Yoga at St Hugh's

“My name is Summer and I am a yoga teacher.

I run two sessions here at St Hugh’s: Wednesday at 10am – chair yoga – for 45 minutes and then from 11.15am to 12noon we do a beginners intro to mat and flow based yoga. Sessions are completely free so come along!

The first class – chair yoga – is a really accessible way of entering into the yoga world, mostly focusing on those over 55 with maybe limited mobility – or if perhaps you’re a little bit nervous coming back into exercise – it’s a really lovely way of coming into the practice

Our second class is a beginners intro to mat and flow yoga – again it’s really open to everyone and this is the beauty of yoga as a practice: we don’t have one size fits all here and everyone’s showing up for different reasons. Whether it’s to keep engaged mentally whether it’s to stay engaged socially, whether it’s working through arthritis or whether it’s coming back to the breath after operations which have affected the respiratory system – everyone shows up for something slightly different.

I got into yoga for the mindfulness element of it. I used to have a city-based job: I used to work in a private bank and then in a law firm and I really needed something to help quiet my mind.

If you can inhale and if you can exhale, if you have an open mind and have an open heart – you really can come and practice yoga.

My philosophy of yoga and teaching is: life outside those four walls is far too stressful to be stressed on the mat. We take it one breath at a time, we have a laugh along the way, we don’t take anything too seriously. It’s wonderful at St Hugh’s: I feel like we are getting to embrace what yoga is about. The term ’yoga’ in Sanskrit – one of its many translations – is ‘unity and to share’ and we’re actually getting to do that outside of the construct of a financial reward.

So, come along and embrace yoga!”