Here Come the Girls!

Sorry boys, but this week it’s all about who run the world… girls!

In honour of our mothers, sisters, wives, girlfriends and any other female figure in our lives, we will be focusing on our feminine energy (Shakti) in class this week.

But don’t worry men; I’m not excluding you in the slightest…

We all have both masculine and feminine energy within us. This is the balance between our yin and yang sides. Masculine is the sun and is guided by strength, and feminine is the moon and is guided by nurturing qualities. Masculine energy is on the right side of the body (pingala) and is felt when we are extremely proactive, ambitious, planning, driven and competitive; and feminine energy is on the left side (ida), and is present when we are able to go with the flow, embrace our feelings, slow down, be creative, and indulge in our senses. 
​
Remember a couple of weeks ago our intention was to focus on balance in our practice? Well, if one of these energies is more dominant than the other, you will feel the effects of that imbalance - which is why it is important to cultivate both of them.

However this week I feel it necessary to work on our feminine energy.

Here are the reasons why:

1) I have always found myself surrounded by girls and women. I do seem to attract that type of energy - probably because I am very feminine-dominant in my energy most of the time (glitter, chocolate and prosecco are life!!) I have virtually no male friends, and have always found it difficult to understand men - but that’s a story for another time!! So I’d like to celebrate the women in my life this week – my Mum (aka “Ma”), my Sister (aka “poops”), and my girlfriends who are always there for me – through the good and bad times!

2) That being said, a lot of my practice and teaching style is fairly masculine – harnessing strength, power and heat, rather than soothing, calming and cooling. For many of us women, modern life has encouraged us to inhabit our masculine side in order to be independent. We have a lot of opportunity to seize power in our careers, our relationships, and our lives. This is obviously fantastic! However, it can be to our detriment when our softer feminine side is not able to express itself. Sometimes, we still find ourselves lacking confidence, courage, and real power in certain situations; and a lot of us have fallen into the trap of approaching our yoga practice in the same way that we approach our lives - with control, tension, force, and an emphasis on alignment and achievement. So this week I want to cultivate the feminine energy within - tapping into our grace, poise, resilience, sexuality and compassion!

3) I find it hilariously ironic that, like most things in history, classic yoga was a male-only philosophy and practice. Now it is totally female-dominated! So let’s celebrate our first lady of Yoga, Indra Devi, for paving the way for women to even be allowed to partake in this wonderful practice!
 
Now...

In light of all this, it is certainly not my intention to put any of my regular (or new) male attendees off class this week – we won’t be talking about “girl stuff” I promise!! But as I said, you men also have this feminine energy within you, so go with the flow and allow it to flourish in your practice this week!

Maybe in a few weeks we’ll do one for you boys!

Namaste
​xxx

---