A long hot weekend at Hourne Farm
Thurs. 6 June to Sun 9 June 2002

I arrived on the Thursday afternoon, it was cold and foggy, it felt more like November rather than June. Thankfully the group generated a lovely warmth, a healing warmth so we were not affected by the weather.

The group of 15 contained some old and new faces and always a delight to spent time at Hourne Farm. It was good to enjoy the extra day, a weekend always feel too short, so time to develop our yoga and taste some healing toning work by Jasmine Dawson.

Hourne Farm

Since the 70's Peter and Vin Rendal have worked tirelessly to create a wonderfully peaceful centre and it is hard to believe London is so close. As always we were made welcome, special thanks also to George and Pauline for their help. Food this weekend was by Martin and delicious to thanks to him.

Narayani and I enjoyed looking at some challenging postures, a flowing standing sequence in which we all found our edges of flexibility.

We also enjoyed some partner work which really push us to face our fears and trust it would be ok.

On the Sat lunchtime Jasmine arrived and in the afternoon we did some voicework. The power of this work was apparent to everyone, it can not be seen or touched but the healing quality of sound could not be denied. It gave me a strong reminder that this world is so much more than just the physical one.
After some blissful sound baths the session came to a close and we drifted off to catch some late afternoon sun. On the Sat evening we had a session in which we placed healing hands on joints around the body and a variety of other treatments were given.
One of the joys for me in these weekends away are the workshop sessions of yoga we have time to indulge in. In a weekly class, the balance of the programme, working the body and mind, is all important. In a workshop environment there is time to look in some detail at specific sequences or postures and peel away some layers of understanding. Narayani and I explored the standing flow sequence (pictured above) with the introduction of a tricky standing balance in which the hip joint was tested.

Positioning the pelvis in space was a real test of perception and freedom in muscles. Balancing always brings questions to the surface...
...how do I deal with failure?
...how do I deal with success?
...do I have any idea where my leg is in space?

The beauty of a workshop is there is time for these questions to formulate and percolate, time to see ourselves as we truly are, real yoga.
The physical yoga finished with some partner work, it was great fun. Trusting to balance the weight of your partner was not simple. The moment of letting go was special, powerful strength replacing tension, a miraculous transformation.

The final posture was an interesting version of partisan shown below.

The posture appears daunting, once in the posture the experience is so different from the projection. What an important lesson that is for us all.

Sunday finished with a session in the round oast house meditation room.
A healing circle and a moving final song from Jas 'How I love YOU' ended our time together
So a big thank you to Martin the cook, everyone at Hourne Farm, Jas and Narayani for sharing their skills and to all who came along.

spring at Hourne Farm

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