The word I chose to set my intention for 2024 was ‘authentic’. How could I teach, do business and live life in a way that gelled with my values and aspirations while still expressing my authentic self? I realise in hindsight how ambitious that was! But I relish the small victories.
As a self-employed mother, time management is my nemesis, (which became even more overwhelming when I did a 4-month stint as a single mom while my partner jetted off to the Med to become a yacht chef). Yet I am surprised and grateful at how much actually came to fruition this year.
My yoga teaching entered a new phase, guided by the gurgling wellspring of my daily home practice. As I approach the threshold of a half century I am focusing increasingly on strength. This is also because I have felt the benefits of creating more stability to support my hypermobile joints. The emphasis on strength led me to create my first online course, the 21-Day Yoga Strength Journey, which I offered on my membership website in June. It was received with enthusiasm and over 20 students signed up for the guided journey. Many went on to repeat it twice or three times, with great results. I could clearly see the new confidence and power in the bodies of my regular students who took part.
As the year progressed, I filmed a Level 2 Yoga Strength Journey, which a smaller group of tenacious students signed up for. The course was as authentic as I could get. It was like opening a window into my home practice as I shared some of the challenges I play with regularly. This not only built on the strength developed in Level 1, but introduced novel movement inspired by other fitness modalities and utilised props in unique ways.
While my first love is yoga — it’s what I have been practising daily for over 20 years— I have enjoyed and been inspired by such a variety of movement over the years, including Latin American dance (Salsa), Brazilian Capoeira, as well as The Feldenkrais Method, Animal Flow and of course, Aerial Yoga. All of this feeds back into my yoga practice and is reinterpreted on my mat when teaching.
I have found that my own body responds best to a lack of repetition. Unique, novel and even strange movement wakes up my brain, establishes new neural pathways and helps me escape entrenched repetitive physical patterns, preventing them from being sculpted into my fascia in the form of chronic postural issues. Essentially it helps me break out of the cages of habitual movement and thought.
That’s how I remain authentic in my own yoga practice. I listen to my body, pay attention to the aches, pains or tensions and find ways to ease them. I celebrate any weaknesses I find as a chance to discover new methods of becoming stronger.
Here’s thanking my students who were open and willing to be guided to the borders of their comfort zones and beyond. Particularly during those quiet winter classes when I would say: ‘I am in an experimental mood today…’ It’s because my students embrace the new and sometimes strange that we are able to learn from each other. That exchange is the true gift of teaching.
Looking forward to next year and the word that will guide it. What’s your word going to be?
