The Power Of Yoga With Laura Dodd

Welcome to the 7-Day Reset, elevated. We've teamed up with modern movement platform, The Yoga Class, to deliver an immersive, full-body reset.

The programme combines a 7-day cleanse complete with a curated movement and meditation schedule to strengthen, detox, and recharge. The best part? This one is on us.

Learn more about The Yoga Class founder, Laura Dodd, and how to join the cleanse in our latest Journal article.

How did you get started on your yoga journey?

Yoga came into my life during a particularly difficult and unsettling period of change for me personally. Yoga helped me so much during this time as it gave me a constant to come back to over and over again - a safe and calm space to still my mind and connect back to myself. Although it may sound cliché, yoga helped me pass through this period and come out the other side intact and in a better space emotionally. Yoga really is a journey and I believe our relationship to it changes as life shifts. Yoga gives you what you need when you need it and as your practice broadens, you are able to utilise the many forms of yoga in many different ways, reflecting your life stage or mood.

My yoga journey followed quite a traditional path. Initially, I was drawn to the deep backbends, difficult arm balances and the strong practices such as Ashtanga and Rocket. However, like many others I found this practice unsustainable, picked up some injuries, and then eased back a little. My practice is much more varied now, reflected in the offering at my digital studio and App, The Yoga Class: Vinyasa to Yin, Meditation, Power alongside Pilates and Barre. I still love a strong class, but movements are more controlled, steadier, and balanced with softening stretches and meditative elements.

Why did you start the Yoga Class?

I started working on The Yoga Class in March 2020 when we first went into lockdown in the UK. I have been a model since I was 16 and a yoga teacher for many years, and when lockdown hit, I was left with no work. Rather than seeing a negative, I saw the opportunity to use this free time to create something really special and The Yoga Class was born. I wanted to create a beautiful, luxury, yet accessible, boutique-feel online space for students to develop and nurture a yoga practice. I wanted to empower positive change through a transformational practice, whatever the stage of a student's yoga journey, wherever they were in the world, and without environmental impact. This has now morphed into events. I host workshops with destinations like the Mandarin Oriental in Dubai, which I am loving.

Together with Artah, you are launching a 7-Day Reset on your platform. Can you tell us a bit about it and what you hope your community will gain from it?

The ‘7-day Reset’ collaboration with Artah is all about taking a quick, yet full reset, for body and mind. After the Summer, it’s great to get back into a routine and give yourself a reset, refresh, and reboot so you can get back to feeling your best. The plan combines a 7-day Yoga, movement, and meditation schedule to strengthen, sweat, detox, and recharge, alongside a complimentary Artah nutrition plan, to help you feel more energetic, more in control, and together deliver a full body reboot! This plan will be available for 2 months and gives anyone signed up to the The Yoga Class a chance to take a full and accessible reset whenever they need it this autumn!

What do you do to stay balanced?

Staying balanced for me, is about care and moderation. My self-care practices include eating a healthy, balanced diet, regular sleep patterns, enough yoga and movement, enough meditation, enough downtime with my son, friends, and family, and enough time not working. Balance within life is key to finding balance within yourself. Prioritising health and happiness with these very simple self-care practices means that I keep my mood from slipping, keep energy levels up, anxiety levels down and sustain mental clarity.

What are your wellness rituals?

Prioritising wellbeing and movement can be tricky, especially when things get super busy, but for me it's remembering how good you will feel afterwards and scheduling it in, like I would do something else that works for me.

I need to move my body daily in some respect, and like the 7-Day Reset, I aim to practice yoga, pilates or barre each day for between 20-45 minutes. I also practice Vedic meditation daily which really keeps me calm and focused. Other specific rituals I have are daily cold-pressed juice; we recently bought a Hurom cold press, which is life-changing, I also take a variety of supplements, which truly help me feel my best; at the moment I take a multivitamin and mineral supplement, flaxseed, Artah’s G.I Fix, Artah’s Deep Detox, and I also use Ayurvedic Adaptogenic Latte’s by Deja. Diet is incredibly important, and I mostly opt for a clean plant-based nutrient-dense diet. I do, however, eat some slow-grown and grass-fed meat nowadays. I try to stick to 3 small meals a day, with no snacking, no sugar, and less caffeine than I would like! I need enough time to just process things, rather than always doing and this breathing room for me is as much part of my wellness routine than anything else.

Take us through your wind-down routine in the evening!

Again, it’s the simple and obvious things that really work. A practice like Yin or restorative yoga in the evening helps to up-regulate the parasympathetic nervous system and promotes a state of true relaxation, which is really beneficial for sleep. I have to finish work at a reasonable hour to give my mind a chance to switch off and my eyes a rest from a screen. I also write a list for the next day, so I am able to then clear my mind for the evening. Trying to stay off the phone and laptop as much as possible in the evening is also a great help for sleep quality.

Do you have anything exciting on the horizon that you’d like to share with us?

Since I launched The Yoga Class almost 2 years ago, mid-Pandemic, things have moved pretty quickly. We have some new categories landing at The Yoga Class, including Sound Meditation sessions with a brilliant practitioner, plus Callisthenics and low-impact Cardio with an amazing PT. We have some great new collaborations and workshops with some very exciting brands and locations, which I can’t wait to share more on soon, and of course, the Artah 7-Day Reset collaboration!