Sarah's Yoga Space

One of my yoga participants was reflecting on the lasting change that yoga has made in her life, and she revealed a story that told me everything.

She was having an MRI scan, when she noticed her body beginning to respond, as many of us would, to the noise, the enclosed space, the feeling of not being able to move. I think we can all relate!

Her body was saying, ‘I don’t like this’.

And without thinking, she started to do a breathing practice we sometimes do in class. It came really naturally, as a familiar way to be with what’s here.

It obviously didn’t remove the situation, or her from it. It wasn’t even to override the uncomfortable feeling. But she knew it was something she could do, to be here, now, in this moment, knowing it is transient and will pass. Just one breath after the next. A familiarity to return to, even through things we don’t want to be going through, but can’t change.

It made me reflect on the times this has happened to me. How a tool from my yoga practice just naturally comes into the moment without thinking, at doctor’s appointments, during difficult conversations, during physical discomfort.

And I think this is one of the most valuable things we can develop through yoga.

Not just the ability to move with less pain, but the ability to notice what’s happening and respond to it. Noticing when we’re overwhelmed, or says ‘I don’t like this’, and have an idea of might help. Sometimes, it’s to take action, sometimes it’s to remove ourselves from the situation, sometimes it might be in the middle of an MRI scan, and sometimes it might be on a yoga mat.

You never know when something you’ve practised will become useful. That’s why I love teaching Yoga in Practice; a class that explores movement, breath, body-mind awareness – not as something to perfect, but skills you take into your life.

Yoga in Practice
Tuesdays (from 8th September)
9.15-10.30 am
Reydon Village Hall

Message me ‘Yoga in Practice’ and I’ll send you the details.

We’re told loudly and constantly: exercise makes you healthy.

But a short scroll on social media tells you that ’exercise’ has a very specific picture. It has one body type, endless free time, a gym as a backdrop and a highly restricted lifestyle to boot.

It easily looks like a mould we’re all supposed to fit, and when we don’t, exercise looks like something you either succeed or fail at.

Most people who message me about starting yoga or dance say the same thing: ‘I want to get fit’

Totally fair! We want to feel good, and well, and, yes, moving your body ticks that box, amazing endorphins and all.

And here’s the difference: People come for the exercise, but they stay for how it changes everything else.

What actually keeps people coming back to a dance or yoga class isn’t the workout.

When you move in a way that doesn’t feel like exercise, you do more of it. You enjoy it. And it stops just being a class, and becomes something that changes how the rest of your life feels. Not just the hour, but the rest of the day and the rest of your week.

Life feels a little less heavy. We have more energy for the things, and people we love.

And it’s not just a nice side effect. New research is starting to back up what dancers have always known: the joy, the flow, the immersive moment in movement that you love is doing more for you than the workout itself (Sussex Ui, 2026)

In reality, you come for the exercise, and you stay for the joy.

In-person classes start back the week commencing 7th September.
If you’re coming because you want to feel stronger, fitter, more capable – that’s a great reason to start.

But stick around, and see what else shows up.

Message me ‘Reydon Yoga’ for details

If you’ve been thinking you should exercise more, but every version of exercise you’ve tried has left you feeling like you’re somehow doing it wrong, maybe you don’t need more discipline.

Maybe you need a different relationship with movement.

One that helps you feel stronger and more comfortable in your body without asking you to exhaust yourself first.

One that adapts to you, rather than expecting you to fit yourself around it.

One that leaves you with more capacity for the things you actually want to do — walking, dancing, gardening, playing with the kids, getting down on the floor, getting back up again.

That’s the kind of yoga I teach.

Not yoga as a performance.�Not yoga as punishment.�Not yoga for people who already feel at home in fitness spaces.

Just thoughtful, functional movement that helps you feel better in your body — and supports you to keep doing the things you love.
Classes start again from 8th September in Reydon and Wrentham.

There are mat and chair-based classes, class passes and drop-in options, so you don’t need to commit to a punishing five-day-a-week regime 😉

Message “Reydon Yoga” and I’ll send you all the details.

For years, we're taught that wellbeing is something we earn.
If we wake up earlier.
Move more.
Meditate every day.
Find the perfect morning routine.
Drink enough water.
Get enough sleep.
Read the books.
Listen to the podcasts.

The message underneath is almost always the same:

If you just keep improving yourself, eventually you'll feel like enough.

The heartbreaking part is that many of us become incredibly good at taking care of ourselves, while quietly believing we're still the problem.

One of the most meaningful things a yoga student has ever shared with me wasn't that she'd become more flexible, or stronger, or finally mastered a pose.

She told me she'd changed the label on her morning alarm from "Go for a run" to "You are enough."

Not because anyone told her to.
Because she'd stopped relating to herself as a project to fix.

I'm not interested in teaching people how to squeeze more wellbeing into an already overflowing life. But creating a space where your body stops feeling like something to manage, and starts feeling like somewhere you can come home to.

I think that's where lasting change begins—not when we finally become the person we think we should be, but when we realise we never had to earn our worth in the first place.

If that sounds like the kind of yoga you've been looking for, I'd love to welcome you to class in Reydon.
Woodland yoga coming at the end of August, and if you're further afield, online classes are on their way. Message or comment ‘YOGA’ to be the first to find out more.

Sometimes, we’re so intent on making the most of summer, we try and fill it with plans and activities before it’s gone.

Then you know what? It goes. And we wonder where it went.

Sometimes, to make the most of summer, we actually need to simply slow down and notice.

Evening Reset isn’t another exercise class to fit in. This is a ritual for noticing the season. A chance to move with the rhythm of this time of year.

Notice the light.
Feel your body moving this summer.
To have a ritual to close the day as the light begins to mellow on another day.

Summer isn’t something to fill before it disappears.
It’s something to feel while it’s here.

Evening Reset Yoga
6-7pm
Reydon Sports and Community Centre

https://bookwhen.com/sarahsyogaspace to book

We’re in a performance pandemic.

When did dance become a showcase of tricks and flips?
When did yoga become a performance of shapes?
When did rest become something to optimise?
When did measuring steps become a measure of health?

There’s been a slow but steady detachment from our changing body and all its wondrous stories and history and instead, life has become a performance of youth and proof of worth.

We live at a speed that mismatches our own felt-sense of time and quality of living.
We need REAL experiences that match our need for being our beautifully messy, human selves.

We need permission to notice and take pleasure in a face you find in a pebble.
Time to allow our minds to daydream.
Trust and agency in our body and the information it has to tell us.
Live a life that is felt and important to us, no matter what it looks like to someone else.

We need to
BE in yoga
BE in the dance
BE in rest
BE here, now.

And that’s what real yoga does.

It invites you into a process of engaging with life at a natural, not digital pace.

It invites you to stop performing and notice what’s important to you, right now.

It invites you to remember you can put the to do lists down.

It helps you to live a life lived with purpose and meaning without an audience.

I’m off to PE

YOGA. I mean yoga.

But really, Physical Education is what it is.

Except, my shapes aren’t getting marked, I’m not getting picked (last) for teams, and there’s no bleep after each practice I need to speed up with.

Just me, getting to know this body. Learning what it knows

Yoga isn't just about touching toes or improving flexibility.

Sometimes it looks like using your breath to stay calm in a CAT scan.

Sometimes it looks like having a tool to draw on halfway through a run, when the body wants to stop and the mind starts panicking.

Sometimes it looks like catching yourself holding your breath during a difficult conversation and choosing not to.

Sometimes it looks like getting down onto the floor and back up again without worrying whether you'll manage it.

And sometimes it looks like seeing yourself as more than a diagnosis, an injury, or a list of limitations for the first time in a long while.

The poses are only ever the practice ground.

The real practice is learning how to meet whatever life brings with a little more steadiness, a little more ease, and a little more trust in yourself.

The flexibility is a bonus.

Feeling at home in your own skin is the point.

The internet has fast-tracked yoga to look like it’s about making shapes with your body.

You know, the sexy-tap-like-and-sharable posts.
The ones where it looks like someone's trying to put their big toe up their bum.

The non-instagramable yoga is
How does the movement feel?
What's working?
What's not?
What do you need more (or less) of today?

There it is.

Not the trending, origami body yoga.
but the honest, this-is-actually-useful yoga.

https://bookwhen.com/sarahsyogaspace