About
Leading artists craft works for every smallroom yoga class, so that you can experience greater presence and connection.
smallroom yoga blends asana, breath, and sound, to support your physical and mental wellbeing. Sound and yin yoga asana both provide opportunities to practise ‘deep listening’, which can cultivate presence, self-enquiry, and self-compassion. For this reason, smallroom yoga has engaged leading artists to design music for each of their individual classes, so you can experience a deeper meditative practise.
What is yin yoga? As a counterpart to ‘yang’ yoga which targets muscles and the cardiovascular system (think hatha and vinyasa), yin yoga targets avascular areas such as joints and connective tissue. The basic tenets of a yin posture are: to find 70% of your maximum sensation, to relax the muscles around the target area, and to hold the posture for long enough to provide a healthy amount of stress on the connective tissue. During a posture, it is important to ‘sit with’ sensations, thoughts and emotions which arise, rather than trying to push them out of consciousness. For this reason, the practise can be especially therapeutic and challenging for people who fill their waking moments with tasks, and avoid time alone with themselves.
What will I need for my home practice? Find a quiet, warm space where you feel comfortable, set up a mat or a rug, and maybe dim the lights.
Use good speakers or quality wireless headphones so you can get the most out of the sound.
Some postures require a block or a bolster, but there are plenty of substitutes you can find around your home. If you don’t have a block, a small stack of books can work well. A good substitute for a bolster is a nice firm pillow.
Who is yin suitable for? Because if requires little balance, strength or cardiovascular fitness, yin yoga is suitable for many people, especially those who are new to yoga. If you are pregnant, you already have relaxin in your body, so please take care, get the go-ahead from your healthcare professional first, and stick to the gentle, restorative postures. smallroom videos are designed for a home practice, and so you are wholly responsible for what happens on your mat. Consult your healthcare professional before undertaking any classes, and never work in to sharp pain.
Acknowledgment of Country
We call on the deep and the deep calls on us - Miriam Rose Ungunmerr-Baumann
smallroom yoga videos are filmed and produced on the lands of the Wurundjeri people and I wish to acknowledge them as Traditional Owners, and recognise their continuing connection to land, waters and culture. I wish to pay my respects to their Elders, past, present, and emerging.
First Nations people in Australia have practiced deep listening, sometimes called ‘Dadirri’, for thousands of years. A skill considered to have great healing capacity, Dadirri has been described as inner quiet, stillness, awareness, waiting, and respectfully listening to the land.
Georgia Ioakimidis-MacDougall
Georgia is a freelance artist and yoga instructor based in Melbourne. She completed three years at the Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM) on horn, and holds a Bachelor of Music Performance from Melbourne University, and a Master of Music Research from Griffith University. Georgia has worked with many of the Australian orchestras including Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, and Orchestra Victoria. She has also been active in commissioning and presenting works by Australian and international artists, most close to her heart, The Window by Liza Lim, dedicated to her now husband Callum G’Froerer. In 2015, Georgia moved to Berlin where she was founder and artistic director of smallroom berlin, a contemporary music ensemble, and produced several sound installations exhibited in Europe and Canada. During this time, Georgia completed her 500 hour Hatha yoga teacher training with the Raja Yoga Academy, and has been on staff for subsequent teacher trainings. She travelled and taught yoga for 2 years in America, Germany, England and the Netherlands, before returning to Melbourne in 2019. In the past year, Georgia has brought together her passions of sound and yoga, to present live music classes at her Melbourne studios with violinist and meditation teacher Isabel Hede. Georgia is currently completing her Graduate Diploma in Psychology through Monash University, and hopes to go on to research the therapeutic benefits of both sound and yoga.