Yoga with Norman

28/05/2026

Slow Down Friday - online Yin yoga with Norman and West London Buddhist Centre

6.30pn - 8.30pm
Cost £20/£10
To book, click here: https://www.yogawithnorman.co.uk/bookings #/

21/05/2026

I have created a manual of Yin yoga poses. More than 40 A4 pages, nearly 70 photographs. Lots of details on each pose with plenty of options and more. This is given to all attending courses with me. This manual is also available to buy from me: cost (which includes postage and packing) £15 for UK addresses (£60 for five copies); £20 for Europe (£90 for five copies); £22 elsewhere (£100 for five copies).

In words from a teacher: "A really solid foundation manual with effective explanations and great images."

To order please email hello@yogawithnorman.co.uk

02/05/2026

A fact: since 2020, the wealth of the world’s five richest billionaires has more than doubled.

A fact: the strongest predictor of a country’s health is not its level of wealth – it is how evenly that wealth is distributed. More unequal societies have higher rates of mental illness, lower life expectancy, more crime, more addiction, more people in prison.

We live in a casino of financial bubbles, pyramid marketing schemes and crypto currencies. This casino has limited social mobility and extreme information overload. Sensory bombardment straining our nervous systems. The owners always winning. According to the Bank of England, we are facing major economic uncertainty.

The current economic system resembles Donald Trump: a self-image of robust power; however, inside great fragility.

A question: What are our priorities?
A wondering: What can we do?

Reducing inequality is a simple way for human society to flourish. More public services can reduce our material needs and improve our wellbeing. Rather than a world dominated by billionaires and autocrats, we could have a world where there is enough room and sufficient resources for all of us.

29/04/2026

In a world that prioritises doing over being, achievements over allowing, striving over stillness, perhaps possibly some yin qualities might be helpful. Being more here might mean we need less stuff. Instead of constantly emphasising upward and outward, maybe encouraging some downward and inward. Less about consumption and growth, more about moments of awareness, more about space where we can observe, soften, create.

This can also happen on the yoga mat because sometimes the ways in which we practise are just another beating up. Flagellation yoga. Striving with that determination to push the body into particular postures. It is not a surprise that many are exhausted.

Maybe being more yin might cultivate some circumstances where our practice is more about falling in love: less being bullied, more a befriending. Less seeing body as a machine and brain as a computer, more feeling all within our skin as a living miracle – from zygote (that first cell formed when a s***m cell fertilises an egg cell) to now this. Wow. What a trip…

In words from psychologist Alison Gopnik: “The world really is astonishing, wonderful and unexpected and there is always more to learn.” Perhaps creating a life-sustaining society where we can be celebrating the magic of aliveness. Perhaps choosing empowerment, collaboration, ritual and composting over the shiny screens of consumerism and the silent screams of individualised despair.

After teaching Yin yoga for more than 20 years (and making many mistakes along the way), this is something that I recently wrote: ‘More Tips for Practising (and Teaching) Yin Yoga’.

More Tips for Practising (and Teaching) Yin Yoga - a list detailing some views and perspectives that may be helpful.

28/04/2026

Practise Yin yoga with Norman at Shiva Shakti Studios
Wednesday April 29, 12.30pm - 2.30pm, £30
To book click here: https://shivashaktistudios.com/workshops/

27/04/2026

Yin Yoga Five-Day Intensive with Norman Blair at Indaba Yoga (London NW1 6UA) Monday 1 June to Friday 5 June.

A wonderful opportunity to delve deep into the practice of Yin yoga with Norman – one of the UK’s most experienced and well-respected Yin yoga teachers.

Space to soften, to learn, to examine, to stay, to explore. Lots of course material, lots of interaction, lots of practice.

Words from previous participants:
“Well balanced, well run and fun…the course was very inspirational and thought-provoking.”
“Amazing experience learning about Yin from an open and honest teacher…I will take more time for stillness and share it with others.”
“Experimenting L*D this week blew me away…Long. Slow. Deep. Talking about Yin Yoga. A new form of slow living…There is power in stillness. Thank you, Norman.”

Training hours (40 in total) are eligible for Yoga Alliance continuing education (YACEP).

Cost £695.

More details here: https://indabayoga.com/40h-yin-yoga-teacher-training-with-norman-blair

08/04/2026

Yin yoga with Norman, by Vahni at The Shala, south London
Saturday 11 April
2.00pm – 5.00pm, £45

Calmness arising…

Yin yoga is an increasingly popular style of practicing. The reality is that many of us lead fast-paced, demanding and intensely stressful lives. We are so familiar with tension and tightness that rarely do we consciously realise the deep need for relaxing and releasing – for ways of reducing the significant stress that we experience.

To book, click here:

02/04/2026

Yin yoga workshop with Norman and West London Buddhist Centre
Saturday 4 April
2.00pm - 5.00pm
£40/£20 concessions

To book, click here: https://www.yogawithnorman.co.uk/bookings #/

A precious chance to slow down and soften. This practice of mindfully bending and gently moving can be remarkably rejuvenating for our body-mind-heart. Yin yoga gives us the space to slow down and stay with our experiences rather than rushing and striving. The floor-based postures are held for several minutes.

01/04/2026

Slow Down Friday: online Yin yoga with Norman via West London Buddhist Centre
6.30pm - 8.30pm
£20/£10 concessions

To book, click here: https://www.yogawithnorman.co.uk/bookings #/

30/03/2026

Why we might practise…

Because perhaps practise can wake us up to everything: spring blossom and daily sounds, bird song and breaking hearts, feelings of deep despair and feelings of bright presence. Perhaps practise to become more conscious. Practise as a way to break the stultifying spells of consumption, small screens, materialism. Practise to cultivate insight, to encourage kindness, to realise commonality.

Because practise could help us to acknowledge the fact that we are all migrants (just that some have been here for longer than others); to realise that the problem is much more with the people in very big boats than those in small boats; to recognise the fact that we all bleed the same colour. Practice as a way to be with the complexity of our own varied identities, thus helping us to be more open (rather than othering and excluding).

Because practice might give us sufficient courage and resilience to turn towards rather than looking away – refusing to be bystanders. Practice to help us know that statements such as “bombs bring peace” and “protest is terrorism” are Orwellian nonsense.

Because practice can clarify our perceptions, such as seeing that leaders like Netanyahu, Putin and Trump are blood-drenched false prophets who sound more like serial killers than thoughtful human beings.

Practice is undeniably a broad umbrella (which also includes many views on the meaning of practice). For me, practice includes movement and meditation, psychotherapy and creative pursuits, developing communities and speaking up for fairness and justice. Too many of us have become disconnected from ourselves, each other, this world, from feeling any sense of control over our lives and from what our lives could really mean.

Practice can be a way of reconnecting. Practice can be connection to all that is.