Community yoga in Leeds
Welcome to Leeds Community Yoga. We run affordable and inclusive yoga sessions for under-represented groups in less-advantaged inner-city areas. Our classes enable people to come together to move and breath in way that is fun and helps with physical and mental health.
Our approach is aimed at everyone, including those with long-term health conditions, starting or returning to exercise, or who are older or have larger body types. In one of our accessible yoga classes everyone is doing something different that suits them.
Leeds Community Yoga
Leeds Community Yoga is a not-for-profit organisation. It uses funding to offer access to yoga and its wellbeing benefits to marginalised groups and disadvantaged communities in the city of Leeds.
Classes
- The Compton Centre Community Hub in Harehills – Monday 12-1pm
- The Church of The Epiphany in Gipton – Thursday 6-7pm
- Jamyang Buddhist Centre in Holbeck – Sunday 11.45-12.45 (second Sunday of the month)
Accessible Yoga
Accessible yoga is open, welcoming and everyone goes at their own pace.
Supporters
Supporters of Leeds Community Yoga include Gipton and Harehills councillors Mothin Ali, Deputy leader of the Green Party and Salma Arif, Deputy leader of Leeds City Council, Dawn Coulthard-Hullah, Owner and Manager of EarthTree yoga, Wetherby and Kerry Cawthray, Senior yoga teacher.
Mothin Ali
Deputy leader of the Green Party and City Councillor for Gipton and Harehills
Salma Arif
Deputy leader of Leeds City Council and Councillor for Gipton and Harehills
Dawn Coulthard-Hullah
Owner and Manager of EarthTree yoga, Wetherby
Kerry Cawthray
Senior yoga teacher
Yoga’s benefits
Yoga has been found to offer physical and mental health and wellbeing benefits and can help draw communities together.
About
Leeds Community Yoga’s founder and project manager is Dr Sally SJ Brown, a local 300-hour yoga teacher accredited with the British Wheel of Yoga. She has been teaching for over nine years and is a qualified teacher and ambassador for Accessible Yoga School. She completed a PhD in health promotion that looked at barriers to yoga access for marginalised groups and has written a book and articles on her research. I am also a part-time academic researcher.
What is yoga?
Yoga is a tool that can help ‘fast track’ us to a happier, healthier, happier way of being. Yoga’s roots are from ancient South Asia and it’s suitable for people of all faiths or none. Yoga is practised by Hindu people and also by Christians, Muslims and atheists. It’s important to honour yoga’s cultural and spiritual roots but also to enjoy what yoga is today. Yoga includes movement, breathwork, mindfulness, and also philosophy.
Get in touch
To find out more about Leeds Community Yoga, or to get involved, get in touch.