we struggle to connect with others and let ourselves be supported. We may get stuck in the idea of being unworthy to receive, and unable to get out of our own way. This Yoga Nidra practice invites you to reflect on the love and support surrounding you, and let it in.

Despite our mental certainties and clarity, we can never really be sure of anything that we perceive. Cognitive science cites 23 known human biases that interfere with perception. Put simply, whilst we might know, we can never be certain. Interestingly, the idea of loosening our certainty might be intellectually frightening, yet this practice will likely lead to the opposite experience, help set you free of your mind, and the fixed view you take of yourself, and others. There’s one certainty here - the practice will be liberating.

It’s natural to get caught up in struggling or fighting with our lived experience. We want more of the things that are good, and less of what’s difficult, unpleasant, or stressful. Yoga Nidra offers us the opportunity to take a break from this game of choosing and refusing and spend some time being with and befriending our inner experience. Take some time to turn away from preference, and enquire into what’s here for you today, physically, mentally, and emotionally. You’ll emerge from this practice feeling more at ease with yourself, and with life.

In this contemplative practice, you’ll be invited to explore qualities of appreciation, love, awe, and wonder for the gift that life is. When we feel this, we can go about expressing these qualities as part of our experience. Make a great start to what could be the best of days! You can listen to this sitting up or even lying in bed before you go anywhere or do anything. Maybe you’ll want to have a cup of tea first. Either way, you’ll be glad you made the time for this.

There are lots of stories we tell ourselves about what's in the way of us regularly practicing. In this talk, you'll learn how to get underneath some of those narratives and reframe certain mindsets. Step around self-sabotage and reclaim your resolve to practice regularly in support of your life and the life of those you love and care for. Click here for the practice that accompanies this talk.

Explore some powerful tools for reframing unconscious feelings and drivers that may be limiting your ability to nourish yourself. Break into a deeper sense of value, worth and belief in yourself and your practice through the framework of self enquiry via Deep Rest. Please listen to the talk that supports this practice first.

Listen to this practice as you drift off to sleep. Enhance your relationship with dreams and feel more emotionally balanced each and every day. Please listen to the talk that supports this practice to better understand the various components, and support an even deeper relationship with dreams and your emotional wellbeing.

Dream sleep is now scientifically recognised as overnight emotional therapy. Learn about the 'how' of this and develop a more trusted relationship with your dream world. Embrace and enjoy more dream sleep and the emotional wellbeing it will bring to your life. For the practice that follows this talk, click here.

Have you heard the word resilience but not sure what it really means? And how would you practice 'being resilient'? Find out all about what this words means to us if we practice yoga and meditation and how you might find a deeper possibility for being 'tough' in your life.You can practice James' accompanying Yoga Nidra class by clicking here.

Explore a yummy Yoga Nidra practice that will radically deepen your resilience. Recover from overwhelm, settle and resolve your emotional states, deepen your self trust and light up your creative and insightful side. The best bit? All you need to do is lie down and listen - no effort required!Practice starts at 05:48You can listen to James' accompanying talk on this topic here.

Take a moment for a brief meditative pause as James talks about getting to know who you are at the deepest level of your awareness, followed by the sharing of a practice from his recent book, The Book of Rest.

This practice is designed to give you a first-hand, simple experience of each of the energetic convergences that we might know as 'Chakras'. These meeting places of sensation, feeling and emotion within our bodies don't have to be mysterious, and can be felt very simply through enquiry. You'll likely experience emotional relief and a new level of self-understanding after this practice. For the talk that accompanies this practice, please click here.

This informative talk aims to simplify your understanding of the Chakras as energetic convergences of sensation, feeling and emotion. This talk will show you how to work with them, understand their value, and make concepts that can be quite abstract accessible and real for you. For the practice that accompanies this talk, please click here.

Take a moment for a brief meditative pause as James talks about the simplicity and fullness of learning to stop, rest and 'be', followed a practice from The Book of Rest.

Come to understand the nature of your mind through the lens of neuroscience and then try a practice that will instantaneously and effortlessly bypass the thinking and task-oriented aspects of your brain. This will drop you - directly and quickly! - into a deep and abiding experience of true presence.

It is often the case that amidst our busiest days, we don't give ourselves time and permission to pause, reset and rest. Try this brief practice to help you connect with a few moments of letting go and deep relaxation. Give yourself permission to stop for a few minutes, find your 'rest word' and then dive into a simple, grounding Yoga Nidra practice designed to reset your body and mind. By the end, you'll not only be ready to face the rest of your day, but you'll feel refreshed and ready to take on even more!

With a long list of health-inducing benefits, most of us would benefit from dedicating more time to resting and doing nothing. This 18 minute practice is the perfect way to feel refreshed, invigorated, yet more relaxed and less stressed. Find out all about 'optimal rest' and then do it! We guarantee you will feel well-rested and happier.

Have you forgotten the perfection and wonder of who you already are? Take a few minutes to remind yourself of the simple feeling of being alive, being human, being part of life. Feel this simple aliveness in your body and all around you. Feel alive, rested, whole and complete. Come home to yourself.

Stressed? Overworked? Don't know how to slow down? Come and explore the art of surrender with this deeply nourishing, restorative practice guaranteed to leave your hips, lower back and sacrum feeling loved.

In meditation, it's typical to be instructed to follow the breath or give a focus on a particular object. This practice helps you to move beyond the need for fixing your attention in any one place and sets you free to explore a deeper potential: to know yourself as the undisturbed silence in which all of the objects of your attention come and go. Set yourself free!

Whether you believe you can control everything, or that you are completely out of control, you'll find the need for it an inhibition in meditation. This meditation is an invitation to let go of the need to have your experience look a certain way and rest back into a quality that knows the deepest ease possible.

Do you feel guilty, embarrassed or ashamed of taking time out to rest? What does your resting life look like? Do you make a generous space for it in your life? Of course, you know how to rest, but do you actually do it? In this short talk and inspirational 'rest' session (Yoga Nidra), explore your feelings about rest and let go of guilt and shame, Find a new sense of potency, energy and a restful quality that you can share with the world and those you love. Go on, have a lie down!

Yoga Nidra focuses on taking us toward a liminal state; somewhere between being asleep and awake. When we do this, it's very natural to start to see images and have fantasies unfold before our very eyes. But what to do with them? This talk and practice give you the tools to both meet and understand your inner imagery. You can skip straight to the practice at 12:52 or learn how to work with this content by watching the talk beforehand.

This gentle and slow class sets about exploring two simple movements: figure 8 and inward and outward spiralling, freeing your body up to a whole new level of ease and wellbeing. Perfect for those who want to explore more subtle sensations, or those suffering from pain or injury. Let go and unravel for a while...

What does 'yoga' mean? Is it a practice or a state of being? Can it be both? Explore the answers to these questions and more in this talk on what it is to wake up to your deepest nature and to go beyond peace into the absolute.

What are you when all else is gone? In this practice we will explore the ‘spaces between’ - the space between breath, within the body, and between our emotions and thoughts. By diving into these ‘absences’ we are able to glimpse our innate nature and experience it as one of unconditioned, spacious listening. When we connect with this ‘quiet watchfulness’ we realise how at our very core, we are complete, rested and at peace.

"You don’t have a ‘bad back’, you have normal back that is currently sore.” In this class we’ll explore how opening the hips and freeing the sacrum can lead to better back health and an overall sense of well-being.

In this class we explore simple, subtle movements to take your practice to another dimension. Here we’ll be looking at flows in the spine and playing with 'snaking' the hips and tilting the pelvis in a variety of twists and hip-opening poses. The results can be surprisingly transformative. A great way to bring something new into your regular practice, even if you didn’t think you wanted to!

Do different yoga philosophies point to the same 'oneness'? If you want to understand these varying philosophies and how they relate to one another, then this talk is for you. We’ll explore Sankhya, Patanjali, Advaita Vedanta and Tantra, perhaps offering you a new perspective on your yoga journey, both in terms of where you've been and where you think you might be heading…

Try something new and explore James' Tibetan-influenced yoga flow that focuses on some yet-to-be-introduced seated postures. 

How rarely do we give ourselves permission to stop? Even our downtime has to have an element of ‘purpose’ to it, else we fear we may have wasted our time. We’ve even made yoga and meditation another task on our to-do list. Are we missing the point? What does it feel like to completely, absolutely, just STOP! In this practice, all you have to do is let James help you let go, and be.

Just how different are the many varying yoga practices we see today? Is there a common thread? What happens when we focus more on feeling with our bodies than thinking with our minds? When we train our attention to become more one-pointed, we might see these different styles in a new light, both their differences and similarities. We'll also explore what it is to be 'safe' in a yoga class or with a teacher who is new to you, and how to have good boundaries within yourself, meaning you can explore new offerings and styles with confidence and inner stability.

Many of us can long for stillness and silence, whilst at the same time being frightened of it. This can result in us constantly running from ourselves towards more things to do, have and know. Take some time to rest in the stillness of your essential nature, and let everything unravel for a while.

Come and feel deeply into a Somatic or 'felt' experience of the body, leading to an understanding of how the body unfolds within a larger field of awareness. Through simple movements, uncover your essential nature of interconnected wholeness. Let go of 'doing' your yoga and simply be yoga itself.

The art of knowing where you're going and then 'walking your why' could be one of the most essential things you do in this lifetime. Get clear on what it is that drives you to practice yoga and find some deep resolves that keep you connected to your practice, yourself and your life.

With the subtle practice of uniting breathing and movement, this class is an essential practice for anyone seeking balance, harmony, and resting into the stillness of our true nature.

Learn techniques that encapsulate a ‘skilful means’ to calm the mind through breath-within-movement, reducing tension and promoting deep ease and well-being in the body and mind. The other class - Stepping down into silence - James refers to in this video is here.

This class focuses on deepening the learning of James’ new Tibetan-influenced movement and breathing practices whilst highlighting a fluid exploration of Eagle pose (Galavasana). Come and unwind (quite literally) through a smorgasbord of delights!

Explore a movement practice influenced by the teachings of Tibetan monks, harnessing never-shared-before breathing techniques within postures and leading to a groundedness that quietens the mind and enlivens the heart.

This class introduces the techniques of the 9 breaths; a sequence of breathing and movements designed to cleanse and prepare the physical body for subtle practices. This is followed by an exquisite breathing technique that will help you step down into and abide in a stillness that is always here, just waiting to be remembered. You can follow this class with Sports Casual - a soft Vinyasa practice with a difference - letting go of details, precision and alignment in favour of listening, feeling and being with your body as it is. 

James is back! After a short sabbatical from Ekhart Yoga and welcoming his son Luca into the world, this is a return to the spirit and essence of James’ teaching. An ideal practice for those moments when you want to unwind, rest and simply ‘be’. We start with engaging breath with movement for a soft Vinyasa practice with a difference - letting go of details, precision and alignment in favour of listening, feeling and being with your body as it is. Much less the process of getting there and much more the process of being here, you can swap out Downward Dog for 'Casual dog' and let the soft animal of your body do what it loves.

The yogis have given us such a precious gift: to recognise that we are not our thoughts, beliefs and stories, but how they appear within us. Learn the deepest secret to the teachings of yoga and set yourself free from identification with your thoughts through the practice of 'watchfulness', and find the part of you that's always okay, even amidst the most challenging of circumstances.

In this class we focus on meeting the roots of anxiety through the technique of Yoga Nidra. As we learn to welcome in our feelings, thoughts, images and memories of anxiety and by getting 'up close and personal' we have the potential to befriend this feeling. What we resist persists, but as we can get up close to these feelings, we may now truly have the chance to go beyond them, perhaps even meet their opposite. As we invite in this important guest and welcome it with kindness and compassion, a new relationship may dawn. Read about the techniques and benefits of Yoga Nidra in What is Yoga Nidra?

Systematic desensitisation is a fancy way of saying 'learning how to be with your anxiety'. This time-tested approach shows you exactly how to work skillfully with what may seem like overwhelming feelings. When we're anxious, it can be hard to tune in to it and not be 'taken hostage' by our thoughts and fears. Through this technique, you can learn to graduate your emotional and mental spectrum and systematically get more and more comfortable with those overwhelming thoughts. This could be the beginning of a new freedom...

Take a rest and learn to soothe yourself with the soft sound of the sea in your throat. This approach to an ancient technique is gentle and enquiry-based, all founded on dismissing an oxymoron - you can't 'try' to relax. By relaxing one's effort, one relaxes effortlessly, and finds an ease and peace that was here all along.

Explore a practice focused on extending your exhalation and using this technique to leave an imprint on the breath and in the nervous system. The class will have challenges to your normal breathing patterns but wait and see how it leaves you feeling at the end of class. This technique will change your nervous system for the better and create resiliency to stress and anxiety. The medicine may be hard to swallow, but it'll make you feel better!

It's now time to do a little movement, all in the spirit of feeling calm, centred and soothing the nervous system. By integrating the techniques introduced in class 2 into movement, you can expect to feel grounded, centred and calm.

This talk and practice give an overview to breath and how if we're feeling anxious, tension can show up in a breathing pattern that leads us to yet more tension. By understanding the relationship between breathing in and out, and learning some simple techniques to change your breathing habits, you will develop some life-long insights into how to work with your breath and stay calm amidst the ups and downs of life. Please listen to the talk first. The breathing practice starts at 13:12 for those of you returning to try this again. We recommend that you only move to class 3 of the program if you can master all of the breathing techniques here.

A short introduction to our new program: Mastering Anxiety. James outlines how, through a variety of approaches and techniques for both the body and mind, and some new and exclusive content on EkhartYoga, you have the opportunity to live a more anxiety-free life. Read more about the program and how to follow it here.

Neuroscience has given us huge insights into the workings of the human mind. Learn how your default is to worry, and how you might 're-train' your brain by learning to give up thinking for feeling, and turn your mind towards memories, images and feelings of well-being. This simple set of techniques should be repeated little and often, to begin a rewiring in the brain and nervous system. Consider this meditation as medication! **For those returning to the class, the meditation practice begins at 6:17**  

Our deepest desire is to come home to ourselves and rest in that part of us that is already healed, whole and healthy. Take a few moments to open to the possibility that everything is ok, and that we can never really abandon ourselves or be too far away from our true nature of timeless, spacious peace. Come home to yourself and trust in that deepest longing: to be whole, healed and healthy. With a new baby due, this talk is my last offering on Ekhart Yoga before I take a sabbatical for a few months.

Ever muttered the words, "I'm trying to turn it around"? The concept of using 'opposites' shows up numerous times in the various texts and traditions of yoga and in this session we will look at the scientific approach to 'wave mechanics' - how we can transform brainwaves and 'negative' thoughts and emotions by exploring their opposites. We'll also take a Yoga Nidra practice to help get you unstuck from seeing just 'one side of the coin'. This could be a whole new path of freedom for you!

With a focus on key physical movements from the practice of Hatha Yoga, including Sun Salutations, this class goes further to harness the ancient practice of Pranayama (meaning to extend and expand one's lifeforce). It's designed to revitalise your energy system and give you some va-va-voom! 'Ha-tha' can be interpreted as 'Sun-Moon' and this practice helps you land sunny side up, stimulating the vibrant, health-giving life force of Prana. If your get up and go has got up and left, then this class is for you!

The deeper teachings of yoga, known as 'non-dual' (meaning not separate), offer us a deeper perspective on our own fundamental nature. When we get caught up in 'getting it done' or 'being the one who knows' we can get ourselves tied up in knots. How would it be to feel at peace whilst your working on your 'to-do' list, or be able to feel expansive even whilst we face problems in life? To experience yourself as perfectly fulfilled even in the absence of the perfect relationship, house or job? Sound too good to be true? Oh no it isn't, and I can show you how to get there...

An all-encompassing Hatha yoga practice: stretching, strengthening, opening, un-blocking, breathing, locking, holding on and letting go. This is James' go-to practice for all over body and being health.

A powerful practice to leave you awash with peace and deeply rested - be sure to clear your schedule for this one. You'll need a bolster and blanket to get yourself ready to follow clear instruction guiding you through a number of breathing exercises. These practices can be surprisingly effective, causing profound shifts in your state of being.

Yoga Nidra can significantly improve the relationship we have with the pain we experience in our body. It can offer welcome relief for people struggling to manage their pain using other methods, even bringing the 'pain scale' down by several notches after just one practice. During this session, we will first identify the level of pain we are experiencing and then work through a comprehensive range of Yoga Nidra practices before re-visiting that pain level once again. By the end of the practice, you should not only feel less pain but be confident to continue the practice at home. You might also be interested in watching the introduction to this practice Using Yoga Nidra to manage pain - talk. 

Most of us, at some point in our life, will experience pain, be it physical or emotional. Do you need a 'pain holiday’ today - a break from the sensation that is always knocking at the door? - or are you in a place where you can dive in and be with the ‘felt sense’ of your discomfort? Whatever you need, James will offer you some techniques and guidance that will help you manage or explore your pain in the accompanying practice Using Yoga Nidra to manage pain - practice.

Join James to challenge your core strength as we explore a forward/backward wave within the spine through aspects of the Sun Salutation. Learn how to add grace to your transitions between Upward and Downward dog, then play with some simple flows within seated twists. Work your core with 'Chakra rolls' and then have a well-earned rest as James guides you into a blissful stillness of body and mind.

Life feels better when we feel steady, strong and safe. Your 'centre' is that part of you that always stands strong and knows and loves itself, whatever is happening in your life right now. In this practice we'll explore breath and postures all with the focus on re-connecting yourself with your centre.

Getting a good night's sleep changes your life, yet so many of us struggle to wind down and stay down. This Yoga Nidra practice (complementing the 'Become a super sleeper' talk) has been specifically designed to lull you into a very deep and restorative sleep.... Zzzzz.

Look forward to waking up refreshed after we talk all things Zzz... and explore some effective tips and tricks for slipping into a deep and nourishing sleep. Next, you can try The Super-Sleeper practice.

As we stand at the threshold of a New Year, many of us are thinking about making resolutions, or reaffirming intentions, to support our health and well-being. But where are these intentions coming from, and are they really supportive? Take a few minutes to get clear about how you'll be your own best friend in 2017!

This powerful practice will teach you how to calm the three parts of your nervous system through systematic repetition of feelings of safety, security and connection.

Take a look at the evolution of your nervous system. We all have an innate need to feel safe, secure and connected with life. Through thousands of years of evolution, our nervous systems are hard-wired to respond to perceived stress and our brains are wired up to look out for it. In this talk we look at how your reactions to life are not personal and can be changed only when you recognise them as spontaneous and natural, setting you free to make new choices and connections.

This Yoga Nidra talk and practice is aimed at those looking to refine their practice and understand how to construct a healthy sense of self. The talk introduces six ways of working with our thoughts, beliefs and feelings and the practice offers a way to integrate this understanding through the practice of welcoming our inner world. Meet yourself fully and wholly and welcome everything that you are!

Because of its transformative nature, yoga presents us with all sorts of unexpected emotions and thoughts - sometimes unwanted, sometimes upsetting, sometimes blissful, but always useful (and meaningful). But how can we know what to do with this 'emerging material'? Learning how to navigate these valuable insights is paramount to the practice, and purpose, of yoga. Let's find out how...

So many of us wake up in the night only to struggle to get back to sleep again - even when we're really, really tired. Why is this? Just two centuries ago it was the norm to have a 'first' and then 'second' sleep (people would even meet up, or take a walk in the middle of the night), but today, most of us don't have the luxury of time to follow this pattern. Instead, try these methods designed to help you drop off again after those annoying 'wakeups' and get the full and restful sleep you need. Practice starts at 3:35

Since filming the first Ekhart Yoga Nidra course in 2014, we've wanted to offer a video explaining some simple alternatives to laying on your back for the practice, but we also realised that it would make sense to also include a good, solid description of how to lay on your back too (sounds simple, but isn't always!). In short, this video will help you find the perfect Yoga Nidra pose for you.

Explore a Pranayama and meditation session that, as well as being blissful in isolation, is also perfect to add to the end of your asana practice. You will learn how to gather prana and harness the energies created in your physical practice, take a tour through the two ascendant and descendant energy channels (or ‘Nadis') known as Dragon (ascendant) and Tiger (descendant), finding a calm and stable mind and a deep sense of equanimity.

All of the teachings and texts agree that consciousness is experienced as a vast, open and spacious freedom, without boundary or border. As we experience this, we lose our sense of separation and fall into a 'oneness' that goes far beyond our mental understanding. In this practice we will experience our bodies as being inherently spacious, and thereby dissolve into consciousness. We will explore the space between breaths and the spaces between thoughts, and then become aware of thoughts as something moving within our own spacious watchfulness. Lastly, by exploring expansion as a ‘felt’ sense, we will learn to step back even from our identity as a witness and dissolve in to the simple experience of 'being,' ultimately experiencing the truth of who we are: inexplicably linked with all things. 

This talk introduces the practice of ‘complete Yoga Nidra; the spaciousness of your being' by exploring the symbolism of ‘Om' and how the waking, dream and deep sleep states all appear within something vast and unfathomable. Understand the science that underpins the philosophy and how our brain produces unique signatures or brain waves, in each state. James also explains how Yoga Nidra takes us into an effortless state of 'alpha' brain waves, giving us access to the Turya state, the very depths of the true self.

Explore a variation of the sun salutation that focuses on strengthening the core muscles and muscles of the back and hips, and variations that bring upper body strength through arm balances, as the class builds to its apex: bow pose. Cool down with some long holds and a relaxing shavasana. The full monty! (for those of you who have seen the film, this does not involve me taking my clothes off)

This delicious practice stirs the pot of Apana; the stabilising force that helps us relax, feel at ease, and get our feet back on the ground/head out of the clouds (or out of our work, at least!). Whilst this is a wonderful all round practice, it's particularly good for those of you who are desk-bound and all up in your heads with 'brain-work'. Experience how the sequence of movements, breathing practices and yoga nidra come together to give you that delightful feeling of quintessence and deep comfort in your body. Enjoy!

Neck pain is…well, a pain in the neck, so practice these postures with me to strengthen your upper back and core and release your neck. We’ll take time to hang out in some sumptuous stretches and ground ourselves using Triangle pose like you've never done before. Lastly, we won’t be switching off for Savasana! The relaxation at the end of this class is the moment everything settles and lets go.

Balanced body, balanced mind, peace. The relationship between effort and relaxation is the focus in this class, as is the balance of inhalation and exhalation. We’ll explore the relationship between the two sides of the body and energy body through the practice of Sun Salutations, standing postures and seated twists. We’ll then enter Yoga Nidra, sensing the two sides of the body, and finish with a subtle exploration of alternate nostril breathing. The end result? The awakening of kundalini energy and a feeling of deep equanimity of mind. 

When we bring two opposites into our attention at the same time, magic happens. We end up exactly in the middle of things, or in 'equanimity', which is how mastery of yoga practice is described. This class uses Yin yoga poses to explore using opposites of sensation to free you from attachment to sensations. You'll also get the chance to try a lesser-known Yin pose and play with the opposites of breath and energy too.  

Learn how to create a flow in your spine as you move through the Sun Salutation, picking up some neat tricks to make your flow more smooth, graceful and fluid. 

This is one my my personal favorites; a way to flow through hip openers that integrates breath and movement, grace and form and some yin moments too! You might enjoy this as an evening restorative class or as a way to balance a stronger yang style morning practice. Happy hips everybody....  

A lovely, gentle sequence to help to target and melt away tension in the upper core (neck and shoulders) and open up space in the front of the body.

The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali are refered to often and inform the very heart of modern yoga practice. Yet which sutras relate to the postures we practice and how do we understand their meaning in a modern world? This rendition of the three sutras on posture are passed on from a loving and wise teacher of mine who has now passed away. The teachings live on: be nice, be kind, be in the middle of effort and find peace in the moment.

This is a practice aimed at calming the mind, bolstering the nervous system and leads into a Pranayama that always blows me away (quite literally!) Expect stillness of mind and a reconnection with your true nature. 

We use upper body breathing and Sun Salutations to energise, moving to seated hip openers and the potential for a playful arm balance. Finally, take a few moments to let go before you go about your day...

When working with the core, it's easy to overlook the important factors that make yoga happen. This practice focuses on integrating breath, intention and locks and seals to manage your energy system and gather spiritual energy at the solar plexus. Take your core practice to a whole new level!  

Just as the sun lights up the moon, consciousness lights up our experiences in life. This practice uses breathing ratios, Pranayama and postures to awaken your inner light, and lead to a deeper experience of awareness. Notes: You will need a basic understanding of the Sun Salutation, of the Bandhas and to be comfortable with Pranayama practice. It’s also helpful to have a candle to hand for the final meditation.

Delicious way to segue your day! This is a great short practice for calming the mind, centring the nervous system and letting go. It will drop your blood pressure and give you a tremendous sense of ease. Enjoy! 

Hatha Yoga gets its name from two principle channels found in the energy body and 'Ha-Tha' can be translated as 'Sun-Moon'. The lunar channel has a calming, soothing and stabilising effect on our mind. Leading a busy life? Find it hard to switch down a gear in your yoga practice? Then try this; I guarantee it'll leave you feeling quiet in your mind and at ease in your life.

This short video introduces the concept of flowing between backbends and forward bends in the lunge pose, whilst working on hip mobility. This gives us the freedom to explore a much sought-after pose in yoga - Hanumanasana, or 'the splits’.

The shoulder stand and its counter pose, fish, are profound poses within the spectrum of healing offered by Hatha yoga. They work by opening the throat centre and balancing the endocrine system, helping us to find and express our voice and receive love. These postures nourish your body's 'letting go' systems, almost certainly bringing you to a place of deep calm and stillness. We will explore these poses in a number of different ways, including some gentler and alternative options, such as using the wall, blocks and bolsters. Best enjoyed towards the end of the day or at the end of a more vigorous practice.

Standing poses for grounding and strengthening, floor work as a preparation for deep rest. Savasana for deep rest in the body. Expect to feel refreshed and relaxed in the body and deeply rested in the mind!

Start your day in remembrance of who you truly are; spacious, open, presence. This practice focuses on present moment experience whilst framing our day as a 'becoming', taking our intentions and our sense of interconnectedness into life, so that we can live our yoga off of the mat and be with life just as it is.

A Yoga Nidra practice designed to take you into deep, restful sleep. Get yourself set up for a good night’s rest and fall asleep to this practice! 

A gentle practice, ideal for the days you don't wish to do too much. This particular version of the joint freeing series is used as theraputic yoga to help heal from joint pain and to promote good awareness of how to feel the muscles that support the joints of the body. You'll flow slowly from feet to head, integrating movement with breathing. Ending with a 10 minute relaxation.

Take a journey into the breath with this 20 minute Yoga Nidra practice. A perfect way to quieten down after your yoga practice and a brilliant way to begin to gather attention and learn to concentrate the mind. Explore breath sensing, the spaces between breaths and heart breathing as ways in to stillness.

The palm tree vinyasa is a gentle, flowing practice that comes directly from the teacher of teachers, Krishnamacharya himself! Enjoy this fluid, restful yet powerful alternative to the sun salutation as a way to integrate the upper and lower body and find more ease in your arms, shoulders and neck.

Part 5 of 'The Koshas' series - Joy - Anandamaya Kosha In this class we explore movement with one goal only: to become goal-less! The nature of your true self is spacious and open, and free from desires and attachments. We’re going to slow down and wake up to awareness and see for ourselves who we really are: nothing…and everything.  Part of The Koshas series and the 'Eight Limbs of Yoga' Program

Part four of 'The Koshas' series. Thoughts and beliefs - Vijnanamaya Kosha At some point in your yoga practice you will make a profound shift: you will no longer experience yoga directly through your body, breath, feelings or thoughts; instead, you will become a witness to this experience. This transition - a step back into being - is the highest teaching in Patanjali's yoga sutras. We will explore how a steady body leads to a steady mind. As we explore the postures, we will mindfully watch as our beliefs, thoughts and stories about what we do and don't like, or what we are and are not good at, pour forth. Then, through steadiness, we will see our mind as a screen (‘chitta kasha’), on which we can invite the unconscious to release or reveal whatever it may want us to see or experience. The talk at the beginning of this video explains the Vedantic presentation of the mind and its four functions. 

Switch off that ever-busy mind and instead feel into the present moment. This short yoga nidra practice will bring you into the now as you let go and rediscover a lightness of being. Being right here, now, free from hope, fear, worry and stress is your birthright.

Class 3 in the Koshas series - on Feelings and emotions - Manomaya Kosha The chakras are an ancient presentation of our human experience; we all feel our energy system every day as we experience various hits of emotion (‘energy in motion’), in the body (butterflies in your stomach, a tug at your heart, etc). In this practice we will tend to each of the 7 centres, resting our attention on each one and observing what we feel in our body as we do so. As we become more attuned to each chakra, we are able to listen and respond to the information it presents us. Through movement, breath-work and contemplation, our energy system becomes ever-more subtle, and takes us further towards connecting us to the absolute. The video begins with a short presentation on the principal ‘nadis’ (energy lines in the body) and how the chakras relate to this system. 

The second class in the Koshas Series - The energy body - Pranayama Kosha. This video starts with a presentation on the energy system and the Prana Vayus, or 'inner winds' that help us understand how energy supports the function of different organs and areas of the body. By working with particular poses and sensing into sensation in the different locations of these subsets of energy, there is potential to connect with your own first hand experience of these forces within your own body. Learn how we might work to support the function of letting go by supporting Apana Vayu, and how we might revitalise by engaging with body sensing that helps us to feel Prana in the body. This practice ends with a meditation that connects you to Viyana Vayu through exploring your boundaries.

The first of the five Koshas, or 'coverings' is the physical body - called Annamaya Kosha. The purpose of Hatha Yoga is to purify, strengthen, balance and relax the physical body with the sole (soul!) purpose, of transcendance. The aim of this practice is to explore this theoretically (first 09:00 minutes) and experientially, through movement and breath and a long rest at the end of class. The end result? A steady and comfortable body, leading to a steady and comfortable mind.Part of the The Koshas Series and the Eight Limbs of Yoga program.

An introduction to the 5-week mini-series which offers a methodical and accessible means to experience the ‘atman’ - the true self of expansive wholeness and peace. The Sanskrit word ‘Kosha’ means ‘sheath’ or ‘covering’, and describes those elements of being which must be explored, welcomed, balanced and ultimately transcended in order to experience your true self. In the series, we will be using practices focused on sensing and uncovering the five koshas as a clear framework from which to explore and journey to our innermost, blissful being. The journey should land you in the fifth Kosha - or 'soul body' - of joy, bliss and equanimity, and the stillness which animates it all.

Self-love is a divine quality that already exists deep in your being, and where as it is possible to ‘learn’ to have more compassion towards yourself, how sweet it is instead to experience self-love rising up, like a gift, from presence itself. In this yoga nidra we will use the full spectrum of the practice (setting intentions, feeling into our ‘inner resource’, body sensing) to surrender into ourselves and receive the four Brahma Viharas of love, compassion, joy and equanimity. Part of the Deep Release program

This is the perfect way to unwind from a long car journey or a bad day at the office (or possibly both) and a great way to meditate on the body whilst soothing the lower back, hips and sacrum. Called "Quick Slow fix" as this is a simple program, slowed down to integrate body, mind and breathing.

This simple practice takes the hips into opposites of rotation, helping to release the muscles that attach to the tail bone, therefore relieving tension in the whole lower spine. 

Build levels of subtlety in to your existing alternate nostril breathing practice and explore the application of a breathing ratio. Here, you will learn to work with sensation whilst exploring Nadi Shodhana (cleansing the energy system), helping to balance the two hemispheres of the brain and integrate analysis with our 'felt sense' systems.

Learn a simple technique to invoke the body's own spontaneous release of tension and trauma. Followed by a 25 minute yoga nidra practice to release tension and promote resilience.  Props needed: blanket and a bolster.

A complete class including pranayama, asana and yoga nidra. Explore diferent yin-style hip openers and flow through them with grace and fluidity. This class emphasises a slow, quiet and reflective style of asana practice with the opportunity to become the space between two breaths, the space between thoughts and the space within which everything moves and appears. Props needed: 2 blocks and a blanket.

This is the yoga of restful being; deep body sensing and resting in and as the quality of presence amidst movement. This class should bring you a deep sense of restfulness, contentedness, connectedness, peace and deep relaxation!  Part of The 8 Limbs of Yoga program

This is a full and balanced practice, encompassing all aspects of Yoga Nidra in a 30 min session. Learn how to set intentions, enquire as to your heart’s deepest longings, feel grounded in your inner resource of well-being and then sense through your body, breath, emotions and mind. You will then rest beyond all of these movements and become the stillness that you already and always are. We defy you to feel anything other than peaceful! Part of the Yoga Nidra programPart of the Deep Release program

What connects you to your deepest, truest self? Explore these questions and reveal the qualities of awareness itself: loving kindness, joy, equanimity and compassion. We will spend time resting in your deepest quality of being and sense into that which cannot be named or defined. You will go beyond your mind and fall back into a deep sense of open, spacious awareness.Part of the Yoga Nidra program

We all hold beliefs about ourselves and our place in the world ("I'm not good enough,” “I'm unlovable,” “I'm always alone”), and we live as though these stories are true. In this practice we will learn how to meet these stories and reveal their true nature: as movements in awareness and something else to integrate and understand with deep listening and warmth. As we meet ourselves at this level we may uncover the 'three lies': core beliefs that might be running our lives either consciously or unconsciously. You will also learn to discern between passing, fleeting thoughts and those persistent visitors who are looking to be seen, heard and re-connected with.Part of the Yoga Nidra program

This is a deeply healing practice that explores meeting, greeting and deep heart-felt listening of ourselves. As we journey deeper into the heart of our yoga Nidra practice we are exploring skillful means to meet our emotional selves. In the talk that precedes the practice, we learn to understand how by welcoming our emotions as messengers of wisdom and insight, we embody the qualities of awareness itself. We will learn how to use opposites of sensation, feeling and emotion to help balance our experience and harmonize our emotional world. Fall in love with yourself again!Part of the Yoga Nidra program

This Yoga Nidra practice focuses on the ‘pranamaya kosha’ - the body of breath and of energy. In the class we will look at different approaches to exploring concentration, experiencing ourselves as subtle energy and feeling our inter-connected wholeness and oneness as awareness itself. This week’s talk reflects on the energy body and the different approaches to practicing and opening our experience of Yoga Nidra.Part of the Yoga Nidra program.

In this class we will learn to meet, greet and be with all sensations as they arise in our body. We will discover the importance of sensation as a way to concentrate the mind and give up thinking for feeling. This class lays the foundation for working with emotions and the mind; when we can truly welcome our sensations we are able to explore how they become our feelings.Part of the Yoga Nidra program.

Most of us want the same thing: to feel at peace and at ease, and we imagine our yoga or meditation practice as being a time when we immediately connect with our more peaceful selves. However, as I’m sure you know, this isn’t always the case, and we often start our practice in a negative or anxious state of mind. Therefore in this practice you will learn the technique of building an ‘inner sanctuary’ – a place within you that you can visit, whenever, to immediately feel a sense of 'ok-ness'. Join Sandra as James guides her through a complete Yoga Nidra practice that focuses on developing this internal sanctuary (an ‘inner resource’). We will take a slow and detailed body-scan to bring about a feeling of being intimately connected with our bodies, and then rest in feelings of well-being, peacefulness and ease as we tap into our true nature of open, spacious presence. [Please note, the Yoga Nidra practice starts at 08.23 but we recommend you listen to the talk at least once to understand the practice properly.]Part of the Yoga Nidra program.

Join Esther for a well-deserved lie-down as James guides her through how to set an intention (a ‘Sankalpa’) born of the heart and of being. This practice also includes body sensing and breath sensing meditations, as well as exploring what it is to rest in, and as, awareness. The opening talk reveals the deepest teachings of Yoga Nidra: that as we explore awareness and understand ourselves as the witness of our experience, we uncover our true nature as already healed, whole, and healthy. Part of the Yoga Nidra program. 

An introduction to the practice of Yoga Nidra outlining the content of the course and some of the aspects of the experience of practicing it.Part of the Yoga Nidra program.