Schools & Education Institutions
Sitting Yoga is well suited to school and educational environments. The only equipment needed is a classroom and chairs. Class times are flexible, which means they can be easily integrated into existing timetables. Classes can be taught either face to face, online or via recordings.
For Students
Schools and educational institutions can be a challenging and intense experience for students. They face increasing stress surrounding study loads, peer pressures, conflicts within relationships, substance use and self-harming behaviours. Mental health issues such as anxiety, depression and suicide are also on the rise.
Sitting Yoga is a simple and practical life-skill that can develop resilience in people of all ages. It can support in building a solidness and confidence where we know who we are and what is true for us. In an environment that typically focuses on knowledge and the mind, students get to know and value how they feel from their body, through life-skills such as body connection, body awareness and body care.
For Teachers
Our teachers and educators play a very important role in the education and development of people. Their commitment and care for students can have a lifelong influence on our lives. However, they too can experience the pressure and intensity of an educational environment. In caring for students, they too can lose touch with who they are and the need to care for themselves. Demanding workloads, curriculum changes and administrative requirements, increased discipline and behavioural management can challenge even the most experienced teachers and educators.
Sitting Yoga gives teachers a moment to stop and make time for what is important for their health and wellbeing. In as little as 10 minutes teachers can reconnect, refocus, and recharge their body, and develop an inner steadiness. Taking time to care for oneself is essential to care for others.
Sitting Yoga can be a part of teachers’ professional and personal development. It not only increases their ability to deal with ongoing work pressures, it also greatly contributes to their capacity to role model healthy life-skills and wellbeing for students.
Rehabilitation
At a time when the body is healing and needs to be treated with great care, Sitting Yoga can offer tools to assist the convalescence and recovery period. It can support us to return to our daily activity with a new level of appreciation and care for ourselves.
Rehabilitation may be needed due to a variety of reasons including:
- acute and chronic illness
- surgery
- medical treatment
- accidents
- sports injuries
- ceasing addictive behaviours.
Often the need to rehabilitate the body is because we have been overriding the early warning signs. To ‘get things done’ or to prove we are enough, we can push our body too far and ignore its physical limits. This may lead to rushing through a task, lifting something that is too heavy or simply overriding what the body is telling us. Sitting Yoga offers the opportunity to sit quietly and refamiliarise ourselves with the body and it’s early warning signs. In the inner quiet of being still and present with ourselves, we can re-learn and work with the subtle language of the body.
The body is the greatest guide when it comes to knowing exactly what is needed for us to physically, mentally and emotionally heal. Sitting Yoga supports us to develop respect for our body and experience the benefits of becoming present with our physical movements. Bringing attention and care to within ourselves is needed for the body to let go, surrender and rejuvenate.
Workplaces
Sitting Yoga can play a fundamental role in workplace staff health and well-being programs. Classes support posture, body awareness, knowing when to take breaks, recognising when your are pushing or rushing through a task, all of which develops a less stressed team who can be more focused and on task.
Sitting Yoga offers a moment in the day for staff to stop, check in with their body, unwind from tension, anxiety or stress and come back to an inner steadiness. Over time this experience ripples out into more of the work day, supporting people to feel more steady, confident and purposeful. When individuals take responsibility for themselves, it contributes to a healthy, harmonious and productive team.
We generally spend more of our waking day with our work colleagues than we do at home with family. Therefore the way we are at work, how we handle work, time pressures and our relationships and communication with our colleagues has a huge impact on our health and wellbeing. What happens at work affects what happens and how we feel at home and visa versa.
Regardless of the type of work we do, the hours involved, or the environment we work in, what is most important is our level of health and wellbeing, as this affects our entire outlook and attitude to work.
Pregnancy
With significant hormonal changes and ever growing pressure on the abdominal organs, lungs, bladder and digestive system, it may not be easy to get comfortable or settle when you are pregnant.
As the woman’s body changes and the baby grows you may experience:
- Tingling, achy and /or swollen breasts
- Nausea, vomiting and constipation
- Fatigue, lethargy and exhaustion
- Insomnia and sleeping issues
- Lower back ache
- Lower leg cramps and foot/ankle swelling
- Abdominal pressure leading to shortness of breath, heartburn, incontinence
Sitting Yoga can support pregnant women to become more attuned to how they are feeling and adapt their lifestyle to suit the changing needs of mother and baby. It may be to rest, drink water, go for a walk or prepare a nutritious meal, tailor-made for you and your baby. This means you don’t have to rely on the conflicting advice on motherhood and instead trust your body as the greatest expert on you. This foundation will continue to support women to self-care throughout parenting.
Pregnancy is an opportunity for women to get to know and care for their body. Sitting Yoga develops awareness and sensitivity so that we can feel that every choice counts.
Disabilities
People with disabilities experience a combination of physical, mental, developmental, intellectual and sensory impairment. This typically has the potential to restrict participation in group activities, whereas Sitting Yoga offers everyone a simple way to participate in personal development and wellbeing, regardless of ability.
Classes are always based on the needs of the group. Each class and what is experienced is very personal even though it is delivered in a group format.
Elderly
At a time when people may be slowing down and needing to take greater care of their bodies, Sitting Yoga offers the elderly a way to move and be with their bodies that supports their physical and mental well-being.
After a lifetime of demands, expectations and responsibilities with family, work and children, the elder years can be a period of life to bring more focus to valuing and caring for themselves.
Sitting Yoga is easy to do as it doesn’t put any stress on the body. Instead it teaches the elderly how to move without strain, focusing on quality over quantity. It brings awareness and purpose to the day, knowing that each movement matters. The smallest change in our posture and the way we move can change the way we feel. Sitting Yoga offers a deeper understanding and wonder to the day, knowing that there is so much more to life than what we see and do.
Through Sitting Yoga the elderly are given the gift of valuing themselves and the wisdom of their lived life. Sitting Yoga participants discover that regardless of age or ability they have so much to share and appreciate.
Men’s Health
Society values men for their physical strength and ability to ‘toughen up’ in order to provide for and protect their family and friends. But with the decline in men’s physical and mental health, we must question if the roles that men often take on are doing more harm than good. For many men, this leads to ignoring the body’s early warning signs of dis-ease and avoiding seeking help and support.
Sitting Yoga offers men the space to connect with their physical body in a new way. It brings back a focus to each and every movement and the impact this is having on their physical, emotional and mental health. A class allows men to sit and observe all that they are feeling and bring awareness to how sensitive their bodies actually are. They learn that there is never a right or wrong way to move, and instead it is simply about listening to and respecting their body and all that can be felt. Sitting Yoga offers a safe and supportive space for men to get to know and appreciate their sensitive and caring nature and to become comfortable sharing that in the world.
Women’s Health
When we consider women’s health we can easily think of the many issues that women are facing.
At the heart of women’s health is her body.
Nurturing your body and being, listening to that quiet voice that knows what is needed and not compromising that for anyone or anything is essential to women’s health and wellbeing. Knowing yourself through your body supports you to feel deeply settled, steady and have a growing inner confidence. Women then know they are ‘more than enough’, before they go about their day.
Sitting Yoga supports women to stop and reclaim a delicate appreciation of their body. It offers the opportunity to discover a consistent way of living that honours the body, rather than feeling overwhelmed or exhausted from being pushed and pulled in all directions. It offers a space to re-discover and treasure the true beauty, grace and wisdom of a woman and her body.