In June 2019 I completed my 200 hrs yoga teacher training with the fabulous Yoga Quota in Oxford and ran my very first class that very week. I’ve been teaching regularly since the end of summer 2019 and currently run two classes a week during term time only.
I believe yoga is for everyone but not every class is for every student. After completing a Thai massage course in Koh Samui during 2003, I was keen to learn about yoga. Whilst attending evening classes at a local school for a term, I had a rethink. Yoga wasn’t for me. I wasn’t flexible, I didn’t understand the terminology and the eyes closed bit on the mat at the end of class, what on earth was all that about?
Roll on 13 years and I was trying something new again. This time it was weight training. Whilst I loved the weight training and the progress, what really took me by surprise was the stretching and cool down at the end of my sessions. After a few months and for the first time in my life, I was able to touch my toes. I needed to find out more so back to yoga I went, firstly with a book from the library, then YouTube and finally to a local class. It all clicked into place, this was the yoga I was searching for all along. I was hooked and so excited about learning more. I signed up for 200hrs YTT (yoga teacher training), not to teach just to grow my own practice.
Every single session of that training was fantastic, the teachers, knowledge shared, my fellow students and the location. I will always remember it as a very special time. I should also mention that although I could touch my toes at this point, I couldn’t reach my arms fully above my head. I still have incredibly tight shoulders today.
When my teacher training came to an end, I was offered the chance to teach and it stirred something that I didn’t expect. Excitement! All of a sudden I couldn’t wait to share what had become a part of me.
So, I’m a fairly new yoga teacher, full of enthusiasm and passion. Yoga is a huge part of my life. Of course my physical practice has deepened (I can now lift my arms up) but so has my ability to incorporate breath work, meditation and ethical principles into my everyday life. Sharing this with my wonderful students is more rewarding than I imagined and makes me truly happy.
As an aside, I’m also a proud wife of a creative husband and mummy to two energetic boys. Our family is full of neurodiversity (I’m dyslexic) and I’m often researching or attending workshops on Autism, PDA and anxiety, ADHD, sensory processing and DCD/Dyspraxia. I also love baking, photography and watching all things grow. From my family, to plants and my sourdough starter (called Sourdough Stuart). I still train with weights too.