Me & My Yoga

In this week’s episode, I am speaking to Oxford based vinyasa and Forrest yoga teacher Sarah Leyla. With a Caribbean background, Sarah’s love of movement came in early childhood but it wasn’t until she moved from the Dominican Republic to Oxford that she went to her first yoga class. While Sarah initially trained in Vinyasa yoga, it is clear from the way in which she speaks so emphatically about Forrest Yoga why this practice now inspires so much of her teaching. In this episode we discuss how her yoga practice has been a source of inspiration to Sarah, with her journeying into yoga and journalling and incorporating her passion for literature in her teachings. We discuss how it is that we should be offering yoga more widely to broaden the yoga community and how yoga has played an important role for Sarah as she recovered from Covid and injuries generally. We also chat about Sarah’s changing relationship with Forrest Yoga abs and how yoga has helped her to find stability in periods of transition in her life. I comment so regularly in this episode that Sarah’s raises interesting points and it is so true as she encourages you to think about your own practice in a different way; I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I did when we recorded it.

In this week’s episode, I am speaking to a London based yoga teacher who has built a significant profile amongst the yoga community worldwide. It’s my pleasure to introduce Hannah Barrett. Hannah first came to yoga to help her better manage working in a stressful career in finance, and her practice and love for it grew as she fell pregnant with her son. As a new Mum, she made the step to becoming a teacher and is now passionate about teaching in a way that helps people, particularly other Mums, use the tools that they have acquired from their yoga class to give them the inner strength to live more fully. In this episode we talk about Hannah’s early experiences in yoga and her decision to become a teacher. We talk motherhood, her experiences with pregnancy yoga and postnatal exercise generally and we chat about what has motivated her to co-launch a collection of e-books, one of which is specifically targeted at post-natal recovery. Hannah also speaks about how her meditation practice has developed over the years and has been an anchor to her during lockdown, and of course we touch on her huge instagram following and what that is like! Hannah has such an interesting story to share and I know that this episode will speak to so many yogis and Mums alike. Find out more about Hannah and Strength Through Yoga https://www.hannahbarrettyoga.com https://strengththroughyoga.com

In this week’s episode, I am speaking to Forrest Yoga Guardian, meditation teacher and bodyworker Jambo Truong. Routed in a Buddhist and Taoist tradition, Jambo found meditation and yoga in his teens and has now been teaching for over 20 years. In this episode we talk about his mantra ‘risk being great’ and what this means to him, how he has learnt and now educates people on how to address their trauma and shadows, and how working with addicts took him into the world of teaching yoga. We talk about his path to the school of Forrest Yoga, his experience with body dysmorphia, how he experiences being a male teacher and his feelings on what social media does for yoga. This chat covers so many different limbs of what it is to be a yoga teacher and I truly believe there is something in what Jambo says for everyone.

In this week’s episode, I am speaking to my dear friend Lynne Denny who I was fortunate enough to complete my initial teacher training with. Lynne came to yoga when she started experiencing vertigo and panic attacks in her early 50s. After initially being sceptical of the possible benefits of breath work and movement, what kept drawing her back to her local yoga class was how she could use what she had learnt in yoga to take herself to a safe space when she experienced panic or stress. She is now passionate about enlightening her students about the power that they have within them to help manage their stresses, fears and anxieties. In this episode we talk Zoom yoga, meditation and visualisation and the importance of finding the right teacher. I really hope you enjoy this conversation with a teacher who has found the benefits of yoga to be truly transformative to her life and wellbeing.

In this week’s episode, I am speaking to Forrest Yoga Teacher and Guardian, Bodyworker, Reiki Practitioner, Shaman and mother, Charlie Speller. Charlie’s passion for yoga drew her away from the corporate world of marketing in London to life in Rural France where her focus is now on getting people out of pain using the powerful tool of Forrest Yoga. In this episode we talk burn out, body image and yoga for the A type personality that Charlie and I both neatly fit into! We chat about Charlie’s passion and commitment to educating pregnant and postpartum people via the Poppy Perinatal Training method, which stems from her own experience of pregnancy loss, full-term pregnancy, giving birth and postpartum recovery. I really hope you enjoy this conversation with a teacher who has such passion for educating her students on how they can feel empowered both on and off the mat.

In this week’s episode, I am speaking to Live Karma Yoga co-founder Zara Karimi. Zara’s yoga journey began when after attending her first class, she saw opportunity to incorporate yoga into her job as a youth worker working with young offenders. She undertook her teaching training just two weeks after her first class and has since set up outreach programmes focussed on making yoga accessible to all regardless of their financial position, background or gender. In this episode we talk about how she has gone on to set up Live Karma Yoga, a community project with a focus on providing a safe space for people to create their own yoga journey within a community setting. Zara has taken yoga into schools, hospitals, prisons. She has worked with people experiencing addiction, trauma and domestic violence. Zara also speaks about how her yoga was a personal tool following the tragic loss of both of her parents.

In this week’s episode, I am speaking to Laura Guinnane. Laura originally trained as a Chartered Accountant but left her job in the city to pursue a full time career in yoga teaching after been so clearly guided to embark on a new path following the closure of an Investment Fund. She now teaches Vinyasa, Forrest, Yin, Meditation and Yoga Nidra and no matter the class leaves her students feeling grounded, nurtured and empowered. In this episode, we talk about how Laura has used her meditation and restorative practices during her post natal period following the birth of her son at the beginning of lockdown. Raised in an Irish Catholic family, we discuss how her connection to her spirituality was reignited as her love of her yoga practice deepened.

In this week’s episode, I am speaking to Belinda Burwell. Belinda like so many of us came to yoga without any movement history and found the practice incredibly challenging, both physically and mentally. However, as she perservered, something shifted and she felt calmer and more centred. She has now completed two 200 hour trainings and teaches wonderfully creative vinyasa flow classes in London and on Zoom. In this episode, we talk about how Belinda’s practice has helped her to create balance physically, mentally and emotionally. We discuss the marrying of music and yoga and how yoga creates strength in the mind and the body. Belinda talks about her meditation practice and how she is inspired by sequencing her classes around themes like “Come as You Are” to encourage her students to set aside some of their more self conscious behaviours.

In this episode, we talk about how Harriet’s approach seeks to dismantle some of the toxic power dynamics in yoga that remove the agency of students, and instead focus on promoting a culture of inclusivity and person centred practices. We talk about empowerment for pregnant and postnatal people, her experiences with joint hyper mobility syndrome and her thoughts on how yoga may look in a post-COVID world.

In this second episode, I am speaking to Forrest yogi, Scholar, Bodyworker and Doula, Leila Kamali. Leila has been practicing yoga for 16 years and found the dynamic style of Forrest Yoga to be of great support to her with the emotional transformation that she needed in her life when she first came to practice yoga. In this episode, we talk Forrest yoga, meditation, motherhood and what it means to Leila to listen to her spirit. Leila is a scholar of literature and race and in this moment of history where the Black Lives Matter movement has made a huge impact , Leila shares her thoughts on anti-racism and how we can use yoga to do the work that we need to do to address our unconscious biases.