purebalance Yoga offers a variety of different yoga styles from the dynamic vinyasa flow yoga, to the more meditative yin yoga, and prenatal and postnatal yoga for that ever so important time in a woman’s life. Classes are taught by an experienced and qualified teacher.
Yoga is not about being flexible. We all must start somewhere. And while initially it may just be about the benefits you feel physically after doing yoga, with time, yoga becomes much more than that and essentially a way of life. Yoga becomes, for many, a journey of self-discovery. This journey is different for every single person. For me yoga started off as a physical practice, and only later on once I could find a point of relaxation and stillness in the asanas could I experience yoga on a mind and soul level. There is no set time that this shift in experience occurs. When our practice brings to incorporate mindfulness, we start to naturally and consciously integrate it into our everyday life. We can then fully start to delve into the journey of self-discovery as the mind begins to ‘quieten’ and we live in the present moment, non-judgementally, as we experience moment to moment by paying attention purposefully.
Kate O’Halloran
I am the founder of purebalance Yoga and began practicing Astanga yoga in 2008. I fell in love with the practice instantly! I came from a very physically active background – even my degree was a Bachelor of Science with Sports Science and Nutrition. I was previously an outdoor personal trainer and also worked for a physiotherapy clinic in the rehabilitation of motor vehicle and work related accident patients. My initial views on yoga was that it was for hippies and that people would just sit or lie down on a yoga mat most of the time. Oh how wrong I was! For the first year or so it was very much a physical practice for me. There was so much to think about in every posture, and having had no experience in yoga or meditation before, I was finding it very difficult to connect the mind with the body. Your body sends you warning signals when something isn’t right. Looking back on it now, a lot of injuries that I have had in my yoga practice (not including bad adjustments), my body was warning me on that day but I wasn’t paying attention and thus became injured.
I decided to take my yoga practice and learning further and completed Level 1 Hatha Vinyasa Teacher Training course, a nationally recognised course, over two years. I wanted to do the course for two reasons; the first being that I wanted to continue to embark on my yoga journey. I wanted to know what peace and clarity was, not just on my yoga mat every morning, but off the mat as well. I wanted to connect my body with my mind and read the signals it was sending me. The second reason is because I wanted to teach others yoga and how life changing it can potentially be. All you need is dedication. – to get up and get on your mat! Everyone can do yoga, only lazy people can’t do yoga.
Sometimes, yoga isn’t about the physical practice itself. Sometimes, it is simply just lying down on your mat, tuning in to how you are feeling, and just letting your body be. My teachers have nurtured me in my yoga journey, whilst at the same time encouraged me to step over the boundaries my mind had set in place. It is this way of teaching that I will be bringing to you. Every practitioner is a student of yoga. It is a journey, a lifelong journey that I am excited to be sharing with you.
