Lucy’s approach to facilitating classes, after 15 years of teaching yoga and 34 years of practice…

What I’m interested in is people. How we’re all ultimately unique with our own set of very personal experiences, leading to our own private beliefs, fears, dreams and wishes. There is no one-size-fits-all and this is an important and powerful thing to remember when working directly with people.

If we, as teachers, adopt a blanket practice for people; assuming they’re all able, and willing, to move, feel, think and respond identically, like robots, we’re doing those individuals a disservice. We’re teaching and working from a place of lack, lacking understanding, know-how, creativity, or respect for the individual. Through my yoga teaching, I aim to support my clients to shine, to help them hone and polish their unique inner light of Self, enabling them to experience themselves differently, for them to grow through self-understanding, compassion and curiosity.

I also aim to teach from a place of honesty, collaboration and trust. I don’t promise anything, and I never guarantee an outcome that might be both desperately sought as well as painfully grieved if never achieved. I aspire to create an authentic client/teacher relationship and value the results this bond can achieve.

“What I’m interested in is people. How we’re all ultimately unique

with our own set of very personal experiences,

leading to our own private beliefs,

fears, dreams and wishes”. Lucy

What I’m ultimately interested in is people

〰️

What I’m ultimately interested in is people 〰️

When we’re in training, as yoga teachers, therapists, counsellors or more generally in life, it’s likely to feel easier, more accessible, quicker and more simplistic to adopt an assumption that all of our clients are the same. To assume that each time they arrive at a class they’ll all somehow spontaneously feel the same in their bodies, hearts and minds and so all spontaneously respond in the same way to the generic class taught, collectively leaving feeling oddly the same. In some ways, this can be true, due to the herd mentality of people who love to fit in and feel part of a whole, regardless of their individuality and neglectful of their reality, which is often hidden deep within.

When we strive to adhere to the group collective we run the risk of missing, or ignoring, the subtle, small and important details of our own individual path. As a teacher and psychotherapist, I feel it is my responsibility to notice the subtle, to respect the individual and to consequently invite my clients to see themselves as unique. I choose to invite my clients to notice their individual experiences within their yoga practice so that they will notice how the impressions they digest in life also impact them personally. I ask them to witness the present-moment pain they’re experiencing in their shoulder, acknowledge the hurt they’re feeling in their heart and listen to the criticism they’re hearing in their head.

Sometimes these feelings and thoughts arise in direct response to a teacher's clumsy’ cueing, poor transitions or lack of anatomical know-how. Sometimes, they spontaneously occur due to some inner, and often familiar, critical voice. This may be around a sense of ‘failure’ to step through smoothly, an ‘annoying’ discomfort they regularly experience in their knee and are quick to hide, or an ‘embarrassment’ that returns every time they fall after being asked to ‘simply’ balance in tree pose.

“As a teacher and psychotherapist,

I feel it is my responsibility to notice the subtle,

to respect the individual and to consequently

invite my clients to see themselves as unique”. Lucy

I's my responsibility as a teacher to notice the subtle

〰️

I's my responsibility as a teacher to notice the subtle 〰️

What if you don’t feel that ‘lightness and joy’ your teacher is speaking of repeatedly throughout the session or you can’t access the feeling of strength and power in your Warrior II? What if you’ve tried to listen to your body for years and still don’t understand what it’s trying to say back to you, so much so that you can’t tell if the extreme pigeon pose being taught is doing you actual harm or not? What if knowing yourself is harder than it sounds, and your yoga teacher is subliminally re-enforcing an idea that you are somehow defective in your self-awareness or understanding?

Remember that Benjamin Franklin famously once said, “There are three things extremely hard: steel, a diamond, and to know one’s self.” I consider it both my responsibility and privilege to help clients learn more about themselves, ask more questions and explore their inner landscape more openly with curiosity, courage and clarity. I do not believe that we are sheep, to be swept up by a willing Collie and corralled into an outcome pre-planned by the teacher.

I like to take a different approach. To encourage clients over time to draw their own metaphorical internal map with a helpful key, compass and scale attached for when the going gets tough and the way obscured.

Remember that Benjamin Franklin famously once said,

“There are three things extremely hard: steel, a diamond,

and to know one’s self.” Lucy

There are three things extremely hard: steel, a diamond, and to know one’s self

〰️

There are three things extremely hard: steel, a diamond, and to know one’s self 〰️

I like to teach, both in group classes and individuals, with an eagle eye, quick wit, deep anatomical understanding and sensitive intuition. It’s rare for me to plan a class, as I cannot plan who will show up and where they will be as a collective or alone. This is particularly true for private sessions where the same ‘person’ turns up week on week and yet that person may, and will, arrive with a unique set of present-moment experiences directly affecting their bodies, brains and emotions at that exact moment. I can never presume to predict that altercation in the car park on arrival, argument over last night’s supper, or sprained ankle from the weekend hike.

I can’t predict it and yet I do fully wish to acknowledge it, at least in the way that it has tightened their muscles, hardened their heart or caused vulnerability or concern to creep into a day that they had hoped to be better. I wish to respond, in a here-now moment-by-moment way, adapting, adjusting, moderating, my teaching, and so working directly with my clients and how they present in this moment, on this mat, at this time.

Sometimes we mainly talk, often we breathe together, and sometimes we only move. The class can be strong, it can stay soft, it is always personal and always attuned. The class is unfolding, the relationship is connected and the outcome is designed exclusively for this client, in this body at this time.

“I like to teach with an eagle eye, quick wit,

deep anatomical understanding

and sensitive intuition”. Lucy

I teach with an eagle eye, quick wit, deep anatomical understanding & sensitive intuition

〰️

I teach with an eagle eye, quick wit, deep anatomical understanding & sensitive intuition 〰️

In the crazy competitive, ego-driven aggressive world in which we live, I set out to offer my students another way. A path to self-discovery, to learning more about themselves, how their minds are intimately linked to their bodies and how a movement practice, such as yoga, can help them learn and explore what triggers, softens, smooths or spikes them.

Our experience on the yoga mat mirrors our experience in life, so once back at home, I hope the learning from the class will reflect into learning during the day to allow for more space, more reflection, and gentle loving kindness and acceptance to emerge.

“Our experience on the yoga mat mirrors

our experience in life, so once back at home,

I hope the learning from the class will reflect into

learning during the day”. Lucy

Allowing for more space, more reflection, and more gentle loving kindness & self acceptance to emerge

〰️

Allowing for more space, more reflection, and more gentle loving kindness & self acceptance to emerge 〰️

I wish to imbue a knowing in my students that they’re not robots, they are all unique, individual, brilliant, beautiful, and brave. I strive to show clients that the more they’re able to listen to themselves, deeply from within the more they’ll be able to clearly see the bright glow of their inner light. The more we can safely explore from within the container of the yoga studio, the more awareness we’re equipped to bring into the everyday challenges of life.

The more we know about ourselves, body, mind and Spirit the more we can begin to lead a Self-lead life full of joy, purpose and passion. What I’m interested in is people, where they are, where they’ve been and where they could go next. Helping you to access that miraculous spark of unique light and bright Self-energy that is contained within us all.

I wish I could show you,

When you are lonely or in darkness

The Astonishing Light

Of your own Being

(from My Brilliant Image, by Hafez)

I wish I could show you, the Astonishing Light of your own Being

〰️

I wish I could show you, the Astonishing Light of your own Being 〰️

Lucy teaches at Flow Tunbridge Wells:

Group, Open Level, Flow Yoga on a Monday & Friday from 9.30 - 10.30 am (only 10 spaces)

Also, Private 1:1 Classes throughout the week, see Private Yoga for more information and to book.

If you’d like to get in touch please do send me an email: Email Lucy

It’s you I’m looking for…