I've been a yoga teacher for nearly 2 years now, but practicing yoga with many wonderful teachers for nearly 20 years. Prior to taking the plunge, I owned my own business, and spent over 20 years working in the marine oil and gas survey sector managing large projects all over the world. I took up yoga to get away from the stresses and strains of corporate life. For many years the once a week fix to a local class was enough to reset the balance.
When I became a parent, the high-flying lifestyle was too much. I was spending more time on planes, meetings, and in-between airport terminals than I was sharing life with my husband and young daughter. Enough was enough - something eventually had to give.
In 2015 I came to the conclusion the best remedy would be to devote more time to yoga, and I decided to to study the ancient practice at a very high level. I undertook a 2-year 500 hour advanced teacher training course with Devon school of yoga. The course completely transformed me as a person - for the better. Yoga became a way of life. During the 2 years my mind body and soul were nourished and re-balanced.
I realised that we often pigeon-hole ourselves into a certain line of work as part of conditioning. Another life changing event, and 1-year into my training I suffered a serious head injury following a fall that forced my to slow down. I suffered some neurological damage and an MRI scan revealed I had permanent moderate hearing loss. The time out from the commitment of business, and my growing passion for yoga, led me to see I had everything I needed right here, and I couldn't go back to the life I had left behind. I put my marine business to bed, and decided to focus on developing my passion as a yoga teacher, poet and writer.
I haven't looked back as I love sharing my passion for yoga with others. My life is also going the way it was intended, the path reset. I am in the moment, and spending well earned quality time with the ones I love. I now have control of my life teaching something I have a great passion and real life experience as how yoga can work. I now make the rules, and love spending time where I live in Cornwall, in nature, on the beaches, loving life everyday..
Since becoming a yoga teacher I feel I am now finally doing good for myself and others. We all have the chance to change if we make the first step. I have also found joy in holistic massage passing on through touch something deeper than I can reach with yoga. In the last year I have received a diploma in aromatherapy and Indian Head Massage. I offer holistic yoga inspired treatments at my custom therapy room.
Thanks to the guidance of a good friend, I have also recently taken up Nichiren Buddhism, chanting lifts my spirit, and helps me to see the right path, The practice combined with yoga gives me an ongoing gratitude for life.
Its common to feel out of control. We try and do it all as thats what society dictates to us, and we either lash-out when we reach boiling point; or we might find an aerobic release through sport, or we just curl up in a ball and sleep.
Sport is great for releasing "feel good" hormones, but it also takes us on an adrenaline high. To counter act this high we need time to nourish and repair the systems of the body, and most of all to calm the mind.
Sleep is a state of bodily repair and is not enough to reset the nervous system entirely which has been stimulated by over-activity of the brain. In yoga we go back to the breath, still our thoughts, and when we practice with awareness we become more present. This calms the internal systems and brings everything back into balance.
The joy of yoga is to open the door to that internal connection. To take a pause, stretch and reconnect. And in that space, that moment you might just discover the most important person in your life - you.....