Practice Labs
Eight Labs.
Eight questions.
November 2026 to June 2027.
Here is the full programme for the year. Each Lab runs on a Thursday evening, 19:00 to 21:00 UK time, live online, with a recording available for 14 days.
Booking for each Lab opens to the Practice Labs list a month before the date, and to everyone a week later. Join the list at the bottom of this page to hear first.
For yoga teachers and curious practitioners.
Live online · £29 per Lab · Replay available for 14 days
NEXT PRACTICE LAB
#01
What do we mean by regulation?
Thursday 12 November 2026
19:00 to 21:00 UK | live online
The language of nervous system regulation has found its way into almost every corner of contemporary yoga. What do we mean when we say we're regulated? And is feeling calm always the goal?
In this two-hour Lab we look at regulation through physiology, movement, stillness and our own experience. We consider activation, challenge and capacity, look at some of the language commonly used in yoga spaces, and ask how much we can know about another person's internal experience.
The practice is part of the investigation. We move, pause and notice between the discussion, and bring what we find back into the conversation.
WE’LL EXPLORERegulation and relaxation. Settling is one part of a healthy range of nervous system responses.
Challenge and capacity. Can something be difficult without being dysregulating?
Experience and interpretation. What can we notice in the body, and when do we start writing stories about what those sensations mean?
The language we use. What happens when we tell someone they're "activating their vagus nerve" or "releasing trauma"?
Choice. Alongside "how do I get out of this state?", what changes when we also ask "do I still have choice within it?"
PRACTICE LAB
#02
The four-minute mark: what happens when we stay?
Thursday 10 December 2026
19:00 to 21:00 UK | live online
Long holds are at the heart of Yin, and so are the explanations we attach to them. What changes when we stay in a shape for several minutes, and how carefully can we speak about why?
We practise a small number of Yin shapes with enough time to notice how sensation, attention, breath and the impulse to move change as the minutes pass, then compare what we noticed across different bodies.
Booking opens to the Practice Labs list on Tuesday 10 November, and to everyone on Tuesday 17 November. Join the list at the bottom of this page to hear first.
WE’LL EXPLORETime. What does time itself add to a Yin shape?
Sensation over time. How does what we feel shift the longer we stay?
The explanations. What do we know about parasympathetic effects and the receptors in our tissues, and where do the simple stories run out?
Stillness and choice. How do discomfort, stillness and choice sit together in a long hold?
What we imply. What do teachers suggest to students when they give a long hold a meaning?
PRACTICE LAB
#03
Alignment, anatomy and the individual body
Thursday 21 January 2027
19:00 to 21:00 UK | live online
If bodies vary, and they do, what is alignment actually for?
We explore one family of shapes across several bodies and variations, asking what each pose is trying to do and how different choices change the experience of it.
Booking opens to the Practice Labs list on Monday 21 December, and to everyone on Monday 28 December. Join the list at the bottom of this page to hear first.
WE’LL EXPLORESkeletal variation. How bone shape and proportion change the range each of us has.
Alignment as a tool. When a cue helps a particular person, and when it has become a rule for every body.
Function and appearance. What is this pose for, and does it need to look a certain way to do it?
Strength, mobility and context. How the same shape asks different things of different people.
Options without a ladder. How to offer choices without an easy-to-advanced hierarchy.
PRACTICE LAB
#04
When is challenge useful?
Thursday 18 February 2027
19:00 to 21:00 UK | live online
How do we tell useful challenge from something we are simply enduring?
We build gradually toward a demanding sequence, with clear exits and alternatives throughout, and investigate whether challenge and agency can be present at the same time.
Booking opens to the Practice Labs list on Monday 18 January, and to everyone on Monday 25 January. Join the list at the bottom of this page to hear first.
WE’LL EXPLOREChallenge and harm. Where one becomes the other, and who gets to decide.
Capacity and choice. What changes when there is always a way out?
Discomfort. The temptation to label every uncomfortable moment as dysregulation.
Resilience. What it looks like when pushing through is one option among several.
Authority and autonomy. The teacher’s voice, the student’s own judgement, and how context changes both.
PRACTICE LAB
#05
What are we actually feeling?
Thursday 11 March 2027
19:00 to 21:00 UK | live online
What is the difference between a sensation, how we perceive it, and the story we tell about what we feel?
We use simple movement and stillness, then change the language and prompts around them to notice how our interpretation shifts.
Booking opens to the Practice Labs list on Thursday 11 February, and to everyone on Thursday 18 February. Join the list at the bottom of this page to hear first.
WE’LL EXPLOREInteroception. What we mean by body awareness, and what the research can tell us.
Sensation and interpretation. Where noticing ends and meaning-making begins.
Expectation and language. How what we are told shapes what we feel.
Emotions in the body. The limits of assigning feelings to particular areas of the body.
Asking well. How to ask a question without planting the answer.
PRACTICE LAB
#06
Language changes experience
Thursday 15 April 2027
19:00 to 21:00 UK | live online
What happens when the words we use begin to shape the experience we think we are only describing?
We practise short sequences with different kinds of language and notice how the same movement changes when the words around it change.
Booking opens to the Practice Labs list on Monday 15 March, and to everyone on Monday 22 March. Join the list at the bottom of this page to hear first.
WE’LL EXPLOREDirective and invitational language. What each one does in the room.
Suggestion and expectation. How our cues shape what students notice.
Authority. Who decides what an experience means?
Consent and choice. Offering choices that are real.
Claims. Saying what we know, clearly and precisely, and leaving out what we don’t.
PRACTICE LAB
#07
Strength, mobility and the flexible body
Thursday 13 May 2027
19:00 to 21:00 UK | live online
When more range comes easily, is more flexibility what the body needs?
We look at strength at end range, individual variation, and Yin alongside strength, then test those ideas in practice.
Booking opens to the Practice Labs list on Tuesday 13 April, and to everyone on Tuesday 20 April. Join the list at the bottom of this page to hear first.
WE’LL EXPLOREStrength at end range. Building support where range is already available.
Individual variation. Why the same stretch asks different things of different bodies.
Mobility and stability. How the two work together.
Yin and strength. How long holds and strength work can belong in the same practice.
Mixed rooms. Offering useful choices to very flexible and stiffer students in one class.
PRACTICE LAB
#08
Old maps, new maps
Thursday 17 June 2027
19:00 to 21:00 UK | live online
What happens when contemporary models of experience sit alongside the much older maps of yoga?
We look at the gunas, Patanjali and nervous system models side by side, practise with each, and ask where comparisons help and where they break down.
Booking opens to the Practice Labs list on Monday 17 May, and to everyone on Monday 24 May. Join the list at the bottom of this page to hear first.
WE’LL EXPLOREThe gunas. An old map of quality and change.
Patanjali. How the Yoga Sutras describe the mind and practice.
Nervous system models. What contemporary physiology offers, including its limits.
Comparison. Where placing maps side by side helps understanding.
Where they part. What we lose when we treat different maps as the same.
Questions
Do I need to be a yoga teacher? Practice Labs are open to yoga teachers and to practitioners who are curious about their own experience of practice.
What if I can't make it live? Every Lab is recorded, and the replay is available for 14 days.
Is this therapy? Practice Labs are yoga education and stay within the scope of yoga teaching.
What if I have a question before booking? Email me at info@gemmaryan.co.uk.
Stay in the inquiry
New Practice Labs, writing, research and occasional invitations to study together.