Stretch, Relax and Meditate (Term 4)

What's it all about?

Meditation is one of the easiest and most powerful things we can do to support our physical, emotional, and mental wellbeing. It is the ultimate stress management technique - when we meditate, we release tension from the mind by moving our focus away from our scattered thoughts, worries and concerns and gently directing our attention onto our chosen meditation practice.

Traditionally, meditation is practiced as a way of calming the mind, so we can experience the deep sense of inner peace that is within us all but is so often covered over by emotions, thoughts, and general busy-ness in the mind, then we can engage in our everyday lives more attuned to our inner sense of calm and ease.

Of course, the benefits of meditation have been experienced for eons, but nowadays, meditation has been researched extensively, and been shown to be beneficial in so many ways, including reducing feelings of stress and anxiety, reducing blood pressure, enhancing our concentration, attention span and memory, helping us manage pain, sleep better, and in general, feel happier and more connected.

What do we cover?

Classes start with gentle accessible movement to release tension and prepare the body. We will then move to a lying down guided deep relaxation practice followed by seated guided breathing exercises and meditation.

Guidance will also be available for those interested in developing a home meditation practice.

Stretch, Relax and Meditate is open to complete beginners as well as experienced meditators.

Who will be teaching?

Chitra Stern has been teaching Yoga and meditation since 1989, in Australia, India and the USA. She has trained with the Gita School of Yoga in Melbourne and with Integral Yoga in the USA, and is certified to teach Beginners, Intermediate, Advanced and Pre-natal/post-partum Integral Yoga Hatha classes. She has also completed Integral Yoga Stress Management Teacher Training and has trained with Amy Weintraub, completing level 1 and 2 Yoga for Depression teacher trainings. Chitra is also a Level 1 Integral Yoga teacher trainer. Her focus in Yoga is on opening to our natural inner peace, freedom and joy by letting go of competition, accepting and enjoying ourselves as we are, being present in the moment and having fun!

Term 4 Information

Stretch, Relax and Meditate (Term 4) will run on a Tuesday night from 6:30pm until 7:15pm between Tuesday 4th October and Tuesday 13th December 2022. Please note there is no class on Tuesday 1st November due to the Melbourne Cup public holiday.

Please bring your own mat, pillow and blanket.