Yoga Life Works

At Yoga Life Works we teach Svaroopa® Yoga. This is a dramatically different and powerful style of yoga – it’s gentle and easy but profoundly healing on all levels.

Svaroopa® Yoga is not about intense stretching or about learning how to stand on your head – it’s about deep and core openings in your entire spine from your tailbone to your neck.

By using simple movements, deep breathing and full support of your body with props like blankets and blocks, you are held in precise alignment and encouraged to become more open and flexible.

Each class includes a guided awareness and relaxation, breathing and yoga poses. Svaroopa® Yoga is therapeutic and is suitable for ANY body and all levels of experience from the complete beginner to the long-term yoga practitioner.

When you practice yoga your breathing will be totally relaxed and there’s no sense of force, exertion or strain when holding the postures.

Although the poses look easy, you’ll experience a deep release, opening in your joints and a lengthening of your spine.

Svarupa (the original Sanskrit spelling) is a Sanskrit word that means knowing yourself at the deepest level of your being and because transformation is common when people practice this form of yoga, every class feels like a healing therapy.

The most common things people experience with regular Svaroopa® Yoga practice are:

ease of movement and breath
significant relief from pain
improved nervous system and immune function
enhanced body tone
profound relaxation, release of tension and emotional healing
normalises blood pressure
relief from anxiety and depression
improved sleep

We’ve been teaching gentle and easy yoga classes in Brisbane since 2007 and we’re doing something a bit different at our studio – we specialise in Yoga for older adults – generally, people over 50.

We’ve recognised and seen clearly that as we mature, our bodies have different needs and different abilities and our exercise and movements need to reflect that.

Our minds also change with age – we become more confident and sure of ourselves, more compassionate and aware and an increasing desire to look after our bodies grows.

Yoga is the perfect compliment for the busy lives of older adults and can be modified to suit your timetable and unique needs.

It will give your body greater health, wellness and flexibility and your mind, the inner world, greater peace and stillness.

 

About your teacher

Lynne Somerville
Lynne was born in Calgary, Canada and spent years working in the television communications industry.

Her travels brought her to to Australia over 35 years ago with her husband where she’s enjoyed successful businesses in the antiques industry, real estate and property investment.

She has two grown up children, Kathy and Susan.

Lynne has been teaching yoga in Brisbane for 8 years and travels annually to the United States for highly specialised ongoing training in remedial yoga therapies and teacher development.

She has over 700 hours in yoga teaching training.

I first came to yoga after a car accident in which I injured my back about 10 years ago. I tried almost every modality available to try and rid myself of the pain and nothing seemed to really help.

My journey eventually led me to my first hatha yoga class in the Svaroopa style and thought “Why am I lying here? Nothing seems to be happening! I can do this at home!” Much to my surprise, I got up after the class and felt very different.

My back was softer somehow, tingling and there was a sense of lightness and length that I’d never felt before. My pain was less than half of what it was before the class.

I went back to class again and my lower back pain continued to improve and in a matter of weeks, I was pain-free and feeling wonderful! Since then, yoga continues to help me in my daily life and grow as a person, a teacher, a wife and a mother.

My posture has improved and my sway back is a thing of the past. I stand and walk taller and my thinking is more focused and I feel more balanced and centred.

Two years ago, I was diagnosed with Emphysema. My first X-ray showed “pockets of infection” as well as the disease. The second X-ray, early last year, showed the “pockets” had disappeared—still when I practised daily our special breathing, Ujjayii Pranayama, I experienced a stabbing pain in my right lung, always in one place.

Another X-ray, late October, 2012, showed the Emphysema, although still there, was not progressing, and of course, no pain at all.

My purpose for disclosing this information, dear friends, is to be able to track the progress or trustingly, non-progress of this very debilitating disease.

I love Svaroopa® yoga and teaching yoga and I love playing a small part of the journey to better healing and happiness for my students.

Gentle and Easy Yoga in Tingalpa 

Yoga Life Works in Brisbane runs ongoing gentle and easy yoga classes and 6 week Beginner’s and Deep Relaxation yoga courses throughout the year.

The ongoing classes are general and open to any student with any level of experience.

The specialised 6 week yoga courses are designed for you to kick-start your yoga, deepen your practice, heal your body and spine and relax your mind.

Here you’ll find complete course descriptions and the outcomes and benefits you can expect from practicing yoga regularly.

Because our yoga classes are small, it’s important to book in to avoid disappointment Contact us on 0457 835 009 or email us here to book in!

Before coming to class for the first time, download, print out and fill in this registration form to bring with you: Yoga Life Works Registration Form

Yoga Class Timetable

Hello dear Yogi Friends, I’m so happy to be back and delving into yoga in 2017.

I’m excited to announce 2 upcoming 6 week Beginner’s courses, so please keep scrolling down to see the full details.

In addition to this, a weekly casual class will be resuming on Tuesday February 14, 2017.

Please note that the special offer for all new students applies only to casual classes not courses.

If you have any queries, please send me an email here

Gentle & Easy Yoga Courses & Workshops

All yoga courses are designed in six week blocks so you get the maximum benefit from your yoga.No matter where your body is at right now, there will always be a course that suits you.

We’ve found that when students come on a semi-regular basis, they get some benefits but with minimal results. Instead, we want to move you in a new and more effective way—to powerfully enhance your experience of the purpose of yoga, so you become fully embodied, relaxed, open and more alive.

Throughout the year we also teach yoga workshops to take your practice to the next level.

These workshops will dive deeply into and target a particular body part such as abdominals, upper spinal release, lower spinal release and the power of standing poses.

You’ll learn how to use your body in a new way, become more aware of the subtleties of movement that can affect you and allow experiential anatomy to guide you to a new knowledge of how your unique body works.

Testimonials

“In the past 6 weeks I have really noticed more strength and length in my body. I also feel more balanced. Can’t wait for the next group of classes! Thanks Lynne.”

“Yoga with Lynne is really subtle but profound – it’s hard to believe the kind of opening and softness that is beginning to happen in my body just from simple movements! I feel great and more alive and easy in my body than I did before I began yoga.”

“Thank you, thank you, thank you to Lynne Somerville and Yoga Life Works! I have had some serious pain from sciatica to the point where I was unable to stand for more than 15 minutes without the onset of hip and leg pain. 30 minutes and I was finished – if I didn’t sit down, I would be close to tears of pain. I did 8 sessions with Lynne and that accompanied with exercises that Lynne taught me to do at home and I am completely pain free.

Lynne, I don’t know the mechanics of what you did but I am seriously eternally grateful. I had tried many modalities including the usual western medicine and considered surgery. I also used chiropractic, massage and several eastern therapies. You and yoga were the only ones that relieved the pain permanently.”

“I came to yoga (having never done yoga before) to ease back / hip pain. I feel it is definitely helping me. I’m planning to continue for a long time!”

“Whatever tensions I have, I come away from class without them! This yoga is a weekly tune-in for myself and great exercise for my body and mind. I also find myself better able to deal with others in stressful situations in my daily life.”