MY STORY

The seeds of yoga were planted in my mind as a young child. My granny and my mum both practiced. I used to watch my mum work through poses from a book called 'Yoga for Health' by Elisabeth Haich and Selvarajan Yesudian (which I still own).

I slowly began to accumulate a few books and began a tentative home practice.

I went to my first yoga class back in 1995. I cannot say what prompted me to go, an inner calling, a curiosity maybe.

I can say that it changed me. It opened me up to a feeling of wholeness, a feeling of being deeply settled in both body and mind.

I was fortunate to train with well respected Aberdeen based teacher, Ian Scorgie. He gave me a solid foundation in all aspects of yoga. I have to give a shout out to Fiona Smith, another inspirational teacher. Her classes were rich and always interesting. It was Fiona who suggested I do yoga teacher training.

I went on to do my diploma with SYTA (now Yoga Scotland) from 2000-2002. This is when I began to teach.

Living in Aberdeen at the time with a lovely community of yogi's to support me, I taught in all kinds of places, from gyms to spas and family centres.

Due to a temporary break up with my boyfriend, I found myself suddenly free and single (he's my husband now) so took off to do a bit of voluntary work on organic farms in Wales. I booked myself in to do a 10 day silent vipassana meditation retreat in Hereford whilst down there. That retreat gave me a glimpse of myself beneath all the surface nonsense. I went on to do two more of those over the following few years. What I experienced there will stay with me always and continues to underpin my practice and teachings now.

My teacher Ian sadly passed away around that time, leaving me feeling a little lost. The community of teachers and students that surrounded him slowly drifted apart to do their own thing.

Then came the babies. Teaching took a back seat and yoga became a way to keep my body mobile during those early years of feeding and snail pace toddling. As I gradually returned to teaching I was unsure what kind of teacher I really wanted to be. I knew I needed inspiration. I needed a mentor. I found that in Leslie Kaminoff, author of 'Yoga Anatomy'. His courses gave me a deeper understanding of anatomy within the context of yoga practice.

Mindfulness meditation has now taken centre stage in my practice and hugely influences the way I teach. I recently completed Level Two Teaching Skills with The Mindfulness Association and am working towards BAMBA accreditation (British Association of Mindfulness Based Approaches). I feel like I've 'come home'. I know in my heart this is where I'm meant to be.

I'm a lover of hiking. Being out in the hills and the open spaces. The spiritual path is not unlike climbing mountains. There may be difficulties on the journey. Maybe you fall into a stream, maybe you get lost. Then you emerge at the summit and space opens up before you and it's breathtakingly peaceful and beautiful beyond words.

The journey continues......