My name is Lara, and I do yoga.
Most of the yoga I do is not on a yoga mat.
Some days I don't even make a shape, but I think pretty much every day I practice yoga.
When I go for a run, I meditate. When I eat, I try to practice aparigraha (non-hoarding) and ahimsa (non-harming). When something goes 'wrong' I try to remind myself 'ishvara pranidhana' (surrender to the universe). When I speak I try to practice 'satya' (truthfulness).
I began practicing asana (yoga postures) when I was about 17 with my mum's Barbara Currie DVD. Began running when I left uni after my Psychosocial Sciences degree at 22. Yoga was then a nice stretching session and I supposed I felt some kind of calm after it. I never really thought about it that much. (I 'borrowed' Mum's Barbara Currie DVD when I left home and it's still here on my shelf.)
I became a research psychologist, immersing myself in the world of developmental psychology. Infant research being the window into the origins of every single human - our attachment, our understanding of the world and each other. I worked with neuroscientific and behavioural measures for 6 years in London.
And then when that ended, along with the relationship of my 20s, I upped and left for the other side of the world and spent a year as a nanny in Australia.
In Canberra and Melbourne I appreciated the simple things in life: a beautiful blue sky, sandy beaches, turquoise seas, runs in the bush with an entirely different dawn chorus and kangaroos, coffee, brunches, chocolate playdough dresses for Barbie dolls, family that wasn't my own. Volunteering to read with children at the local school, and bonding with the children in my care, I realised maybe teaching was the next step.
When I hit an emotional wall, my Australian 'parents/big brother and sister' pushed me to go on holiday, and I took myself to an AirBnB in Ubud, Bali. Twelve or more years since my first yoga practice I walked into a yoga studio and took classes at the Yoga Barn alongside others. I Googled 'train to be a yoga teacher', and told my mother of my idea for 'maybe in a year or two'. God knows what she thought.
I came home to London, took a PGCE in Primary Education (Early Years), and became a Reception Class teacher in south east London. In my second year MoreYoga studios came on the scene and their super cheap deal made yoga accessible and walking into a studio seem less daunting. I joined up and tried everything. I truly believe that part of that golden second year in school with my golden class was due to the 4 classes a week I was able to get to. I was just a better person with more yoga in my life: more resilient, with more reserves, and more to give. I taught yoga to my classes in PE lessons, 30 4- and 5-year-olds hissing like cobras and woofing like dogs in sun salutations.
I found a teacher who resonated with me who did this entirely different style of yoga - yin - and I finally got to a marathon start line again, after a 7-year break (and many breaks) and ran the London marathon injury free. I told this teacher, Sabina Ahmadov, that I was applying to do my 200 hour teacher training, and she invited me to have coffee before class one Saturday.
In the spring of my third year as a teacher I began my yoga teacher training with Yoga London. The plan was that eventually, maybe, one day, I'd transition over to teaching yoga, not primary education.
My third year in the classroom was hard. High needs and a difficult relationship with a manager. I was burnt out. I changed schools, hoping for a less stressful option, but jumped from the frying pan into the fire. And because I could leave quickly, I did, and suddenly that transition to yoga teacher was happening more quickly. I took on some supply teaching, but mainly I grew my classes, finding venues, flyering local businesses and sneaking into neighbouring blocks of flats for the mailboxes... I gained supportive contacts and collaborators, picking up classes at local gyms, with women's charities, and for teachers at a Pupil Referral Unit. I revisited my background in neuroscience and psychology with an intensive five-day workshop in the Neurobiology of Trauma and Trauma Informed Yoga Practices with Alex Cat of the Yoga Clinic London, and I became aware that there were people using yoga in psychotherapy to help heal and restore body and mind - the concept of a 'body and mind' divide being I had come to believe was unhelpful and the root of much suffering in the human experience.
And then a strange new virus from China emerged and shut down the world. Overnight, every yoga teacher became an online teacher, and have you heard of this program for online video meetings? It's called 'Zoom'...
Good things did come out of 2020: this website evolved; I completed my 200 hour teacher training; trained in yin with Bernie Clarke online; trained in baby yoga and massage; thought outside of the box and embraced outdoor yoga classes (stray footballs and dog cameos included); old contacts brought the promise of new classes; people were supported by yoga and meditation in some small way through a difficult period in all our lives; I was accepted to begin a new journey, studying Psychodynamic Counselling in 2021.
And now, in 2021, I look forward to;
And thank you to all of you, in this little yoga community, for your presence, support and input.
Yoga is for life.
Most of the yoga I do is not on a yoga mat.
Some days I don't even make a shape, but I think pretty much every day I practice yoga.
When I go for a run, I meditate. When I eat, I try to practice aparigraha (non-hoarding) and ahimsa (non-harming). When something goes 'wrong' I try to remind myself 'ishvara pranidhana' (surrender to the universe). When I speak I try to practice 'satya' (truthfulness).
I began practicing asana (yoga postures) when I was about 17 with my mum's Barbara Currie DVD. Began running when I left uni after my Psychosocial Sciences degree at 22. Yoga was then a nice stretching session and I supposed I felt some kind of calm after it. I never really thought about it that much. (I 'borrowed' Mum's Barbara Currie DVD when I left home and it's still here on my shelf.)
I became a research psychologist, immersing myself in the world of developmental psychology. Infant research being the window into the origins of every single human - our attachment, our understanding of the world and each other. I worked with neuroscientific and behavioural measures for 6 years in London.
And then when that ended, along with the relationship of my 20s, I upped and left for the other side of the world and spent a year as a nanny in Australia.
In Canberra and Melbourne I appreciated the simple things in life: a beautiful blue sky, sandy beaches, turquoise seas, runs in the bush with an entirely different dawn chorus and kangaroos, coffee, brunches, chocolate playdough dresses for Barbie dolls, family that wasn't my own. Volunteering to read with children at the local school, and bonding with the children in my care, I realised maybe teaching was the next step.
When I hit an emotional wall, my Australian 'parents/big brother and sister' pushed me to go on holiday, and I took myself to an AirBnB in Ubud, Bali. Twelve or more years since my first yoga practice I walked into a yoga studio and took classes at the Yoga Barn alongside others. I Googled 'train to be a yoga teacher', and told my mother of my idea for 'maybe in a year or two'. God knows what she thought.
I came home to London, took a PGCE in Primary Education (Early Years), and became a Reception Class teacher in south east London. In my second year MoreYoga studios came on the scene and their super cheap deal made yoga accessible and walking into a studio seem less daunting. I joined up and tried everything. I truly believe that part of that golden second year in school with my golden class was due to the 4 classes a week I was able to get to. I was just a better person with more yoga in my life: more resilient, with more reserves, and more to give. I taught yoga to my classes in PE lessons, 30 4- and 5-year-olds hissing like cobras and woofing like dogs in sun salutations.
I found a teacher who resonated with me who did this entirely different style of yoga - yin - and I finally got to a marathon start line again, after a 7-year break (and many breaks) and ran the London marathon injury free. I told this teacher, Sabina Ahmadov, that I was applying to do my 200 hour teacher training, and she invited me to have coffee before class one Saturday.
In the spring of my third year as a teacher I began my yoga teacher training with Yoga London. The plan was that eventually, maybe, one day, I'd transition over to teaching yoga, not primary education.
My third year in the classroom was hard. High needs and a difficult relationship with a manager. I was burnt out. I changed schools, hoping for a less stressful option, but jumped from the frying pan into the fire. And because I could leave quickly, I did, and suddenly that transition to yoga teacher was happening more quickly. I took on some supply teaching, but mainly I grew my classes, finding venues, flyering local businesses and sneaking into neighbouring blocks of flats for the mailboxes... I gained supportive contacts and collaborators, picking up classes at local gyms, with women's charities, and for teachers at a Pupil Referral Unit. I revisited my background in neuroscience and psychology with an intensive five-day workshop in the Neurobiology of Trauma and Trauma Informed Yoga Practices with Alex Cat of the Yoga Clinic London, and I became aware that there were people using yoga in psychotherapy to help heal and restore body and mind - the concept of a 'body and mind' divide being I had come to believe was unhelpful and the root of much suffering in the human experience.
And then a strange new virus from China emerged and shut down the world. Overnight, every yoga teacher became an online teacher, and have you heard of this program for online video meetings? It's called 'Zoom'...
Good things did come out of 2020: this website evolved; I completed my 200 hour teacher training; trained in yin with Bernie Clarke online; trained in baby yoga and massage; thought outside of the box and embraced outdoor yoga classes (stray footballs and dog cameos included); old contacts brought the promise of new classes; people were supported by yoga and meditation in some small way through a difficult period in all our lives; I was accepted to begin a new journey, studying Psychodynamic Counselling in 2021.
And now, in 2021, I look forward to;
- offering Zoom classes and growing the library of class recordings available here for monthly subscribers to fit their practice into their schedule and support their well-being in their own way.
- resuming Yoga in Southern Park on the Peninsula in the Spring, thanks to the lovely people at the Conservation Volunteers (thank you Tony/toe-knee), with plans for adult, baby and child focused classes.
- classes at Southbank Place, Waterloo (thank you Hoi).
- providing yoga to the teachers at Southwark Inclusive Learning Services.
- collaborating with other teachers and mind/body practitioners on workshops and courses for babies and parents (thank you Sabina), and yin and meditation (thank you Micah).
- planning the first retreat, scheduled for May Bank Holiday 2022 in Wales.
- continuing to grow as I examine my internal relationship with body image, nutrition, the physical practice and mental practice of yoga, gaining new perspective and knowledge about what yoga is to me, making friends with my body, and learning to appreciate and trust my body (my integrated self ) in my late 30s in ways I never have before (with thanks to myself, W, E, E and others).
And thank you to all of you, in this little yoga community, for your presence, support and input.
Yoga is for life.