Maitri Yoga Louth
Nurturing Growth, Embracing All
.jpg)
A LITTLE ABOUT ME
Hi All, My name is Nicola & I've been practising yoga and self care since 2018. I started my yoga journey as a student and attended a weekly class to help settle my mind and bring some fitness back into my body. I developed MS in 2019 and embraced yoga even more then to maintain my body's strength and cultivate a more positive mindset. I attended lots of virtual chair yoga classes, organised by the MS society, during this time as the pandemic hit and we all know the limitations that brought. Yoga has played a huge part in me moving from walking with a walking stick and foot strap to walking longer distances on my own. It also played a huge part in changing my mindset from 'I can't do anything' to 'I can do this, but in my own way'. I have much greater patience, kindness and love towards myself as a result of yoga and a wonderful set of mindfulness courses I did.
I started my yoga teacher qualification with the mindset of only improving my own practice, never planning to teach. By the end of it, with the support of a truly beautiful teacher and amazing amazing amazing peers, I qualified and wanted to teach this gorgeous practice to everyone, so people can experience the benefits like I did.
I started teaching on Sundays and how teach 4-5 days a week. As an MS warrior, I am so in-tune with how our bodies can disrupt us sometimes, how maybe today we can't quite move as we want or as much as we want. I take this knowledge into all my classes, focusing on what my body needs that day, allowing it to move as much or as little as it wants and encouraging my students to do the same. I learned we should always always always listen to our bodies and show them kindness, compassion and discernment. I also know how our minds can trick us into thinking we are not able, we are not capable, we aren't good enough, we could never do that. And I learned it's all lies. We are all beautiful, strong and capable people. Just in our own different way. I also take this knowledge into my classes and encourage a compassionate mindset, a mindset of gratitude, a mindset of non-judging discernment and patience with ourselves.
My journey hasn't stopped with being qualified and teaching classes. You very quickly fall in love with everything related to yoga and you want to keep learning. I've since qualified in kids yoga, chair yoga, yin yoga, Tai Chi and I am now continuing my qualifications in Zumba and additional 300hr hour yoga teacher training. I want to be able to bring as much knowledge and experience as possible to all my students and help them to truly benefit from all that this beautiful practice has to offer.
And so my yoga journey continues.... and I really hope you will share it with me ❤️ x x
A LITTLE ABOUT THE YOGA I TEACH
A typical class with me is slow, gentle and all about self connection whether it's a beginners class, an all levels class or a chair yoga class.
While I trained in Ashtanga yoga, my classes tend to be a mix of Hatha and vinyasa flow. And a lot of the time what I plan to teach ends up being different because of how the people in the room are feeling.
All classes start with 10mins or so lying down, under the fluffy blankets with the eye pillows on (except chair yoga, we stay seated for this with blankets but no eye pillows 😁). We settle in our bodies, we bring a little quietness to our minds, we become present with ourselves in the room and we connect with our breath.
Then we move together with our breath, inhale for one movement, exhale to the next. We honour the breath and move to our own pace and rhythm, so we can all be a little out of sync as we all breath differently, but our eyes are closed so we don't notice or worry about it.
Eyes being closed (or gazing at the tip of your nose) is 100% recommended during practice. You tune into you, your body, your breath, your movements and listen and feel everything that is going on. It stops us over stretching or pushing our bodies to somewhere they don't want to go in that practice. It also stops that little judging voice in our head from comparing us to others as we can't see them.
We always finish out the classes by lying or sitting (chair yoga) in stillness to that week's Savasana song before we bring ourselves back at our own pace to leave the class, hopefully feeling restored and also energised and maybe sometimes a little sleepy.
"Let the beauty of what you love be what you do."