Mission:
Opening doors to something deeper
A Mission workshop taught by Mission teachers gives students a chance to unpack a particular skill, technique or posture, and linger a bit longer than you would in a regular class. A workshop is a chance to explore and to ask questions. They are generally taught on a Friday night or at the weekend, giving students more time to sink in, reflect and learn.
Saturday 9th December: 2-4pm
£40
Action in Sanskrit is Karma. Karma carries the notion the fruit of your actions comes back to you, you can’t escape the consequence of your actions. There is always a cause and effect, for every action has a reaction, for every choice has a consequence. The cause behind your current situation is said to be your past Karma. This way of practice is seeing that life is not just happening to you, it is happening for you. That you’re a sum total of all your choices and actions. That your current life is a continuation of the past.
Yoga becomes a creative, dynamic activity that you can refine the physical, energetic and mental bodies and gain the ability to spontaneously manoeuvre without hesitation to take make things happen. We discover, in this practice, that to accomplish one’s intentions there has to be effort, practice and exertion, empowered by loving-awareness which is said to be our true nature.
This workshop is open to everybody and includes Vinyasa Practice, Lecture & Discusssion, Pranayama Kriyas, Mudras and Meditation.
Friday 15th – Sunday 17th December
£50 each or £225 for full weekend
Leslie’s teaching is rooted in the individualized perspective of his teacher T.K.V. Desikachar, which honors every person’s unique structure, condition and history. From this training, Leslie developed his anatomically-informed, breath-centered approach to teaching and practicing yoga. That means he avoids formulaic systems of observation or prescription when it comes to asana analysis.
During this weekend workshop he will lead participants in asana and breath practices with a strong focus on personal inquiry.
There will also be discussion and lecture/demo, but Leslie always makes sure people move and have the chance to embody what they are learning about.
These workshops are open to everybody.
Monday 1st January: 10.00am-12.00pm
£40 (in-person & online)
The only constant is change.
Bad news — there’s a good chance your new year’s resolution is going to fail! In a world world fixated on achievement and outcome, the desire to do more, be better, be the best, get it now, can often lead to disappointment, disillusionment and despair.
The Bhagavad Gita is an ancient Indian text and a source of yoga wisdom that speaks of karma, or action.
“You have a right to perform your prescribed duties, but you are not entitled to the fruits of your actions.” (Chapter 2, Verse 7)
“On this path no effort is wasted, nor is there any danger of adverse effects. Even a little practice of this Yoga protects one from great fear.” (Chapter 2, Verse 40)
We move cyclically through this world — it might sometimes feel like you are chasing your own tail, repeating the same patterns over and over. But once on the path, everything you do (or don’t do) is in service of your liberation. We are spiralling upwards, whether we realise it or not.
Everything could change completely with your next breath. So begin 2024 by showing up to yourself. Embrace change, practise, work hard, breathe and expect nothing.
This workshop is a powerful, fun, uplifting vinyasa practice to clear your mind and keep you revolving and evolving.
Everyone, no matter where you are in your practice, is welcome!
Monday 1st January: 12.30-2.30pm
£40 (in-person & online)
Yang Bang Yin Ting. Rock(et) ‘n’ Roll out the New Year this Jan 1st with a rejuvenating two-hour practice of Yang to Yin moving meditation.
The first half will be a dynamic 4-Beat flow, the second half finding stillness and calm through the mindful practice of Yin. Take it up, then take it down and find balance in between.
Sweat out 2023 and breathe in 2024.
This workshop is open to everybody.
Monday 1st January: 2.00-4.00pm
£40 (in-person & online)
Join Marion for a two-hour exploration on how to amp up the pleasure in your yoga practice through conscious pranayama, asana techniques and spherical movements. Marion will build heat, stir things up and potentiate through the lens of Katonah Yoga in ways that are practical and accessible no matter your level of experience.
In this workshop, you’ll learn how to seasonally adapt your practice by diving into the water element of winter, as referenced by traditional Chinese Medicine. You’ll move through water salutations, lots of hangs and fluid asana aimed at flushing the kidneys, opening up and moving between hip opening and shoulder opening to release tension around the two largest joint systems. Come learn how to set up the conditions that allow us to be left alone, and make your seat feel comfortable! You’ll leave feeling recalibrated, imaginative, sexy and breezy.
All levels welcome.
Friday 5th January: 5.30-7.00pm
Friday 12th January: 5.30-7.00pm
£25 each
Mission is a safe space. We also recognise that the people in a room can significantly impact the experience of the practice. And so we would like to offer a time and a place exclusively for those who identify as women to gather and share their movement practice.
We will begin by hosting a series of workshops, each workshop can be booked individually, the first of which will be based on the Hot Bikram Yoga method of 26 postures and 2 breathing exercises. This classic set sequence is open to all levels of practice and is both accessible to complete beginners as well as those with an experienced practice.
These women’s workshops will be run by Sindy Haque, a teacher with 15 years experience teaching yoga of various styles to people of all ages, genders and backgrounds. Throughout her career, Sindy has often been asked to hold a space just for women, and Mission is delighted to help make that happen. Sindy comes from a Muslim family and so understands from personal experience the desire for a women-only space. (Her relatives are particularly excited to join the class!)
Please email info@mission-e1.com if you have any additional questions about the class.
Saturday 6th January: 12.30-2.30pm
£40
A Daoist Flow New Year’s Workshop
The Dao De Jing, the foundational text of Daoism, says, “Nothing in the world is as soft and yielding as water, yet for dissolving the hard and inflexible, nothing can surpass it.”
Water is the element associated with the winter season in the Chinese Five Element theories. It’s a time of deep rest, storing nourishment, and replenishing our reservoirs before the creativity and busy-ness of spring. In this workshop, we will dive into the rich dimensions of water and our fluids, and look at how we can invite our bodies – which are comprised of up to 70 percent fluids – to flow into 2024 with the soft, yielding strength of water. An active practice of vinyasa yoga, qigong and somatic work will be followed with a deep relaxation to close, leaving you rested and ready for the year ahead.
The workshop will include:
Students will leave with:
This workshop is suitable for everyone.
Sunday 7th January: 3-5.15pm
£40
We are pleased to invite you to our third 4beat-Yin-Sound event – this time a New Year special workshop at our favourite home Mission.
Start your year on a high with some pranayama, leading into a 4 beat yang flow and into our Yin and gong experience to close. Let go of the festive season and tune into the New Year ahead through this transformative experience we have designed specifically this occasion.
All levels welcome – see you there!
Friday 12th January – 16th February
5.45 – 7pm
£108
Are you ready to take your handstands to the next level? This six-week course will teach you how to press to handstand — the Rolls Royce of handstands.
The press is one of the most beautiful, elegant and poised ways to enter a handstand. It’s also a complex move that combines technique, strength and flexibility. During this course we look into how YOU and YOUR body can press to handstand. We will examine what you are missing, and give you effective drills to gracefully and effortlessly press into handstand.
We will work on press from straddle, tuck, and pike.
Pre-requisites: 1) Confident kicking up to a handstand against the wall, and 2) confident practising a handstand with the chest facing the wall
Sunday 21st January: 12.00-5.45pm
£100
As we “reach in” to our bodies and ourselves we enter into an energised, transformative space waiting to be awakened. This space — which we call The Source — represents a fundamental origin of intelligence, a source where the alchemy of insight occurs.
Experience shows that this awakened source is prolific in the group setting when group energy and awareness pervades the space between us. As we open the group field together, we will be reminded that transformation is not that far away as conditioned patterns dissolve.
This workshop engages physical sensation to invite change on all levels. Using simple exercises that harness the pull of the earth, silence, energy and our sense of totality we will deepen our understanding and celebrate the indivisibility and power of our ultimate re-source.
‘The art of magic is the ability to shift from one state of consciousness to another.’ (Dion Fortune)
This workshop is open to everybody.
John Stirk is a yoga teacher and author with a background in osteopathy. He has been teaching and running courses for more than 40 years in the UK and internationally. He has published several books, notably The Original Body, Primal movement for Yoga Teachers, (2015) and Deeper Still, Authentic Embodiment for Yoga Teachers (2021).
Friday 26th January: 6-8pm
£40
Afrikan Yoga: Movement and Stretching with a Partner
Practising yoga with a partner is an expression of Meri (love) where there is both giving and receiving. But it is our inner self who is our true soulmate. We often project this idea out of the inner-self to an external person. Our cultivation in yoga often is solitary, but the deeper teachings of yoga reveal that we are all truly connected. It’s engagement with the inner self that ultimately teaches us this unity.
This workshop explores movement and flow and holding postures with a partner who represents the inner self. Our approach is gentle and nurturing, warm, calming and reassuring. Just as we expect from our inner self who “has our back,” we give and receive in Meri – Love
Our partner TWIN/Soul is with us to challenge us, push us on, and inspire us to stretch beyond our limitations and to discover how to be and express love beyond the limitations of our human understanding.
You can bring a partner with you, or come alone and partner with someone at the workshop.
Sunday 28th January: 12.30-6.30pm
£200
This unique live workshop for women and their birthing partners is informative, practical and confidence-building. Knowledge is power and you will gain a good understanding of physiological birth and how to cooperate with and encourage this innate and evolved process to flow.
Your environment has an enormous influence on the way you birth and Lolly pays particular attention to educating your partner on how to hold and protect your space.
She will draw on her many years as a doula, yoga teacher, certified hypnobirther and childbirth educator to provide you with the tools for working together before and during the birth. You will learn how to release tension and fear though education, breathwork, visualisation, movement and massage.
You will be given reading references and leaflets for additional information as well a hypnobreathing script. Across the six-hour session we will look at:
There will be a maximum of 10 couples attending this workshop, giving time for individual questions. Ideally, this workshop should be taken in the third trimester of pregnancy, but it can be taken at any time.
A FREE online Yoga for Pregnancy with Lolly is offered as part of this workshop. These classes take place online through www.mother-time.co.uk on Thursday evening 19:00-20:30 and will complement and embed the benefits of the workshop. To claim your free class please email contact@mother-time.co.uk and a copy of your Mission booking confirmation and we will send you the link to Lolly’s class.
Lolly Stirk is a pioneer in her field. She began studying yoga in 1970 and with the birth of her daughter in the 70’s she was drawn into the world of birth. Her career has spanned over four decades and has been dedicated to creating the ideal practise for labour, birth and beyond. She trained as an NCT teacher, is a qualified hypnobirther of many years and has attended hundreds of births in the capacity of Doula. As a founding member of the Active Birth Movement in 1980, she trained scores of Active Birth Teachers and campaigned for the rights of women to move freely during the births of their babies. This contributed to a global movement towards natural births which resulted in changes in policy, establishing birth centres in many major hospitals. Lolly has lectured to obstetricians, midwives and midwifery students in hospitals on physiological birth and breathwork. Lolly remains and has always been grateful for the safety net of modern medicine and technology when necessary. She also believes wholeheartedly in the capacity of women to give birth ‘on their own steam’ given the right environment and education, both physical and intellectual.
Saturday 3rd February: 12.30-2.30pm
£40
Imbolc marks the very, very beginning of spring.
February 1 sits at the half-way point between the winter solstice and the spring equinox. The land may lie dormant and winter may still show her fangs, yet at her depth the Earth is preparing for a new cycle. It’s a time to get ready. It’s a time to implement the foundation of the blueprint. It’s a time to lay the cornerstone for the energy of 2024, which bears the numerology of the warrior.
In this Integrated Kundalini workshop, discover the synergy between our personal kundalini energy that lies at the base of our spine, the stirring earth energy at this time and the numerology of the year.
Using a potent yoga kriya, mantra and meditation we will empower our master plan with subtle creative force and reap the benefits dovetailing with the energy of the land. You’ll come away with insight into the numerology of the year 2024 and how it could affect your life. But most of all, you’ll gain a deeper understanding of your kundalini life force energy.
This workshop is suitable for everyone.
Saturday 9th March: 12.30-2.30pm
£40
Join James Rafael and Jean Hall for a two-hour Daoist Flow workshop exploring the interconnectedness of breath, movement and intention.
Daoist Flow takes inspiration from yoga, qigong, somatics and natural movement with the underlying intention to touch in on our innate qualities of easy and wisdom. It begins from the understanding that everything is part of the whole, a belief found within both Yoga and Daoist traditions. Using the transformative nature of the breath and movement, we will explore ways to release tension, to source support and to nurture balance, By doing so, we may rediscover our inner strength and resilience.
In this workshop we will explore:
Students will leave with a deeper, embodied understanding of:
This workshop is suitable for everyone.
Friday 12th – Tuesday 16th July
Kino is returning to Mission to teach a series of workshops in July 2024.
More information about individual workshops, and booking links can be found here.
Friday July 12
18:00 – 20:00 The Hidden Mysticism of Yoga
Saturday July 13
10:30 – 12:30 Led Full Primary Series
13:30 – 15:30 True Strength
Sunday July 14
9:00 – 11:00am Mysore
12:00 – 14:00 Yin and the Subtle Body
Monday July 15
10:00am – 12:00pm Mysore
13:00 – 15:00 Yoga Methodologies: Hands-on Assists, Asana Technique
Tuesday July 16
10:00am – 12:00pm Mysore
13:00 – 15:00 Yoga Methodologies: Injury Prevention and Healing, Subtle Practices, Accessibility
