Yoga Teachers
Padmadarshini
I began to practice yoga in a consistent way when I moved to Manchester in 1990 and started attending Iyengar classes. After a few years I did my initial teacher training at the Iyengar institute and began to teach classes locally. I see yoga very much as a process of enquiry, exploration and creativity and this enquiry has drawn me to study and train with various teachers over the years. In particular I am grateful to have studied with Sarah Powers, Donna Farhi and Paul Grilley who have all inspired me and given me much to play with and explore both in my own practice and in my teaching.
I believe that yoga is and should be a practice that supports us in our lives, taking into account our age, lifestyle, health - there are many tools within the practice that we can learn and adapt to meet our own individual needs. In my classes I try to share these tools and bring in different approaches. I teach both a passive/quiet yin style where we hold poses for a few minutes as well as dynamic sequences moving with fluidity and breath. Yoga is, I think, essentially an awareness practice. It has the potential to help us to reinhabit our bodies, to listen to our bodies` wisdom and to meet ourselves as we are with kindness and sensitivity.
Christine Howitt
I have been practising yoga for 22 years and teaching for the last 16. I initially studied within the Iyengar tradition and over the years have explored various methods of Yoga as well as studying Chinese medicine, which has enhanced my understanding of the body as an energetic system. These influences have gradually been integrated into a deeper understanding of the practice of Yoga and my exposure to the inspirational work of Donna Farhi has strengthened this process of understanding.
I completed Advanced Teacher Training with Donna Farhi in 2004 and have assisted Donna on her regular visits to the UK since then. In 2008, I traveled to New Zealand to assist Donna with Advanced Teacher Training. These experiences have been an important part of integrating my knowledge and understanding. My fascination with the practice of Yoga continues to inspire me and as a teacher I endeavor to share my experience with honesty and integrity making the fruits of this practice accessible to everyone.
Testimonial from Donna Farhi, author of “Yoga Mind, Body & Spirit”:
“Christine Howitt has a rare quality of quiet yet powerful presence. She is particularly perceptive in seeing a Yoga student’s key alignment issues and being able to skillfully facilitate new possibilities for ease of movement. Her teaching is grounded and supported by the clear refinement of her own Yoga practice.”
Paul Betesh
Paul has been practising yoga for over 20 years and teaching for over 10 years. He has had the benefit of some great teachers in yoga, meditation, shamanism, life, the universe and everything! He has studied Iyengar, Ashtanga, Sivanannda and Yin Yoga and more recently worked closely with Donna Farhi whose style is closest to what he is now teaching.
Although classes can be quite dynamic and will benefit in a number of ways including physical health, mental wellbeing and relaxation, the focus is more on making the whole practice a form of heightening awareness, expanding consciousness and ultimately self-realisation. This is achieved by getting to know and be comfortable with yourself both on and off the yoga mat and rather than retreating from the material world, learning to interact with the world whilst remaining in your centre.
Manjunaga
My yoga practice began in 1998 when I started attending yoga classes taught by Padmadarshini and Christine Howitt at Bodywise in Manchester. After many years of exploration in my own yoga practice, I started my teacher training with Simon Low and the Yoga Academy in 2006, qualifying in 2008. In recent years I have been particularly inspired by the work of Donna Farhi and have taken the opportunity of studying with her.
For me, yoga is an awareness practice, offering us an opportunity to become more fully embodied in our experience; this allows for a greater sensitivity to our emotional and physical well being. I teach dynamic flowing movement combined with stilling postures to experience yoga as a deepening awareness of breath, cultivating peace of mind.
I have also spent several years teaching meditation and buddhism courses and I am particularly interested in exploring qualities of stillness and spaciousness through my yoga teaching.
For more information, see Yoga classes in Manchester
Lynne-Marie
Lynne-Marie has practiced yoga and meditation for 20 years and is a British Wheel of Yoga Teacher and a Yin Yoga teacher having studied Anatomy and Physiology of Yoga, Modern Meridian Theory and Theory and Practice of Chakras Meditation with Paul and Suzee Grilley. Through asana practice Lynne-Marie endeavours to enable students to bring awareness to their practice and lives. She has developed a style focusing on health and well being and teaches at a variety of levels.
She is currently studying with Yoga for the Mind with Heather Mason.
Lynne-Marie is a Thai Yoga Massage Therapist certified by EMBODY
Lynne-Marie teaches at Bodywise and can be contacted on 07950 287 235 or via
Jane Craggs
Jane Craggs has been practising and studying yoga for 16 years and teaching for 10. She originally trained as a teacher whilst living in Spain and on her return to the UK set up Yogaspace and subsequently Manchester Yoga Shala, a collective of teachers committed to bringing authentic yoga to those who may not ordinarily have access to it. Her life is firmly rooted in the classical 8 limbed path of Patanjali's Yoga Sutras which present yoga as a way of life, honouring the cultivation of health, harmony and eventually transcendence.
She has been very fortunate to have studied with many inspirational teachers in the West, most influentially, Donna Farhi with whom she completed advanced teacher training in 2005 and she regularly visits India to reconnect to the source of the classical teachings. She has most recently been studying with AG Mohan and his wife Indra in India. After many years of being strongly influenced by their work, she finally experienced their incredible clarity and authenticity first hand and continues to put into practice what she has learnt with them. Theirs is the yoga of Sri Krishnamacharya via the Yoga sutras of Bhagavan Patanjali. It teaches a simple and accessible practice which can be applied to the individual for peace of mind and a healthy body. Everyone can practice this form of yoga and the emphasis on individual practice means it is particularly useful in a therapeutic context.
Jane is also currently undergoing ongoing training in Ayurveda under the auspices of Robert Svoboda and the Ayurvedic Institute of Albuquerque. She has also spent time in India studying and training in therapeutic treatments. Ayurveda supports the journey towards health and peace and along with Yoga is a powerful system of returning body and mind to a balanced state. Jane’s teaching of Yoga and Ayurveda is rooted in the compassionate wisdom of the sutras and she passes on the teachings in a gentle, supportive way allowing each individual space to experience the practices in their own time. She welcomes everyone to her classes especially those with pre-existing medical conditions, physical or mental.
For more information, see Jane's website