Award Winning Business; Sadhana Yoga and Pilates has been awarded Best Health and Well-being Business( Female Business Awards 2022)
My birth name is Sadhana Ali, which in Sanskrit means a spiritual journey and it is with this principal that I share all my classes to all bodies and any body. My Bangladeshi heritage has given me the opportunity to share the principles of Mindful Movement since I started teaching in 2005.
My love of Anatomy and mechanics of the body allows each person a pathway to find joy in the body using safe and effective holistic exercies.
I came to Pilates in 2000 when I seriously damaged my shoulder, and after two extensive operations I was told that I may never be able to have full use of my left arm again. This was devastating news to me especially as I was preparing to teach Yoga and Pilates, so I turned to my books and read about the philosophical aspects of Yoga as well as starting my studies in Anatomy & Physiology. I soon realised that the body is just a body but when we have respect, understanding and compassion for the body using breath, and mindfulness we are slowly able to heal ourselves.
Due to my injury I was turned away from several Yoga and Pilates classes as the teachers were unable to offer me any advice or modifications for the exercises and postures leading me to feel ‘not good enough’ to take part in the classes.
This feeling of inadequacy made me determined to make my own classes accessible for all bodies and any body.
I started Sadhana Yoga and Pilates in 2005.
I have never had any levels to my classes. The student works with breath and mindful movement to take the classes at their own pace and enjoy their body regardless of what limitations we may have.
This mindfulness approach can help us to see Yoga and Pilates as less of a ‘goal’ oriented practice which often leads to anger and frustration and more of a loving-kindness practice so that we can enjoy and accept what we think we need or desire.
I encourage people to use their breath to enter into a state of dhyana and dharana (concentration and internal focus) which can lead us into a beautiful state of being free from the ego self (samadhi to moksha) to allow a sense of joy and peace in the internal bodies. All classes are shared with joy and acceptance (Jnana Yoga).
My own practice tries to follow the ethics and principles of the ‘eight-fold’ path which gives us ‘guidelines’ on how to live a purposeful, joyous and meaningful life. A very brief outline is mentioned below:
- Yama – Ethical Disciplines
- Niyama – Self Observation
- Asana – Physical Form
- Pranayama – Breath Practices
- Pratyahara – Looking Within
- Dharana – Focused Attention
- Dhyana – Meditation
- Samadhi – A state of joy and peace
A few of my Favorite Words
“Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.”
Buddha
The time will come when, with elation you will greet yourself arriving at your own door, in your own mirror
and each will smile at the other’s welcome,
and say, sit here. Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was your self. Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart to itself, to the stranger who has loved you
all your life, whom you ignored for another, who knows you by heart. Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,
the photographs, the desperate notes, peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.
Love after Love by Derek Walcott
“..If I invented a book that listed every word in every language
It wouldnt be a very useful book,
but you could hold it and know that
everything you could possibly say
was in your hands.”
Extract taken from book by Jonathan Safran-Foer “Extremly loud and Incredibly Close”.
Before you speak ask yourself
is it kind
is it necessary
is it true
does it improve on the silence?
Satya, Truth …Sai Baba
Songshan Mountain China © Sadhana Yoga PicturesBelieve nothing, no matter where you read it
or who said it
unless it agress with your own reason and your own commonsense
Buddha
Inhale and God approaches you
Hold the inhale and God remains with you
Exhale and you approach God
Hold the Exhale
and you surrender to God
Krishnamarcharya
Are you fleeing from Love because of a single humiliation?
What do you know of Love except the name?
Love has a hundred forms of pride and disdain,
and is gained by a hundred means of persuasion.
Since Love is loyal, it purchases one who is loyal:
it has no interest in a disloyal companion.
The human being resembles a tree; its root is a covenant with God:
that root must be cherished with all one’s might.
A weak covenant is a rotten root, without grace or fruit.
Though the boughs and leaves of the date palm are green,
greenness brings no benefit if the root is corrupt.
If a branch is without green leaves, yet has a good root,
a hundred leaves will put forth their hands in the end.
Rumi
Yo mam pasyati sarvatra
Sarvam ca mayi pasyati
Tasyaham na pranasyami
Sa ca me na pranasyati
For one who sees me everywhere and sees everything in me
I am never lost
Nor is he ever lost to me
Bhagavad Gita 6: 30
Moved into one
stillness and being
frame by frame
breath by breath
we departed
prana no more
apana no more
death became
we submerged
into one
Sadhana Ali
