alexa de castilho

Join us Wednesday 21 February, 7.30-9pm upstairs at the Hanover Centre, for a very special session of Yoga for Menopause with midlife mentor Alexa De Castilho.

Following our usual explorations in movement, breath and meditation to come home to our bodies, Alexa will lead us in a Journaling and journeying session, both being ways to heal the past, grow your nervous system capacity, move forward a to find safety, regulation and growth.

Journeying is designed to be a mix of exploration and acknowledgement, meditation, visualisation and hypnotherapy based on neuroscience, using our senses as well as imagination and energy alchemy.

We get to transform our inner ecology.

The hypnotic brain wave created in the journeying allows you to bypass your analytical mind and change your subconscious, connecting and forming new neural pathways and experience. As you journey, you’re creating your new reality because the brain does not know the difference between real and imagined. By strengthening this new visual reality you have created in your journeying, your inner ecology starts to transform. Growing new synapses and new pathways makes them new gateways and beliefs.

95% of our life is lived in the subconscious, as though we are on autopilot..
We wake up and the rest of the day is a series of learnt behaviours, decisions and conditionings we learnt from the ages of 0-6. We only live 5% of the time in our conscious mind. So within our journeying we re-imagine and reprogram some of the conditioning we have adopted, stored in our subconscious, so we can begin to move, behave and choose from a place that is deeper aligned to our present truth.

Like gardening, we are pruning what no longer serves and allowing the new to grow and flourish, changing your inner landscape.

We work on the ecology of self, where you are the medicine. The deepest work often doesn’t require us to go as deep as we might think.

A common misconception is that the harder, deeper and faster we do the work the sooner we heal. But the nervous system doesn’t work like that. The incredible thing about our autonomic nervous system is that it speaks a non verbal language. Meaning it communicates with us through sensations, imagery, emotion, movement.

Exploring big experiences to find healing – like intensive retreats, cold plunges, forceful breathwork or even intensive talk therapy – may make you feel like you come back to square one, or you just feel stuck all over again, Our nervous system doesn’t work like that: It craves slowness, gentleness, space and time. We can experience so much depth and transformation with so much less activating work.

Get in touch to book your place if you would like to explore how Alexa journies to change your inner ecology, which inturn transforms your outer reality.

Classes are £12 drop-in for the first class, then £70 for 6 consecutive classes. And please share with others who you feel would benefit from the support, some space to explore and rest within a lovely, inclusive community.

Booking now for weekly sessions, £12 drop-in, £70 for 6 consecutive sessions
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Herbal support for menopause

rachel boon

Our special guest for this week’s Yoga for Menopause is
Rachel Boon, Naturopath, Herbalist and women’s health specialist. Rachel helps peri and post-menopausal women navigate their ever-changing hormonal landscape and lived symptomatic experiences, either alongside or without HRT.

In this special session, Rachel will cover five menopausal nutritional friends and foes, so you will all leave with a few takeaway gems that will go on to enhance your menopausal experience, wherever you are on your journey.

If you’re not a regular to our group, Wednesdays 7.30-9pm at #hanovercmunitycentre, you’re very welcome to join us – DM to book your space. We meet every week to share experiences of our perimenopausal and menopausal journey through focused, often theme-based discussion, in a non-judgmental and inclusive environment. We then explore practises from physical yoga asana and Somatics practices, self-massage (I am a therapeutic Thai massage practitioner), meditation and breathwork, all of which can dramatically reduce stress, which exacerbates any symptoms you might experience.

I’m so looking forward to our special session, it’s going to be an enlightening discussion – Rachel and I are equally passionate about reframing menopause as a transformative journey where women are given proper information and support in order to make responsible choices and lifestyle shifts.

Classes are £12 drop-in for the first class, then £70 for 6 consecutive classes. DM to book in. And please share with others who you feel would benefit from the support, some space to explore and rest within a lovely, inclusive community.

Booking now for weekly sessions, £12 drop-in, £70 for 6 consecutive sessions
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Ayurveda for menopause

Indie Foolhea

Ayurveda is a vast and ancient science that provides a solid foundation to live well in all phases of life. In alignment with the seasons, elements and your unique makeup, we can find balance wherever we are.
Menopause is one of many changes that make up the female reproductive system across a lifetime. By looking at the history of your cycle, we can start to see what menopause may look like and adjust accordingly. This time is all about soothing symptoms and nourishing the body to help this transition flow more smoothly through nutrition, lifestyle, herbs and therapies.

On November 16, Indie Foolheea (she/her), will be joining our regular Yoga for Menopause session to talk about how Ayurveda can help you on your transformational journey through this life change.

Indie is a Yoga and meditation guide, Ayurvedic Lifestyle consultant and Therapist. Her work is informed by sharing from the roots of Yoga and Ayurveda to our lives now. She also creates spaces for people of the global majority to be seen, heard and to rest. She believes that self care and collective care are inherently linked and shares with this in mind.

Indie shares a variety of practices beyond asana including Pranayama, mantra, meditation, marmas and mudras. Whilst also starting her own Ayurvedic practice supporting people through nutrition, herbs, lifestyle and bodywork.

If you would like to join this or our regular sessions, every Wednesday, 7.30-9pm upstairs at the Hanover Community Centre, email.

Yoga for Menopause workshop

Are you transitioning through perimenopause or menopause or are you emerging into your second spring of post-menopause? Are you curious to know more about this transformational time from a positive perspective (beyond the pathologising of symptoms and media panic)? Perhaps you’re even pre-menopausal and would like to learn about what the future might hold without the fear or mystery historically surrounding ‘the change’.

Would you like to meet a community of supportive, non-judgemental others to share experiences and wisdom within a safe, guided space, and then practise responsive yoga, meditation, breathwork, massage and holistic tools to positively help emotionally and physically with this transitional journey?

The workshop is accessible to and inclusive of all bodies regardless of age or gender identity.

Yoga for Menopause, July 10, 2022, 1-4pm, at Energy for Life (£40).

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Yoga for Menopause

Photo by cottonbro from Pexels

Starting March 2, 7.30-9pm, Hanover Community Centre.
WORKSHOP March 20, 1-4pm, Energy for Life.

A new space creating non-judgemental, supportive community and sharing nourishing yoga practises and holistic tools to hold women positively through this transformation, from pre-menopause to perimenopause, menopause and early and late post-menopause.

Increased anxiety, headaches, palpitations, dizziness, night sweats, vaginal dryness, loss of libido, weight gain, fatigue, hot flushes, brain fog, mood swings… going through what used to be termed ominously ‘the change’ can induce feelings of fear and panic, isolation and depression (women are often misdiagnosed with depression during perimenopause). But what if we could approach this inevitable transitional phase of life with equanimity, welcome, curiosity, supported by community, with laughter, compassion and practical tools to hold us on the journey?

We will also have weeks in which we will welcome visiting experts who support women through the stages of menopause, specialising in everything from nutrition, psychology and acupuncture to sexuality, exercise and sleep.

Participants will be give access to a safe, closed online community for sharing experiences between groups.

Booking now for weekly sessions £70 for 6 sessions *
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The workshop will be a three-hour special expanding the space to enjoy an afternoon together, where we can extend practises, enjoy a deep relaxation and explore nourishing self-care tools.

1-4pm, March 20 at Energy for Life Studios. £45 or £35 concessions.
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* (ideally sessions will be taken consecutively but life happens and we can roll over)