True North Yoga

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True North Yoga

We are a social enterprise using profits from our yoga to provide therapeutic, trauma-informed yoga to survivors of domestic and sexual violence.

04/10/2022

So much of the yoga we see on IG is encouraging us to 'improve' ourselves - to get stronger, more flexible, calmer or balanced. I had a few false starts re-joining because of all the crop-topped reel advertisements for courses to learn whatever posture, flow or handstand variation you might want to (or feel like you should) attempt.

In trauma sensitive yoga there aren't these kind of detailed physical instructions. Primarily because we don't want to reinforce harmful power dynamics (I know better than you; This is my space; I can control you/your body) but also, I believe, because we're enough exactly as we are.

Instructions on what to straighten or rotate or deepen, instructions on how to alter our physical body according to an external perspective or standard, subtract from that. In trauma sensitive yoga we don't need to be stronger, straighter, bendier, floatier... Instead there's an opportunity to perhaps try to feel exactly who we already are in any particular moment. And to me at least, that's more beautiful than any kind of arm balance.

🍃

The tree here was way further back than my feet were expecting 😊.

29/09/2022

Umm... hello. It's been a while 😊 And I really hope you're safe, and well, and happy.

After the Summer Spine last year I thought I'd have a little time off social media to see if it improved my real life... which slowly turned into a year (because it did. In all the really predictable ways you'd expect it to 😁).

It's been really great (and kinda hard) learning to 'just' be content with how things are.
.. but I've also massively missed the folk I don't get to have a regular brew with. And while True North has been slowly growing via 1-to-1s and word of mouth, on my own mat I'm increasingly confronted with how much I believe advocating for survivors of domestic & sexual abuse and improving trauma-informed care on a bigger scale is crucially important work. And it isn't something that can be done quietly, or next year.

✨

(Also beyond excited about getting True North literally into the mountains next year 😁😁 )

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📷 Tryfan North Ridge at sunrise 🥰

20/05/2021

Boundaries have become so popular 🏔 They're often talked about on social media, especially in the arena of trauma. I think that often, when we set boundaries and know it's not one of our strong points, we place them where we think they 'should' be and spend a lot of energy trying to stand by them.

Maybe, instead, we first need to work out what specifically makes us feel unsafe, unheard, disregarded or depleted. It's more work to begin but, perhaps, these lines might feel more natural, helpful or easier to uphold.

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Yoga can provide us with opportunities to check in with how our bodies feel. With time and practice this felt sense might help inform us off the mat, in situations like this.

We're now taking bookings for individual sessions in June, and registering interest for summertime small groups. If you'd like to know more about joining us, feel free to get in touch or you can find out more on the (shiny, new, work-in-progress) website (link in bio 🔝).

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In other news, I spent ten minutes trying to get the dog and baby over this wall before I realised we were supposed to be on the side we started 🙈

16/05/2021

Being a mama is the most exhausting and fulfilling job in the whole entire world.

However, we often put expectations on ourselves that we would never EVER dream of landing on another woman. Why is it so hard to be kind to ourselves in this way?

🏔

Also, why is it so hard to get everyone to look towards the camera at once? 😁

[Image description: Sarah and her little boy are holding on to a wooden Pennine Way way marker, doing yoga balances with their legs sticking out in front of a shoulder-high dry stone wall. They are stood on scrubby, uneven grass. The sky is dark and cloudy. Blaze the husky has his tail to the camera. Baby Wolf's hands are just visible in a rucksack carrier over Sarah's shoulder.]

11/05/2021

There's no obligation to feel calm or relaxed after yoga, but this is especially true for trauma sensitive yoga.

Someone affectionately(ish) called it 'disappointingly hard work' this week. It's not necessarily physically difficult (although it can be, if you like), but the work of turning our attention to what we're really feeling in a moment can be incredibly demanding.

I also think it's brave.

And I hope that, with practice, it gets easier and feels more natural.

🏔

(📷 during 13 miles out on the trail today, which could also be described as disappointingly hard work 😂🌧💦)

09/05/2021

There are far better things ahead than the ones we leave behind.

- CS Lewis

05/05/2021

I've been having a proper fret about (...mostly because I looked at the fb group 🤣😱) In my head, my total lack of shiny gear, a colour-coded spreadsheet and perfectly executed 58-week training plan became SO HUGE. I've felt weirdly completely consumed by the idea of taking action, but totally paralysed.

And then today I got out on the hills. And I felt amazing. I started going, my legs knew what do, the really unhelpful voices in my head went quiet. The next steps became obvious. My body settled into quiet confidence (or at least as confident as I could be about a 268-mile non-stop race where basically anything could happen 😂)

Feeling helpless, an omnipresent sense of forboding and having things replay non-stop in your head can by symptoms of trauma... but I also think sometimes they're symptoms of being human. Especially when we have a BIG THING. Taking a tiny step, doing something... anything, is huge and scary and brave, but we are usually amazed by how the next step and the next step reveal themselves. By our own competence.

If you have a trauma history, it's even bu**er and braver. I know signing up for support - whether that's therapy, something like 'The Freedom Program' or trauma sensitive yoga - can feel the same. It can take a while, and we can have lots of questions, concerns and anxieties. Please know, if you're thinking of practicing with us, there's no time limit on how long it takes to get to your first session, and no obligation to even have one. And I'll do my best to answer any questions you might have, even if you're not sure we'll ever work together. (As long as your questions don't involve electrolytes, the practicalities of drinking water out of a stream that may/not be there in June or the best gloves for trail running 🤯💕)

04/05/2021

We don’t see things as they are. We see them as we are.

I think this is one of the reasons I need yoga in my life so much. When I feel better, hold my body in a more open and upright way, when I'm connected to my physicality and the world around me I can perceive what's really going on in my world much more clearly and easily.

(IRL theres ❄️ up here today and I'm curled up by the fire)

[Image description: Sarah is by the summit cairn of Arant Haw on a windy day. She is wearing a light blue hoodie, and neon pink and black mountain running backpack. She is side-on, looking at her baby who is bundled up and being carried along on her front in a pink carrier.)

22/04/2021

We belong to the earth.
And we belong to our selves.
No-one else.

Happy 🌍 Day.

19/04/2021

Whether we're running a race or trying to heal after trauma, sometimes our 'finish line' can feel so far away it seems impossible. There's almost no point in starting.

But maybe we don’t always need to have certainty that we'll make our 'finish line'; maybe we just need certainty in our next step.

☀️

Made it up here after some work & Zoom yoga 1-to-1s this morning. Can't believe we were running in white outs ten days ago... (not complaining 😊)

14/04/2021

Run if you can, walk if you have to, crawl if you must... just never give up 💕

(In running and in life... 😊)

Address

Kendal
LA9

Website

http://www.truenorthyoga.org/

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