About
My own yoga journey began when I was aged 15 and I stumbled upon a book by Lyn Marshall called ‘Keep Up With Yoga’. I was intrigued to learn that yoga could have so many benefits. I practised more as student and while travelling in Asia and Australia, but it wasn’t until my early thirties when the pressure of juggling deadlines as a self employed journalist (which was causing tension headaches, back, eye and neck strain), that I was drawn back to my spiritual home. I needed calm and balance and I needed it fast!
I knew from previous experience that yoga resulted in my feeling a deep physical wellness and peace from the practice of breath work and conscious relaxation. My home-town, Brighton, is considered the UK’s capital of yoga so there was no shortage of teachers or classes to turn to. I tried many styles of yoga including astanga, dynamic, hot, outdoors, Scaravelli, Vinyasa, and even hip hop yoga. The more I practiced, the more I wanted to practice and my passion for yoga and holistic health grew.
As a travel journalist specialising in wellbeing and healthy travel I was commissioned by various publications including Yoga Magazine, Kindred Spirit, and Spirit and Destiny to write features and to review yoga holidays. At the end of 2006 I took a leap of faith and enrolled in the Sivananda TTC (teacher training course) at the Sivananda Yoga & Vedanta Dhanwantari Centre in Kerala, India.
The month long intensive teacher training course positively and dramatically changed my life. I graduated as a yoga teacher (200 hrs standard RYS) on March 10th 2007, and in September 2007, when I returned to the UK from travelling in India and Australia, ‘Karmiyoga’ was born.
I've been teaching yoga classes in Brighton/Hove since 2008 and my teaching is now evolving into a more flowing yoga style after undertaking a further 200 hrs teacher training course in Dru Yoga (fully qualifying May 2012). Dru is a therapeutic, potent and dynamic form of yoga which focuses on the koshas (the energy layers of the body) and on opening the heart centre.
I'm continuing to work part time as a freelance journalist/author - my 'Yoga Woman' column features monthly in Spirit and Destiny magazine, and my yoga book, Everyday Yoga, The Essential Guide was published in July 2011, a practical handbook for all the family offering yoga asanas, pranayama and meditation techniques which can be practiced every day and at any age.
And my yoga journey continues ...