23/10/2026
I took my first class in 1988 in a big sports hall at my uni. It was taught slowly, a posture at a time, with explanation on what should "root" and what should "extend". I understood that the "student" building a firm foundation could self learn how to manoeuvre their body into a shape that would strengthen and stretch it at the same time. It was disciplined, quiet, and interesting. I was too young to stick with it. I went to find body conditioning, and dance aerobics.
I came back in 2001 learning the Ashtanga Vinyasa practice from VHS tapes in my living room. In 2003 I found the teacher on whom I still model myself today, teaching in church halls.
In the 2010s came the yoga studios and I enjoyed the variety of "methods" in which the shapes were evolved, and often renamed and sequenced. It was a special time really. The yoga tradition as it had grown in the UK was honoured, and there was a style to fit everyone.
I've been teaching it now for 11 years and I do so from that background, with that history. I've been very interested in the yoga texts, often immersed in them, and questioning them and enjoying them, always in my sceptical fashion. In my opinion the yoga Yamas and Niyamas offer a guide to a good life and I sometimes talk about them in classes.
So for me it is that simple really. Yoga shapes change the body (and therefore the mind which is part of that body), and ideas offer a way of living that confers a good life on the individual (and therefore those around him/her).
It is profound yes, because life is profound, but the profundity comes from doing it. It is nothing more or less than that.
I want to say that it is possible to find a yoga class that allows you enough time and space to move between poses that you can feel and appreciate their power. If a class feels like a pace race, it isn't doing it.
It is also possible to find a yoga class that doesn't communicate the politics of the teacher/owner towards you in a passive aggressive fashion, either before, during or after class.
For me it has always been a practice of self discovery, usually in a room with others also finding their way.
