When it comes to Vinyasa yoga, it’s all about the belly button, Amy Wallace explains to Liane Arno. By Liane Arno
I KNOW. You are probably, like me, struggling to work out what the Bee Gee’s hit song, “Staying Alive” and yoga have in common. After all, the song takes us back to a time of long hair, tight clothes and falsetto voices as we danced beneath disco balls scanning the heaving mass of bodies to see if the man or woman of our dreams had the right rhythm. Yoga, however, makes us think of a cross-legged Indian gentleman wearing a loin cloth and turban and emitting a sonorous sound, seemingly without taking a breath.
I KNOW. You are probably, like me, struggling to work out what the Bee Gee’s hit song, “Staying Alive” and yoga have in common. After all, the song takes us back to a time of long hair, tight clothes and falsetto voices as we danced beneath disco balls scanning the heaving mass of bodies to see if the man or woman of our dreams had the right rhythm. Yoga, however, makes us think of a cross-legged Indian gentleman wearing a loin cloth and turban and emitting a sonorous sound, seemingly without taking a breath.
Well, think again, because Amy Wallace and John Reid have come up with a marvellous way to combine the two. Every month or two they hold ‘Rhythm and Flow’ at Soul Space in Wonthaggi with Amy teaching yoga whilst DJ John spins the turntable. It is not the only way that Amy teaches yoga – but you have to admit this one is way out of the box!
Amy was a typical kid in Bunyip where footy and netball team sports reigned supreme. Knowing from an early age that she loved the movement of dance she enrolled in a class where she learnt everything from tap to ballet and loved the way the music coursed through her, enabling her limbs to work. When she left Bunyip for Melbourne to study at university, she discovered yoga and met John, who was playing in a band at the infamous Espy Hotel. She knew both would be life-long passions.
Amy was a typical kid in Bunyip where footy and netball team sports reigned supreme. Knowing from an early age that she loved the movement of dance she enrolled in a class where she learnt everything from tap to ballet and loved the way the music coursed through her, enabling her limbs to work. When she left Bunyip for Melbourne to study at university, she discovered yoga and met John, who was playing in a band at the infamous Espy Hotel. She knew both would be life-long passions.
The original form of yoga, Hatha, was less appealing to Amy than Vinyasa, a style of yoga which had evolved from its traditional roots. Hatha is a form of yoga that most of us would have seen. Adherents hold poses for inordinate lengths of time whilst emptying their minds of all thought. Once my team suggested I join them in a lunchtime yoga class. When it was finally over, one of my staff said, “I could almost hear your mind buzzing with all the things you needed to do after lunch.” Needless to say – I didn’t try it again!
Vinyasa, however, combines relaxation with Amy’s love of movement. It allows you time to concentrate on your body. What intrigued me with Amy’s explanation of her craft was the seemingly disproportionate amount of time spent on references to the belly button. It certainly suggests an origin for the phrases “navel gazing”; “fire in your belly” and “gut feeling”; after all, they suggest reflection, an inner strength and listening to your inmost self.
Like many young Australians, Amy headed overseas and practised yoga wherever she went. She tells me of practising her craft on a cliff top overlooking the Nile River, across Europe and Asia. One of her most spiritual times was visiting the ashram in Rishikesh where the Beatles came to study under Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.
When Amy returned from travelling, and after a stint in Alice Springs, things got more serious with John and they started to talk of buying a home and having children. They found an old miner’s cottage in Wonthaggi and had hardly started to renovate when the pub at Archies Creek came up for sale. All of a sudden, they were the focal point of a community of people who loved a relaxing environment to sit back, enjoy some food and drink and listen to music. Throughout, Amy continued teaching yoga.
Deciding that the time was right to start a family they decided to sell the pub and were thrilled when the buyer was also a lover of music. The sale of the pub was not yet complete, and Amy now pregnant with their second child, when COVID-19 struck. It was a nervous time for the young family but she found peace in yoga.
Vinyasa, however, combines relaxation with Amy’s love of movement. It allows you time to concentrate on your body. What intrigued me with Amy’s explanation of her craft was the seemingly disproportionate amount of time spent on references to the belly button. It certainly suggests an origin for the phrases “navel gazing”; “fire in your belly” and “gut feeling”; after all, they suggest reflection, an inner strength and listening to your inmost self.
Like many young Australians, Amy headed overseas and practised yoga wherever she went. She tells me of practising her craft on a cliff top overlooking the Nile River, across Europe and Asia. One of her most spiritual times was visiting the ashram in Rishikesh where the Beatles came to study under Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.
When Amy returned from travelling, and after a stint in Alice Springs, things got more serious with John and they started to talk of buying a home and having children. They found an old miner’s cottage in Wonthaggi and had hardly started to renovate when the pub at Archies Creek came up for sale. All of a sudden, they were the focal point of a community of people who loved a relaxing environment to sit back, enjoy some food and drink and listen to music. Throughout, Amy continued teaching yoga.
Deciding that the time was right to start a family they decided to sell the pub and were thrilled when the buyer was also a lover of music. The sale of the pub was not yet complete, and Amy now pregnant with their second child, when COVID-19 struck. It was a nervous time for the young family but she found peace in yoga.
Feeling that she had a responsibility to maintain classes for the mental well-being of those who were now prevented from going to face to face sessions, Amy started an on-line class. She delivered the classes right up to being 39 weeks pregnant and then started again a little over a month after giving birth to a baby girl.
She tells me that practising yoga helped to take away some of the fear of labour, enabled her to connect more with her baby and helped her focus on her breath between contractions.
Whilst adoring being a mum and being loved so unequivocally by her children, she enjoys her short time away, when practising yoga, to have her, “body not connected to another body”. She takes her “self” away to another place – a little like surfing in the middle of the ocean, where no-one can reach you.
While now being able to hold face to face classes, Amy continues to run on-line classes for those who find difficulty in attending sessions (or perhaps, like me, would be a little shy!) It also enables people in the comfort of their own home to practise the “gas releasing pose”, which, Amy tells me, happened far more spontaneously than she would have wished while pregnant.
If you feel like giving it a try, contact Amy through Instagram #yogawithamyjean or Facebook.
She tells me that practising yoga helped to take away some of the fear of labour, enabled her to connect more with her baby and helped her focus on her breath between contractions.
Whilst adoring being a mum and being loved so unequivocally by her children, she enjoys her short time away, when practising yoga, to have her, “body not connected to another body”. She takes her “self” away to another place – a little like surfing in the middle of the ocean, where no-one can reach you.
While now being able to hold face to face classes, Amy continues to run on-line classes for those who find difficulty in attending sessions (or perhaps, like me, would be a little shy!) It also enables people in the comfort of their own home to practise the “gas releasing pose”, which, Amy tells me, happened far more spontaneously than she would have wished while pregnant.
If you feel like giving it a try, contact Amy through Instagram #yogawithamyjean or Facebook.