WELLBEING: Why Scaravelli yoga might be your cup of (green) tea

IF your regular yoga class feels more like an aerobics session than an exercise in mindfulness, Scaravelli yoga might be worth a try.

Less is definitely more in this form of yoga which is now being taught by Joe Bull at her Calm Works studio in Holgate.

It is inspired by the practices of Vanda Scaravelli, a yoga guru whose focus was on keeping the spine supple by concentrating on breathing and letting gravity to its job to "ground" the body. Her motto was: "Yoga must not be practised to control the body: it is the opposite, it must bring freedom to the body, all the freedom it needs".

Joe's class begins with a warming cup of lemon and ginger tea, before we all hit the mats. Classes are intimate – with a maximum of six participants at any time.

No previous knowledge of yoga is needed, but Joe recommends absolute beginners arrange a one-on-one session before joining a group class.

A friend tipped me off about Joe's class, saying "I felt like I was doing nothing, but it was fantastic and deeply relaxing".

Lying on the mat, in the Shavasana pose with legs outstretched and relaxed and arms at 45 degrees to the body, I could see what she meant (this pose has another name, and an apt one at that – the corpse pose).

To the onlooker, many of the exercises we carried out over the 90 minutes may have appeared simple. But, take my word for it, it actually takes a lot of concentration and effort to do, er... not a lot!

Joe wanted us to "wake-up" our hip joints. To this end, we had to raise one leg, place a band around the ball of the foot, and lose all the tension in the raised limb, before gently rotating it from the isolated pelvic area. This is much, much easier said that done. To help, Joe stood next to me and encouraged me to let my raised leg "flop" on to her, so I could sense the feeling of weightlessness. It was only then that I felt my hip joint engage and knew with confidence it was that part of my body doing the work.

After working each leg, she asked us to return to an earlier pose: the Dandasana (or staff or stick pose as it is also known). Again, this looks sooooo easy, but is a real killer. You have to sit on your sit bones (those at the base of your bum) with legs outstretched and back straight, so the body forms a right angle. Joe tells us to imagine there is a piece of string pulling us up through the top of our heads in an effort to keep our backs straight and upper bodies tall. At the same time, we have to try to relax our shoulders, so we aren't holding any tension in the neck. This pose quickly alerts you to the parts of your body that are tight and need attention. For me, it is my lower back and hip flexors. Encouragingly, after the gentle hip joint rotations, when I try Dandasana again, it feels much more comfortable. I'm obviously making progress, and quickly too.

Joe assures us that everyone is different and that people will perform the moves in various ways. It is not a competition, she reminds us, adding that we are not to compare our efforts with the rest of the class.

We do some balancing and dynamic moves next: raising up on our toes, lifting our arms above our heads, then coming back down. Then we do the "woodcutter" bending our knees and swooping upwards with our arms before bringing them down energetically in a chopping motion.

We do lots of cat stretches and "down dogs", where we end up like an inverted V. Many of the moves are similar to those I have done in Pilates, but there is a key difference. Rather than hold a certain pose, Joe encourages us to move around, and allow our bodies to wriggle in a way that feels good. So in "down dog", we have our knees bent, but then undulate our backs and hips as if going over a mini rollercoaster. It feels great.

At the end, we get to play dead again – to everyone's delight. Joe asks us to return to the Shavasana pose, this time offering us a warm blanket. Eyes shut and feeling super relaxed, I follow Joe's instructions to concentrate on my breathing and feel the oxygen flow through my body. Again, it seems we are doing nothing, but the relaxation is building and allowing tense muscles to relax further. On each successive breath, I sense the middle of my back give more, and imprint on to the mat. Joe tells us to smile. I resist at first, feeling too relaxed to try a grin. But I give in, and force the lightest of smiles. I notice my eyes smile too and a new lightness come over me.

Later Joe tells me this is a great technique: "The brain can't tell the difference between a fake smile and a real smile, but any sort of smile will release happy hormones."

As the class ends and we gently all come round, everyone is smiling. Although the classes have just started this autumn, Joe is already building a dedicated band of followers for her Scaravelli-inspired yoga.

Nicola O'Keeffe, 51, runs her own bakery business and has a ten-year-old son. She loves Shavasana so much, she practises it at home when she can, sneaking off to a quiet room for 15 minutes with her yoga mat. She said: "It's only my second week, but I love it. It stills the mind. I'm doing the corpse pose at home and it allows me to carry on with my day in a much calmer way."

Jacky Williams, 60, is retired and works as a volunteer. She is doing two classes a week and says it is helping to ease a chronic neck injury she has suffered for years.

York jeweller Joanna Wakefield, 37, is another fan. She said: "I'm getting an awful lot out of it. After the first session I felt I had opened up, was less anxious and felt like all my muscles had been massaged."

Joe, who is a fully qualified yoga teacher as well as a massage therapist, concludes: "Its about being focussed. You can't be thinking about your shopping list while trying to rotate your left hip. Scaravelli yoga is an opportunity for your mind to come to stillness."

A 90-minute class costs £12 and block booking is required which offers five classes and one for free. Find out more at calmworks.co.uk