Zoë Reason Yoga

Classes in Lewes

Yoga Holidays

Zoë teaches Beginners Yoga classes and courses for ongoing and established yoga practitioners in Lewes. Every year she takes a group to Paxos for a yoga holiday. In 2011 she ran weekend and week long workshops in Lewes, on the Isle of Purbeck in Dorset and in Burgaronne in France.

Zoë began practising yoga regularly in 1990 and has been teaching since 2004. Her aunt is a yoga teacher and she was drawn to yoga as a teenager – she liked the way it made her feel, and she dabbled with enthusiasm for several years. But it was only when she went on her first yoga holiday that she first really “got” yoga (or the yoga really “got” her). Since then she has been blessed to work in depth and with continuity with the most amazing practitioners. Her principal teachers are Rajiv & Swati Chanchani, who she visits regularly at their centre in the foothills of the Himalayas. In 2010 she made her first visit to Pune to work with the Iyengars. She feels absurdly grateful for what she has been so generously given.

Zoë’s teaching is sensitive and straightforward, pragmatic and practical, with at least one foot firmly planted on the earth and one eye firmly fixed on the transcendent. She works in depth, methodically and progressively.

She is committed to teaching what she practises, and is delighted when the evolution of her practice and her shifting preoccupations are reflected in her classes. Her current obsessions are integration and freedom, ground and light, space and security, the discipline in the detail and the liberation in the letting go.

She teaches regular weekly classes in Lewes, and holidays on the Greek island of Paxos.

Zoë has just returned from an extended trip to work with Swati and Rajiv Chanchani at their Yoga centre in the foothills of the Himalayas. The Chanchanis are have worked extensively with the Iyengar family over the past 30 years. They are authors of “Yoga for Children”. For more information about them and their centre please visit:

Rajiv and Swati Chanchani: www. yog-ganga.com

About Yoga

What is yoga?

Yoga is a systematic technology designed to shift our identification with our self as manifested in our specific ego (our name, our body, our history, our thinking, our knowledge, our character etc) towards an identification with our self as manifested in the universal and timeless.

The analogy that my teacher uses to describe this shift is that of a bubble that is part of the foam that is part of a wave that is cresting and about to crash on the beach. The bubble exists as itself. It has its own unique characteristics. Its own size, luminescence, viscosity. And as the wave gets closer to crashing on the beach the bubble changes. But it would be a foolish bubble to think to itself: “The things that make my bubble-ness unique are the most important things about me”. We can see that what makes each separate bubble so important is its manifestation as part of the sea. The bubble exists for a moment in time. To a bubble mainly interested in its own life story that moment might appear to last a while. But the sea, ever changing in the way it manifests, endures long past the bubble’s life span. The sea will continue to exist long after the wave has crashed onto the beach, but where would the bubble be without the sea?

When we walk into a yoga class often we’re concerned with very personal matters – “MY back is aching. I’M late. MY cat is missing. MY job is horrible…” and so on. At the end of a yoga practice we often have a very different experience of ourselves in the world. Our identification has shifted away from that which defines solely us and has moved closer to an identification with that which is universal. In yoga we make that shift through the specific – through that which makes us unique (our bubble-ness).

Yoga is encapsulated in a set of aphorisms collated and organised by Patanjali in the Yoga Sutras. Patanjali lived about 1700 years ago, in India. He is credited with collating and writing the first records of Yoga, Ayurvedic Medicine and Sanskrit Grammar. The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali consist of just 196 sutras (aphorisms) which cover all aspects of life and are still powerfully relevant.

Practising Yoga helps you overcome and prevent many stresses, strains, aches and pains. It promotes a firm foundation for health and well-being.

The union referred to in yoga is the union between one’s true self and the universal (being “at one with the world”), and also to a joining between one’s body, one’s thinking and one’s soul.

Students learn through a carefully graded and systematic programme of asana (postures). Pranayama (breath control) is gradually introduced once students have a firm foundation of yoga practice. Yoga practice both relaxes and energizes the body and mind and brings vitality, flexibility, strength, concentration, self-confidence and mental calm.

About Iyengar Yoga

What we refer to as “Iyengar Yoga” is a Yoga practice based on the teachings of Sri B.K.S. Iyengar. However, Mr Iyengar himself says that there is no such thing as “Iyengar Yoga” – its just yoga.

B.K.S. Iyengar, born on December 14, 1918, in Bellur, India, has studied and practised Yoga continuously for over 70 years.

Mr Iyengar has made a thorough study and understanding of Yoga, he has taught in all five continents, won worldwide respect and recognition for his achievements. His project has been to make Yoga accessible and relevant to people everywhere, no matter what their physical or mental ability.

Now in his nineties he continues to practice, teach and write, holding classes for both regular students and for teachers. He is based at and runs the Ramamani Memorial Iyengar Yoga Institute in Pune, India, where his daughter Smt. Geeta and son Sri Prashant Iyengar are also directors.

B.K.S. Iyengar has evolved precise posture (asana) and breathing (pranayama) techniques with a firm philosophical base in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali.

The system of teaching is methodical and progressive, emphasising detailed correctness and absolute safety. When necessary, it uses supports called “props” that allow students to progress in their practice of postures safely at their own pace, to suit their body. Beginners work in a basic way on simple postures according to their capabilities. As they develop they then move on to more refined ways of working as well as to more complex postures.

Prashant Iyengar has said that the hallmarks of Iyengar Yoga are:

Sequencing
Timing, and
Technique

Iyengar yoga sequences poses in a variety of different ways, for a range of intentions, to achieve different results.

As Iyengar students progress they may hold certain asanas for some time. This allows the body to settle, the pattern of the breath to become established, the mind can quieten and subtle observations can be made from within and through the body.

Iyengar yoga is often described as being methodical and emphasising alignment. Mr Iyengar is frequently quoted as saying “Alignment is Enlightenment”. Alignment and specific ways of working in a pose are part of Iyengar Technique. Technique would also cover use of props and equipment.

For more information about the Sage Patanjali, and to hear a recording of B.K.S. Iyengar singing the invocation to Patanjali, please go to:

Invocation to Patanjali: www.bksiyengar.com

Who is yoga suitable for?

Yoga is appropriate for everyone. All ages, shapes, sizes and levels of fitness can benefit from practising yoga.

However, there are certain conditions which might be more safely taught in a medical class. If you suffer from any of the following conditions please call Zoë Reason (01273 472748) in advance to discuss this – it won’t necessarily mean you can’t attend a class but some poses may have to be modified.

Hypertension (high blood pressure)
Heart disease (angina)
Heart attack
Epilepsy (minor/major)
Diabetes
Cancer
Detached retina
Menière’s disease
Multiple sclerosis
ME (Myalgic Encephalomyelitis)
HIV / AIDS
Asthma
Allergies
Varicose veins
Nose bleeds
Have you had a baby in the last 12 months?
Knee problems
Back problems
Neck or shoulder problems
Hip problems
Ankle problems

In addition, if you are (or think you might be) pregnant please discuss this immediately.

What do I need to know before coming to a class?

Do wear comfortable clothes – preferably something that lets me see your knees (leggings and shorts are ideal!)

Do be prepared to work in bare feet

Do let me know at the beginning of a class if you have a period, a cold, backache or are feeling under the weather for any reason

Don’t eat before you come to a class – leave 2 hours after a snack and 4 hours after a full meal

Please don’t wear perfume or strongly scented deodorant to class

Please do be on time for a class

AND FINALLY . . . . if you have any questions – please ASK!