Kate Stannard has practised Yoga since 2001 and became a certified Level 1 & 2 Iyengar Yoga Teacher in 2007. She visits India regularly to study Yoga and Ayurveda and is currently going through her junior intermediate level teacher training.
Alongside her yoga teaching, kate works as a personal trainer, fitness instructor, sports remedial massage therapist and Mountain Leader.
Before moving to the lake district she lived and worked in Glasgow for 16 years as a performer, director and lecturer in performance and movement at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (RCS).
For more info on classes & dates visit the What’s on Page
Or Email: katestannard@gmail.com
Kate’s website can be found at katestannardyoga.com
The true value of a yoga practice
” Most new students who come to yoga tell me the main reason they want to start is because they feel stiff and want to become more flexible. They are maybe talking about their bodies, but it’s often also true of our behaviours and mindsets. We get stuck, stiff and ridged in our mental & emotional patterns as well as our physical patterns.
Sometimes we know this about ourselves sometimes we don’t, it doesn’t matter, Starting a yoga practise will bring an awareness of all these habits to the student. So we may start because we want to change one thing…..e.g “become more flexible “ then realise Flexibility without the strength to support it will eventually result in injury.
And realise ….Strength without the flexibility to support it will eventually result in injury.
Then also realise ….. The yoga postures (asanas) develop both simultaneously.
Then we realise it’s not just parts of our body that feel stuck, it’s parts of our mindsets / emotional patterns / daily habits too.
We realise our minds never stops chattering and we thought that was normal but now realise it’s not. And it’s getting worse as suddenly we have more choices to make then ever before and more stimulation from technology than ever before. We spend huge amounts of our lives trying to decide things or worrying about the past decisions we have made or the future decisions we have to make.
Too much thinking ( and too much of anything ) is not a good thing. The goal of yoga is not to be able to stand on your head or touch your toes. The goal of Yoga is to settle the fluctuations of the “citta” mind, by ironing out the creases of the body. …… And when those waves calm down, suddenly the water feels, looks and becomes something very different.
This is how we move towards samadhi. ” –
Kate Stannard – May 2018