“To go deep within and confront your inner being is a powerful act.”
YOGA
Yoga is an ancient tradition stemming from the Indus-Sarasvati civilisation in Northern India about 5000 years ago. Asana (physical poses) were just one part of the practice to prepare the body for hours of seated meditation. Today in Western cultures we are more familiar with the physical asanas than other aspects of Yoga.
The benefits of Yoga are innumerable… mental clarity, strength, flexibility, strong joints, clear skin, mindfulness, calm, stamina… practicing Yoga can change the way you move through the world, change your posture and your outlook on life, challenge you to face the difficulties in front of you day to day with an open heart and gentle spirit.
Physical asana is a wonderful way to begin to delve into the vast practice of Yoga. Especially as an artist, a consistent practice will help to bring grounding and stability into one’s life. Physical movement connected with breath helps to strengthen the body and prepare for meditation, strengthening the mind, increasing focus for performances and encouraging connection to one’s body and others around you.
ANAHATA offers Yoga classes in private and group formats. Our teacher, Bronte Carmichael, trained with Power Living Australia and teaches at different studios around Melbourne. When you come to a class with Bronte, she takes the time to get to know you as an individual and aims to help create and deepen a connection with your Self as a being in this world, and as an artist in the creative industry. Bronte is passionate about mental health and human rights, and you will always be welcomed, included, challenged and invigorated when you practice with her.
“The breath knows how to go deeper than the mind.”
MEDITATION & BREATH
Meditation is a very simple practice of quieting the mind. Simple to describe, but quite difficult to achieve. We can lead very full lives, overflowing with thought, lists, decisions, plans, memories and habitual patterning which can be detrimental to our inner state of being. By spending a few moments each day quieting the mind, listening to the breath and allowing the jumble of everyday life to settle, we train ourselves to become more present, calm, and adept in stressful situations.
The breath is a pathway into a different state of being. For an actor, breath is the base for the voice, a tool to create character, circumstance, reduce nerves, ground and balance for performance.
Breath throughout Yoga asana creates a moving meditation which connects you to your body and your Self. In Yoga, we practice Pranayama, manipulating our breath to cultivate our life force energy. It is one of the 8 pillars of Yoga and is hugely beneficial for people in the arts to practice. Paying attention to the breath can tell you many things about your current state of being, and by manipulating the breath you can practice changing your state of being. All of this comes together when you’re in a heightened state of anxiety or stress or character, and manipulating your breath becomes an accessible tool to utilise how you need.
Here at ANAHATA we hope to help you start or deepen your meditation practice. We will take time to sit in stillness, focus on breath, learn different Pranayama and breathing techniques - in private or group classes and in workshop settings!
“Meditation is for you to realise that the deepest nature of your existence is beyond thoughts and emotions, that it is incredibly vast and interconnected with all other beings.”