We had a chat with IYTA lecturer Sarah Manning on her upcoming Yin Autumn workshop, how the pandemic has affected yoga in Singapore and her exciting new projects…

Q: How is life?

I am busier than ever and I’m trying lots of new things. With any change we have to make the best of it and move forward. You can sit in a big hole and say I can’t do it, that you’re too old or you can throw yourself in there and be embarrassing and willing to be a bit of a fool. As you get older you get willing to wear that purple hat and ask for help. So I’m busy and I’m learning and it’s good. 

Q: What’s next with the IYTA?

I’m running a three-hour online Autumn Yin Yoga workshop for the IYTA on April 24.

Yin is an opportunity to slow down, to go inward and develop awareness of your body, your energy and your state of mind. When you are in a country that has seasons it gives you an opportunity to just pause and reflect on what you will store in the memory banks.

This workshop will include discussion about the meridians and anecdotal stories relating to the lungs and large intestines meridians. And the emotions of grief and letting go. In Qi Gong they call it the energy of drawing inward and is used for storing energy in the lower dantian.

Q: Tell us a bit more about your yoga projects

I’ve chummed up with a techie, an Ayurveda practitioner and a fertility coach and the four of us are creating a 30-day fertility program which is on an App.

It’s tailored by women’s doshas and menstrual cycles and I’ve created around thirty minute yoga sequences!

I’m also heIping a friend who practises Arvigo massage and she and I are also working on promoting creating holistic health for fertility. The other project is offering Yin teacher trainings here in Singapore which is both face-to-face and online – so teaching both together has been another steep learning curve!

Q: How has the pandemic affected yoga in Singapore?

We are in a tiny place that has better control of its compliant population and we have a lot more freedoms than most people, but we are being traced. Every building you enter has a QR code and your temperature is taken constantly. For a while the studios were closed but they’ve now opened back up with strict mat distances and 1 person getting bolsters at any one time. Everyone has to wear masks until they are sitting on their mat. As a teacher if I move around the class I have to put my mask on – even if it’s to switch on or off the light!

The experienced teachers who have followers have moved online – you don’t have to travel with online classes. People who really want to work with you will do so in private and pay a premium. The studio where I’ve worked is now closing and renovating so they can transform the space for more private yoga classes and therapy rooms.  

Q: How has Covid affected people’s mental health in Singapore? 

We don’t have social security, so people don’t have the luxury of wallowing so they have to seek out other ways of making an income as they have no choice. So they just get up and move on.

I think over the next five years there will be a big shake up of the small studios that haven’t been able to sustain themselves.

Q: And what now for you personally?

Well my son Conrad has had to postpone his wedding twice, so they have set the date again for October in the UK – and I’m going to that wedding come what may!

I’m also missing my trips and all my friends in Australia – so hopefully I’ll make it there too sooner rather than later!

To book into Sarah’s workshop please click HERE