I haven’t always taught yoga. After the usual year of waitressing & bar work to fund the obligatory post-uni trip around the world, it was time to get a proper job & I as lucky enough to be offered a Grad-trainee opportunity with New Look working down in Weymouth.
We worked hard & we played harder. I got to work in a variety of divisions ultimately deciding on buying & merchandising. I was part of the team that launched their 915 teenwear range & their lingerie range.
I moved from Weymouth to Portsmouth & began work with the Swatch Group before moving to London & a brief detour into recruiting buyers & merchandiser. I wasn’t very good at recruitment – I won a bottle of bubbly for being well, the bubbliest & happiest non-biller! My fortunes improved when I swapped seats with the highest biller in the department & once I’d proved I could ‘do’ recruitment I took off around the world again for the best part of a year.
Having met so many people with inspiring tales of different adventures I returned home with even itchier feet & within months was on the move again, this time to head to Everest Base Camp & to train as divemaster in Indonesia & I am so lucky to have amassed so many happy memories & wonderful adventures.
Not long after returning home was offered a role back in product working for the biggest franchise partner in the Middle East. I got to travel throughout the Middle East, whilst supporting the host brands in UK, Italy & Lebanon.
It was during my time in Kuwait that I met my husband, we married in Kuwait & our son, Akiro was born there.
Before he was a year old we were on the move again: this time to Istanbul. What a fabulous city to call our home for the next 2 years.
We had a brief spell back in the UK for a few months when Indie, our daughter, was born & then it was off to Germany for the next leg of my husband’s career.
I have always practiced yoga because I knew it was good for me. However due to a chronic lung condition, bronchiectasis if my I was upside down or lining on my back in savasana I would cough & mindful of disturbing others practice I couldn’t access the full benefits of the practice.
so I was delighted when I was offered surgery to remove the worst affected part of my lungs & yoga helped me to recuperate from the operation.
It also supported my recovery from a mental health crisis & this inspired me to qualify to teach yoga because it had been so instrumental in improving not only my physical health but my mental & emotional wellbeing too.
I did my teach training in Germany with John Gaydos from Yoga Works & loved every minute.
We lived in an upside down house, with the bedrooms leading out into the garden so I put the kids in together (a bonding exercise it I called it!) – Indie loved sharing with her big brother; Akiro not so much! I created a little boutique studio in his old bedroom where I hosted small classes of 4 or 5 & 1-2-1’s.
But we were on the move again: this time to Bangkok. My practice & teaching changed again. In Bangkok I hosted poolside classes & my love for practicing outside blossomed. Even when it poured down I would roll out my yoga mat on the balcony relishing the soundtrack of the rain as I flowed through my practice.
Unfortunately, my marriage came to an end in Bangkok & it was time for us to return ‘home’, back to the UK. It was Autumn 2017 & we moved to Evesham on the edge of the Cotswolds.
My practice has evolved over the years, as has my business but I am so grateful for the amazing opportunities I have been blessed with throughout my career, all the amazing places we’ve lived & worked, all the friends we made & adventures had.
That’s my journey to yoga, what’s yours?