My Yoga Journey

I never set out to teach Yoga!!

Yoga for me was a hobby and a past time - something I did in the solitary hour I had to myself before my son awoke, or prior to being a mum, something I did to get fit and bendy, especially after seeing Gerri Halliwell Yoga - ing in a bikini on the beach in the late 90s.

For me, it was something I enjoyed, it made me feel good, and allowed me to believe in something more wonderful than my every day life.

Whilst studying for my Religious Studies degree, I stumbled across a word which sprung out at me - 'Kundalini'! I had seen something called Kundalini Yoga on one of those lesser watched TV channels that has quite specialised stuff.

I remember spotting this gorgeous teacher, dressed in white, with flowing soulful music playing but not stopping long enough to give this a chance.

When this Kundalini word jumped out at me from my text book, i was intrigued. One thing I had most definitely learnt through my Yoga studies & my Religion Studies, was that Yoga was no religion, so what was this kundalini stuff?

*The text book was stating that Kundalini Yoga has been taken to the west in the late 1960s by Yogi Bhajan, a sikh, but was not to be confused with sikhism.

I decided to try it.

Maya Fiennes was the name of the teacher - her beautiful smile, sing song voice and calming aura made me feel right at home (only to be proven as not just camera trickery when I was lucky to meet her a year or so later).

I kid you not that just 1 exercise - 1 EXERCISE!! - changed my life.

The simple 3 minute warm up asana of Spinal Flexes ignited something in my body that I had no idea was there.

I felt alive and ..... Buzzy? Is that a word?

I knew this is what being alive should feel like! I was present - aware - and felt something shift.

I went on further to experience meditations where I was so deep, but aware I was deep.

Not every yoga day or class is as profound as the first - but sometimes/often they are even more experiential - it ever and always changes but I know, for sure, that I am a kundalini chick - that is me and that is where you'll find me.

Next week - find out how I literally stumbled into teaching!