Joi Living, Stroud (2026)

08/01/2026

Listening vs Forcing - How Yoga Changes When You Tune In. By Vicky Brzonkalik

New Year is a funny time, and it's all too easy to bring the same mindset into yoga as we often do in life….

Make drastic changes, push harder and do more.

But yoga, like life, changes immensely when we listen to our body and mind. When we shift from an attitude of forcing into exploring.

For example, forcing can look like:

• Pushing your body into a pose because you think you should. Because that's what the instructor / person next to you is doing.
• Ignoring warning signs like fatigue, pain, or resistance
• Measuring your progress by how you think a pose should look

Exploring and listening feels very different.

It means:

• Noticing your breath before your shape
• Choosing a variation or modification without guilt
• Resting when you need to

Yoga (in my opinion) should not be something you do TO your body, more something you do WITH it. I always say at the beginning of my classes that….

‘Anything goes, as long as you are not harming yourself or others’.

Experience has taught me that listening and exploring is far more pleasurable and in turn beneficial.
This is because pleasure leads to consistency. And consistency—not force—is where the magic happens

06/01/2026

🧘‍♀️ Slow & Steady Yoga Flow 🧘
❣️ YOUR FIRST CLASS IS FREE ❣️

Gentle, Strength-Building Yoga for Mature Bodies

✨ NEW DAYIME CLASS – NOW OPEN ✨

Our Saturday morning class is currently fully booked, reflecting the lovely community that has already formed.
👉 A small number of places remain on Tuesdays
👉 Saturday waitlist now open

This is a friendly, supportive weekly yoga class created especially for those aged 50 and over (though all are welcome), ideal if you’d like to move with greater ease, build confidence, and enjoy a sense of connection in a calm, welcoming environment.

🌺 Improve balance, coordination and flexibility
🌺 Ease tension, support relaxation and reduce stress
🌺 Build strength to support healthy bones and joints

👣 No previous yoga experience required
🧘‍♀️ Small classes with personal attention

💬 “Menopause caused me a lot of joint pain and weight gain. Since joining, my joints have improved and my anxiety has lifted.”
— Zoe

🕤 9.30am every Tuesday
📍 Minchinhampton Market Rooms

👉 Book your free Tuesday taster while places remain
👉 Join the Saturday waitlist to be first to hear when a space becomes available

30/12/2025

🧘‍♀️ Slow & Steady Yoga Flow 🧘
❣️ Your first class is free ❣️

Gentle, Strength-Building Yoga for Mature Bodies

✨ NEW DAYIME CLASS – NOW OPEN ✨

Our Saturday morning class is currently fully booked, reflecting the lovely community that has already formed.
👉 A small number of places remain on Tuesdays
👉 Saturday waitlist now open

This is a friendly, supportive weekly yoga class created especially for those aged 50 and over (though all are welcome), ideal if you’d like to move with greater ease, build confidence, and enjoy a sense of connection in a calm, welcoming environment.

🌺 Improve balance, coordination and flexibility
🌺 Ease tension, support relaxation and reduce stress
🌺 Build strength to support healthy bones and joints

👣 No previous yoga experience required
🧘‍♀️ Small classes with personal attention

💬 “Menopause caused me a lot of joint pain and weight gain. Since joining, my joints have improved and my anxiety has lifted.”
— Zoe

🕤 9.30am every Tuesday
📍 Minchinhampton Market Rooms

👉 Book your free Tuesday taster while places remain
👉 Join the Saturday waitlist to be first to hear when a space becomes available

08/12/2025

5 surprising things no one talks about….

People often ask me how I stay grounded with multiple plates spinning — being a mum, running my business, helping my husband run his building firm, Djing and navigating menopause as well as a long term, occasional debilitating health condition.

One of my most helpful tools has been a regular yoga practice. I’m certainly not about performing perfect pose and looking flawless on social media. For me it’s all about tuning in and reconnecting with myself, self care and counteracting the physical and emotional challenges of living with a chronic condition.

So with this in mind, I thought I’d share the five biggest benefits yoga gives me:

1. Mental Clarity & Calm

Yoga has a way of turning down the noise — the doubts, the to-do lists, the worries about the future. Breathwork combined with movement helps me stay calm (most of the time) and clears the brain fog in a way like nothing else.

1. Increased Strength & Mobility

People underestimate the strength required for yoga — until they try it! Regular practice aids mobility while improving strong, functional muscles. It supports so much in my daily life, even just getting out of bed with less creaking.

1. Improved Body Confidence

Moving intentionally helps me reconnect with my body like nothing else and I certainly know if I’ve neglected my practice. My posture, confidence and the way I show up in life is affected dramatically.

1. Stress Relief That Actually Works

We all carry stress physically — in our shoulders, hips, jaw, you name it. Yoga brings me relief to those tight, guarded spaces and gives me the tools to release them. I don’t just leave the mat feeling lighter but often in a much better frame of mind.

5. A Deeper Connection to Yourself

Life pulls us all in a thousand directions. Yoga offers the opposite: presence. For the time I’m on the mat, it’s just me and my breath. This helps my intuition, creativity, and the kind of self-reflection that helps growth.

Let me be clear, a regular practice doesn’t mean 90 minutes in a candlelit studio every day. For me it can often be 20 minutes on the living room floor. It’s less about perfecting a posture and more about taking time out and recalibrating — with patience, compassion, and kindness.

And trust me — the ripple effect reaches far beyond the mat.

02/12/2025

🧘‍♀️Slow & Steady Yoga Flow🧘
❣️Try your first class for free❣️

Gentle, Strength-Building Yoga for Mature Bodies.

BRAND NEW DAYTIME CLASS ADDED

A welcoming weekly yoga class designed especially for those aged 50 and over (but all welcome) who want to build confidence, reconnect with their bodies, and feel part of a supportive community 👯

🌺 Improved balance, coordination and flexibility
🌺 Relax, reset and reduce stress
🌺 Improve strength & bone density

👣 No experience needed
🧘‍♀️ Small, welcoming classes

💬 “Menopause caused me a lot of joint pain and weight gain. Since joining, my joints have improved and my anxiety has lifted” Zoe

9.30am every Tuesday and Saturday at Minchinhampton Market Rooms

👉 Book your FREE taster class while we still have spaces

24/11/2025

How’s Your Balance?

Yoga may be one of the best ways to slow the aging process—not only because it improves mobility and helps build lean muscle mass (increasing the production of testosterone and human growth hormone, the hormones that help slow ageing), but also because it improves our balance.

Balance problems can affect all aspects of your life—your relationships, your ability to do the things you enjoy, and your capacity to carry out daily activities.

Improving balance also boosts confidence and helps prevent falls in older adults. Did you know that around 1 in 3 adults over 65, and half of people over 80, will have at least one fall a year? These often result in broken hips or pelvis injuries, which can drastically reduce life expectancy.

And whilst I may not be in this age bracket, I am living proof of the transformative benefits of yoga.

Four months postpartum, I was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer that had spread to my hips, spine, and liver. This left me unable to walk unaided, needing help to get in and out of a chair, and struggling to carry my then tiny baby.

Along with rounds of aggressive chemotherapy and radiotherapy, I also had to have my ovaries shut down. This left me with full-blown menopause symptoms, including stiff and aching joints.

I tried physiotherapists, osteopaths, chiropractors, massage therapists, and even a Chinese doctor. None of it helped long-term.

What did work, though, was a gentle, progressive yoga practice. I started very slowly, as just getting down onto the floor and sitting with my legs crossed felt like a huge undertaking.

Now I move without pain and can walk for miles. I’ve roller-skated, gone downhill mountain biking over challenging terrain, and danced for hours. I can jump, climb, and even run a little. Yoga really did give me my life back.

So if you’re concerned about the limiting effects of getting older and are struggling with mobility or balance issues, a regular yoga practice may be the answer.

19/11/2025

A Rare Opportunity…. ❤️
And A Welcome Reminder 😉

Last Saturday I had quite a rare opportunity. An hour shaped hole where my Saturday morning yoga class usually resides.

Unfortunately the venue I use to teach my class had a long standing booking and try as I might, I just couldn't find an alternative location to accommodate us.

So unusually home alone (husband was working and daughter with her granny) I decided to make good use of the time and did an extra long practice by myself. And let me tell you, it was wonderful.

Whilst I believe practicing in a class is often preferable, particularly for the beginner, there is something really lovely about being able to do yoga at home alone. Not only is there the opportunity to slow down and tap into what your body and mind need the most. This journey inward also allows us to take time where needed, work on some poses we might find tricky and try out something new.

In fact for most of yoga’s very lengthy history, the physical element of yoga was typically a combination of personal instruction and solitary practice. The student went to their guru for instruction and went home and practiced diligently until their next lesson.

From a personal perspective, practicing yoga at home gave me my life back. Five years ago, I was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer that had spread to my lungs, liver, spine and hips. I was in excruciating pain and had lost much of my mobility. This meant I was unable to walk properly or even pick up my then 4-month-old daughter.

I began very slowly (just getting down and up from the floor was a huge undertaking initially), I practised daily and in turn, defied my medical team who told me that I would never be able to walk or indeed exercise properly again.

This is why I believe there is a magical element to yoga. It has enabled me to do things that have baffled the medics.

I've also witnessed the most remarkable transformations in some of my students, much more so than any of the other fitness and well-being disciplines I have taught over the last twenty years.

So if you fancy giving it a go, please do come and try one of my classes for free. I teach in Minchinhampton on a Saturday morning and am starting a weekday class very soon. I also do personal coaching on arrangement too!

And if these options don’t suit you, we are very lucky in the Stroud area (and indeed online) to have a fantastic selection of other teachers who I am confident will serve your individual needs.

17/11/2025

This weekend, I found myself doubting myself a bit, and letting old stories and old wounds pull me off track.

To an outsider, the events that took place seemed trivial and I’ve survived far worse. To me though, they knocked me for six and gave me more than one sleepless night.

I had to really remind myself that it’s ok to feel the uncomfortable feelings and this is where the real growth is.

It isn’t just about powering through, but understanding what these feelings are trying to tell me. And the more I allow myself to feel it all, the more self aware I become.

So after a fair bit of ruminating, I reminded myself that I’ve rebuilt myself from the ground up more times than I can count. And every time I fall into doubt, I rise into a stronger version of me.

So today, I’m back. Stronger. Steadier. And ready for whatever’s next.

14/11/2025

🪷The Self-Care Conundrum🪷

Self-care is something I’ve really had to examine my relationship with.
Why does it sometimes feel indulgent? Because it really shouldn’t. Taking time to nurture ourselves should make us kinder, calmer, and more effective humans.

Over the past 20 years, I’ve worked in fields that demanded I give a lot of myself to other people — often to my own detriment. And if I’m honest, my early approaches to self-care weren’t always the healthiest (that’s definitely one for another blog).

I’ve always known how important it is. I’ve preached it to clients, friends, and colleagues. Yet despite that, I’ve often felt a block when it comes to practising what I preach — at least until things reached crisis point.

Now, living with a chronic health condition, I’ve had to accept that self-care isn’t optional. It’s a necessity. You simply can’t pour from an empty cup — especially when that cup has started to leak.

So what is self-care, really?
For me, it’s not about massages or manicures — lovely as those can be. Self-care is doing things that bring me genuine joy.
It’s walking in the countryside with music in my ears.
It’s decluttering the house and feeling the space open up again.
It’s a daily yoga practice — pranayama, asanas, meditation, or nidra — that grounds me.
It’s losing myself in my decks, discovering new ways to weave sounds together.
It’s any kind of creative outlet that fills me up rather than depletes me.

When we think of self-care, we often picture the pampering side — but for me, it’s about creative immersion. The moments where you lose yourself, yet somehow return to yourself at the same time.

And while I don’t work with as many clients these days, I’m now a mum — which makes self-care more important than ever. Because when we give ourselves permission to do the things that replenish us, it’s not only kind to ourselves and those who depend on us — it’s also setting an example for others who struggle with the concept.

You might agree or you might not, but experience has taught me that self-care is vital. When we neglect it, things start to malfunction — physically, mentally, emotionally. It shows up as illness, injury, overwhelm, or burnout.

So without sounding trite, the relationship we have with ourselves, has a ripple effect on everyone around us.

10/10/2025

🧘‍♀️Slow & Steady Saturday Flow🧘
❣️Try your first class for free❣️

Gentle, Strength-Building Yoga for Mature Bodies.

A welcoming weekly yoga class designed especially for those aged 50 and over (but all welcome) who want to build confidence, reconnect with their bodies, and feel part of a supportive community 👯

🌺 Improved balance, coordination and flexibility
🌺 Relax, reset and reduce stress
🌺 Improve strength & bone density

👣 No experience needed
🧘‍♀️ Small, welcoming classes

💬 “Menopause caused me a lot of joint pain and weight gain. Since joining, my joints have improved and my anxiety has lifted” Zoe

9.30am every Saturday at Minchinhampton Market Rooms

👉 Book your FREE taster class today!

Joi Living

08/01/2026

06/01/2026

30/12/2025

08/12/2025

02/12/2025

24/11/2025

19/11/2025

17/11/2025

14/11/2025

10/10/2025

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