Comments from past and present participants

"Meditation and mindfulness in thought and movement helps connect with a deeper place. Think of the ocean. You stand by the shore and look out; you see waves, the surface. Splashing, frothing, big waves, little waves. You might think that the ocean is just waves. But beneath the waves is the sea, deep, still, deeper and stiller; fish, plankton, currents, seaweed. In our daily lives, we splash and froth at the surface - we are focused on the surface with all its energy-consuming problems - he did that, she said this, what's in my pay packet, do I want a new car? But get beneath it and there's something still, much bigger. A happy place, just sitting there waiting for us. A place for calm, insight and intuition. Suddenly the world is bigger, all things are connected, and the waves are calmer."

"For me, the classes and mediation practice have meant the discovery of something truly wonderful, and of gradually being able to say goodbye to most of my anxious and negative thoughts and feelings. Now that I have stronger foundations, when life seems hard, somewhere deep inside I know that everything will be OK. It is hard to describe something that has had such a profound effect on the way I experience this universe and my place within it."

"I have slowly realized the effects of our minds on our bodies, and vice versa. How learning to let go of negative emotions and physical tensions in the body can be so liberating, and in turn so energizing. What started as a weekly evening class has totally transformed my life. It is one of the richest and most valuable journeys I have ever undertaken. Now I find that I am on a journey of awakening and becoming more truly alive, and on a much more defined spiritual path. I feel more in unity with the world around me. That is a joyous experience. Recently I have been on some retreats, and this has only accelerated this awakening and growth, and my desire to learn even more!"

"Mala imaginatively guides the class in exploring for themselves, in a variety of practical/physical ways, the qualities of different feelings, mind states and physical responses to the world around us."

"I've discovered new things about my body and I've learnt to tune into it, as well as other people, in a much more subtle way. I've also realised how much I can ignore my body and take it for granted. I love following the movement that my body suggests to me and being surprised by what I learn when this happens. I feel supported in the group to explore and follow the spontaneous movement of my body, this is wonderful, joyful, sometimes scary but never embarrassing."

"I find the greatest challenge in life is to be present within oneself, as the events of life unfold, made even harder by the hectic pace and fragmentary nature of the age we live in. But at least, through our attempts to meditate, our ever-fragmentary make-up is revealed, and we can see the sense of not trying to control anything. The classes take me back to the heart of things."