Funny how sitting still and doing nothing can actually be one of the most difficult things to do! We often think that we can't wait to 'switch off' but then when it comes to it, what we actually do is distract ourselves instead - TV, laptop, phones, whatever it is to keep away from the dreaded 'inner dialogue' or streams and loops of thoughts that pass through the mind.

A busy lifestyle in a modern urban environment can be a nightmare for the subtle physiology of the body, and thus in turn, your mind.

Highly stressed workplace environments take their toll. Whether fast-paced and over-adrenalising or relatively sedentary desk oriented, the circumstances combine to stress the body particularly when combined with long hours in front of a screen (which irritates the hypothalamus of the brain).

This strain is further amplified by a 24/7 communication culture, with texts, emails and calls arriving at all times making it easy to lose perspective of a healthy work-life balance and to lose connection with natural rhythms of activity and rest.

This is turn lends itself to an over-busy mind, often still processing information long after work has finished, a sense of inner frustration and feeling of being locked into a Mental Hamster wheel that it's very difficult to climb out of. And you know what happens when you are in your mind? You lose track of all the good bits of life that are actually going on around you, which of course you need to experience through your senses.

But never fear, this session is all about getting some kind of a grip (or indeed a 'letting go') of the hold that the mind can have on us. The exercises in this session help to calm down the overstressed and over stimulated nervous system calming the body which simultaneously calms the mind, thus turning down the 'volume' of the inner chatterbox.

The practices are often easily learnt and can be integrated into daily life and routines.

Richard is also an expert in helping you understand how the mind works - when you start to build that understanding it's very useful as you can start to manage your stress better, so included in the session will be explanations of some of the mechanisms of the mind and a chance, if you like, to check in about how you find the meditation processes, and turning your attention 'inside!'

This class also tends to work particularly well when taken in conjunction with Dru Yoga classes, as the gentle energy of the class enables you to maintain the sense of inner calm (more about Richard and the Body-mind connection also at his acupuncture site at www.richardbrookacupuncture.co.uk

About Richard

Richard Brook is an holistic expert, acupuncturist and founder of Creative Yoga London, where amongst other things he’s created the unique yoga dating, as featured in national press, yoga raves as well as the immensely popular yoga, meditation and deep relaxation social! His holistic experience is extensive (to put it mildly) besides practising acupuncture and teaching yoga he’s also practised many forms of meditation, spent thousands of hours practicing movement modalities such as 5 Rhythms dance, lived in Intentional communities, practised various other forms of body and energy work, managed organic food shops and also engaged with Ayurveda and Native American style ceremony.

He’s currently working on his first book on the Body-Mind connection, which since he loves people on meetup you can download and look at the original draft for free!

Practical Info!

The Albany club is in a converted church off Albany St - Walk down Albany St (which is opposite Great Portland St tube station) and take the 3rd right turn - the turning after the police station and where you see Cavali Restaurant and the Albany is behind there. Sat Nav is NW1 4EE

IF YOU CAN'T FIND THE VENUE PLEASE WATCH THIS VIDEO BELOW GIVING DIRECTIONS!

Visit our website: Creative Yoga London
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Twitter @Creativeyoga