Posts by Edward Mitchell

December 2022 newsletter

Posted on by Edward Mitchell


Half of the teachers at Dorchester Yoga and Therapy Centre
At our last teachers meeting in September we grouped for a photo. There are 24 of us in total; there are 13 in the photo as 11 teachers couldn’t be there.

We have been operating throughout this year offering a wide range of classes. We would like to thank you all for supporting the centre, attending our classes and workshops and generally making the centre feel like a positive and calming place in Dorchester. 

Not forgetting our 15 therapists offering their wonderful services in the therapy room, if I can ever get them all together I will hopefully get a photo of them too!!

From us all,  we wish you a Reflective Winter Solstice, a Merry Xmas and a Happy and Healthy New Year.

Yoga reverse chair pose

As ever, the details are below and in the calendar – please check it!

With best wishes from Sharon and all the teachers and therapists at Dorchester Yoga and Therapy Centre

December Garden Meditations


Give yourself time this Xmas for reflection and meditation.

Step into your garden or the countryside around you and sense the peace.

Everything is going to sleep; mammals are tucked away, perennial plants die back to their roots and insects snooze in hollow stems or piles of dry leaves. Feel the slumber and think about the fact that nature needs this period of deep rest, and that we are part of it, and we do too. We are at the darkest end of the year, when there is more night than day. 

Step out in the early evening as night falls and look up at the stars and think about how the piece of earth on which you stand now is tipped way from the sun and towards the dark and the cold. Look up into the eternal night sky, look back to the beginning of time. 

And know also, as you gaze into the endless dark and cold, that we are at the turning point of the year. After the Winter Solstice this month, the northern hemisphere will start to slowly tip back towards our warm, welcoming, lifegiving sun. The gardens, the creatures and the plants will immediately sense it and within weeks will start to rouse themselves. 

This point in the year may be the darkest, but it is a moment for great hope and rejoicing. 

It all gets lighter after this. There is much to look forward to.

river frome in dorchester in winter


Classes, Courses and Workshops: December

Breathing and Yoga Nidra with Sharon Cox-Button

Yoga Sutras of Patanjali with Sarah Ryan

Qoya with Vikki Smisek

Restorative Yoga and Yoga Nidra with Sharon Cox-Button

Mini First Aid with Sue Fisher

Iyengar Yoga with Cheree Low

Saturday Soundbath with Bex Leonard

Restorative Yoga for Deep Rest with Tracey Boast

Om Shanti/Kirtan with Magdalena Atkinson

Yin Yoga with Chrissie Haskett

Candlelight Winter Solstice Yoga with Kim Jones

“Christmas is not a time nor a season, but a state of mind.
To cherish peace and goodwill, to be plenteous in mercy,
is to have the real spirit of Christmas.”

~ Calvin Coolidge ~

October 2021 newsletter

Posted on by Edward Mitchell

Welcome to October 🙂

The Dorchester Yoga and Therapy Centre opened its doors in November 2015.

From  almost the beginning there has been a regular monthly meeting with yoga teacher Sarah Ryan looking at  the amazing Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. This is probably the most important yoga book ever written. It is written in Sanskrit, and contains four logically written chapters, with 195 aphorisms, or concise statements known as sutras, describing the whole philosophical system of yoga.

We have slowly been working our way through the book and have reached Chapter 3 which talks about the last 3 of the eight ‘limbs’ or branches of yoga; the internal ‘limbs’ of concentration, meditation and complete absorption- samadhi.

Sutra 111.1 “desa-bandhah-cittasya dharana”

Concentration is fixing the mind in one direction. When the mind remains bound to the chosen object without failing, this is concentration, the preliminary condition for reaching the next stages of dhyana and samadhi (meditation and complete absorption).

I am struck by how Autumn seems to throw up an extraordinary amount of beautiful objects or scenes on which to practice one’s concentration. Many flowers in the garden are finding energy to make their last few blooms before the slow dying back of Autumn begins, the colours are changing, the spiders are spinning, the harvests are being brought in and perhaps the last few swims are being enjoyed before the weather changes. As one of my heroines said

“I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.” 

~~ L. M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables ~~

Rose
Enjoy the wonderful weather and beautiful surroundings.  Slow down into Autumn, find time to practise concentration, and come and enjoy some of our workshops 🙂

As ever, the details are below and in the calendar – please check it!

With best wishes from Sharon and all the teachers and therapists at Dorchester Yoga and Therapy Centre

Some news

We welcome Tom Anderson to our team of therapists. Tom is a CBT therapist.

I am really pleased that the Reiki Share is back on our timetable, please see details below.

Our thanks go to Leanne Jones who has been teaching a Jivamukti class once a month on a Friday evening for many years now. She is off to open her own studio in Wimborne, we will miss her and we wish her well with her new venture (… although she’s only in Wimborne so do check out her new studio).

Here is our teacher Sam Stevens enjoying her class:

Sam_Stevens_photo

And lastly big congratulations to our fabulous yoga teacher Kim Mackie who got married last week to Fred; so lovely to see Kim in her beautiful dress as we normally only see each other in yoga leggings!

Kim_wedding

 

Classes, Courses and Workshops: October

Breathing and Yoga Nidra with Sharon Cox-Button

Shakti Dance with Magdalena Atkinson

Restorative Yoga and Yoga Nidra with Sharon Cox-Button

Yoga For Runners with Kim Jones

Rajadhiraja Yoga with Jez Culley

Saturday Soundbath with Bex Leonard

Yoga Sutras with Sarah Ryan

Saturday Soundbath with Bex Leonard

Restorative Yoga for Deep Rest with Tracey Boast

Gong Bath with Arianna Puran Udini

Reiki Share with Karen Giles and Wrio Russell

Looking ahead to November

We have a new weekly Saturday morning Mixed Ability Yoga class starting with Katie Pitney 10.45-11.45am.

  • Please email Katie if you are interested in joining the class

 

 

September 2021 newsletter

Posted on by Edward Mitchell

Welcome to September. We hope you have found time to escape your normal routine, and have enjoyed some  Summer fun, either by relaxing, or being active, being social or finding a quiet space; whichever were your requirements.

My Summer read was “A Lonesome Dove” a Western novel by Larry McMurty, with wise words no matter what the season:

“It may be we’ll meet down the road” July said
“Perhaps… I see you are in a hurry to get someplace. It’s a great mistake to hurry” Mr Sedgewick said.
“Why?”
“Because the grave’s our destination, and those who hurry usually get to it quicker than those who take their time…”

man doing a handstand in a field

For many, September brings a settling back into routines after the excitement of Summer, although hopefully with many more beautiful days to swim in the sea, and enjoy nature in our gardens and beautiful surrounding countryside.

woman doing a yin yoga twist in studio

We welcome back some of our teachers who have had their summer breaks, and settle into our Autumn term. Marj Snape is back with Morning Meditation and a new 5 week course ‘Finding Stillness’. Nancy returns with her Gentle Yoga on Tuesday lunchtime, Sharon Morgan is offering a new class ‘Better Balance Pilates’ and a Tuesday and Wednesday morning Pilates class, and Chrissie Haskett is back with Monday and Wednesday morning Yin Yoga classes. We have a new Tai Chi class starting on Thursday evenings with Tim Button at 6:00 – 7:30pm  and of course all our regular classes and workshops.

We have a great mix of workshops to take us into the Autumn; a mixture of dynamic and slower classes depending on your preferences.

As ever, the details are below and in the calendar – please check it!

With best wishes from Sharon and all the teachers and therapists at Dorchester Yoga and Therapy Centre

Classes, Courses and Workshops: September

Breathing and Yoga Nidra with Sharon Cox-Button

Saturday Soundbath with Bex Leonard

6 week IAIM BABY MASSAGE Course with Sharon Cox-Button

5 week course Exploring Stillness with Marj Snape

Jivamukti XL Yoga with Leanne Jones

Yoga Sutras of Patanjli with Sarah Ryan

Saturday Soundbath with Bex Leonard

Restorative Yoga for Deep Rest with Tracey Boast

Iyengar Workshop with Cheree Low

Late Summer Yin Yoga with Chrissie Haskett

Mini First Aid with Sue Fisher

Looking ahead to October

Restorative Yoga and Yoga Nidra with Sharon Cox-Button

Yoga for Runners with Kim Jones

 

 

September 2019 newsletter

Posted on by Edward Mitchell

Welcome back after the summer break, we hope you have had a wonderful summer and enjoyed the great outdoors, both here in our beautiful Dorset and maybe further afield. As usual at this time of year we like to share photos of yoga in more unusual places and surroundings, here are a selection:

 

Excuse our slightly longer newsletter this month as we have lots of news about all the wonderful classes, courses and workshops on offer this Autumn.

As ever, the details are below and in the calendar – please check it!

With best wishes from Sharon and all the teachers and therapists at Dorchester Yoga and Therapy Centre
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