My journey of yoga has been a long winding scenic route from the external inwards. From the body to the heart, from movement to stillness. It’s seen me travel from the physical side of yoga to the juice of the heart. It’s been from the harsh to the subtle and from the loud voice to a whisper, where physical asana has made way for meditation and stillness. I used to find stillness very challenging but it’s now something I cherish, devour and rest in. Yoga primed me for this stillness and meditation and I am not sure I would have fallen into it had it not been for my love of practicing dynamic asana and the sense of bliss that followed.

I started out with Bikram yoga, which I loved for the physical and mental challenge. It’s a routine of simple postures performed in a mind warping 38 degree heat, designed by it’s creator for the unfit and inflexible westerner. The practice is genius though as it gave me an opportunity to feel like I had worked my body hard whilst encouraging me into a meditative state, as mental focus is the best way to survive the class and enjoy the practice. This formula of magic, concealed within the madness, is the reason why Bikram yoga has been one of the most successful yoga series ever created but it is seriously limited for the long term yogi, so like the majority of people who experience its greatness, after a while I needed to seek out other types of yoga for continued inspiration and growth. Bikram was certainly the platform from which my journey began and for that I am eternally grateful.

Since then I have varied my practice and now enjoy a vinyasa style of yoga, which is more energetically balanced for my needs of the moment. I love a practice which incorporates beautiful flowing movement, sometimes music, mixed with a healthy dose of fun as I seek harmony. From day to day this changes and can mean 10 minutes of gentle postures at home whilst my children sleep or a strong 90 minutes in class. One of the most amazing realizations has been to take my yoga less seriously and more lightly. Vinyasa yoga offers this for me. The teachers who most inspire me are those who invoke a journey based on the enjoyment of movement, the celebration of form and appreciation of how the breath combines these elements with a unique sensuality. It’s such a beautiful way to tone the body and tickle the senses into a gentle awakening that puts down the under coat for an appreciation of deeper meditation. I fell in love with Vinyasa and was inspired to offer it at our studio where it is being taught by our amazing teachers and enjoyed by our students each day.

I must admit since having two children, Bakthi yoga which is the yoga of devotion, is what I do most of these days. My challenging physical yoga practice has been replaced by daily challenges as a mother and holder of the home space. I used to think having babies would take me away from my spiritual practice but it has been quite the opposite. Opportunities to be present, in my heart and to be still, joyful and patient present themselves daily. Of course I miss the opportunity to roll out the mat each day but that time will come again I know. In the meantime I feel grateful for being able to find in a short meditation the bliss I need to keep me inspired and uplifted and living from my heart.

Having learned to let go with yoga I was able to play a bit with meditation and have recently fallen in love with the act of sitting which is something I doubted would ever happen. I used to sit with such determination, pressure and force that it was clearly doing me no good and often left me feeling agitated. Recently, I have found a different kind of meditation that has brought it all together. I now know that time in meditation will be some of the most beautiful moments of my day and I enjoy its effects as much as I do a yoga practice. The freedom and contentment that some meditations have delivered for me is beyond what I thought possible and it’s a process that continues to inspire me. I am just at the beginning and look forward to a lifetime of exploration into meditation.

I do feel for many people that physical yoga practice is a great place to start though as it gives us a chance to begin to feel and cultivate a sense of awareness of the body, then the mind, emotions and the more subtle energetic systems of the body. Yoga has for me and so many of our students, helped to get the body tuned and ready for the next step. One of the amazing benefits of being a teacher is playing witness to the magic of yoga for our students. Watching the opening and blossoming of practitioners is amazing and never ceases to inspire. Someone can come in and you can sense they are carrying anger or bitterness or whatever it is that we can all so easily hold onto and after a few weeks or months of coming that attitude can so easily morph into one full of lightness and openness.

For many it’s the attraction of tight abs and butts or the general realization that the body needs regular maintenance, which gets them in the room in the first place but then they leave with so much more than they anticipated; happier than they thought possible because their hearts have been opened or they have learned to let go and surrender. For me this is the wonderfully timeless benefit of yoga that has been appreciated through the ages: it’s capacity to heal, spread love and lift the awareness and vibration of a single person, a city or a world to be the best it can be.

Falling in love with the space within, has been the best thing to come out of yoga for me. I found that so hard to detect for many years and it now offers such peace, rejuvenation and clarity. It started with the hard external practices of asana and has slowly allowed for this opening, centering and silencing so that I can look within and find the love, truth or contentment that so many of us seek.

Of course it all happens in stages and for the beginner just getting into class and having fun is the start. From there, there are no limits to where the road of yoga and meditation can lead.

Yoga provided the building blocks that led me and millions of others, to recognize that the magic is within. To feel fantastic we just need to slow down, get out of our own way and dance with the stillness. Then be brave, jump into the abyss and see the nectar right there!