Keeping Good Mental Health

It's hard to remember how life was a month ago. On March 22nd, we trialled our first online yoga classes. That day, the national cabinet met and declared that all yoga studios were required to close. So our "trial" became the beginning of the new normal. We made some big decisions in a short space of time. There was one decision that was different to some other yoga studios. We decided to move all classes online, keeping our timetable running (almost exactly) as it was. (We did make one small change - the before work classes moved to be earlier so that people could do the class from home, then leave for work).  Keeping the timetable means you can keep your routine. When so much has changed in such a short space of time, it helps to have some things that haven't changed. Your 7pm Tuesday class is still a 7pm Tuesday class, still with the same people, it's just conducted online now.  A quick search for good mental health during lockdown shows numerous articles advising what we should do to stay mentally well right now. Every article that I looked at included routine and structure as an important pillar for good health. Looking at just this one example, https://www.forbes.com/sites/alicegwalton/2020/03/22/9-mental-health-practices-to-maintain-or-begin-during-coronavirus-lockdown/#435c37934264, it lists 9 practices for good mental health during lockdown.

It's interesting to see how well yoga fits the bill:

• Have a routine (as much as you can)

• Start an at-home exercise routine

• Get outside—in nature—if you can

• Declutter your home

• Meditate, or just breathe

• Maintain community and social connection

• Be of service, from a distance

• Practice gratitude

• Let yourself off the hook

Several of these good mental health practices are innate in yoga - routine, exercise, meditation, breathing, gratitude, not being too hard on yourself. What about community and social connection? Maintaining community and social connection is innate in yoga at the studio; less so online. We'd like to ask you to collectively help us build our online yoga community. We are introducing these inititatives:

• Fortnightly Friday night discussion group. 7:30pm.

• Weekly Sunday evening sitting meditation.  8-8.30pm with an opportunity for social chat in the 15 minutes before and the 15 minutes after.

Book for these on the reservations page as you would for a normal class. Both sessions are free community sessions. https://penrithyogastudio.punchpass.com/classes