anita lewis yoga oxford

Anita Lewis yoga home No Frame

Breath is central to yoga because it is central to life .....and yoga is about life sri krishnamacharya

yoga We live in a wonderfully complex biodynamic world of evolution and change, rich with diverse yet interconnected forms of life. The threads of own lives are deeply woven into the fabric of this matrix.Yet sometimes it is not so easy to feel or make sense of a connection with our-selves, with others or with our environment.Yoga can provide a stimulus for inquiry, for a gradual exploration of our personal reality and inner world.We inhabit miraculous bodies that love and need movement to stay healthy and vibrant. So the practice of yoga often begins with an exploration of our physical reality through movement, observation of breath and postures known as asana in Sanskrit. Whether or not we can do the asana is irrelevant. More important (and perhaps more interesting) is our ability to be present and open to the quality of our experience in movement and stillness.As we turn our attention inwards and listen deeply a process of unfolding can begin. Like a song that is heard deep within and finds expression through the voice, movement ripples out and finds its own unique expression through form.At the heart of yoga is breath, offering a way to integrate body, mind, emotions and guide us back towards a deeper sense of self.Breath is central to our physical, psychological and emotional health. How we breathe impacts on many levels.Releasing, opening, expanding, relaxing: the ebb and flow of breath, connecting the inner body and outer world in a rhythmical exchange we all share.As you delve deeper into the practice of yoga, becoming ever more receptive to your own rhythms of breath, movement, attention and rest, the true wisdom of the body is heard. Moving from the inside allows you to feel into the movement and know where and how to move so that deep tensions and restrictions can be undone.Listening in this way as you practice promotes self-reliance and responsibility, so that your practice remains safe and comfortable and you learn how to adapt and evolve depending on what is happening inside and around you.
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yoga therapy Yoga Therapy uses movement, breath, relaxation and meditation to holistically support, integrate and enhance a persons inherent health.Its a very different experience to a general yoga class as its usually practiced one to one to provide individual focus and attentive guidance.A dialogue is established through an initial consultation so that you are able to explore and express what you need and want from each session.The only pre-requisite needed is to be able to breathe! You dont have to be fit or flexible to benefit. The practice can be done on the floor or in a chair.Many people choose yoga therapy to develop skills that may help manage and reduce chronic and acute pain or find support and healing for other health considerations and circumstances.
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benefits

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Page 2 Yoga offers many possible benefits including:Development of mindfulness and awarenessDevelopment of skills to maintain and enhance your own healthSupport through life changing circumstancesReduction of stress and anxietyRelaxation and focusing of the mindImproved sleepImproved understanding of Structural IntegrationStrengthening of postural muscles to protect the spineStrengthening of core stability musclesMobilization of joints to promote repair and maintenancePromotion of healing and well-beingIncreased energy and vitalityDecreased aches and painsFor women:Promotion of natural hormonal balance and monthly cycleManagement and support for menstrual issuesPreparation for conception and support through pregnancyEnhanced well-being through menopause

Page 3 Symptoms and health conditions that may benefit from yoga therapyaches and painsarthritisanxietyasthmaback painbreathing disorderscancercardiovascular conditionschronic fatiguedepressionexhaustionfertilityheadachesherniated (slipped) discshigh blood pressureHIV and AIDSinsomniairritable bowel syndromelymphoedemamenstrual painmigrainesspinal scoliosisstressstructural/postural alignment issuesterminal illnessTMJ/jaw disorderstransition or changewomens health issues

schedule

Last class of 2011 is on Tuesday 20th December.(click below for more details) Classes at St.Albans Hall restart Tuesday 10th January 2012

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St Alban's Hall Charles Street OX4 3AU A great class if you're a beginner or have some experience of yoga and want a slower pace COST: £8/7 drop-in

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St Alban's Hall Charles Street OX4 3AU Suitable for those with some experience of yoga COST: £48 per 6 week cycle £10 trial Booking is required

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Eau De Vie 34 Cowley Road Oxford One to one sessions of yoga and yoga therapy available by appointment

Tues 6-7.15pm

Tues 7.30-9pm

Individual

sessions

Each class provides a supportive space that allows the body to find its own expression through the movement of yoga and breath. Self-responsibility is encouraged so that you feel comfortable to do as much or little of the practice as you feel is right for you. Adapting postures to suit you and resting when you need to is part of the practice of listening to and respecting your internal awareness.

workshops

Restorative Yoga Retreat - 6th April to 13th April 2012. A week long yoga retreat on the wild north Cornwall coast of Tregardock. Time to enjoy a peaceful space to rest and renew. The surrounding landscape of beach, sky and sea support a natural process of relaxation. Mindful yoga will enhance this restorative process, helping unravel and dissolve deep tensions and open towards more physical ease, fluidity and well-being. Through creative, playful and restorative movement, participants will be invited to explore safe and varied practice to inspire and support a personal yoga enquiry. Guidance will be given in the quieter practices of breath awareness (pranayama) and towards the spacious stillness of meditation. This practice will be balanced with nourishing food, cosy wood burning stoves and time to sleep, read or take enchanting walks along the cliff tops. Anita is an experienced teacher and yoga therapist, and has practiced yoga for over 20 years. Her classes and individual sessions are well known for being welcoming and inclusive. Her warm, intuitive approach encourages a gradual exploration of movement, stillness and breath to help open and integrate body, mind and heart. Humphrey is an accomplished bodyworker, nutritionist, writer and teacher. He will be cooking during the week, a vegetarian whole food menu that Humphrey has personally designed to revive the whole body and enhance the relaxation process. The retreat will be limited to 14 people. The cost of the retreat will be £850 per person if paid in full by January the 20th 2012. The cost will be £950 after.
kirtan

Kirtan is an ancient practice that invites people to open themselves to song and sound in supportive community.

By singing together we give strength to each other and invite deeper connections with ourselves, with others, with infinite space and possibility. We sing our prayers and mend our hearts.

• Indian devotional singing & chanting evenings •

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Friday 20th January, 17th february, 16th March 7.30pm - 9.30pm Venue: Barracks Lane Community Garden, Kenilworth Ave, Oxford OX4 2AN. To find the garden see: www.barrackslanegarden.org.uk Cost: £10/8/6

testimonials dandy

"Anita is a truly natural, caring and insightful teacher who creates a welcoming, inclusive and reflective space within her classes. Her teaching combines in-depth physiological understanding with a spiritual mindfulness, andtakes you on a yoga journey through safe, strong and varied practice of physicalpostures to a deeper understanding of body, breath and self. I would notdescribe myself as a spiritual person but I have benefited enormously from thephilosophies of kindness, focus and acceptance that underpin Anita's teaching.My practice now is more in tune with the needs and limitations of my body and mind, and far less about trying to get my leg higher in the air than the personnext to me. Thank you, Anita." ~ Hayley Salter
“The body loves gentleness.” When I first began to work with Anita, I found it difficult to reconcile this philosophy with my (now former) “gym rat” lifestyle. Over the past two years, however, I have found that while this core idea actually builds a kind of internal strength that one cannot achieve at the gym, it also informs more than just physical movements. It is a way of embodying, in the true sense of the word, the energies that exist in the world and that often go unnoticed until something goes “wrong,” either physically or emotionally. While Anita’s style of yoga can, at times, be dynamic, within every movement and breath there is an intention to care for and listen to the subtleties of the body, and to connect to the world on a profound level. Eloquent but never dogmatic, Anita gives her students the tools to discover the flow of energy within their own bodies, allowing the mind to blossom into a state of greater peace. ~Rachel Abramowitz
I’ve been attending Anita’s yoga classes since they began in Oxford, and other yoga classes of various types for several years before that. I find the focus on ‘ocean breath’ to be especially helpful in dissolving tensions in my body, deeply expanding and relaxing its frame to create the effect of an internal massage and realignment.Rather than leaving unchallenged what the mind has established a relationship to yoga should be, I find Anita’s style encourages deliberate inquisitiveness into that relationship – into the assumptions and expectations one has of oneself, the teacher, and the practise of yoga. For me this can dissolve certain unhelpful but pervasive myths, leaving the way clear for a deeper practise.Anita encourages a constant reorientation around a core of inner truth about where one is, and where one’s body is. A strong responsibility to the self emerges, and a freedom to listen and follow what we feel in our bodies. Over and above the achievement of certain postures or sequences, Anita encourages the persistent and compassionate return to this voice. I find hers to be a profoundly healing, restorative and respectful approach to the working with body, emotions and mind that yoga entails. In slowing down to work on a deep level with subtle movements, the process of opening and releasing can happen with unexpected power and ease. In my experience Anita’s degree of consciousness and integration of this process is unique.~Zoe Bicat
At the age of 55, postmenopausal, with a hip replacement, stiffness andlower back problems, I have had many attempts to work towards a greater level of physical ease with no real success, and like many women of my age, my emotional self care was sadly lacking.Anita's gentle but deep approach in my one-to-one yoga therapy session hasgiven me an understanding of how my body can adapt and benefit from yoga andhow my emotional wellbeing can be nurtured and cared for with guidedrelaxation techniques.My perception is that Anita works very intuitively. She worked at arespectful pace allowing me, as a novice, to fully experience the potentialbenefits of Yoga and relaxation. With her depth of knowledge, experienceand sensitivity I felt she was very attuned to my specific needs, resultingin me feeling held and understood. The way in which Anita guided therelaxation, affected me at a level I hadn't anticipated but clearly neededand the resulting permission to take care of myself is now an intrinsic andvaluable part of my daily life.~Jude
"I have been meaning to establish a yoga practice for years, and sincestarting a weekly class with Anita I have for the first time actually beendoing it, and enjoying it. Not every day, but often. Something about thepermission Anita gives us to explore what feels good and what our bodieswant makes me feel like the practice is a treat rather than something Iought to do."~Polly McLean
about I started practising hatha yoga about twenty years ago. For many years my practice was focused in the Asthanga Yoga tradition and I am grateful for the many insights and gifts this beautiful and challenging practice offered. The daily discipline opened my mind, heart and body to new perspectives. Then in 2004 whilst living in India I began to feel I needed a yoga practice that was more individual to me. This feeling was clarified when I met and studied with A.G and Indrah Mohan, long term students of the great yoga luminary Sri T. Krisnamacharya. Their practice of svastha yoga deepened my understanding of the eight limbs of yoga and of the therapeutic effects of creating a personal practice shaped to individual needs.In more recent years I have been drawn to the intelligent, mindful and creative teachings generously offered by Vanda Scaravelli, Donna Farhi, Angela Farmer and Victor Van Kooten.Angela and Victor's intuitive approach have inspired and supported an exploration of the more subtle aspects of yoga and have delightfully encouraged more freedom and creativity.The teaching I offer springs from my own well of practice and from what I have observed and learned and continue to learn from all the teachers, friends and students I meet.
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Qualifications1993, BA Hons in Adult Nursing,Oxford Brookes University2005 , qualified as a yoga teacher in Chennai with the highly respected yoga therapists A.G and Indrah Mohan and is among a handful of teachers in the Uk qualified to teach Svastha Yoga.2009, graduated with a diploma in Yoga Therapy from The Yoga Biomedical Trust and Life Centre in London (a two-year course, providing specialist training in yoga as a complementary therapy for medical conditions).Anita works as a Yoga Therapist and is a member of the Yoga Therapist Association.
contact No Frame

t: 07726 841815 e: anitalewisyoga_gmail.com

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