Unity Yoga

Yoga is a safe, simple and a natural way of preparing the pregnant woman for motherhood and the baby for childbirth. The practice of yoga during pregnancy greatly enhances the vitality, mobility, general health and emotional well-being of the expectant mother; it also provides a valuable quiet space in which to form a bond with the unborn child and to prepare for birth.
On a physical level, yoga movements (asanas) improve circulation, strengthen postural muscles and help to alleviate or prevent some of the minor discomforts of pregnancy such as heartburn, backache, hip joint and ribcage aches.
Pranayama (breathing exercises) ensures a proper supply of oxygen, blood and energy to both foetus and mom, and reduces fatigue.

Emotionally, yoga and meditation reduce and control stress, anxiety and fear. Yoga also improves general mood and the ability to manage pain. Meditation can also create a deeper awareness and connection with the baby.
A yoga practice of asanas, pranayama and meditation creates mental focus, concentration, discipline and stillness, enabling a smooth pregnancy and a relatively easy childbirth.
Class description
The Unity Yoga program of weekly classes offers a comprehensive system for learning and using yoga throughout pregnancy, labour, and birth. Students learn simple but effective yoga postures to manage common physical ailments that can occur during pregnancy. Students also learn breathing, relaxation and visualisation techniques to build confidence and assist in easeful birth.
The classes offer a complete program of breath-work, relaxation, postures, movement, voice-work and meditations suited to all stages of pregnancy, from 12 - 42 weeks. We recommend beginning the classes in the third month of pregnancy and continuing throughout (once or twice a week, as time permits) in order to gain maximum benefit, but it is possible to begin at any point in your pregnancy. A minimum of eight classes enables you to acquire a basic ‘embodied memory’ of the key techniques. The practical usefulness of the yoga increases in proportion to the woman’s familiarity with the techniques taught, and familiarity comes through repetition and variation on a core range of practices. This is particularly important in relation to the breath-work and visualization that is the foundation of the yogic approach to gentle birth.

Unity Yoga also runs periodic Yoga for pregnancy workshops open to pregnant women and their partners and to yoga teacher who wish to learn how to make pregnant students safe in their classes.

Those who have difficulty in affording a class should discuss this with their teacher, as we have a scheme for limited numbers of non-paying students to support them in attending certain classes.

Hello Everyone!!

Following what has been a very exciting start to our Unity Yoga venture we are now coming up to our second term of classes. We will begin a new term on Wednesday November 15th and currently have spaces remaining on our Restorative Yoga class (Wednesday, 8-9.30), our Ashtanga Vinyasa class and on our Pregnancy Yoga (Wednesday, 6.15-7.45 & Saturday 10.30 - 12) classes. In order to book a place please contact us!!

We have also had the pleasure of hosting two wonderful workshops with June Durkin and Laurence O’Toole! We look forward to seeing June again in 2007 as we continue our exploration of the Scaravelli approach to yoga. We also look forward to Laurence’s next visit to Ireland when he will teach another Iyengar Yoga workshop here in Cork at Unity Yoga on the 9th of December. This is a great opportunity to explore the intricacies and subtleties of postures and how finding proper alignment can lead to deeper repose in asana. Eric Stewart will visit us from the US this December to teach a weekend long workshop from December 8-10th. This workshop entitled Yoga & Resilience will explore:
*How attention to resilience can help build deep, integral flexibility while maintaining essential stability.
*The ways in which water is essential to biological resilience, and how the body’s fluid systems are likewise essential.
*How a perspective of resilience offers insight regarding the inherent synergies of support between multiple body systems - organic, musculoskeletal, fluid, energetic - in asana and movement.
*How effort can be conducive or detrimental to resilience, and how to consciously conserve energy and direct it to best use.

We look forward to seeing you soon!!!

Aria & Daniela

NEW CLASSES

Moving Presence
Monday, 11-12.45 New 6 week course begins October 30th Cost: €84

Back Care Class
Thursday, 18.15 - 19.45 New 8 week course begins November 2nd Cost €100

NEW WORKSHOPS

INTRODUCTION TO YOGA IN THE TRADITION OF VANDA SCARAVELLI: WORKSHOP WITH JUNE DURKIN
Sunday, November 5th, 10-16.30. Cost: €50
This workshop will be suitable for both beginners and experienced practitioners. Students will have the opportunity to experience working in this approach to yoga in which style and performance fall away allowing postures to unfold from the rhythmic action of gravity and the breath. Experience an approach to yoga that involves the whole body and spine, discovering a way to practice that is powerful and deeply relaxing.
June Durkin has been teaching yoga for 25 years and runs the Rusheens Yoga Centre in Co. Kerry.

IYENGAR YOGA: WORKSHOPS WITH LAURENCE O’TOOLE
Saturday, November 11th & Saturday, December 9th from 10.00-16.00. Each workshop will cost €65. Suitable for Intermediate yoga students.
A great opportunity to explore yoga in the Iyengar tradition with an emphasis on alignment and precision in asana. Laurence is a senior Iyengar teacher who has been teaching for over 20 years. He currently runs a yoga centre in Germany and regularly returns to the Iyengar Institute in Pune to study with BKS Iyengar.

YOGA & RESILIENCE: WORKSHOP WITH ERIC STEWART
December 8th-10th.
We are very excited to announce that Eric Stewart will visit from the US to teach what promises to be a unique exploration of yoga. More information on Eric and this workshop will be sent separately.

DEVELOPING A HOME PRACTICE: WORKSHOP WITH ARIA UNGERER
Saturday, November 18th, 13.00-16.00. Suggested Donation of €30.
If you love practicing yoga but aren’t sure where to begin when you roll out your mat at home, this is the perfect workshop for you!!! We will explore different ways of sequencing Asanas as well as how and what you can practice when you have limited time.

Cork is home to many yoga teachers. Most yoga teachers rent out independent spaces such as church halls or Community Centres in which to teach. Nowadays you will also find yoga classes in your local gym or as part of any Night Class program.There are also a couple of dedicated yoga centres in Cork: Yoga Republic which specializes in Ashtanga Yoga, The Satyananda Centre which represents the Cork Satyananda contingent and now Unity Yoga.

Apart from these dedicated yoga centres, check out The Cork School of Shiatsu Teaching Rooms, Dervish (0214 278245 hungryelephant@eircom.net) and The Cork Movement Centre from which a number of yoga teachers work.

Unity Yoga is unique in Cork because we represent a variety of different traditions of yoga including Sivananda, general Hatha, Vinyasa flow, Kundalini, Ashtanga and Iyengar traditions as well as Pre-Natel yoga classes and Yoga Therapy programs. We also have a centralized booking and information system. This means that if you are interested in taking a yoga class there is just one number to phone and one of our members will help you to find the right kind of class to suit you. They will then book you in for a class, take your details and so on.

We are also dedicated to supporting you in your personal practice by providing times for self practice. The self practice sessions are open to all members of the yoga community and are run on a donation only basis. There will always be a qualified teacher present to give you individual assistance and provide you with advice if you want it. Unity Yoga also hosts a variety of weekend, and one-day workshops with different visiting teachers as well as with our Unity Yoga teachers.

Unity Yoga feels strongly that yoga should be available to everyone and as such we regularly hold free classes open to all members of the public. We are also intent on providing a scholarship fund for students who cannot afford the full cost of yoga classes and workshops.

Unity Yoga just opened at the beginning of September and already in such a short space of time, we have received amazing support and feedback. The people of Cork are truly yoga enthusiasts!! Our timetable will continue to evolve as we schedule more classes with different teachers and begin new projects so keep an eye on the website. If you would like to be added to our mailing list or texting list simply e-mail or text us and we will be happy to do so. We thank all of our students and the people who have made it possible to make this budding project work!!

Namaste!

Other helpful resources for finding a local yoga teacher:

Contemporary Yoga
Yoga Ireland
Satyananda Yoga
Kundalini Yoga

Contact Us for more details!
Unity Yoga
22 Patrick’s Hill, Cork

phone: 086 3014428

email: info@unity-yoga.net