Hugh's Teaching Style
Yoga
I base my Yoga teaching on the Ashtanga form, particularly the sequencing of the series and the cultivation of the Bandhas, Ujjayi breath and Dristi.
The focus and emphasis I create in the class concentrates around creating a practice that is self-teaching, self-correcting and self-healing. For me the starting place is in exploring how the body and mind is brought out of its natural state of balance. When we strive just to achieve postures and shapes, creating a practice coloured by pushing and resisting, we lose the opportunity to be in balance.
Balance is a state of non-tension, characterised by a sense of lightness, openness in the joints, relaxation in the muscles not essential for support. Together these yield maximum flexibility and a complete absence of fighting against our own body.
The practice then becomes fluid and very dynamic, weightless and physically effortless. For this physical effortlessness, we must however make an effort, not physical but mental. This requires taking responsibility for our mind and to cultivate this I incorporate Mindfulness in my teaching.
My approach to Mindfulness in the practice of Yoga in my classes includes simple techniques by which we learn to direct our attention at will within the physical postures, to observe honestly our reactions, emotions and thoughts and develop an open acceptance of our experience in each moment, however it is. Only then does our body and mind come together in balance and our experience of the practice is transformed with the sense of limitation no longer defining us. This approach supports the confidence, motivation and empowerment to develop a personal self-practice.
When we work this way, we find ourselves working at the very limit of our capacity, becoming the best we can be in each moment without strain. Instead of draining energy we find energy builds during the practice such that we leave the class with more than we started with. The practice develops a moment to moment awareness that reveals capabilities and capacities beyond what we had anticipated. I believe all postures are potentially Yoga postures, including those in our daily activities and so we develop the ability to practice returning to balance throughout the day.
As we become used to practising without tension, we becomes sensitised to the origin of tension, the deep seated resistance to witnessing things as they are, rather than as we would wish them to be. Cultivating the capacity to listen softly and deeply, we train ourselves to release away from this tension and work with how things really are. This honesty allows us to see real choices and options, allowing us to experience a practice that is without strain, where the mind and body flow without any sense of resistance. This sensitivity to tension and its origins creates a practice that becomes self-teaching, self-correcting and self-healing and can be used on and off the mat, in all aspects of our daily life.
Mindfulness
I base my Mindfulness teaching on the structures created by MBSR and MBCT courses. These are ideal ways to introduce Mindfulness into daily life and give a well-constructed, progressive and balanced introduction to the transformative impact relatively simple techniques can have in peoples’ daily lives.
In addition to these where appropriate, I provide a framework to work constructively with difficult ethical challenges and moral dilemmas. I also introduce the helpful and supportive practice of forgiveness meditation, self-compassion, releasing tension created by aversive and addictive reactions and the simple approach of smiling. Smiling in this context has nothing to do with happiness and is quite literally the soft lifting of the corners of our eyes and has a radical impact on our awareness. It invites us to become present with all of our senses and challenges us without aggression to re-assess our relationship to the present moment. These simple approaches really support the integration of Mindfulness into all aspects of daily life.
I base my Yoga teaching on the Ashtanga form, particularly the sequencing of the series and the cultivation of the Bandhas, Ujjayi breath and Dristi.
The focus and emphasis I create in the class concentrates around creating a practice that is self-teaching, self-correcting and self-healing. For me the starting place is in exploring how the body and mind is brought out of its natural state of balance. When we strive just to achieve postures and shapes, creating a practice coloured by pushing and resisting, we lose the opportunity to be in balance.
Balance is a state of non-tension, characterised by a sense of lightness, openness in the joints, relaxation in the muscles not essential for support. Together these yield maximum flexibility and a complete absence of fighting against our own body.
The practice then becomes fluid and very dynamic, weightless and physically effortless. For this physical effortlessness, we must however make an effort, not physical but mental. This requires taking responsibility for our mind and to cultivate this I incorporate Mindfulness in my teaching.
My approach to Mindfulness in the practice of Yoga in my classes includes simple techniques by which we learn to direct our attention at will within the physical postures, to observe honestly our reactions, emotions and thoughts and develop an open acceptance of our experience in each moment, however it is. Only then does our body and mind come together in balance and our experience of the practice is transformed with the sense of limitation no longer defining us. This approach supports the confidence, motivation and empowerment to develop a personal self-practice.
When we work this way, we find ourselves working at the very limit of our capacity, becoming the best we can be in each moment without strain. Instead of draining energy we find energy builds during the practice such that we leave the class with more than we started with. The practice develops a moment to moment awareness that reveals capabilities and capacities beyond what we had anticipated. I believe all postures are potentially Yoga postures, including those in our daily activities and so we develop the ability to practice returning to balance throughout the day.
As we become used to practising without tension, we becomes sensitised to the origin of tension, the deep seated resistance to witnessing things as they are, rather than as we would wish them to be. Cultivating the capacity to listen softly and deeply, we train ourselves to release away from this tension and work with how things really are. This honesty allows us to see real choices and options, allowing us to experience a practice that is without strain, where the mind and body flow without any sense of resistance. This sensitivity to tension and its origins creates a practice that becomes self-teaching, self-correcting and self-healing and can be used on and off the mat, in all aspects of our daily life.
Mindfulness
I base my Mindfulness teaching on the structures created by MBSR and MBCT courses. These are ideal ways to introduce Mindfulness into daily life and give a well-constructed, progressive and balanced introduction to the transformative impact relatively simple techniques can have in peoples’ daily lives.
In addition to these where appropriate, I provide a framework to work constructively with difficult ethical challenges and moral dilemmas. I also introduce the helpful and supportive practice of forgiveness meditation, self-compassion, releasing tension created by aversive and addictive reactions and the simple approach of smiling. Smiling in this context has nothing to do with happiness and is quite literally the soft lifting of the corners of our eyes and has a radical impact on our awareness. It invites us to become present with all of our senses and challenges us without aggression to re-assess our relationship to the present moment. These simple approaches really support the integration of Mindfulness into all aspects of daily life.