My first experience of Yoga was at age 18 and it came in the form of an MTV yoga video (that's right video!) I used to practice this video over and over again in the evenings after college until the video practically wore out (do you remember that you could wear out videos!). I had done figure skating and ballroom dancing from a young age and was looking for something to help me with my fitness and flexibility but what I hadn't expected was how much I would enjoy the spiritual and meditative aspect of this type of "exercise". I loved the feeling in Savasana where you would feel like the floor was coming up to support your heavy body and where you could just leave all your troubles behind (and there are a lot of troubles at age 18) and how relaxed and refreshed I would feel afterwards. There followed a pause for a couple of years whilst I went backpacking and partied hard and then I rediscovered my practice when I moved to Bondi Beach in Sydney.
The great thing about living in Bondi is that it sort of forces you to be healthy, active and in good shape, mainly because everyone is walking around naked most of the time, even in winter -they're just naked but with Ugg boots on! Every cafe is serving amazing organic food and it's the only place I've ever felt truly comfortable ordering a Soy Dandelion Latte... with honey of course! And so it was in Bondi that I found my first Yoga school and there I stayed for 5 years. The school is called Dharmashala and it's nestled on top of the hill in North Bondi, I never attended a bad class there, every teacher was inspiring, compassionate and authentic. I remember how happy I felt one Tuesday evening class when I finally managed to get in to headstand and how grateful I was for the kind, supportive and non judgmental guidance of my Tuesday night teacher. I knew in my heart that one day I would love to train as a yoga teacher and to hopefully guide people through the same inspiring classes that I had attended at Dharmashala. Attending these yoga classes at the Shala had started to peak my interest in finding a spirituality or a faith and I started to attend regular classes on Buddhism and Meditation in Sydney. I fell in love with the teachings and integrating them in to my daily life and I found them to be perfectly compatible with what I was learning at the Shala. I joined a teacher training program at my local Buddhist centre and started teaching weekly meditation classes. A couple of years ago I moved to Melbourne to help set up a new Meditation Centre in the heart of the City - an incredibly exciting and rewarding project to be involved with. I got to learn from my teacher and dear friend, Gen Kelsang Dornying, and I had the opportunity to teach meditation and Buddhism classes to groups of over 200 people. I grew so much and learnt so much about myself in these 2 years, I will be forever grateful for this incredible opportunity. The decision to move back to the UK came when my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer, suddenly being on the other side of the world was just unbearable. I left Melbourne and my amazing Buddhist community and moved back to Shropshire to be with my family. I'm happy to say that my mom is now fully recovered! Having a bit of time and space to process everything made me realise that I wanted to get back to my yoga practice, I had immersed myself in Buddhism and meditation teaching and practice for years but there was still this deep wish to train as a yoga teacher - and Yoga was where my spiritual journey began, it feels like my home. It suddenly felt very important to bring all of these parts of myself together. So, there you have it, I completed my Hatha Yoga Teacher training a month ago and am now about to embark on the new adventure of teaching Yoga. A huge thank you to all my teachers and my friends and family for all of your support xxx
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Urban PriestessWelcome to my Urban Priestess blog, here I share my tips and tricks for seasonal and lunar living. Archives
December 2019
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