About
Leonor Bento
Also known as Unmani Ananda. Fifteen years of practice, and somewhere past ten thousand hours on the mat I stopped counting.
The name
Unmani Ananda
Unmani is the word the older texts use for the state beyond mind — the stillness that is left when thought stops insisting on itself. Ananda is the quiet joy found there.
It is the direction the whole practice points in, which is why I keep the name close. Leonor is who I am in the world; Unmani Ananda is who I am on the mat.
Students call me either. Neither is more correct than the other.
The short version
A practice that takes the whole person seriously
My training is in the Samkhya tradition — the older philosophical framework that yoga grew out of. It is a system that takes the whole person seriously: the body, yes, but equally the breath, the senses, and the mind that runs commentary over all of it.
That is why my classes are never only asana. In practice it means we work with posture and breath, with kriya to clear the system, with yoga nidra for genuine rest, and with kirtan — because singing does something to a person that explaining cannot.
Different classes lean on different strands. Over the course of a week, you get the whole thing.
I teach in person in Dublin and live online, from Ireland, to a small number of people at a time.
- Years teaching
- 15+Years teaching
- Hours practised
- 10,000+Hours practised
- Strands taught
- 5Strands taught
In the room
How I teach
Nothing is compulsory
Every posture has a variation, and coming out early is a skill rather than a failure. I would far rather you did less and stayed for twenty years.
The breath leads
If the breath is ragged, the shape is too much — regardless of how it looks. This is the single rule I ask people to hold on to.
Philosophy, lightly
Samkhya gives this practice its structure, and I'll explain it where it helps. But you are not required to believe anything in order to breathe well.
Small classes
Numbers are capped so I can actually see you on screen and offer something specific, rather than something generic.
The best way to know is to come along
The Sunday community class is open to everyone, with no expectation attached to it. Try one. If it suits you, there is more beyond it.
Book a class