Ujjayi Yoga Tasmania

07/07/2025

Yoga is a rich and ancient tradition, with a wealth and depth of practises (things we can do and repeat) that help us reach the goal of yoga, which is to quiet the mind and be in present moment connection.

This term I’d like to explore the foundations of some of yoga’s core practises.

Each week we’ll explore one of the follow themes:

Asana; Shapes, movements and posture of the body

Pranayama; The movement and control of breath

Pratyahara, Dharana & Dhyana; sense withdrawal, concentration and meditation

Mudra; seals and gestures

Mantras; Instruments of focus

Bandhas - Energy locks

For the winter season you can expect slow, nourishing, grounding and warm. Connecting to the experience of movement, breath, chanting & meditation, so that you can slow down, regulate and self sooth.

Everyone is invited, though class sizes are small, 5 people to a class, and I’ve got just a couple of spaces left in each.

The practises are suitable for people new to yoga, and the more seasoned yogi.

All stages, identities, ages, bodies and abilities are welcomed.

to join, please email Sarah:
ujjayiyogatas@gmail.com

06/07/2025

Practice with Sarah

Restorative Yoga

Tuesdays 15th July - 9th Sep

7:15 - 8:30pm

9 tailored studio classes / $297

This is a deeply nourishing practise taken close to the ground, mostly seated and laying. Think blankets, bolsters and cushions; warm, cosy and quiet, deep, easy and relaxing.

We’ll connect with our breath, as we slowly take our time with deep forward fold, side bends, twists, meditations, Yoga Nidra and mantras. All to help prompt that delicious space of parasympathetic rest and digest - the true winding down of the nervous system and self.

The practice is about giving ourselves the chance to experience relaxation through all layers of the self. Resting our bodies especially our muscular skeletal systems and nervous system, as well as resting our metal states and emotions. All so that we might restore our natural equilibrium and goodness.

If you notice your always ‘on’, always ‘on the go’ and need to create time rest, restore and replenish, then this could be the practice for you.

to join, please email Sarah:
ujjayiyogatas@gmail.com

06/07/2025

Practice with Sarah
Restorative Yoga
Tuesdays 15th July - 9th Sep
7:15 - 8:30pm
9 tailored studio classes / $297

This is a deeply nourishing practise taken close to the ground, mostly seated and laying. Think blankets, bolsters and cushions; warm, cosy and quiet, deep, easy and relaxing.

We’ll connect with our breath, as we slowly take our time with deep forward fold, side bends, twists, meditations, Yoga Nidra and mantras. All to help prompt that delicious space of parasympathetic rest and digest - the true winding down of the nervous system and self.

The practice is about giving ourselves the chance to experience relaxation through all layers of the self. Resting our bodies especially our muscular skeletal systems, nervous system, as well as resting our metal states and emotions. All so that we might restore our natural equilibrium and goodness.

If you notice your always ‘on’, always ‘on the go’ and need to create time rest, restore and replenish, then this could be the practice for you.

email sarah to join
ujjayiyogatas@gmail.com

05/07/2025

Practice with Sarah
Slow Flow
Tuesdays 15th July - 9th Sep
5:30 - 6:45pm
9 tailored studio classes / $297

Create warmth, rhythms and regulation with gentle flows and breath work. Expect to move your body a little through flowing asanas, movements and stretches in a way that is grounded and intentional.

Think warming up and stretching though the whole body, slow and gentle sun salutations, balancing stretches through folds, bends and twists, whilst being supporting to be mindful, slow and gentle - oh and of course to breath! All so that you can leave feeling balanced, refreshed, clear and prepared.

If you finish the day feeling a bit buzzed and need something to unwind and restore equilibrium, this could be a great practice for you.

Email sarah to enrol:
ujjayiyogatas@gmail.com

04/07/2025

In almost all the words I write about yoga (& that’s a lot) the word practice with the ‘c’ could almost always be interchanged with the word practise with the ‘s’. Sure the meaning changed a little, but both choices are almost always true & correct in some way. Something I am not is a perfectionist (perhaps even a little cavalier at times), so I stopped fussing, let the c’s & s’s go a bit rogue & over time, well, here we are to tidy up a bit.

As a teacher I do have a considered practice - the application of ideas, beliefs, methods & knowledge - that has been honed & continues to grow, about this I am not cavalier!

I studied philosophy for many years & this gave me a great underpinning for how to understand yoga. I was lucky to go to University in India & following graduation I continue to deepen my understanding of Yoga in schools around the world.

Then I stepped into the world of Human Rights, that led me to realise the profound experience of trauma in populations, & eventually Somatic Experiencing as a practitioner. This further guids my methods, values & knowledge base. Informed by the modern western understing of the human body & the condition of trauma, my practice frame work continues to grow.

When I step onto the yoga mat as a teacher I love pulling all of this together. The knowledge of the ancient world of yoga, coupled with modern discoveries of human anatomy & health.

At the heart of my practice framework is sharing information around what we are doing at yoga practise & why. I love to offer the pearls of knowledge that yoga & modern science have discovered for us so we can keep that wisdom alive & not lost. I couple this with guided practise - the repeated performance of an activity/exercise - so that you can experience this wisdom for yourself.

I’ve got some lovely winter offerings coming up that you can join, and for term 3 I’m going to follow the theme of “Yoga Practises”, exploring what we do & repeat at yoga to feel present and connected.

However, I’ve called the class "Practice with Sarah” very deliberately, because I want to share my knowledge, values, & experience with you.

Send me an email to enrol:
ujjayiyogatas@gamil.com

23/06/2025

I’ve got some lovely winter offerings for those of you that would like to pick up a regular studio yoga practice with me.

“Practice with Sarah” is going to be straight up practice. Connecting to the experience of movement, breath, chanting & meditation, so that you can slow down, regulate and self sooth.

For the winter season you can expect slow, nourishing, grounding and warm.

Everyone is invited, though class sizes are small, 5 in each.

The practices are suitable for people new to yoga, and the more seasoned yogi.

All stages, identities, ages, bodies and abilities are welcomed.

We have 3 different studio classes available.
At the House of Prana, upstairs in our own cosy yoga space.

Practice with Sarah
Slow Flow Yoga
Tuesdays weekly, 5:30 - 6:45pm
15th July - 9th September
9 tailored studio classes $297

or

Practice with Sarah
Restorative Yoga
Tuesdays weekly, 7:15 - 8:30pm
15th July - 9th September
9 tailored studio classes $297

Please send me/Sarah an email to enrol:
ujjayiyogatas@gmail.com

17/06/2025

I've been following Bo for a while now and everything she says here in this shared post is just what I offer at my Embodiment Program... So if this post resonates with you and you'd like to address and improve your interoception (identifying and acknowledging felt sensations), Proprioception (spatial awareness) and your interpersonal and environmental relationships - then Embodiment might be for you.
Our next program is offered in person at the Launceston studio, or online starting late July. See our events page or get in touch for all the details.

Ps. no rock climbing involved - Embodiment is a very gentle yoga program :)

Although trauma survivors, clinicians, and scientists alike have known that trauma impacts and lives in the body, the question of what that means and how to address it has been elusive.

Trauma is a multisensory assault on the senses. Back in 2019, I presented in multiple places on trauma and its relationship with interoception, proprioception, body agency, and body ownership. But there wasn't much concrete evidence to go on.

Now that evidence is finally emerging.

Trauma compromises interoception, our capacity to receive, interpret, respond to, and regulate signals that come from our bodies.

It affects proprioception, shaping our body-to-brain dialogue, reducing the exploration we do with and in our bodies, preempting body play, and renegotiating peripersonal space, the margin of defense that surrounds our bodies.

It reduces body agency, the sense we have that we can cultivate an intention and act on it.

It also disrupts body ownership, the sense we have that our bodies belong to us and that we belong to them in return. When intact, body ownership also determines our body boundaries, the balance between information that comes from our inner senses inside us and input that comes from our outer senses and the world around us. It also involves the dialogue between our body as the lens of experience or the subject that does the experiencing and the body as object. Trauma and dissociation often "lock" people into the third-person, body-as-object orientation.

This can leave us on the outside of direct experience, looking in. And it can cause us to objectify our bodies the signals they emanate.

Trauma also affects body resonance, the process in which bodily states in others can ignite similar states in ourselves. Consider the way we unconsciously mirror another person’s gestures, for instance, or the way physiological rhythms align between mothers and infants.

By extension, trauma also harms our larger social body and the intersubjectivity we have with others and they have with us. Often, the outer world, from support networks to adults meant to protect us to law enforcement and other institutions fail to validate experience, to be the benevolent other that acknowledges the harm. This makes survivors bear the social cost that should be shared by society.

I'm talking about all these sensory issues and how to address them in unique ways in tomorrow's masterclass on the science, psychology, and social context of trauma. Reg info in the comments.

Come hang out. 💚

16/06/2025

I often get asked "what is Ujjayi?" as people stumble over the pronunciation (‘oo-jie’). When I first decided to share my own version of yoga the naming of this community was easy, it came to me naturally, it felt right and I didn’t do any brain storming or back and forth choosing the right name, it was always Ujjayi.

The word Ujjayi has been borrowed from the Sanskrit language. “ud” means bo***ge and upward rising, and “jaya” meaning to be victorious.

So Ujjayi means a victorious uprising or one who lifts and breaks bonds to be victorious.

Yoga means to join in union.

Together these two words “Ujjayi Yoga” reflect the journey of healing, releasing from the bo***ge and coming into union and connection with your authentic unbound self.

The bo***ge I’ve been breaking through recently is my resistance is to meeting online. Actually I broke the bond some time ago, in 2020 when some of my training courses were forced online instead of in-person. The training went surprisingly well, very well.

Where I’m at now is that I recognises that work online, meeting with people online, and therapeutic interventions online is successful. Now I’m going to do something that I said in 2017 when I started Ujjayi Yoga I’d never do - and it feels good, really good, right, even easy! Feels like I’ve grown through a stubborn, even ignorant part of myself, and I feel unbound by my previous judgements of online yoga.

This winter I’m going to offer Embodiment online, and I’m chuffed.

Say you don’t live in Launceston, maybe you work during the day, perhaps your more comfortable at home… My hope is that this new choice makes Embodiment Possible to practice when it wasn’t before.

The same Embodiment program will be offered :

In person at the Launceston studio
Tuesdays weekly, 11:30am - 1pm
29th July to 9th September

OR

Online Live (only - session won't be recorded)
Thursdays weekly, 5:30 - 7pm
31st July to 11th September

If you want to learn more, or interested in making a booking please get in touch via email : ujjayiyogatas@gmail.com

27/04/2025

Hi Yogis, I'm sharing a gentle restorative yoga practice on Tuesday evenings 7:15 - 8:30pm, starting next week 6th May for term 2.
Think of making a soft nest of bolsters and blankets, slow deep ground based stretches to release deep tissue, gentle breath work to refresh and a Yoga Nidra practice each week to support a deep reset.
A perfect way to nourish your mind and body and roll into bed for a deep sleep.
Very limited places in a small class, so get in touch ASAP if you'd like a spot.
Email is best : ujjayiyogatas@gmail.com

ps. thank you Sarah Sattva Yoga for the demonstration in image!

20/02/2025

Do you want to make more space for self care, self enquiry and personal growth? Perhaps you want to deepen your yoga practice, or just start one?!
I've created Embodiment to hold space for you. A supportive space, guided by the wisdom of Somatic Experiencing and Yoga, for you to foster new skills and create new experiences.
Embodiment is a yoga program (an I know I'm about to sound corny) for anyone with a body. We take a 7 week deep dive into exploring practices for building connection to body wisdom, responding and not reacting, and reworking old patterns into new ways.
Embodiment is more that just a yoga class. We incorporate a personal 1:1 session to set you on track to meet your goals, offer learning resources, reading materials and tailored video's to support a home practice and 7x 90 min group classes full of education and practices to help you feel more embodied.
If you're looking to carve out a more "me time" and get to know your self a little better you're invited to join us for Embodiment.
We're meeting in a beautiful private yoga studio in Launceston, Tuesdays at 11:30am or 5:30pm from 5th March.

We still have a couple of spaces available in Term 1, please get in touch if you'd like to reserve your spot.

18/02/2025

The wonderful Claire Holloway is coming to visit us in Tasmania in early April and sharing her Yoga for Parenthood workshop. if you're looking for meaningful ways to bring yoga philosophy and lifestyle into your family I highly recommend.

Are you a parent or parent-to-be who lives in Tasmania?

Have you faced physical, social, emotional or financial challenges that have prevented you from attending other yoga, wellness or parenting support programs?

We are offering a $100 scholarship for one attendee of our Practical Yoga Philosophy for Parenthood Retreat Valley Yoga on 6th April.

Details about the retreat and a link to apply for the scholarship are available in the events page of our website.

Or you are most welcome to DM your questions.

Applications close 7th March.

https://www.yourbrightbeginning.com.au/events/practical-yoga-for-parenthood-western-creek

17/02/2025

One of my favourite definitions of Embodiment; a tangible concept of an otherwise nebulous concept. And one of my favourite things to do; share Embodiment practices 🧡🌱🌻