Teacher Training Cert (200 hrs); Panmana Ashram, 2015; Teacher Training Dip (200 hrs); YogaCampus, 2020

Sauna Master Level 1, International Bath Academy 2022.

I went to my first yoga class in the late 1990’s when I was still getting over the loss of my childhood obsession with gymnastics. The movement part I understood, but the breathing, the stillness, the lack of competition and prizes took a bit longer to get used to! The physical benefits kept me coming back and eventually, after years of practice with a long line of dedicated teachers in India, the UK and the US, I learnt that the competition was usually against myself, the rewards were within, and by tuning into the breath, and listening to my body, I may sometimes get a glimpse of the prizes.   

I wanted to go deeper and so in 2015 I completed my Teacher Training Certificate (TTC) in Hatha yoga in India. I thought that this would be when I’d learn all the really difficult moves, but instead I learnt to go back to the beginning. To simplify. To be still. I learnt how repetition leads to insight. To listen deeply. I learnt the power of a steady practice.

When I finished my first TTC my teacher, in all of his elegant wisdom told us:

‘Remember. If you practice you should teach and if you teach you should practice.’

And so, the student becomes the teacher and the teacher remains the student in an on-going exchange. Thank goodness. I continue to practice and study with inspiring teachers and completed my Teaching Diploma with Yogacampus in 2020. This was multi-disciplinary study with teachers from diverse backgrounds, all experts in their tradition.

Teaching yoga is an exchange, where we share our practice and philosophy. Practicing yoga is also an exchange. It’s a continuous return to the breath, an on-going invitation to your body to open, soften and strengthen. My gymnastics days are long behind me but there’s no time where my yoga practice will be ‘finished’ or ‘achieved.’  It continues amidst life’s upheavals, losses, illnesses, recoveries, physical changes, getting older. It continues when I need it the most.  

I invite you to build a practice you may return to again and again, which changes as you change, and which with conscious intention, can become a mainstay, a refuge, inspiration and renewal. Indeed it can become whatever it is you need. Your body is unique. The story of your life is written into it, and no one knows it better than you.