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"true yoga is not  about the shape of your body, but the shape of your life"
Aadil Palkhivala

About Your Body Matters

I found yoga when I was 24, my eagerness to find a form of movement I was GOOD at was overwhelming.  Naturally flexible (now I know, hypermobile!) but always at war with my larger, softer body, it called out to me.  I remember the sense of pride and achievement as my body contorted so easily into postures that others found difficult.  Yoga flitted in and out of my life for the next few years, I tried different styles, different teachers, different studios, I liked the practices that gave me a good workout, got me sweating, that I could feel in my aching sore muscles the next day.  I felt calm after practice, but I was so in my head about what I looked like, from beginning to end.  The practice went no further than that for me, for a good while.

 

I don’t know at what point my practice and relationship with yoga changed, but for me it was linked heavily with my long, drawn out, sometimes painful “breaking up” with diet culture, which had honestly consumed me since I was about 10 or 11.  Yoga became the breakthrough, the one that helped me to learn that moving my body was NOT just about weight loss, or controlling the size of my body.  The more I rejected diet culture, my practice became deeper.  It all started to make more sense, I understood what I had read when other teachers had said “it’s not about the poses”.  I became more understanding about my whole self, body and mind together, and I discovered a new found honouring for my body.

In classes though, I often felt like I stood out.  The yoga teachers were always thin, and very strong.  I was often the biggest person in the class.  My natural flexibility meant that some teachers saw an opportunity sometimes for me to express a pose in a stronger, deeper way, often feeling terrible in my body, and once leading to an injury.  Other poses felt uncomfortable because my thighs or belly were bigger, and just got in the way.  Nobody ever showed me how to deal with that, how to find a practice that suited me.  Something wasn’t adding up.  I was never asked how something felt in my body, but always told how it SHOULD feel, as if we were all carbon copies of one another, with the same bodies, same experiences.  

 

In 2018 I completed my 200hr Yoga Teacher Training, with the fantastic Anya Hawkes, who had opened my eyes to a different way on previous retreats she had led, and I’d been so grateful to have attended.  Core Strength Vinyasa felt great in my body.  It felt respectful, it felt like celebrating and honouring my body.  It inspired me to feel empowered in my practice for one of the first times ever.  The other teachers here were diverse, in age, in shape, in size, in experience, and we were all celebrated.  I left feeling like that I could be a yoga teacher, and a good one at that.

 

So what do you get if you practice with me?  I hope you will learn to trust your own body.  I hope you will learn to love the experience of connecting with yourself, not just on your mat, but off it too.  You won’t get adjusted, you won’t get “put” into a pose, you will get yourself there, with time, permission, and guidance to find an expression that is YOURS.  I see yoga as a vehicle for tender empowerment one breath at a time.  I don’t believe that we should strive for poses that stress the body for the sake of “the yoga”.  I don’t even believe that we should be practicing some poses, ever.    You will get complete permission to show up as yourself, and my complete advocacy for all bodies being worthy of the love and supportive nurturing that yoga can provide.  You will get me; a committed and passionate guide, but also one who messes up, forgets her sequencing frequently, drinks too much coffee, and often goes days without getting on her own mat. 

 

Off the mat, I recently started spending more time writing (which is a longtime love of mine), and have just completed running my first online yoga and journaling course.  I adore exploring the principles of yoga that can really expand our potential and facilitating open, honest, nurturing conversations with likeminded mindful folx.  In my free time, I adore creating art, being in nature, reading, cooking, wild swimming, and I’m an un-apologetic Netflix binger.  

 

If you’re looking for freedom, fun, and a little more precious you in your yoga practice, get in touch. 

There is only your yoga - you deserve to find it...

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