The Singing Yogi

I started doing yoga when my daughter was born. My mother said it would be good for me.I pointed out it was Kate who had had Millie, not me, but Mum would brook no nonsense, which was just as well. Yoga has been very good for me. It has helped me with sciatica and depression and I lost a lot of weight. I just feel very well, and before I did yoga I just didn’t.

My first teacher, Cathy, happened to be an Iyengar teacher. But she taught a long way from where I lived. So I found some Ashtanga yoga at the Farnham Sports Centre. I didn’t know it was Ashtanga yoga but it was. Ashtanga yoga combines series of poses, and flows from one pose to another. It is different from Iyengar yoga, which tends to hold poses for longer, and places a great emphasis on alignment.

After a while my teacher left to have a baby, and I had to find another class. This time, it was Iyengar style again. By now I was getting quite bendy, and I wanted to take my yoga deeper. Ellie my new teacher suggested I learn to be a teacher myself. Ellie had trained with Ruth White, who learned from Mr Iyengar himself. So I signed up with Ruth (who is lovely by the way, if a trifle fierce), and in 2008 I qualified. And now I teach yoga to other people.