On women-centred yoga, and my journey here
“The psyches and souls of women also have their own cycles and seasons of doing and solitude, running and staying, being involved and being removed, questing and resting, creating and incubating, being of the world and returning to the soul-place.”
We are cyclical beings brought here to live in unison with life and earthly cycles, intuitively connected to our energy moment-to-moment, phase-to-phase, season-to-season. Our ability to embrace the full spectrum of our existence without clinging to an ideal, or patriarchal mode of living and being, helps us to acknowledge and synchronise with the various cycles that influence us. We can deepen our intuition and connection with nature. We can respond to our needs, and the needs of others, with greater sensitivity and compassion. We can strengthen our relationships and communities.
Women-centred yoga creates space to connect with, awaken, empower and honour women.
image | olivia calder
MY JOURNEY
Becoming a Mum in 2018 was a right of passage that was scary and wild, liberating yet restricting, bewildering yet innately satisfying. The life I knew seemed to disappear overnight, my body didn’t feel like my own, and the hormonal rollercoaster that I experienced after giving birth left me feeling disembodied. It took many months for me to really feel OK with this new existence and my place within it. With many struggles and simple joys, I began to find a community of mothers and practitioners that could relate to, appreciate, and understand me. This became so powerful as I rediscovered myself, embraced this new phase of life and found my way through the web that is matresence.
My evolving yoga practice and life experiences led to a greater desire to pursue further training in women-centred yoga with a particular interest in cyclic living, to live more harmoniously with the various cycles influencing our existence. (Refer to these blogs for more on Women’s Life Stages, and Infradian Rhythm and the Menstrual cycle). I’m passionate to share and support others in honouring this way of moving and being.
The power of a supportive community is at the core of my beliefs, particularly as an educator. I like to encourage collaboration, co-learning and the building of strong interpersonal connections in serving both individual and collective wellbeing. For me, this is a way of nurturing the feminine in all of us. Through my yoga classes and offerings, I like to explore the way our energy and hormones are influenced by life, seasonal, lunar and menstrual cycles.
SERVING THE COMMUNITY
I am proud to offer pregnant women an online/face-to-face six week pregnancy yoga series*. Pregnant women have a safe space to explore inner strength, deepen connection to self and baby, and observe and address the subtle yet powerful thoughts, feelings and emotions accompanying their journey. Workshops are designed to offer pregnant mamas tools to take into life, so they feel independent as well as connected in community, through their pregnancy and beyond.
I’m currently developing a suite of resources for women postpartum, where mamas health and wellbeing are at the heart of all practices. My own experience as a mama and postnatal yoga teacher has highlighted that Mums and Bubs classes, whilst supporting mother-baby bond, doesn’t always meet the needs of the mother in her healing and nervous system nurturance during radical transformation. My hope is to make this into a series that incorporates movement, rest, meditation and journaling practices.
Beyond this, my role at Eve Studio as Pre and Postnatal Program Manager, as well as my time spent at numerous studios across Melbourne (refer to my timetable) allows me to forge strong partnerships, collaborate and nurture relationships so that I can explore women-centred yoga and apply my knowledge and learning. Connecting with other like-minded women that equally share a passion to centre women, helps facilitate rich discussion and practices, and continues to transform the way I teach and live, which I believe is essential to honour the feminine.
“It is worse to stay where one does not belong at all than to wander about lost for a while and looking for the psychic and soulful kinship one requires.”
Connect with me
Would you like to discuss ways to support you and your movement practices?
*My 6 week Pregnancy Yoga series will be made available on my website in the coming months.
In the meantime, sign up to my mailing list to be the first to learn of this offering!
