Yoga With Samantha

Me playing around out bush

Here is where I get to pay hommage to my teachers and give you a bit of an idea about what practicing yoga is like with me. While we are invariably all our own teachers, I would not be the teacher I am without Paddy McGrath.  You must google her immediately and find out where you can find her and share the benefit of her wisdom (she will not like me saying this). Try  dancingspineyoga.wordpress.com

Paddy.  She's great. Enough said.

The story of our meeting sort of goes like Paddy was in Sri Lanka working with goats and stayed on.  I went to Sri Lanka to work after the tsunami and stayed on.  Paddy was there long before me and had left by the time I arrived.  However, I had the good fortune to bump into a nice lady who turned out to be her sister on holiday and who told me she knew of a great yoga teacher I should meet, and so I did.

A few weeks later we met at a retreat and my understanding of yoga was flipped on its head, squished and squashed around, and, in the process, my spine started to dance.

Paddy has worked with the greats of yoga and she is, in turn, great. Without her I would be able to teach yoga but just your run of the mill variety.  While I will never be Paddy, I hope that I can inspire you to take your practice to a different level as she did with an average student who stumbled upon her by accident one day.

More recently I have been undertaking further studies with some of Australia's best yogis, Simon Borg Olivier and Bianca Machliss.  I completed their Yoga Synergy training (Yoga Fundamentals) and have adopted their beautiful approach to spinal movement and posture into my classes.

So what does this mean you can expect from my classes?

Exploration, questioning, awareness, laughter, fluid movement, freedom, strength, laughter (did I say that already), amazement at what you can do, stability, mindfulness, jokes, stories, laughter, enjoyment, wonder (at yourself and what you can do.  Did I say that already), stillness, movement, insight, a dancing spine (but it will dance more if you go and see Paddy), and peace.

I have noticed there are lots of people around labelling classes this and that--hot yoga, power yoga, align yoga, vinysasa yoga, dynamic yoga, restorative.  They are all hatha yoga.  And they are all just labels.  I felt a bit stressed to come up with a new label to describe what I am teaching but I decided not to.  It's just yoga.

I realise there are a lot of ways to teach yoga and we use labels to give our students a head's up.  But, on the other hand, you do not need to be in a hot room to generate heat in your muscles (our muscles can generate their own heat if we work them properly, which I will show you how).  And I believe all yoga should be aligned.   Any yoga is powerful on a variety of levels (in more ways than you think).  If you move more you are doing vinyasa.  If you move less and lie down you are doing restorative work. Most yoga classes are going to incorporate elements of these things, although the focus may differ.

Having said these things and tried to leave myself label-free you can expect that most of my classes will require you to get up and move around a bit. Sometimes a fair bit.  If you want to sweat, I will help you.  If you feel a bit tired, I will help you too but I hope that you will prefer to finish a class feeling like you have done something without exhausting yourself.  We'll spend time on our feet, time on our arms, time on our hands.  But you can always rest.  I will always give you modified options.

My aim is to help you move your body in freedom and with awareness.  And once your body can move in freedom--perhaps even while it is learning--we'll come to know our breath a bit more and start to cultivate a bit more inner peace to help us stay as balanced as possible in a topsy-turvy world. Ultimately, I hope to do myself out of a job so that you can practice on your own and just catch up with me for coffee (admission, I do drink coffee)!

I also need to acknowledge the teachings of Louisa Sears, who gave to me the joy of practicing stillness with movement and meditation.

Check out my class schedule page to find somewhere to share some yoga with me.  Or grab a group of friends and I can come to you!  I also conduct private sessions for those with specific needs.  I am based on the Southside and come into central Canberra.  If you would like classes on the Northside please feel free to contact me and discuss as well!