Looking back I now realise that Yoga has always been my passion
Looking back I now realise that Yoga has always been my passion; physical expression in connection with body, breath and the inner place of stillness.
It was present in earliest memories, my parents introducing me to meditation when I was seven, a ‘walking’ one for a child to practice a few minutes each day. We still laugh at the memory of them coming back into the bedroom a couple hours after being safely ‘tucked in’ only to find me walking up and down on the bed, still reciting my mantra.
As an adolescent many of my summers were spent volunteering on silent retreats in the Black Forest in Germany and then travelling to India in my late teens and the beginning of more intense study.
At the same time my life has been a journey into movement. I remember always wanting to roll, jump, skip and shift though space. My childhood was largely dedicated to community dance and my early career emerged working as a professional contemporary dancer.
My heart has always wanted to find expression and connection. And not distinct from us all, this embrace is above all sought in relationship; with mother and father, brother, friends… and with myself. Sometimes in the sweetness of warmth and intimacy, other times in the fire of controversy and isolation. Looking for love, wanting to come to that inner place we know as home.
And so this relationship with yoga has sustained and accompanied me throughout my life. Integrated into my dance career, it led me back to facilitating breath and meditation workshops throughout Europe and to being invited to teach yoga teacher trainings in London and in Manchester.
I remain at that place of seeking expression and connection, of ‘building relationship’. The body and breath have the capacity to inform us in every moment and guide the mind to connect to the present, to what is now.
And so I find that my work is to guide myself and support others to feel embodied and to be ready to be in the world with courage and warmth… for ourselves and for others.