Category: Yoga Musings

Feeling nervous! Doesn’t happen very often . . . heart is pounding and I feel a little sick. Launching my brand new yoga retreat company, Soul Retreats today! The mission behind Soul Retreats is to bring you the best of both a Yoga Retreat and a Yoga Holiday guaranteeing a Soulful Adventure. This means some serious time on the yoga mat to go deep into the practice and make breakthroughs, to find stillness in meditation and to really connect with your soul whilst making time for fun and adventure as you get to explore and enjoy the country that is hosting you. Keep an eye on your email, it’s happening shortly, details for Morocco in May, Tuscany in September and Glamping in Surrey in August. If you don’t receive my emails, message me with your email address to make sure you don’t miss out. Wish me luck! Lx

With the festivities of the Christmas period passed, it is usually about now that the guilt sets in that we’ve over indulged. This gives us a sudden spurt of motivation and we set our New Year’s resolutions ‘cut out the naughty treats and the alcohol, start calorie counting and go to the gym three times a week’. Then two weeks in we feel a lack of motivation and the guilt resurfaces. Just maybe we’re not to blame? Just maybe it’s the resolutions that were the problem, too much denial?

There is a better way! Why not take a yogic approach to your New Year and infuse your year with positive change. Yoga is about doing something just for you. In yoga you are taught to accept yourself and your body just as it is. If you are not flexible or strong these are not faults to overcome but simply challenges to embrace. It is this idea of acceptance and compassion that makes yoga such a life changing practice.

New Year is a great time to discover yoga. After the hectic pace in the run up to Christmas give yourself a gift by finding a little ‘me time’. Yoga gives your body what it sorely needs after all the Christmas indulgence. As the body moves through a series of postures a large number of muscle groups are strengthened which will tone and shape the body. The practice of Sun Salutations in yoga builds in a cardiovascular element which burns calories and heats the body. As the heat builds you can add twisting postures which detoxify the body by stimulating the abdominal organs.

One of the best things about yoga is that afterwards you feel so refreshed, energised and healthy that the last thing you feel like doing is reaching for an unhealthy snack or a glass of wine. Take a new approach to 2015, The Yogic Approach, and discover how with one positive change you can achieve so much more.

I’m so excited for this year’s Annual Yoga Christmas Class on Thursday 18th December from 7pm to 10pm in Southampton. I have invited two amazing musicians to join us this year for a truly magical celebration and they will be playing live as we get on our festive yoga flow! Let’s join together for the last yoga class of 2014 and make it a night to remember with twinkling lights, festive flows, live music and even a visit from Father Christmas.

With the hectic run up to Christmas we can forget how to smile, laugh and embrace the Magic of Christmas. In this bliss-filled class you can expect pure indulgence with an uplifting and inspiring yoga flow embracing the playful, joyful nature in all of us followed live music and an amazing kirtan experience with guest teacher, Nayarani. This is the last yoga class before Christmas and will be in place of the usual two classes that happen on a Thursday at Taunton’s. This class is open to everyone and you will need to book and pay in advance to guarantee a space. Only 5 spots left! Class price: 20 pounds. Richard Taunton’s College, Southampton.

I wanted to say a MASSIVE, HEARTFELT – THANK YOU to each and every one of you. To those of you I see regularly on the mat, to those who pop up sporadically and to those I am yet to actually meet – you inspire me daily, you make it possible for me to live my dreams and share my passion and I truly deeply appreciate being on this wonderful journey of life with you. If I don’t see you before, I wish you a very Happy Christmas and a New Year full of living your uniquely brilliant life whilst making your dreams come true. This is certainly my plan . . . and I will be launching a Yoga Retreat Company in January called Soul Retreats with a mission to share my love of yoga, travel, food and culture.

Forget the pre-Christmas To-Do list – Escape for a day!
A whole day of ‘Me Time’ – sounds like a day dream …right?

December is hectic and it is so easy to neglect our own health and well being at this time of year. Each and every year we do the same thing – piling up our to-do list, saying yes to every request and demand of us and by the time we actually get to Christmas Day? Well, we’re either over tired, burnt out, sick or just plain grumpy. Do something different this year . . . take a DAY OFF to Relax, Renew & Rejuvenate.

Have you ever done that? We take time off work, but have you ever taken a day off from your responsibilities, from being a mum, a husband, a care giver . . . from your life?

Join me for the:
‘Journey to Bliss Day Retreat’
10am-4pm this Saturday 13th December
at Wisdom House in Romsey

I know that taking a whole day off can seem selfish but trust me you’ll be more present, more content, more loving and more generously festive as a result. I promise you a day of divine indulgence, filled with the most heavenly of treats.

Journey to Bliss Day Retreat Includes:

90 minute Morning Yoga Class – A Heart Opening & Backbending Practice to unwind tension from your upper back and shoulders, whilst connecting with the energy of love and kindness
75 minute Afternoon Relax & Renew Yoga class, including restorative yoga, yin yoga and yoga nidra (yogic sleep!).
Guided Meditation
Meditative Labyrinth Walk Experience (weather dependent)
Raw Food Workshop and recipes to take away, including Energy Balls and a Festive & Healthy Christmas Dessert
Thai Yoga Massage Workshop, Learn a short sequence to share with family and friends over Christmas and Nutritious home cooked 2 course lunch
All inclusive day retreat for 75pp – option to pay 50% now and 50% in January!

The Day Retreat needs to be booked and paid for in advance to confirm your spot. An ideal early Christmas Present!

When people start yoga invariably they expect to feel something in the physical body, to feel a really good stretch, to feel a little stiff after strengthening the muscles but what often surprises people is just how much they feel! Yoga gets us in touch with our feeling/emotional body as opposed to being always in the thinking/analysing mind. We live in a society where being ’emotional’ is seen as criticism and many of us bury our emotions so deep that we forget how to feel. This presents a problem because most of us want to ‘feel happy’ and to experience the emotion of ‘joy’ yet by shutting ourselves off to feeling the less positive emotions we limit our ability to feel all emotions fully and end up residing in a bland existent where things are ‘not bad’. When I was little and gave my school reports to my Father he’d respond with ‘not bad’ and I have always hated this expression. It means nothing, it exists purely on the grey scale of life and I don’t want to live there. I want to live in Full HD colour, where things are great, things are terrible, things are fantastic, things are sad. Yoga teaches us to wake up and feel all our emotions: the truly amazing ones and the really rubbish ones as big feelings are life affirming. We learn to take the rough with the smooth as we trust in the lesson of yoga that the only constant in life is change, so right now if you are riding the wave of a rough emotion, maybe grief or heartbreak, allow yourself to feel because it too will pass, it has to for everything changes.

So next time you find yourself feeling in class, don’t censor yourself or shut off that feeling. If you want to give the person on the mat next to you a ‘high five’ because you just manged crow for the first time, or you feel your eyes welling up with tears after camel, or even that feeling of anger that arises when the teacher asks you to do chaturanga for the 25th time that class, feel the emotion, experience it head on and then notice how it passes.

A really interesting start up business called Casper whose specialty is creating outrageously comfortable latex memory foam mattresses asked me to write a little post with some yoga poses that help promote a restful nights sleep and I was more that happy to say yes for getting a good nights sleep is so key to our health and happiness.

Do you find that you struggle to get to sleep or keep waking up during the night? Knowing just a few yoga tools can really help. Not sleeping properly isn’t something that you have to accept as it is totally within your own ability to alter your sleeping patterns.

The science . . . in every brain there is a core of neurons in the lower brainstem. This collection of neurons is referred to as the waking centre of the brain. Stimulation of the waking centre arouses from sleep and also prevents sleep onset. So the best yoga tools are the ones that can affect the waking centre and shut them down long enough for you to get a good 7-8 hours sleep.

1) From standing, start by focusing on your breath and counting the inhale and the exhale so both last for the count of 3. Then with an inhale reach the arms out wide and up as your palms touch above your head and with the exhale draw your hands down the centre line of the body. Repeat 5-10 times.

2) Cat / Cow. From all four, inhale to arch the spine and look up and exhale round the spine, stretching out the upper back. Perform this slowly linking the breath and the movement. Repeats 5-10 times.

3) Sit back into childs pose, make a pillow with the hands and rest your forehead down. Stay here for 5-10 breaths.

4) Come up to seated for Chandra Bedhana single nostril beathing. Using your right hand, fold in the index finger and middle finger. Place the right thumb onto your right nostril, blocking the flow of air. Inhale through the left nostril, release your thumb and exhale through both nostrils. Repeat 12-16 times.

5) Supported Bridge Pose. Lie down on your back, feet hip distance apart. Lift the hips high to the ceiling and place a block, bolster, cushion, rolled up towels or similar under your hips, to keep your hips elevated without requiring any muscular work. Place your hands either on your belly or on the floor over your head. Stay here and breath gently for 3-5 mins.

After completing this sequence or part of it, go straight to bed. Keep practising it, and each time it will get more and more effective. Let me know how you get on or if you need any more help.

Ever noticed the use of the word ‘practise’ in yoga? We have a ‘yoga practice’ and we ‘practise yoga’. We don’t ‘do’ yoga. This is no accident and is usually a very deliberate choice of wording. For when we choose to practise something we are giving ourselves permission to get it wrong, to do it badly, to learn and to improve, we don’t have to be ‘perfect’ at it. I find this distinction really comforting within my own ‘practice’, whether it comes to falling on my face during crow poses, collapsing in a heap whilst trying a handstand, or sitting down to meditate whilst my mind continues to think about 20 million other things than just ‘Ommm’, it’s ok, it’s all good because you know what ‘I am practising’. Some days I make progress and learn a lot, some days I just tread water and other days everything feels too damn hard, but again it’s ok, ‘I am practising’. I don’t commit to mastering, perfecting or even getting good at anything, I simply remember to practise; as the wise and great yoga teacher Pattabhi Jois is famous for saying ‘Practise and all is coming’. What are you practising?

I’m so very excited to announce for the first time that I’ll be running two Kids Yoga Summer Courses in Southampton. I am organising these childers yoga courses but will be handing the actual teaching over to an AMAZING children’s yoga specialist – Jayne Walker. Jayne is an amazing lady and as a primary school teaching assistant is very experienced in looking after children. She has a wonderful imagination weaving the childrens yoga poses into magical stories. Jayne’s joyful and smiley personality is so infectious that I have no doubt your children will have a wonderfully fun and engaging time! The kids yoga classes are for ages 5-11 but flexibility on ages is possible if we have a chat first. Check out this link for all the information on these kids yoga classes in Southampton. Please feel free to share this link with anyone that has children and might be interested, or any family forums you’re apart of – lets get children doing yoga!

Yoga and business?? Do these two go together? Teaching Yoga is my full time profession, my business, my love and my unwavering passion. Running a successful business is hard but I’m proud to make soulful business decisions so that I can spread the wonders of yoga in my community. And this is what today’s blog is all about a sneak peak behind the scenes with tips on running your business with soul. I was honoured and star struck when Racheal from the Yogipreneur asked me to be part of the ❤ Your Community Blog Tour! I’ve loved ready what all the wonderful Entrepreneurs have had to share so far, yesterday Hillary Rubin shared wonderful insights and I can’t wait to read what Allison Braun has to say tomorrow. I’m writing on a controversial topic today, the daily deal sites . . .
Groupon – Like working with the Devil or a Fairy Godmother?
My dream was a simple one, to train as a yoga teacher and share my passion with the world. Step one complete: I have my yoga certificate and all the enthusiasm and eagerness of a puppy. Now what? There’s not a single yoga studio in my city and teaching in a gym to the hum of the treadmills is not my thing, that only leaves one option . . . local village halls here I come! Money is tight; I’ve already spent thousands training to be a yoga teacher so I print some DIY posters at home and plaster them up all over the city; I print flyers and spend hours walking the streets posting them through doors getting my fingers nipped at by yapping dogs. Judgement day arrives, my first proper class and guess what . . . 5 people showed. I went on like this with a handful of classes for about 6 months, 5 people one week, 1 or 2 people the next week and occasionally a whooper class packed with 7 students! I loved the teaching but it hardly covered my hall hire let alone my time and I was still busting a gut working 50 hours a week at my ‘proper job’. Then enter my Fairy Godmother, Groupon, and overnight my classes were full. I cherished, engaged and nurtured my deal hunters and they have become a truly wonderful community I’m proud to serve. I built my community thanks to Groupon – could they be your Fairy Godmother too? Daily Deal companies are slippery fish and they have to be handled with care but as a heart centred entrepreneur you can do this! My tops tips:

1) Why Discount? People have said to me that they value themselves and their work too much to work with the likes of Groupon. I believe in yoga and I believe in my skills as a teacher, offering a discount to new students is me putting my belief out there saying ‘come try it, once you start I know you’ll be hooked’.

2) Align with Your Values. I feel great about offering discounted yoga classes and online programmes just once / year as I believe wholeheartedly that everyone should have access to yoga, and appreciate that cost if often a barrier. The number of people who have said ‘I’ve been thinking about doing yoga for ages but never got around to it and then I saw your deal.’ Whatever it takes to get people on the mat, my mission is to share the teachings of yoga.

3) What to Offer? Think about programmes you are already offering where it is just a matter of maximising capacity so there is no more time or costs incurred. Offer higher value programmes or bigger packages so that even with the discount people are still investing and are incentivised to see it through. Discount only one programme so that you can cross sell your full price offerings. Controversially, make sure your deal is for ‘New Clients Only’ otherwise you’ll take a big hit in your takings. Keep your existing clients happy by offering them a little treat to say thank you for their custom.

4) Timing. Choose carefully what time of year to run deal. As a yoga teacher, the summer holidays is a quiet time so this is when I run a deal. January is my busiest time with people incentivised to try yoga without the need of deal, so no discount then!

5) Treat it as a form of Advertising. When you run a deal your business gets a massive amount of exposure with your brand being seen by thousands of people in one hit. When creating the deal have your ‘Head of Marketing’ cap on, be strict and protect your brand. Provide Groupon with as much of your own marketing material as you can: your photos, your copy, links to your website/facebook/twitter, an intro video that they could embed on their site.

6) Have a Strategy, it will go crazy! Figure out in advance what capacity of people you could handle, then increase that number by a further 25% as on average only 75% of vouchers bought get used. Put really long expiry dates on your deals so that you can manage the flow of new clients without disturbing your existing clients with a sudden influx.

7) Customer Service. Groupon have done the work attracting your customers but this is just the first step to creating a loyal community. Spoil your customers and make them feel special. Decide in advance how you are going to do this, what would make you feel wanted and appreciated? Make it your mission to remember people’s names, send them welcome emails, thank you emails or whatever else is in keeping with your brand. Treasure your clients and they will treasure you!

I’d love to hear your thoughts. Have you run a deal before? What did you learn, what would you do differently? Got a question I didn’t answer?

If you need a little inspiration for Mother’s Day gifts, I currently have a lovely collection of French Lavender scented Eye Pillows available.

They are just beautiful, all handmade in India by yogamalai, a group of creative women in South Indian raising money to support local families. These wonderfully relaxing eye pillows are filled with flaxseed to rest the eyes and French lavender to soothe the senses. They can be used for savasana during a yoga class or anytime for rest. Use them fresh from the fridge to rest tired eyes and reduce puffiness or leave them on the radiator for a warming effect. They are a god send if you experience headaches and eye strain from too much time in front of the computer. They come in a choice of colours (green, navy blue, bright blue, orange, deep pink, purple, burgundy, turquoise). The eye masks are £12 each order in advance and collect from me at class or £15 if you wish me to post it to you. Email me (laura@lauragreenyoga.co.uk) to order and either pay at class or I’ll send you details to pay on line.

Yoga is great for the body both physically and mentally but as with anything physical we have to take care when practising yoga so as to reap maximum reward and minimise any risk of injury. My top tips for avoiding injuries both on and off the mat.

• Work to build an equal balance of strength and flexibility. This is especially true in the shoulders as lots of flexibility in the shoulders and not enough strength or vice versa can leave the body prone to injury.
• Be mindful of alignment. The way we move our body affects the way it works. If you have a regular yoga practise there are a number of yoga poses such as Downward Facing Dog that you are going to do quite a few times and with any repetitive practise this could lead to RSI (repetitive strain injury) if we develop poor technique. The more times we do something we feel more confident and can start to do things on autopilot. See your yoga practise as mindfulness training and in even your favourite and most comfortable poses stay present with what you feel and experience in your body.
• Focus on the transitions. The way we move from place to place affects our experience when we arrive. The transitions between your yoga poses are as important as the poses themselves. Focusing on how you move into the poses not only helps to build more strength and improve the alignment of the pose but is also a great mindfulness practise reminding us that the journey is as important as the destination.
• Meet your body where it is each day. With a daily yoga practise you get very familiar with what your body does and doesn’t do and it is easy to expect it to be the same everyday or to always want to see improvement but each day our body is subtly different as a result of the actions of our previous day. Get really good at listening to the body with an open mind every single time you show up at your mat and let your body show you where the yoga poses are and how they feel rather than recreating a set shape or idea of a yoga pose.
• Listen to your breath. In our yoga practise we are working with the Samavritti breath, same length inhale as exhale. Your breath should remain smooth and even throughout your practise when your breath breaks from this pattern it indicates one of two things, either your focus has drifted and you are no longer practising mindfully or you are pushing yourself to hard and need to back off. If any injury is to occur in yoga it is likely to be because you were either absent minded or pushing too hard, so let your breath keep you in check.

People tell me often in class how hard they find the breathing especially when it comes to linking breath with movement and that they seem to be inhaling when they’re meant to be exhaling, generally holding their breath or just feeling that their breaths are too short.

I used to experience just the same thing early on in my practice. When it came to following my teachers pace in class, it always seemed too slow and I would have to hold my breath between the inhales and exhales, take extra breaths or even rest in child’s pose as I felt out of breath. I would often feel tired or lacking in stamina and I see this now when I teach people who I know are physically really fit but seem to struggle with their fitness. This always comes down to their breathing technique as our breath provides the fuel for the muscles in our body and if we aren’t breathing efficiently the body won’t have enough fuel to feel strong during yoga.

In short, breathing well means getting enough oxygen to nourish your body. When we have uneven or short breaths, we’re not getting as much oxygen into our bodies as we could. It takes practice to improve your breathing technique but start by focusing my top 5 tips.

1) Always start with your breath. Whenever you unroll your yoga mat, sit or lie down, close your eyes and connect to your breath. Deepen your inhale and lengthen your exhale. As you begin to move keep this connection to your breath.

2) Focus on your exhale. When we exhale more fully, this naturally leads to a deeper inhalation, which means a richer more efficient breath.

3) Count your breath. Often in class we are so busy trying to follow what pose the teacher is instructing that we simply aren’t mindful of our breathing. Start counting your breath and try to make your inhale and exhale of equal length.

4) Practise the Ujjayi Breath. This is a great technique to focus on as it is a powerful breath which encourages you to use your full lung capacity. It is also an audible breath so it keeps you focused on your breathing, when you can hear that your breath is getting short you know you need to rest in child’s pose for a moment and let everything settle.

5) Practise! Getting in sync with your breath will radically change your yoga. So practise. I have two free videos to support you, Technique Lesson on Yoga Breathing and Instructions for the Ujjayi Breath.

Why should you do Sun Salutations?

Talk to ten yogis and you may get ten different answers to the question.

Before I was teaching yoga full time, I had an office job as a recruitment consultant. My old boss, who wasn’t very observant at the best of times, always knew if I had or hadn’t done some yoga at home before starting work. Starting each day with a little bit of yoga truly does transform your experience of the rest of the day. Sun Salutations or Surya Namaskar can be a complete practise on its own taking anywhere between 1 minute to about 10 minutes so is the perfect way to add a little yoga to each and every day. At my yoga classes in Southampton I am encouraging everyone to do at least 1 Sun Salutation a day for 21 days in the Sun Salutation Challenge. Here are my top reasons for saluting the Sun:

1. The Sun Salutation can be a complete practice; the poses lengthen and strengthen, flex and extend many of the main muscles of the body while distributing the prana flow throughout the system.

2. Sun Salutations boost the cardiovascular system, strengthening the heart.

3. In this simple sequence I am really able to focus on coordinating my breath and movement creating a movement meditation which calms my mind preparing it for the day ahead.

4. By letting the speed of my breath dictate the pace of my movement, it stops me rushing and sets the tone and pace for the rest of my day as steady and focused. I achieve a lot more with this pace then when I feel rushed or hurried.

5. The sequence heats my body and awakens my metabolism giving me more energy for the day.

6. Through the strengthening of the core, the back and the upper body I feel physically and mentally strong and able to face any challenges which may lie ahead.

7. After my night’s sleep it feels great to stretch my whole body and stops me from having any niggling aches and pains as I go about my day.

8. It reminds me to be grateful. The Sun represents the physical and spiritual heart of the world. We salute the Sun to give thanks for a new day.

9. Every Sun Salutation allows us to experience devotion. We stand at attention, open ourselves up to energy, bow with respect and experience humility.

10. When I start my day by doing something good for my body I make better choices all day when it comes to looking after and nourishing by body with food, drink and activity. It reminds me of the union between my body and mind (this is the definition of the word yoga), that they both need to be nourished and to work in harmony.

6 Week Yoga for Runners Course – Keeping Runners Running!
Increase Focus & Flexibility, Build Strength & Stamina, Improve Posture & Eliminate Nagging Aches & Pains

Course Start: 6 week course starting Thursday 6th September 2012
Course Time: 8.15pm – 9.15pm
Course Venue: Main Hall, Richard Taunton’s College, Hill Lane, Southampton, SO15 5RL
Course Cost: 6 weeks for £48 payment due at time of booking
Contact: Laura Green, 07866 459208, laura@lauragreenyoga.co.uk

How Will Yoga Help Your Running?

* Yoga postures can correct muscle imbalances resulting from high impact training, aligning the joints, improving bone density, stretching and stabilising the body to prevent pain and injury, particularly in injury-prone zones: hips, hamstrings, knees, Achilles tendon and iliotibial band to name just a few.

* Standing yoga postures correctly align the knee, strengthen the arches to provide better shock absorbers and maintain healthy connective tissue in the foot and shin. They also improve balance, pelvic stability and leg strength for powerful efficient form.

* Dynamic flowing yoga sequences develop a sense of rhythm between breath and movement, build stamina and coordination, combining upper body and core strength with lower body flexibility.

* Slow, gentle, hatha yoga with longer holds in postures balances out your athletic efforts, cultivates awareness of any resistance, promotes release of tension to avoid injury and can help you recover and rejuvenate after sports.

* Yoga breath work and concentration exercises can improve body awareness and confidence, focus and patience, and positive pleasure in your athletic pursuits.

How Yoga with Laura has Helped Other Runners

“I joined Laura’s yoga class to improve my strength and stability. I have certainly achieved this and have a much better posture and balance, which is highly important for trail runners to avoid injure. Though I enter trail marathons, I am not competitive and run for personal fulfilment – relaxation and stress management, self-achievement and enjoyment of nature. If I am struggling to relax into a run or am finding it mentally tough, I always run through a yoga sequence in my mind to achieve calmness and serenity. So not only has becoming a Yogi enhanced my personal running experience by giving me the core skills to improve my technique, but also maintain focus and harmony. ” Candice – Trail Runner – Eastleigh

“Having previously struggled with running injuries I have found Laura’s yoga class to be invaluable to my training. Her class has helped by regularly stretching out my fascia and has improved my balance, coordination, breathing, body awareness and focus, all essential for helping maintain good running form, particularly when trail running. I recently completed a 100 mile race across the South Downs Way with no sign of injury, no niggles or even a single blister! I attribute my success in no small part to Laura’s class which I couldn’t recommend more highly! I even completed a sun salutation at 54 mile on route!” James – Ultra Runner – Eastleigh.

“At work we had a health and fitness open day where Laura came to talk about Yoga. I had never considered yoga, thinking it was just bending and not really exercise. But as it was in works time I thought I’d give it a go. I am not very flexible and I struggled at first, but Laura is very patient and knowledgeable and helped me a lot. It has been a year since I started yoga, and I have noticed that I don’t get as tired and stiff from running, my suppleness and flexibility are improving and I don’t get injured as much. I fully expect to continue with yoga and running as a form of exercise. I see them both linked now, each one helping the other. I definitely feel my running has improved through yoga.” Keith – Marathon Runner – Gosport.

 

 

“Running has always been part of my life but 3 years ago I attempted stretching after a race and realised I couldn’t touch my toes. I decided that I needed to work on my flexibility and had heard that yoga was good for this so I started going to Laura’s classes. Laura said ‘yoga is a journey’, which was good as I felt so far away from being a ‘bendy’ person. At first I saw the physical improvements such as relief in my lower back. It also taught me to recognise when I was tightening up and how to release my muscles. After the obvious benefits I started to notice that the breathing and meditative exercises had transposed from my yoga mat to my running. When doing races I noticed that I found it far easier to calm my breath and concentrate on my end goal. Now yoga is as much a part of my routine as running and I want to thank Laura for her teaching as I always look forward to class.” Rachael – Southampton.