YogaSol & Sol Therapies

YogaSol & Sol Therapies

Welcome Shaun to our Team

Lets have a quick chat to the Guy that is bringing us Yoga For Blokes see what he says about Yoga ….. and Blokes

Hi Shaun
Welcome to Yoga Sol.
We are so happy to have you on board with our Yoga For Blokes class.
Hello Claire
Firstly let me say thank you to you and the team at Yoga Sol for the opportunity to teach at your wonderful centre. I will try and answer your questions as best possible
1)Why do you think Yoga for Blokes is becoming more and more popular?
With yoga becoming more widely used, by sports teams and as a great way to stay both physically and mentally healthy, I think more guys are ready to see what its all about.

2)What makes Yoga for Blokes different from any other class?
The difference form your normal class is that this is designed specifically for guys. Guys bodies are different to women.I will be organising the class around those in the room and what they need on the day.

3)What sort of blokes are coming to Yoga at the moment and what sort of blokes do you think will be coming to a specialised class just for men?
The great thing about yoga is that it does allow everyone to be part of the class, I have taught classes to Doctors, Police Officers, Tradies and stay at home Dads. I hope that this keeps happening.

4) Yoga has been dominated by women in our modern day western yoga studios for such a long time that it is seen as something for girls, but now we see the AFL and NRL are both employing Yoga Teachers as part of their core team for looking after the Health and fitness of their players. Do you think this will be something that influences the choices that Men are making in seeking out Yoga?
With anything we do, if we can’t connect with the people around us we don’t enjoy it. For some guys having another guy teaching the class so you’re not the only one in the room full of ladies can make a big difference.

5)If we look at the statistics for suicide, we can see the overpowering evidence that men are struggling with strong emotions and maybe not being able to connect with others for support or mate ship, Is this something that you think Yoga can help with?
Definitely. I know for myself yoga has made a huge difference in the way I see things and how I mentally cope with things.

6)Having spent many Years working in the mens prisons you would of seen many men in a desperate situation. Do you feel helping men connect to Yoga is maybe a direction for you?
Helping anyone connect to yoga and themselves is what drew me to teaching.

7)After leaving the prisons and staring to teach Yoga did your personal self change? By that I mean. The way you look at yourself and others. the way you deal with life situations?
Yoga had an immediate impact on me. I remember being in my first class and feeling my mind start to relax. I knew form that class that yoga was going to be a part of the rest of my life. I continued to work in the prison system for another 3 years and it definitely helped me do my job. Occasionally working in high stress situations with people and being able to remain claim to resolve issues.

8)Making these observations about yourself would you say that your external environment has a big influence on your internal environment?
Not really, I feel that through my practice I have learnt to stay calm in most situations regardless of my surroundings.

9)Any advise for all the blokes out there that are thinking of starting Yoga and can’t find a Blokes or Broga Class near to them?
DO IT is all I can say.

Thank you for your time shaun.

Yoga And Consumerism

Consumerism and Yoga.

Ok we all love to get new things.
Shinny and new makes us happy.
For a while, then shinny and new gets dirty and old and our attachment to it changes and we discard it for the next best thing. Shinny and new.
When we think of Yoga, we think of each breath being our shinny and new. We think of each pose creating shinny and new within our physical bodies. We think of rising after each Savasana with a shinny new outlook.
Unfortunately sometimes this inward shinny and new gets side swiped by marketing and our need for consumerism.
We feel compelled to have the best Bamboo organic Mat, coupled with our Hemp fair trade bag. Our $200 Yoga Pants and our organic cold pressed oils to “clean” and over stimulate our senses while shutting down and withdrawing form external stimulation. .. What?
We don’t need fancy clothes, Fancy smells or fancy props.
We just need a moment of peace and compassion of Self to bring our selves out of this crazy wasteful consumer driven world that we live in, and into our self. Our Home, our Body, our Breath, our Planet.
This ever increasing “need, want” can create a trance of unworthiness and disappointment even despair and depression. The impact on our planet is devastating too.
So next time you are told you need a certain product to improve your Yoga, think about what that product really is.
You
You are all you need to make your Yoga practice happen.
You are all you need to improve in Asana or Pranayama.
You are all you need to find that Yogic glow of peace and joy, Compassion and Love.
If you don’t have a mat, use the floor. If you don’t have a calm space, Cultivate that calm space within your own self.
If you don’t have the latest Chants on spotify, Sing or listen to your breath, the birds, the wind.
Yoga always meant poverty and renunciation from Earthly possessions by the devotion to the path of purity, and although we no longer live in the age of the great sages and we don’t live in a country where Renunciation is common place, we can practice self restraint and bring the practice of mindfulness into our consumeristic ways.
Seeking to understand why we feel we need a product. What is our expectation of the product and how we think it will change our experience of Yoga.
If we all reduce our buying we also reduce our waste.
Mindfulness is not just about our Breath we can bring mindfulness and compassion training into every aspect of our lives.
Try starting introducing mindfulness and compassion into our shopping habits.
I look forward to hearing the results.yoga mats

Annette’s Light Bulb Moment. Another Solian Story

The latest in our story sharing from our beautiful Yogic community.
This is Annettes Light Bulb moment story!
Thank you for sharing Annette.

My light bulb moment thanks to yoga.

All my life I have tried to do the right thing, look after my body ,eating properly, and squeeze in some exercise between everything else I had to do but never did it occur to me that I wasn’t doing everything, I wasn’t looking after the whole me, by nurturing my ‘self’

That is until I felt a calling almost, to try yoga. And it was in the first couple of beginners classes with Claire and her gentle guidance that opened up an whole new dimension of myself that I had not been paying any attention to.

I have been surprised what I discovered about myself. I am enriched now by what Yoga has connected me to. I feel a lot more mellow within myself, thanks to Yoga.

Michael’s Yoga Story

Here is one of our Dedicated Yogi’s sharing his story of his body and mind since starting a regular Yoga Practice.

My yoga story. I’d like to think the story so far is just beginning.

I’ve had an interest in yoga for a long time and dabbled in it over the years using DVDs and such, but it never became a practice. From the bits and pieces I tried, I could feel it was good for me but lacked the motivation to keep it going regularly.

When YogaSol opened, I thought I would try out a class and see what it was like. I was a bit nervous as I have some long term injuries that would restrict some movements (frozen shoulder and weak ligaments around the knees), so I went for a gentle beginners class. Some things I could do, some things I couldn’t, some things I could almost do. It was wonderful to find out that there was no pressure to do anything that was beyond me, and there were always options if a pose was not within my grasp. I’ve found if I work within my abilities, improvement would eventually follow.

After a few weeks, I found it was much easier cultivating a regular practice by going to classes rather than the sporadic, self-motivated practice I tried at home. So I decided to make a commitment for 12 months to get to class at least 3 times a week, I’m now just over 2 months into that commitment.

What has changed:
Better movement. I have more flexibility in my shoulder and more strength in my knees. I’m not doing shoulder stands or getting to 90 degrees through the knees in Goddess (God) pose, and my downward dog may need a trip to the vet, but I feel I’m making progress and am positive I will get there in time. I would love to be able to get into a full plough pose someday.
Clearer mind. Yoga has been a great way to get better at staying present. With challenging poses, I’m learning to cultivate mindfulness through the pose and what it is doing to my body. The more challenging poses are great at bringing your awareness to the moment. This has also had an effect on other aspects of my life. I’ve started meditating in the mornings, have better concentration at work and feel calmer when dealing with the world.
Improved health. It’s funny how when you start looking after yourself in one aspect of your life, you feel motivated to clean up other parts. My diet has greatly improved in the last couple of months, cutting out virtually all processed foods and cooking a lot more at home, I’ve even lost a few kilos. Although the weight loss is a pleasant byproduct, I don’t think it’s as important as the other consequences of feeling healthier, stronger and more energetic.
My wife has also joined me in my practice. We both lead busy lives and it can be a challenge coordinating the time to practice together, but when we can manage it, it’s great if we can both get to a class and do something together that’s just for us. I think Yoga Nidra may be our favourite class to do together.

I’m looking forward how far I can progress over the next 10 months and beyond, not just in yoga, but in the other parts of my life that yoga has inspired me to improve. I really want to try Hot Vinyasa but still feel a little intimidated in doing an advanced class, I will endeavour to “man-up” soon.

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Our Solian Stories

Here is the first of our Yoga Sol Stories.
 
This new feature will be a chance for you to tell your story to help inspire others who may be struggling or to give you a platform to feel pride and satisfaction in all your efforts and your achievements, not just in Yoga Asana but how Yoga has effected you as a person.
Sarah is our first ‘Solian’ to share her amazing story of regaining her health and managing chronic pain.
 
I first met Claire from Yogasol in April 2014. At the time I was 25 years old but the first time I met her I told her “I feel like a 25 year old stuck in the body of an 80 year old!”
I had been having health problems for more than 5 years. After a back injury, a neck injury, one surgery and being misdiagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis and hashimoto’s Thyroiditis when I was 19, I was fed up with the medical system and the countless doctors who had failed to help me.
 
I had seen dozens of doctors and specialists who couldn’t offer me anything to improve my day to day quality of life. I spent a few years feeling totally disheartened that, despite my young age and all the time, energy and money that I had spent, I didn’t really have control over my health and I felt like rubbish every day.
 
My chiropractor recommended I try yoga and gave me Claire’s number. I was hesitant as I had been to one yoga class in a gym years earlier and I found it to be intimidating and hard.
 
Claire was the first person who really listened to my health problems and actually understood what was happening in my body. She told me she was going to teach me how to sit, stand and walk from scratch. I was surprised at the level of knowledge of anatomy that she had and she guided me to slowly and gently re-train the way I lived my life through yoga.
 
Three years later, I cannot even to begin to describe how different my life is thanks to yoga. While my health problems didn’t magically disappear, my day to day quality of life is so much better and I feel like my own age.
 
Through yoga I have the tools to manage my health in a gentle and loving way. I wake up every day feeling like, although my health and body are not perfect, that I can live my life to its fullest and I have control of my health.
 
The knock on benefits to my mental health, personal relationships, work performance and overall happiness have been bigger that the physical improvements.
 
It sounds cliché to say, but yoga truly did change my life.
 
My greatest yoga achievement has been earlier this year when I completed my first headstand. For someone who has had chronic back and neck problems and an RSI injury in both wrists, to stand
on my head was something I never thought would be possible!
sarah handstand