A Yoga Milestone
2017 was a year of milestone anniversaries and birthdays in our household (the kind that end with a zero…!). Just when I thought it was over and things had gone quiet again, a friend and fellow yoga teacher reminded me that 2018 is also a monumental year – it marks 20 years since we both began practising yoga.
20 years ago, if you had told me that attending that first yoga class would eventually lead me to leaving a well-respected job, spending years retraining in order to change career, and starting my own business, I think I would have backed out of that yoga hall in a big hurry and never come back. Somehow, things have all worked out, and here I am, 3 different countries later, still teaching yoga, and still learning about yoga. The more I learn, the more I realise how much I still have to learn, but for me that is what keeps my work interesting.
During the last 20 years I’ve had a few ups and downs in life, and I’ve found that it’s been during the difficult times that I have most appreciated having a yoga practice – it has provided a valuable refuge, and a way of gaining perspective on whatever has been bothering me.
Of those 20 years, 16 have been spent teaching yoga. Even after so long, I always write down a plan for each class I teach the night before, but inevitably there have been moments when things don’t go anything like my carefully written plan. Maybe there are students with injuries that I didn’t know about, or everyone comes to class completely exhausted after a busy day, in which case I have to think quickly to come up with something that suits them. I once turned up expecting to teach 5 rather quiet teenage girls and instead was introduced to 15 teenage boys who had never done yoga before (we kept it light hearted and they surprised me with their enthusiasm!) And then there have been the bizarre, unusual or hilarious moments of being a yoga teacher: the outdoor class which began under sunny skies, but ended in a thunderstorm; the guided meditation that was interrupted by a bench collapsing and the meditators ending up in a heap on the floor (fortunately none were injured!). I’ve had to teach wearing dark glasses while recovering from a severe eye allergy. And Elle Macpherson once came to class incognito, without me realising who she was until after the class was over and she had slipped out through a side door.
And the best thing about the last 20 years? The fact that through yoga I’ve met and made connections with some wonderful like-minded people. In Villars-Gryon, these are all the awesome yogis who’ve been private yoga clients or who have come to the morning dynamic vinyasa class that runs once a week. Thank you so much, you all know who you are!
