About Nikki Chambers and Earth Sky Yoga
Want to get to know me better? Here I share a little about myself and how I came to this place in my life and to this work. I'm a daughter, a sister, a wife, and a mother to a grown up son and daughter and a step-daughter.
In many ways my body has always been my greatest teacher. Aged 8 I was diagnosed with scoliosis, a curvature of the spine, and by my mid teens I was experiencing back pain. This led me to yoga and opened up a whole new world - alternative ways of looking at life, and the path of self healing. Really, it was all there as a child - i remember my deep love of wildlife, flowers and trees, and the hours I spent writing stories and poems, and drawing wild animals , even though I lived in a city!
I’ve been studying yoga and meditation since the 1980s, and I’m also informed by a background in Deep Nature Connection (I worked in education outdoors, wild literacy, and as part of Eden Project’s education team for a decade) and by learning from indigenous Mexica teachers from North America. I’m resident yoga teacher at Sura Detox Retreats, hold two Yoga teacher qualifications, and am fully insured.
I started practising Hatha and Iyengar yoga, and later Dru Yoga.
From this I developed ‘Earth Sky Yoga’, a nature-connected form of yoga with nurturing asana (posture work) and flowing sequences to connect with nature, work with the elements, attune to the seasons and learn how to tap into the energies around us, honouring earth, fire, water, and air in our body prayer.
I love the way we can use yoga to tap into the natural energies around us, of the sun, the moon, the earth ,air and water. Yoga helps us to become more present in our bodies and senses . We practice paying attention , noticing what is happening in body, mind and emotions, dropping into deeper brainwave states as we deepen our breath. To feel deeply connected to nature, you also need to be present in your body, present to your senses, pay attention to what's around you, and drop into the theta brainwave state. No wonder yoga and nature connection go so well together.
Adding to this nature-connected form, I began to focus on a more feminine form of yoga that was soft and based on presence, running classes just for women.
Womb Yoga fitted perfectly into what I was doing. It’s a gentle practice to help women nourish ourselves, at each stage of our menstrual cycle and our life. Postures, sequences, pranayama, and mudra to help us connect the heart and womb and honour Shakti. It’s elemental nature and flavour of presence, nurture and sisterhood led me to immerse myself deeply.
I went on to develop sequences for each element, each stage of the menstrual cycle, and for menopause.
Uma Dinsmore Tuli, the originator of Womb Yoga, talks about the practice
Fertility awareness work and natural home birth awakened me to the power and innate wisdom of my woman's body.
Meanwhile on the Red Road of Native American teachings I was learning about Moontime practices and Earth connection. These discoveries were life changing, and I feel so blessed to have discovered them whilst still cycling.
All this seemed to merge perfectly with what I had experienced of nature connection, the passage of the seasons and the Celtic wheel of the year. Natural cycles mirror one another and as each layer fitted together within my experience it was so deeply satisfying! There's really nothing to do with gifts such as these except share them. They bubble up out of me (in fact my husband jokes that if I'm with another woman for more than two minutes, even one I've just met, we'll be talking about either periods, menopause or our love for the earth before he can draw breath !)
I’d like to acknowledge many other sources of inspiration along the way including …
Miranda Grey, Alexandra Pope & Sjanie Hugo-Wurlitzer, Lara Owen, and Jane Hardwick-Collins.
John Young - of 8 Shields Institute & Wilderness Awarness School.
Daniel Foor - of Ancestral Medicine
My business 'Moon Sisters' brings all of these treasures together in one place…..
Qualifications
I have trained in...
- Dru Yoga - two year teacher training
- Womb Yoga & Yoga Nidra - with Uma Dinsmore-Tuli
- Womb Blessings, Level 1 - with Miranda Gray
- Community Grief Tending - with Azul Valerie Thome
- Womb Belt Ceremony- with Azul Valerie Thome
- Kamana 1 & 2 - deep nature connection with Wilderness Awareness School
- Animism - with Daniel Foor of Ancestral Medicine
- Healing Ancestral Lineage - with Daniel Foor of Ancestral Medicine
- Trauma Awareness Training - with Catherine Hale