Welcome to day one of our Path of the Dancing Warrior kids yoga training! On April 11, children ages 5-12 are invited to join us for a day of exploring, creating and marvelling in the wonders of inner and outer nature. Part of our 3 day series, this first day will include yoga in the morning before a day spent exploring and creating.
In the morning workshop we will weave storytelling through the process of shelter building, collecting materials and learning techniques to construct shelters in the bush. We will then bring our shelter to life with clay and other natural materials to create a sculptural work that will remain in the space and will become a sanctuary for visitors thereafter. We’ll also be creating sanctuary guardians with natural materials and clay. This workshop is a wonderful opportunity to work collaboratively, come together to share in the wonder excitement of the natural worlds outside and also inside!
In the afternoon, we’ll learn about the connection between our inner energy and outer energy through teachings of breath and the wind horse as well as weather meditation. But far from sitting still, we will become the seasons, the weather, nature and whirl through the space in an exploration of how we interact with each other as our states change. We will finish the day with a dream journey and relaxation.
Each 1 day workshop runs at The Domain, Sydney from 9am – 3pm.
Head to our booking site below to register. You may need to create an online account if you are a new client.. One day $90, full 3 days $250. Book two pay one offer (for days or kids): $90 – click here!
You may be training like a champion but are you recovering like one? Hacking your body’s ability to bounce back from competitions, intense workouts or even just intense training or work periods could be the key to enhancing your performance. What’s more, you may find you can perform with more ease – and refreshed mental focus and clarity.
Of course, you already knew that sleep, rest days and good nutrition are what helps fuel not just working but working out at your peak. Perhaps you have also heard of active recovery, i.e. light to moderate cardio activity post intense sessions helps you decrease lactic acid and feel ready to go again sooner. But did you know that stretching and restorative yoga sessions can help you feel less sore and recover more quickly?
The key is in keeping intensity low while not becoming passive in your recovery phase. It’s a fine line to hit for a lot of weekend warriors, as we often still apply outdated concepts like “go hard or go home”. While there is some truth to most of the catchphrases like “use it or lose it”, the reality lies in the nuance. It’s about not going beyond your edge or pushing it continuously and falling into a valley of pain post session. When you are in training mode though, it can be hard to listen right? How often have you heard things like: You should rest more. Or: You should try meditation. Do you shrug them off, too?
If you are feeling slightly resistant to this do less to get ahead message, this post is very likely for you. The irony is that we often need what we resist the most and a stressed mind and overtrained body aren’t very receptive to subtle messages. So let me spell it out: Slow down to speed up. Yes, you heard right. Giving your body and mind more space to recover could help give you an edge. Why else do you think rugby players, elite cyclists and long distance runners even bother with ocean swims, stretch sessions and meditation?
Perhaps your mind is too focused and busy and your life too time poor to add another session to your program? How about integrating just one targeted stretch and recovery session and maximising your bang for your buck! We recommend a restorative yoga session, progressive muscle relaxation and mindfulness meditation to get you started. If you can’t get yourself to a yoga studio (even though there are more than mushrooms after the rain?!) just hop online and check out some of our short videos or audio or find an online teacher that you resonate with. As you create space just once a week for a low intensity session with a mental aspect, you will find yourself more receptive to shifting other habits, too. You may even start benefiting from deeper and more restorative sleep and less stress and anxiety during the day. Learning to listen to your body and to tune into its more subtle messages is therefore a great tool for your training kit.
Body Mind Sol offer Sydney-wide group and private sessions as well as a full schedule of regular group classes at our studio at Boy Charlton Pool in The Domain. We currently offer 3 for 2 private sessions starting from $85 per session and 3 for 2 group classes for sports clubs from $150. Simply email us via info@bodymindsol.com to claim your offer quoting BMS32 or check out our studio timetable via http://bodymindsol.com.au/bookings/
Ever wondered what mindfulness and meditation on tap would look like? Well, how about people sitting in change rooms, at train stations, in waiting areas and other random places and silently listening to calming tracks on their wireless headsets? Cue: blissful smile and a more relaxed workforce.
We’ve done what we long thought impossible. Broken through some of the main objections thrown at us by our clients at every opportunity: time, availability, ease of use, privacy, noise. In an innovative concept, we’ve partnered with Silent Sounds and Kit and Ace to provide free mindfulness sessions in pop-up areas and spaces. If our first sessions in the Kit and Ace Sydney flagship store were anything to go by, we’re on the money. Beginners and highly experienced practitioners alike were enamoured with the short mindfulness meditations guided by our founder Sol Walkling.
What brings us the most joy is to witness the look of sheer bliss and calm on their faces, their yoga-stoned expressions after our sessions. So we’ve decided to go one further and literally make meditation so accessible, there can be no possible objection – or so we hope. Throughout March, you are not only invited to join us for meditation classes and mindfulness sessions at our main studio and Kit and Ace, we have also set up a meditation station in one of the Kit and Ace change rooms – fully kitted out with Disrupt Sports mat, Bang & Olufsen headsets and Kit and Ace’s own in-house meditation app.
It may be an unlikely meditation for beginners heaven… But where else can you fully escape the rat race of the CBD for 15 minutes of meditative bliss?
We’re also making the service available as part of our corporate services. Enquire within.
Mindfulness and meditation are becoming buzzwords and that trend has good and bad effects. As the words entered mainstream culture, they started getting used rather loosely to describe practices like movement meditation, mindful eating and even just “practices done to feel good and look after yourself” as I read in one article.
It’s true, mindfulness and meditation practices per se only have positive effects. (If you don’t count deadwood legs and achey hips for new practitioners.) Even the newly associated “meditation” techniques may have mostly positive side effects. But I can’t help but wonder if our fear of sitting still and alone with our thoughts, sensations and emotions may be what is driving this broadening of the term of meditation? Sure, I often feel like I meditate when I run, too. In fact, this is what I used as my pushback to anyone suggesting I try meditation until about a decade ago…
MINDFULNESS IN RUNNING
There is some truth to running resembling meditation – bear with me. It’s a movement I have practiced often enough for my body to enter a state of automated motion, while my mind feels like it can easily step into the space of observer and associate or dissociate. In that it is mindful – I observe my body and everything in my awareness with a strong focus, if I wish. You could say athletes are practicing a type of mindfulness practice when they associate. They continue scanning their body as they are moving. This mindful state allows them to respond more appropriately to physical feedback than someone who may be a thousand miles away in their thoughts.
ENTER THE FLOW
Taking this argument for mindfulness in sports further, you could even say that any immersion in an activity you have practiced often or long enough for it to become automated without requiring a conscious effort to direct your movements is a mindfulness practice. As athletes can enter a state called flow during performance, they may even experience a feeling of oneness of being and and outside their body simultaneously that strongly resembles meditation itself.
MINDFULNESS MEDITATION
Let’s backtrack. One of the main reasons the two are often used interchangeably is that there is a form of meditation called mindfulness meditation. So let’s start with this to make things a little less murky and clear our focus, just like this practice teaches.
By taking a step back and disentangling the two words, by bringing our awareness to what we are witnessing in them, you could even claim you are practicing mindfulness meditation on words. When you deliberately create space to become aware of what is in a particular moment, when you observe and watch feelings, emotions, thoughts and your patterns, this is mindfulness meditation. We could mindfully meditate on your state of being, for example. In fact, this is something we like teaching our students at the end of our yoga classes.
Another good way of paraphrasing mindfulness could be by saying you are fully aware and in a state of observation, of witnessing what is in your presence. When we choose to go into a mindful state this means to do a task, an activity with full attention and crystal clear focus. When you choose to meditate, this means essentially to go beyond this state of witnessing the layers of our awareness by drawing our awareness to a focal point – like a mantra or the breath – and simply resting there. The regularity and the stillness required in the physical body for this practice means many forms of mindfulness work and meditative aspects in other forms of practice can help prepare us.
MEDITATION OR DHYANA
The state of meditation and its effects – especially on the brain – have been studied widely but the misunderstanding of the practice in our Western society is perhaps due to the loose use of the term meditating and mindfulness practice. Yes, you could say running is a moving meditation; dance and singing can also “feel” like meditation processes. They can even promote flow state – a period of time during which the practitioner is fully absorbed in a well practiced form of movement (or other skill) which is often associated with elevated feelings of happiness or fulfilment. People report similar sensations to what we associate with meditation: a feeling of going beyond the body, entering a state of bliss, feeling at one.
The difference of the three states of being as I understand it is that mindfulness means placing your mind on what is in your awareness, flow state means entering a state of blissfulness and being of one due to focus and often repetitively performed and mastered actions, meditation as an action can incorporate the two states above but when we reach what ancient yogis called dhyana, this means being aware of all aspects and our own consciousness and going beyond to a state where we experience union with the divine consciousness – or collective consciousness and rest in this state without associating with the body.
We offer regular meditation as well as mindfulness sessions at our studio at Andrew Boy Charlton Pool in The Domain, Sydney (Wednesdays 6pm) as well as a series of free sessions at Kit & Ace, Martin Place, Sydney (Thursdays in March at 12.30pm). Sundays at the pool we run 6 week long meditation for beginners courses throughout the colder months at 5.30pm.
Welcome to mindful in March. We decided to get a headstart on the year and offer you true peace of mind before things get hectic. Is meditation one of your goals? Well, there are another 9 months to go before December is upon us again, three before the end of the financial year is looming – but who is counting. Let’s just say, March is a great time to get cracking on your intentions to hack health and wellbeing in 2017 with a great mindset.
To get you started, we have introduced meditation to our main studio’s classes at Andrew Boy Charlton Pool in The Domain, Sydney. We have also shifted the class focus by adding progressive muscle relaxation and other special sessions. The overarching aim is to give you a greater focus on settling in your physical body to feel ready for a short meditation experience and eventually a deep dive into awareness work.
Essentially, we’ve taken the biggest objections to learning meditation and turned them around:
If you’re still not convinced, check out our latest blog post on the benefits of meditation and mindfulness. Let’s get you zen here and now:
We’ve had a blast of a start to 2017. In line with new year’s resolutions and fresh starts, we’ve decided to share the love around with new clients at our Andrew Boy Charlton Pool studio in The Domain. Join us now for our tailored restorative, flow, foundation yoga and Pilates classes at this stunning location overlooking the iconic Woolloomooloo Finger Wharf for one of our regular sessions open to drop-ins, fall in love with our senior instructor team and commit to 3 months of group class goodness for only $225.
You can simply check out our sessions here and either book online or pay in studio for this special summer deal. The pass gives you unlimited access to currently just under 30 classes as well as open access to our donation based community classes and discounts to premium workshops and events.
Our specialty is helping individuals find the best way to practice yoga, move their bodies mindfully and develop a meditation practice. We offer a range of premium services in locations across Sydney. To find out more about our dedicated privates for individuals, small groups and corporates, click here. We also work with a range of athletes and sports teams, such as the NRL, and are proud supporters of Triathlon NSW.
We also run special workshops for children during school holidays and free donation based sessions for emergency services personnel on behalf of Frontline Yoga.
Movement, mindfulness and meditation for special populations is our mission here at BMS. And so we’re utterly delighted to partner with Frontline Yoga for free classes for emergency services personnel at our studio in The Domain, Sydney.
Frontline Yoga class is a free weekly yoga class for our current and former Frontline guardians, those who step forward in the community to care, protect and serve the rest of us. Our classes will run Thursdays from 6pm-7pm and will be trauma sensitive following guidelines making them appropriate for those suffering from stress, anxiety and PTSD. Apart from this, they are also open to beginners and experienced yogis and will be taught by an experienced Frontline volunteer yoga teacher.
We welcome all “non-guardian” clients to the class, too – with a suggested donation to Frontline and/or our studio. Frontline guardians include police officers, firefighters, paramedics, defence force members, medical professionals, RFS/SES Volunteers, SLS and their family members. Please share this information and post with those in your community that you feel may benefit from the service.
Free yoga for trauma is a cause very close to our founder’s heart. Sol is a former PTSD sufferer as well as ex police round journalist who has seen the incredible pressure our community guardians are under. She has also seen the transformation possible through using mindfulness and yoga therapy in her work with private clients.
For up-to-date event and class information, please head to bookings or our Facebook page. We run daily classes near Sydney’s CBD as well as offering dedicated private sessions for individuals and groups. Our corporate programs have been running around Sydney since 2o10.
Precision, specificity and repetition may all sound like very boring ingredients for a fun workout. If you are looking to have more ease and flow in your movement patterns return from an injury or, in fact, injury-proof your body, reformer Pilates may be just the deal. Popular with dancers since its inception almost a century […]
You may be training like a champion but are you recovering like one? Hacking your body’s ability to bounce back from competitions, intense workouts or even just intense training or work periods could be the key to enhancing your performance. What’s more, you may find you can perform with more ease – and refreshed mental […]
Ever wondered what mindfulness and meditation on tap would look like? Well, how about people sitting in change rooms, at train stations, in waiting areas and other random places and silently listening to calming tracks on their wireless headsets? Cue: blissful smile and a more relaxed workforce. We’ve done what we long thought impossible. Broken […]