Yoga for everyone: A Beginner’s Guide
This New Year, you feel the call to give Yoga a try once and for all! It’s time to roll out your yoga mat and discover the combination of physical and mental exercises that for thousands of years have hooked yoga lovers around the globe. The myriad benefits of yoga – including lower blood pressure, increased strength and bone density and reduced anxiety, should be enough to get anyone on the mat. However, we meet many people who hesitate to embrace this ancient form of fitness due to some pervasive myths. Yoga is too slow and boring, yoga is only for the flexible, yoga is for women.
The truth is that there is a class to suit you whatever your body type or temperament. Yoga develops strength and balance as well as flexibility – the latter is a consequence of practising yoga, not a prerequisite. No one has turned up to their first yoga class (unless they were a dancer or a gymnast) able to execute advanced yoga poses and we don’t expect you to at all, we are yoga teachers for a reason, to help “teach” you the practices that positively impacted our lives (because we were once beginners too - and we aren’t all ex-gymnasts you’ll be happy to know!")
The real beauty of yoga is that you don’t have to call yourself a “Yogi” to reap the benefits. Whether you are young or old, class yourself as overweight or fit, yoga has the power to calm the mind and strengthen the body. Yoga really is for everyone and Healing Haven is everyone’s home.
We don’t want you to be intimidated by yoga terminology and complicated yoga poses. Yoga is for everyone and Healing Haven is a really great place to start and nurture your journey.
Are you really a beginner?
We all start somewhere and of course if you haven’t been to a yoga class before then you may class yourself as a beginner. However, yoga is a practice that teaches us to “be” and to “sit”, to find “union” within the mind, body and breath. We focus not just on the physical aspect of yoga so don’t feel put off coming to any of our classes, we don’t believe in having a hierarchy of easy or hard because wellness is for everyone.
Our teachers
We might be biased but we believe we are blessed to host some of the best teachers in the area. All of our teachers are highly qualified and some who have trained in India, the birthplace of yoga including our founder Lillie who spent a lot of time travelling India from North to South. Our teachers experience really shows in class and a great teacher will always give the class options to suit where you are at within your yoga practice and an element of challenge may also be provided so that you can build on your practice over due course. Rest assured, if you are new to a class, your teacher will welcome you and support you as you navigate the class.
Understanding the different yoga styles
When you visit our booking system, you may start to see some funky terminology, do not fear, these are just some of the styles of yoga we offer. All yoga styles create a feeling of lightness, ease and relaxation. The main styles we cover at Healing Haven are Hatha, Vinyasa, Ashtanga and Yin. If you're already doing lots of strength training your best choice is likely to be a yoga style that focuses more on flexibility. That way, you can balance your fitness routine. Perhaps try Yin or Vinyasa yoga. Those who have an injury or live with a chronic medical condition such as arthritis might want to try Chair yoga or Hatha yoga. If you are drawn to experience the spiritual side, you could try one of our monthly workshops. And for those who are relatively healthy and seek vitality, strength and want a challenge, Ashtanga or Vinyasa flow might be a good choice for you. We recommend trying out a few different classes until you meet your match in teacher and style!
Still a little nervous?
If you are still unsure and want the perfect introduction to yoga, we want you to feel comfortable and confident exploring yoga for the first time and although all of our classes are suitable for all levels of practice, you may find more peace of mind starting with our Beginners Yoga Class on Tuesdays at 6:15pm with Lovisa, you can click here to book
All you need to know about coming to your first class
You don’t need to bring anything with you, we have yoga mats and all equipment you might need, when you get the yoga bug then think about getting your own yoga mat. Bring a bottle of water and your wonderful self!
You can park right outside the studio in the parking bays, on all surrounding residential roads and in the car parks a few blocks down. We are not responsible for where you choose to leave your vehicle. We do love to encourage our students to cycle, weather permitting and are hoping to have our own bike racks available in mid 2023.
When you arrive at the studio, please take your shoes off when you walk in, your teacher will be there to greet you and point you in the right direction of the toilets and the cloakroom where you can pop your shoes and belongings.
Pricing
We recommend doing pay as you go for your first class and then having a look at our class passes which provide you with extra benefits, we have no locked in contracts or memberships, we believe in a fair structure for student, teacher and studio. You can explore class passes a little more here
Contacting Healing Haven
Should you have any enquiries, please feel free to email us on hello@healinghavenpoole.com or call us on 07445686800
