My Yoga Journey began almost 30 years ago in Rishikesh, India. Having used my student loan to fund a trip to India, I was keen to add to my bona fide hippy credentials by ‘finding myself’ – I soon learnt that you are far more likely to lose yourself in India than find yourself!

 

Like most people on a first visit, I tried to see as much of the vast country as possible in as little time as possible. After time in Dehli, contracting amoebic dysentery in Agra - who knew saag bhaji could be so mean! - and spending time in magical Varasani, the next stop was Rishikesh.

 

As Rishikesh is dubbed the Yoga capital of the world, I was keen to embrace all things Yoga. That said, the 19 year old me was not quite ready for the discipline of Ashram living and so I opted to stay in a local guesthouse and made the daily walk across the Ganges to the Ashram. 

 

The lessons were intense, nurturing is not a word that comes to mind and I remember being chastised with comments like "the body shakes because the mind is active, still the mind”. One of my favourite memories is our class being told, “always remember, Western medicine knows very very little!”. Despite the brusque approach and the ‘muscle fever’ that was only relieved by more practise – yoga has found me!

 

After returning to the UK I began to practise Iyengar Yoga and continued with this practice for many years. As a Yoga Teacher and Therapist, I am a huge advocate of the precision of Iyengar and am always concerned when yoga is led, not taught, with no attention to alignment. Yoga Therapy training has taught me the importance of function over form and that alignment for one body might not ‘look’ the same as it does for another.

 

It was on a return trip to India that I began a dalliance with meditation. Unlike my asana practice, it has taken many years to embed meditation into my personal practise - now that I have, it has allowed me to open my heart and mind, and heal my body, in ways asana never did.

 

In 2000 I had my daughter and it was whilst pregnant that I began my personal practise. I discovered the joy of tuning into your body and moving in ways that it directed. Developing my personal practice whilst pregnant taught me to listen and to be kind to body – to treat my body like a sacred animal or treasured friend.

 

A few years later, I moved to North Cornwall and decided I wanted to teach yoga – I completed my Yoga Teacher diploma (Hatha Yoga) in 2006 and have been teaching Yoga, in a variety of contexts and settings, since then.

 

Around the same time, I trained to teach Religious Education and a completed a Master’s Degree in Education in 2012. Today I am fully convinced that yoga has a role to play in the personal development of all people especially teachers & leaders.

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In recent years, alongside building my private yoga therapy business, I’ve become increasingly committed to using 30 years of practice and almost 20 years of teaching to share Yoga with those who - for a whole host of reasons - might not otherwise be able to access all that Yoga has to offer.
Of course I can’t do this on my own and feel blessed to work with CIC's, charities and councils to provide accessible & inclusive Yoga & Yoga Therapy in North Cornwall.

 

Most recently I completed postgraduate training in Yoga Therapy, a Postgraduate Diploma in Pastoral Leadership and a Level 3 qualification in Supporting Healing & Recovery after Sexual Violence. 

 

Of course during all of this training and teaching, life has happened. It has taken twists and turns; there have been highs and lows. It has taken years to embed a daily practise, both on and off the mat, into my life and I am, of course, still learning but one thing that I am sure of is that yoga has been my guiding light throughout and I will be eternally grateful that yoga found me.

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Namaste.