It’s been almost 16 years since my friend Libby took me along to my first yoga class in South Wimbledon. At the time I had heard of a downward dog but had never done one and I didn’t know anyone else who actually did yoga.
It was in a room that could be rented after hours at a council owned community centre and taught by a man who had moved to the UK from Inida two decades before. With his heavily accented English and utter disdain at anyone who dared bring their shoes past the door, he was running an introduction to Yoga course for beginners and we did sun salutation after sun salutation and learnt the basic poses for a few weeks before we could progress to the next class.
In the advanced classes, heavily pregnant women popped themselves into handstands effortlessly and he introduced us to the theory behind yoga while I was astounded at the strength of the elderly women (and men) who attended the classes and could do crows, backbends and headstands with leg variations with ease. I was apprehensive albeit fascinated initially and then hooked.
I continued to practice yoga after this intro series and trained as a yoga teacher in 2013. I also completed my training in teaching yoga to children with special needs in the UK and then went on to complete a post graduate course in teaching meditation and mindfulness in 2023.
It’s been a love affair ever since. And here are 5 reasons why I will never stop doing it.
1) Yoga introduced me to mindfulness and mindfulness has saved/changed my life.
2) Doing Child’s Pose daily fixed the cording in my arm I developed after having lymph nodes removed in my axilla after melanoma cancer.
3) Yoga taught me to trust my physical body again after I developed pain and swelling in my upper back and arm from my melanoma cancer and after my body changed dramatically in pregnancy and post partum. In a world where we reside mostly in our minds, yoga brings me back to the body.
4) Yoga creates the perfect environment for me to connect to my own children and play with them. For many years in London I taught children’s yoga and yoga to children with special needs.
5) Yoga creates community for me. I love the weekly class that my friend Jess has taught for us for the past 5 years, and I love the people I’ve met and connected with through yoga in KZN and at @awakenyogafestival 💙
I am forever grateful for this practice and how it has impacted on both my mental health and physical body <3