How yoga came into my world....

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It all started when I was around 16 years old. My friend Hicksey and I decided to join a local class held in the typical

location back then, a church hall. 

 

At that point I was young, very mobile and bendy and was very excited to see the shapes that I would be able to bend myself into. I was really into surfing at that time and yoga and surfing seemed to go hand in hand. It was a no brainer. 

 

We turned up to be met by a lady who was older than I'd expected (in my head she was around 70 but now I realise she was probably about my age now). 

 

The class was soooo very different to what I had expected. Yes, we did make different shapes with our bodies but she taught us that it wasn't about how far you could bend but about the benefit it had on our bodies and that maybe less is more. She taught us all about connecting breath with movement and of course with the mind. That first hour and a half lesson was amazing and impacted my life greatly. I don't remember the asana or the breathing techniques from that first lesson but what I have never forgotten was the feeling of being 'tucked in' at the end of class.  She individually tucked each person in with a blanket. That first Savasana has stayed with me always, that and her kindness, sense of compassion and calm. I wanted to be her and do what she did. I loved that class.

 

I went to her classes until I left Swansea for University where my yoga practice went on pause for a while. 

 

After Uni I moved about a bit so my yoga was a little sporadic but it was fun trying all sorts of new classes and developing a home practice. 

 

I then settled in Bristol and my practice became regular again. Here I found another teacher, Rachel, who resonated with me for different reasons. This time it was her ability to simply be herself, there was no ego, no sense of her being better than us, we shared yoga (which she was brilliant at), laughed and practiced together. She connected the class as a community. 

 

Some time later I was lucky enough to birth my first child Harri after many, many years of trying and heart break. Yoga was a huge part of my life whilst going through the ups and down of trying to conceive it guided me through the many lows I experienced at that time in my life. 

 

Harri was now about 9 months old and my maternity leave was coming to an end. I didn't want to go back to where I was. I tried too long to have Harri to go back full time (that was my thinking but everyone is very different). My awesome husband started to persuade me that I should follow my dream and train to be a yoga teacher. I thought he was crazy, 'there's no way I can do that!'. I don't look like a yoga teacher...I'm too curvy, I wasn't good enough, I didn't have the confidence to stand in front of a class and teach people, how would we pay the bills, what about Harri.....No way, absolutely totally and utterly definitely not. Snow didn't give up and before I knew it I was on a plane to Kerola to take on a 4 week intensive yoga teacher training course. The training took place in an Ashram in a setting that dreams are made of...there were many challenges, leaving my boy (it still breaks my heart to think about that), the loneliness, the ash cloud (yes I got stuck out there but that's a whole different story), missing home, but looking back it was the best decision I've ever made (well the best decision my husband ever persuaded me to make). I could write about that for hours so I'll keep it simple and just say that it was life changing. I gave up my career in media and became a yoga teacher!!! I still had many of the insecurities (and still do) but I was on my way. 

 

After a couple of months of being back I did my pregnancy yoga teacher training and starting teaching pregnancy yoga straight away....and so my dream had come true and an awesome adventure had started. I'll never forget the first class I taught in Easton Community Centre and the group of mums with me. 

 

Since then I've trained in: 

Baby yoga

Teen yoga

2 year British Wheel of Yoga course 

Kids yoga

Fertility yoga

Yoga for the menopause

I also trained as a HypnoBirthing practitioner.

I've so much more training that I want to do!

 

I've been doing this for over 11 years and fall more in love with my job (if you can call it that) everyday. I have had the privilege to share so many amazing experiences with the people I teach and have made life long friends along the way.

 

I watch as babies grow within the womb and am lucky enough to not only share the highs and lows of their pregnancy with them but often get to meet those babies at Baby yoga and be part of the mums journey into motherhood. 

 

I'm lucky enough to teach huge variety of people from all backgrounds in my classes and they all make my world a wonderful place. Every one of them brings their own unique sparkle to class. 

 

I have so much more to learn and I'm so excited about doing so as it will allow me to cross paths with even more amazing people and hopefully to bring yoga into their lives so that it can impact their worlds like it has mine. 

 

Thanks for reading my story, Siân