I hope you have all had a lovely Easter break. I think it is always such a hopeful time of year with longer days and new life springing up all around us.
I have had two weeks off from teaching regular classes but now the lessons are about to start up again.
From Monday 19th April the online sessions will be back as follows:
Tuesday evening General level 6:30pm to 8:00pm
Thursday lunchtime Teachers class 12:15 to 2:15pm
Friday morning General level 11:00am to 12:30pm
To attend a lesson you will have to book each one individually via the website.
From Monday 17th May we expect to be allowed to open the studio once again for some socially distanced classes. There will be a maximum of 10 people per lesson and Covid cleaning and distancing will be in place.
To begin with there will be three studio lessons as follows (my three online lessons will continue as now):
Tuesday morning General level 10:00am to 11:30pm
Tuesday afternoon for Older and Stiffer people 1pm to 2:15pm
Thursday evening General level 7:30pm to 9:00pm
To attend a lesson you will need to book each one individually via the website.
For the time being you will need to provide your own yoga kit for the studio lessons. Although we are a fully equipped studio the sharing of yoga props is not in keeping with Covid guidelines. You should bring as a minimum your own mat, a belt or other strap, a blanket or large towel. Where possible foam blocks and bricks are also advised. There is information on the website about being prepared for a studio lesson or an online lesson – please be sure that you have read those pages before signing up for a lesson.
I also offer some weekend workshops online where I teach on the various levels of the Iyengar Yoga Syllabus. See the website pages for details of these workshops.
When we closed the studio in March 2020 I had no idea that we would still be closed after a full year. I did run two months of classes in September and October but had to close again in November 2020. For me it has been a busy time as the Zoom platform has not only enabled classes and workshops to be delivered but it has meant that meetings for Iyengar Yoga UK, have been so much easier to arrange. I have been very busy during the last year on Therapy projects, in a Working Group for assessments and training and on IY(UK) business at various levels. I have also attended some workshops and events to further my own study. I can certainly say that staying at home has not been boring or uneventful. In fact it is difficult to fit it all in.
If you didn’t already see the video and eBook that the IY(UK) Therapy Committee produced (I am currently chair of this committee) then you can find them on the Iyengar Yoga Therapy page of the IY(UK) website https://iyengaryoga.org.uk/ . They tackle the problem of how to practice yoga when you have Covid symptoms. There are some ‘Covid 19 Recovery Classes’ running each week online, organised by IY(UK) and we are now doing further study into help for Long Covid. It seems that it will be with us for some time so finding ways to help with the symptoms is necessary.
I really hope that we will be able to get the studio open and be welcoming you all before long. I know that there will be restrictions in place for a while and that some of you will have reservations about joining a class along with others but I will do my best to make the studio safe and to have lessons available so we can get back to the yoga practice.
With best wishes
Sheila