Individually adapted for each student
Paula Hanlon has been practicing yoga for 30 years.
After the first few years of practicing yoga, she came across Viniyoga which is a very holistic approach to yoga that places a big emphasis that the practices should be individually tailored to each person depending on their stage in life and their health and experience.
Viniyoga means appropriate application. So a Viniyoga teacher has the responsibility to adapt the practices to each individual.
This means that a Viniyoga teacher may teach very gentle practices to someone who is older, and also teach more dynamic and challenging practices for someone who is younger and more fit.
Paula studied on a one-to-one basis for 10 years with Hanne Gillespie who was the most experienced Viniyoga teacher in Ireland and a very dedicated and inspirational teacher.
The flowing movements are coordinated with the breath helps to bring one’s awareness inwards rather than trying too hard to achieve particular shapes in postures.
Sequences are designed with a specific purpose in mind, such as reducing stress, improving sleep, or addressing a particular health issue.
Paula was so inspired by yoga that she introduced a daily yoga practice a couple of years later, and it has stayed as a central core of her own life. Yoga is now very much a part of her daily life.
Paula undertook her first yoga hatha teacher training with the Yoga Therapy and Training Centre that lasted for 1 ½ years and she qualified in 1999.
This was where Paula first came across meditation which gave her a sense of grounded-ness which ultimately leads to peace, a connectedness with oneself and also ones connection with the external world.
The practice of meditation allows the breath to slow down and for one to become aware of the space between the thoughts and ultimately leads to a more calm and peaceful mind… trusting in oneself and being within the present moment.
A couple of years later Paula undertook a second 750 hour teacher training with Sadhana Mala in the UK.
Part of this training included teaching students and Paula loved every moment of it. She really enjoyed sharing the joy of yoga with new students, and her love of yoga inspired many of them to go more deeply into the practice themselves.
Paula began to practice pranayama (breath-work) more seriously in 2007 as part of her teacher training with Sadhana Mala. As with all genuine breath-work training, this is undertaken in a very careful and slow gradual practice, where one monitors and keeps a journal of one’s everyday practice.
Many of the ancient yogic texts were written in Sanskrit. Paula undertook a deep study of Sanskrit which allowed her to read the original texts such as the Yoga Sutra and Bhagavad Gita in their original language which allows one get in touch with subtle connotations which can be lost when one translates these texts into English.
She has also undertaken training in Vedic Chanting, which is the oral recitation of Sanskrit hymns from the ancient scriptures known as the Vedas.
Class Approach
Paulas teaches Hatha yoga that is very much informed by her training and experience of Viniyoga.
Viniyoga is a very holistic approach to yoga that places a big emphasis that the practices should be individually tailored to each person depending on their stage in life and their health and experience.
She looks after each person in the class, and gives instructions and variations to each person so that the practice is adapted to the individual, rather than each person being expected to adapt to the practice.
She places a large emphasis on the breath, and her classes are adapted to be suitable for all the individuals in the class.
For younger students who are fit and able Paula will guide them through some challenging sequences coordinated with the breath. And for older people, less emphasis is placed on the physical, and and more about using the breath to inform the pace of movement.
Paula encourages her students to use their awareness of their own breath to inform them whether they should be practicing more gently, or whether their
Paula focuses on correct positioning of the body according to the individual. Alignment is important but first she looks at the person to see how she can make the posture work for them rather than the person having to “fit” into a yoga pose.
Her classes will allow you to tune inwards and get in touch with your inner self. Through the practices you will feel t hat you feel fitter, stronger, more flexible and healthier and therefore will have a better sense of self and a more confident positive body image.
When practiced regularly and over time, yoga and meditation will work on the deeper more subtle aspects of ourselves as a whole, such as a greater self awareness, a sense of acceptance and an increasing understanding of how we can inhabit and interact with the world and being open to how the world interacts with us on every level of our being.
