PranaShakti community yoga? you may ask.

The birth of Communityoga, East Bristol

Before coming to Bristol I had become drawn increasingly to the idea of making inclusive yoga my offering. This idea began way back when I started teaching and mentoring teenagers with behavioural difficulties and even then when I had no conscious spiritual inclination I saw this work in a karmic light, often joking about my role as a teacher being my karmic retribution. Having been a “wild child” myself I feel a lot of empathy and identification with the pain of teenagers in difficulty, and so we discovered together a healing symbiotic relationship.
In my years teaching young learners I discovered a joy in casting off the framework of a rigid, grown-up paradigm of reality. My students and I created patterns and concocted alternative realities which led to greater understanding on both sides. I was able to draw innate understandings from them and help them to apply this to their learning in the world, and they were able to show me ways of being open and receptive, to which I had closed in the process of cementing my identity.
Yoga for me has always been a therapeutic practice. I began my home practice when deeply in need of peace and a way to view the world without so much egocentricity and self-pity. Over time I noticed that when practicing regularly I was calmer, lighter (in an energetic sense) and more balanced. In my Anusara practice which I began only two years ago, I was instinctively drawn to the therapeutic possibilities of application of knowledge of biomechanics and a conscious physical embodiment of the teachings. I became more and more fascinated by the inherent ability of the body to heal the body, and of the mind to heal the mind and the mind to heal the body and the body to heal the mind and the... and set to work learning how to use these tools to help others to help themselves.
This naturally progressed to an inclination to share knowledge with those with whom I felt a deep compassion; with those who face daily a struggle of identity and acceptance and who feel marginalised and misunderstood. I read recently that one teaches best what one needs to learn. This neatly sums up for me my urge to guide people to discover their own tools for self-empowerment and also to realise how much support and beauty there is if one knows where to look.
The Communityoga project will begin with classes for women Muslim refugees in Easton with a subsidised class at Easton Leisure Centre. There are also donation-only classes at the Wellspring and at Barton Hill Settlement in Barton Hill. I intend for this project to grow into a network which will include local schools, care homes and others who come to yoga for any reason. Simply bringing people together, communicating and sharing in a neutral space through positive intention is a powerful act with the potential to transform isolated individuals into a vibrant synergy. Joy is contagious, after all, and a small drop of it can infect everyone who comes into contact with it. It is in this sense that I intend to begin the next pandemic, hopefully it will be more well-received than swine flu.