The site is the main resource site for British Wheel of Yoga Teachers in the Eastern Region.
This web site also lists over 600 yoga classes in: Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, East London, Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk and Suffolk.
We also list classes in specialised areas; i.e., Yoga and Pregnancy, Working with Children, Yoga Therapy, Special needs, etc. If you have any difficulty in finding a suitable class you can contact your county representative.
Details of courses and events including those in neighbouring regions are listed on the Events page.
Local Events, seminars, etc, run by the British Wheel of Yoga are listed on our Events page. You will also find details regarding BWY Teacher Training on this site. Dates of Training Courses can be found on the Events Page. Additional information can be obtained from your county representative see the contacts page for details.
If you find any problems with pages or links on the site, or have suggestions for improvement please advise webadmin@yoga-east.co.uk
Please click here to get further details and make a booking using our online system. If you would like to see pictures from last years event, please click here. British Wheel Members can get their payment refunded in full when they register at the event on the 24th June.
Ever since I began doing yoga seventeen years ago I have read articles in newspapers and magazines that give the impression that yoga’s aim is to produce super-flexible bendy people. It’s such a misconception. The aim of yoga is to give people the opportunity to explore who they are, stay healthy in mind and body and interact better with life and each other.
The ancient practice of Yoga began, as most people know, in India, and goes back to a man named Patanjali. Ironically, no one actually knows if he practised yoga himself, whether he was a teacher or simply a compiler of information. But Patanjali’s jewel of a text is the basis of all yoga. The practice is made up of eight disciplines, or limbs, which Patanjali denotes as being practised concurrently, all of them dependent on each another.
They take into account our daily morality – how we chose to lead our life, obviously trying to improve the way we behave. To begin with, the “yamas” and “niyamas” (Sanskrit for moral adherences) cover such things as the non-violence by which Mahatma Gandhi lived his life. The third limb was the physical practices themselves – “asanas”- and the fourth “pranayama”. The word pranayama means “expansion of energy” – something all ancient yogis are known for as they generally live very long lives (literally “expanding” their life or life force).
The fifth is the wonderfully exotic “pratyahara”, or sensory withdrawal. Imagine if you could control your senses so you were not pulled this way and that by your desires.
Pratyahara is the stepping board between the basis practices of yoga and what we call the “higher” practices which are more concerned with the quality of the mind than the fitness of the body. “Dharana”, the sixth limb translates as concentration, while the seventh and eight limbs are concerned with meditation. Clinical studies talk of the great benefits of being able to sit quietly, even for five minutes, and think about nothing.
I know it all seems a little out of reach, but remember that in a good yoga lesson all eight limbs operate together and once you get a taste of the calm and focus that a good practice brings, you might become hooked – as I did.
Kari Knight
