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Nepal Retreat 2008: The Nepal retreat is now fully booked and twelve of us will be heading off on a Nepal adventure in October.

Bali Retreat 2009:The Bali retreat dates for next year are Friday 3rd – Friday 10th April (7 nights, 8 days. Please note that the final day of the retreat Friday 10th is Good Friday and also the first day of the school holidays. There are 12 places available only and places are allocated on a first come, first served basis. Details will be available early next term.

Want to improve your inversions, forward bends and backbends?

1. July early morning Feldenkrais intensive with Usha: the Headstand series. In actual fact, we will really be moving towards the pose known in yoga as ‘tripod pose’ (kapalasana) not the headstanding pose traditionally taught in Iyengar yoga (sirasana). The Feldenkrais Method emphasizes the exploratory nature of the journey over the goal above all else and it’s amazing what we can do when we approach something with the internal attitudes of patience and self-care prioritised over our ambition to achieve a result or our innate fear of falling …

Having said that, there are some conditions which will preclude you attempting this piece of the work, including unmedicated high or low blood pressure, ear conditions (i.e. infections), vertigo, those with any eye disorders (glaucoma, detached retina, weak eye capillaries, conjunctivitis, severe sinusitis), pregnancy, injuries or disease to the neck, spine and/or head.

A special note for those with neck problems: before enrolling please have a discussion with me about your neck – for some necks this series will be a revelation - for others it will be completely unsuitable (e.g. old neck injuries).

Days and dates: 10 days, Monday to Friday, 7th July – 18th July
Time: 6.15am – 7.45am
Cost: $150/$120 (10 lessons over 10 days).
Bookings: 16 places available only. Please fill in the registration form and send full payment to Yoga Moves, P.O. Box 7191, Shenton Park by Friday 4th July.  

2. Saturday mornings 9.15am – 10.45am: For next term, the Saturday morning ‘Open’ class will become a special Feldenkrais class and will have more of a workshop or ‘intensive’ feel to it. We will be exploring 3 yoga poses in depth using the Feldenkrais method over the 10 weeks. These classes will require some level of committed attendance (e.g. weeks 1-6 will have different themes from weeks 7-9 and 10). Essentially, I will be teaching a series of classes that are related to the headstand series but are also clearly separate explorations. For more information about the benefits of doing such movements please see the information above on inverted poses and the article by Feldenkrais Practitioner Lavina Plonka which follows, ‘Rolling with It’.

Note 1: These classes are for anyone – beginners or more experienced students (see note 2 for guidelines for those with injuries). However, for those who have done the Feldenkrais headstand series these classes are related to the work you have already done and will further improve your headstands. For those of you who have yet to try the headstanding series, weeks 1-9 are also considered to be the ‘warm up’ series for the head stand series.

Note 2: Weeks 1-6 are unsuitable for those with unmedicated high or low blood pressure, ear conditions (i.e. infections), vertigo, those with any eye disorders (glaucoma, detached retina, weak eye capillaries, conjunctivitis, severe sinusitis), pregnancy, injuries or disease to the neck, spine and/or head. Weeks 7-9 may be unsuitable for those with severe eye disorders. Week 10 is open is all.

A special note for those with neck problems: before enrolling please have a discussion with me about your neck – for some necks this series will be a revelation - for others it will be completely unsuitable (e.g. old neck injuries).

Days and dates: 10 classes, Saturdays, 26th July – 27th September
Time: 9.15am – 10.45am
Cost: $171/$141 concession or the usual casual fees for Usha’s classes (see fees page).
Bookings: You may book for the whole series or part thereof however please note that weeks 1-6 should be done sequentially where possible. Please chat to me about missing classes before registering.

Inverted poses are one of the six classical poses yoga philosophy recommends we do daily for good health and mental well-being. The other five are forward bends, backward bends, side bends, balancing poses and twists. (My teacher, Namgyal Rinpoche, added to this by saying we should move ourselves in ten directions daily thereby adding the four diagonal ways of lengthening oneself in addition to the above six).

There are many ways to do an inversion or get your head below your heart – some of them almost everyone can do with little effort or risk (lying on your back with your pelvis raised on a bolster, legs up the wall) and other ways, which are more challenging, such as downward dog, handstands and headstands. And – like everything else we do in class or in life – some conditions or injuries will mean that you will need to exclude inversions from your well-being or movement toolbox temporarily or permanently. C’est la vie …

General benefits resulting from the practice of inversions (3-5 minutes):