to Becoming a Yoga Teacher Aged 50+
Yoga first came into my life when I was pregnant with my second son, Noah. I had quite a traumatic birth with my first son, Kenny, 5 years earlier and had absolutely no plan to repeat that experience. It was 2001, and I found a pregnancy yoga class at the local Quaker meeting house. The lady who took the class was also a midwife. I practiced yoga for the first two trimesters and then went on to have the most amazing drug-free birth, which I truly believed and still believe was because of those yoga classes.
I then took up yoga again 2 years later when we were living in Spain. Little did I know that one of the friends (Lulu) whom I met while living there would go on to play a big part in my decision to become a yoga teacher. From Spain back to the UK, it is now 2008, again I join a few classes and continue to dip in and out of Yoga, knowing that each time I practiced, I just always felt amazing after.
Fast forward to 2016, I hit a wall. I did not have a clue what was going on. Anxiety, crying for no reason at the most stupid things, changed my job for absolutely no reason then regretted it. However, looking back, I now know I was in the throes of Peri Menopause, and giving up my job turned out to be an okay decision. I booked a trip to El Salvador, after being invited by my friend Lulu who had started a surf and wellness retreat after leaving Spain (the trip was not without its challenges but that’s another story).
Little did I know that this was going to be the trigger to me becoming a yoga teacher. During this trip, I faced my fear of the sea with surfing, both a terrifying and exhilarating experience, I met kick-ass women doing amazing jobs who were making changes and challenging themselves at a time of huge personal change in their lives. Questioning our confidence and courage. I certainly had lost some of my confidence. We were a group who were entering a very different time in our lives, from late 30’s to an amazing surfer girl in her 60’s.
After that trip, the next 2 years really made me decide that Yoga was a possible path for a second career, once my boys had grown up. Myself and my husband also took a Yoga retreat in Croatia in September 2019, which was amazing, again reaffirming that Yoga was good for us and also something we may be able to bring into our lives and others in the future, having the house in the Spanish mountains (could we do retreats?)
Then came the pandemic!
Apart from my Mother in Law passing away after a very long and sad 8-year battle with Dementia, we didn’t suffer too much during this time. As soon as we were able to get together again, I was searching for Yoga classes and came across a beautiful teacher called Raj. I contacted him and that led me to an amazing Studio called PranaSpace. It turned out that the actual owner Anna Love was my old friend & neighbour who had moved in a few doors away from us, months before we sold up and moved to Spain.
I started practicing with the teachers at PranaSpace, and again my dream was ignited so I decided to do a 50hr Yin training course to see if this was something I could really see myself doing. The training was amazing, I fell totally in love with Yin and the Philosophy connected to this style of yoga, so I really believed that I was on the path. As always then came another real-life changing event, I completed the course and on returning home my dad passed away on his 73rd Birthday. This was very sudden within 4 weeks of his diagnosis he had died, the doctors had told us he had 9 months!
It would then be another 2 years before I finally took my 200hr training in Hatha yoga. My lifelong dream had always been to train in the land from which yoga originated, India, and to undergo my training in Ashram conditions.
Be careful what you wish for!
October 2023, 28 days of Ashram living and studying alongside an amazing group of people who I now recognise as long-distance friends. Stripped of all that I thought I was and reborn as the person that I would be going forward, my true self not the one who had been dictated by unrealistic outside influences. I travelled in India as a 53-year-old woman on her own for one week after the Ashram and it was a true life-changing experience.
I now run a couple of classes a week for beginners and have a lovely group of ladies who have never done yoga before. We are only 4 sessions in, and they are loving it and reaping the benefits, I will continue to serve and support people on their yoga journeys.
I am also about to qualify as an Ayurvedic coach at the end of this month. Then in April, my Level 2 Ayurvedic Health Counsellor training starts, I also plan to take an Ayurvedic massage course in late 2024 to support my retreat offerings to become an expert in holistic wellness and healing practices. The master plan is to return to the mountains of Spain and start a wellness retreat within the next 18 months.
My main aim is to support women at crossroads in their lives after bringing up families and who are struggling with symptoms of both peri and full-blown menopause. I want the retreats to be accessible to everyday women who may not have the funds for luxury retreats, yet still feel pampered without breaking the bank. Additionally, they should leave with some simple achievable life hacks of self-love and self-care as they enter their 3rd trimester of life.
