On (what started as) a sunny Monday morning in May, I headed over to community Garden Grow Speke with a car full of yoga mats. It was our first face-to-face yoga class since March last year and part of Positive Moveology - our incentive to get people moving more and feeling better in 2021.
Over the last couple of months I’ve been guest-speaking at Sharon, Sophie and Lee’s group Zooms, delivering short movement and coaching sessions and talking about the Positive Moveology programme. After delivering a similar workshop for South Liverpool Homes, Thomas very kindly invited me to deliver an outdoor yoga class at Grow Speke.
Despite living in South Liverpool, I’d never heard of Grow Speke before and it was such a surprise to find a huge secret garden hidden on a residential street! Locals visit and volunteer there to make friends, learn new skills and improve their wellbeing. Fruit and veg is grown on site and donated to local families and the volunteers.
After teaching over Facebook and Zoom for over a year, I was really looking forward to teaching people in person. I’ve really missed the magic of the combined energy of people practicing together.
Thomas gave me a tour of the site - where everything from potatoes to kale and strawberries to chillies are grown - and told me about the volunteer-run community shop that they donate produce to. He also showed me the bee hives, which are helping to protect the local bee population and creating local honey.
Our yogis started to arrive, smiling and excited to be in each other's company. Once active and frequent visitors of community events, the pandemic had forced everyone there that day to give up their regular opportunities for movement and socialising, so this was a special moment indeed.
As we rolled out our mats and I welcomed everyone to class...the sky got darker, darker still, and then the heavens opened! Not just a light shower, but a torrential downpour of the kind we’ve seen all too often over the past couple of weeks! Thankfully we headed for the nearest polytunnel (or ‘tomato shed’ as I called it) for shelter, and with our community spirit high, moved things around so we could continue the class, dry, warm and surrounded by fruit and veg!
Practice was slow, gentle and a welcome relief to those who hadn’t moved like that in a while. A bee who had strayed from the hive landed on my mat at the start of the practice and stayed there until class ended, quite literally buzzing off our yogic vibes!
As restrictions continue to loosen and the weather improves, we hope to be meeting more of our participants face to face, both outdoors and indoors. Even if we end up in a soily tomato shed again, I’ll take that over Zoom any day!
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You can read Karen's previous blog about Positive Workology and how to sign up - HERE