We were lucky enough to chat to Charlotte, head of yoga at Virgin Active and curator of our ‘Mindful Movements’ box. We spoke about how she started her yoga journey, why the mind & body are equally important in yoga and why anyone can give it a go! We are so excited that you guys will be getting to meet the lovely Charlotte in her Mindful Movements class this month… so Take 5 to get to know someone who can help start your mindful journey!
Hi, everyone, I’m Charlotte Holmes, head of yoga at Virgin Active. I am collaborating this month with Mind Body & Soil and Yogi Bare to bring you the best box yet!
Tell us about your yoga journey, what made you start?
I started my yoga journey to offset my very intense fitness regime in my late teens and early 20s. So it was very much a physical practice for me to start with. So I use to say it was a way to ”stretch out”, cant believe I’m saying that now, but yeah, the spiritual side of the journey came a lot later. But yeah, I got into it through the physical side. And there’s nothing wrong with that lots of people do get into it from that side of things. I think it’s actually a wonderful gateway into the practice.
Whats your favourite yoga position and why?
If I had to choose, it would be Child’s Pose. No malasana Yogi squat?, no i know Shavasana obviously, I don’t know. See, I can’t choose Don’t let me pick. Don’t make pick. And why can’t i? Okay, I can’t choose because for me, it’s more about a combination of all of the movement and the breath work and the mindfulness and the setting with oneself. That brings an overall feeling, and sense of being and that’s why I love yoga, rather than one particular posture.
How do you create a good space to practice yoga in?
I firmly believe that a beautiful space can help you to come to practice more often how you keep good practice. So setting up your space, well, is a good place to start. Personally, I like to fill my space with greenery with plants, the color and the calming effect that plants have, I think, really helped to bring me to my mat, my mat and my brick my props, obviously a super useful as well.
How do you find yoga helps your mind as much as your body?
Oh, well, I mean, it’s 50/50. if not more minds and body, you use the body as a as a vehicle as a tool to come to the mind, right? It’s, that’s the whole, we use the physical, Asner the shapes that we’re creating. And we observe the sensations that we’re creating in those shapes. And we observe how our breath deals with those shapes. And what we learn from that is the mindfulness practice. So yeah, it’s very much about how your mind copes with and feels after the practice during practice as it is, your body is the kind of the union of the two things I would say.
Can anyone give yoga a go? Can you tell us a bit about this months ‘Mindful Movements’ class?
Oh, yoga is for everyone. Yoga is the most accessible and inclusive practice and lifestyle of the more I mean, yeah, absolutely. We get tricked into thinking that it’s everything to do with fancy clothes and very flexible shapes. And it’s actually nothing at all to do with any of those things. So yeah, it’s definitely a practice for everyone. And I highly advise you to come along and practice with me this month, I’m going to be doing a class called mindful movements. And that’s exactly what it says on the tin. exactly what it says on the box is about how we come back to ourselves through different different movements. So yeah, come along, you might surprise yourself.
How do you use your Yogi Bare yoga block?
I use my break to sit on in easy seats. So I’m talking about my legs crossed, I sit on the bracket brings my hips a little bit higher, allows me to use to open more comfortably. The bricks are also really useful when there’s skeletal restrictions in terms of your forearm length and your shin length, for example, might mean that putting your hands on the floor with your foot between your hands is inaccessible so the brick can bring the ground to you and just bring a little bit more space. Obviously, you can’t change the shape of your skeleton or the length of your limbs so the brick is very useful. Yay for yoga blocks! Ultimately, I hope to see everyone at the mindful movements class!
Get 30% off your first MBS box and an exclusive class with Charlotte Holmes with the code: SANCTUARY30
