Pranayama as an essential daily support system
Pranayama An Essential Daily Support System “When you own your breath, nobody can steal your peace” Unknown Prana can be translated as energy, breath, and life force. Yama is control and Ayama is expansion. So, Pranayama is a practice of controlling breath and through that increasing and purifying our energy. It is part of the […]
Yoga Nidra and awareness of opposites
Yoga Nidra and Awareness of Opposites “The world is full of paradoxes and opposites. The art is to embrace the opposites, embrace the paradoxes and live with a smile“ – Sri Ravi Shankar Part of the purpose of yoga is to create a union within the self. This aim is facilitated by the pursuit of […]
Introducing Charli Van Ness
Charli Van Ness How did you first become interested in yoga? This is a lifelong career starting from the tender age of 2 1/2 with my 1st tap & ballet lesson followed by acrobatics at 5yrs. Music, dance, flexibility ran through my veins, my daily life force. This provided a great foundation for my body-mind-spirit […]
5 Benefits of expanding your Level 1 Teacher Training
5 Benefits of expanding your Level 1 Teacher Training The yoga world has changed in many ways in the last five years. As a studio and training centre we see these differences evolve over time. Students have been introduced to a wider variety of styles of yoga and utilise classes for more than the physical […]
Five Unexpected Reasons to do a Yoga Teacher Training
Five Reasons to do a Yoga Teacher Training transformation Over and over, graduates from our teacher training course describe their experience as transformational. If you are looking for transformation and personal growth, a yoga teacher training is an opportunity to find just that and so much more. “I have learnt so much, felt so much […]
What is nidra and how can it help me?
What is Yoga Nidra and how can it help me? By Rina Modi teacher training Manager at the Shala Over the last few years I have heard more and more yogi’s talk about Yoga Nidra, with an increasing number of teachers offering this practice as well as the demand for teacher trainings in this area. […]
Mental Health Empowerment
Mental Health Empowerment Befriending Your Mind – The Wise Mind Our minds can be our harshest judge. To overcome this tendency towards self-criticism and self-doubt we learn to live through the wise mind. This is the intersection between our emotional and reasoning minds. Our wise mind allows us to balance our rational and emotional responses […]
What is Yoga?
What is Yoga? Yoga is many things to many people. When we ask this question on our teacher training programmes we usually end up with many words scrawled all over a huge whiteboard. Yoga is hard to define as it is so expansive and all-encompassing. Here we have chosen 8 words we associate with yoga. […]
Pregnancy yoga – Benefits for prenatal wellness and birth
Pregnancy Yoga – Benefits for Pre-Natal Wellness & Birth “Whenever and however you give birth, your experience will impact your emotions, your mind, your body and spirit for the rest of your life” Ina May Gaskin Designer Pregnancy and birth is a multi-faceted time in a woman’s life. Whatever the journey, there are for sure […]
Is Chair Yoga just a Gimmick?
Yoga has an undeniable transformative effect on physical, mental, and emotional well-being. However, the image often associated with yoga – flexible, toned individuals bending and stretching on a mat – can be a deterrent for many who could benefit from its practice. Enter Chair Yoga, a practice that challenges preconceived notions and makes yoga accessible […]
Yoga Philosophy – Know Your Own What, How and Why
Yoga Philosophy – Know Your Own What, How and Why The practical benefits of yoga philosophy training by Daniel Simpson What exactly is yoga and what is it for? There are many different answers in ancient texts, and few of them apply to modern life without being reframed. Teachers often do that without even realising, then […]
The Shala Teacher Training Review
By Kate Towers From the first module in my Level 2 teacher training @theshalalondon – Yoga Nidra with Melanie Cooper and Jennie Wadsten in 2019 – to the final one – Asana in Depth in 2023 with Gingi Lee & Melanie Cooper, it has been such a momentous journey and I have relished every second. […]
Top 10 Benefits of Chair Yoga
🪑💫 Top 10 Benefits of Chair Yoga 💫🪑🧘♀️ Increased Accessibility: Chair yoga makes yoga accessible to every body regardless of mobility or physical challenges. Improved Flexibility: Regular chair yoga practice helps improve flexibility and range of motion. Enhanced Strength: You can work on muscle strengthening and core whilst sitting in chair Better Balance: Using the […]
Yoga adjusts & assists
By Gingi Lee When Derek Ireland started teaching me the art of yoga adjustments in the early 90s I was overly confident. I had nearly finished the 3rd ashtanga series, had made up my mind that yoga was my whole life, had no family obligations, no job to get back to, no strings attached. I […]
What is yoga nidra?
This November we will be running a 3-day Yoga Nidra Teacher Training course with international teachers Melanie Cooper and Jennie Wadsten. In the article below, Melanie defines the rich and ancient practice of Yoga Nidra and how it allows us to access different states of consciousness. Like Yoga itself, Yoga Nidra is a process and a state. You […]
Exploring the yamas & niyamas
On our 200-hour yoga teacher training, our module on Yoga Ethics is without doubt the most important part of the training. These ten guidelines lay the foundations for the course and set the expectations to take yoga beyond the mat. This thought provoking essay by one of our graduates explores these simple, yet infinitely complex […]
Yoga in 2021 and beyond…
Yoga as a practise is on the rise – there is no doubt about that. In 2016 a Yoga Journal report found that people practising yoga in the US had gone from 20.4 million in 2012 to 36.7 million in 2016. Imagine what the numbers are now! In the UK, yoga was one of the […]
Reflections on becoming a yoga teacher
By Lesley Collinson Reflecting on yoga and how it has become my life leads me back to when I was 10 years old; following a sequence from a series of 1960’s black and white photos from a landscaped yoga book. I would question the universe in plough, thinking about the possibilities of my future; one […]
Yoga nidra as a journey through the brain waves
Yoga Nidra as a journey through the brain waves by Melanie Cooper . Like yoga itself, Yoga Nidra is both a process and state. It is a set of techniques to help people get into the state of consciousness between waking and sleeping. Yoga Nidra literally means “Yogic Sleep”, but it’s not really about sleeping, it’s […]
“A beautiful beginning”
This weekend we heard the group’s reflections on the start of their teacher training journey and how they had tried to take the teachings from the course and assimilate them in day to day life – and the challenges that that inevitably brought up for each of them. There was much talk of leaving the […]
Through the lens of a teacher trainee
Here we share the objectives, expectations and personal challenges of Ana Miranda who has just begun her teacher training at the Shala School of Yoga. “After my very first yoga class more than thirteen years ago, I have now make a conscious decision to not be guided by fear, not to regret life, to take on […]
Yamuna yoga training
We are excited to announce that Yamuna Zake will be teaching a Foundational Standing Asanas teacher training at the Shala from September 13-16. This is the first time ever Yamuna Zake will be teaching her Yamuna Yoga training in Europe. The course will cover: Basic warm-up breath work using the balls and how to combine […]
Teaching apprenticeship scheme
Shala School of Yoga Apprenticeship Scheme with Gingi Lee After Easter we will be introducing our Mysore apprenticeship scheme for those wishing to develop their teaching skills working within an ashtanga self practice setting. The scheme is designed to follow on from our 200-hour foundation programme (or similar training programme) and the hours can be […]