Dreamyoga officially began in nineteen- ninety-nine with the opening of St Leonardgate Yoga Studio. In reality it had been forming for many decades through my own experimentation with, and practice of, Yoga. I could quote many Swamis, ancient Seers, Sages and modern philosophers who have a great and deep knowledge of this ancient technique of health and mind-calming, but basically all I have truthfully to tell you about is my own experience and how my life has become affected by it.
I have been serious about Yoga since nineteen-seventy- two and teaching it since ninety-two. I cannot say in all these years of practicing, reading and receiving the wisdom of great teachers that I know five per cent about my favourite subject, it is too old and too vast, all I can talk about is the benefits I have received and how Yoga has transformed my own life.
I attended my first Yoga class in the early seventies; I was married with children and went along thinking it would be like a weight loss programme. The “exercises” I remember were a bit confusing but at the end we were told to lie down and think about each body part, this was my first introduction to Yoga Nidra and one that I have never forgotten, I felt deeply calmed, right through to my center. . Over the years I used this technique many times when I needed to get to sleep or when I felt very stressed or in pain.
I had three children in the sixties and seventies and found my birthing experiences to be terrifying, disempowering and beyond painful, there aren’t words to describe the deeply agonizing contractions ripping and tearing through my body as I tensed up to avoid the pain and was offered pain relief and disregard in equal measure by my carers. Years later in complete contrast I was birthing partner at my grandson Lucas’s home-birth and learned that birthing could be a calm and joyous occasion. This spurred me on to take my British Wheel of Yoga teaching module for pregnancy and birth. I have been teaching Yoga for Pregnancy since ninety- ninety- six and get huge pleasure from these courses.
When my twenty-year marriage began to go wrong in the mid-eighties my Yoga practice became very important to me and I decided to further my knowledge of it by becoming a trainee teacher with the British Wheel of Yoga, completing this after three years. This supposedly thorough course touched far too lightly on matters I considered important such as mantra and meditation and in the early nineties as part of my Religious Studies Degree at Lancaster University I went to the Bihar School of Yoga in Bangalore, India, to learn the Yoga Nidra from Swami Yoga Ratna, this was the deepest and most powerful teaching I have ever received. Thirty years ago I fractured my neck, spine and hip in five places in a parachuting accident and for many years was taking morphine on a daily basis for the severe pain, I now practice Yoga Nidra instead and find that it relieves the pain on a deeper level. I recently visited my dentist and during my root canal treatment received no anaesthesia whatsoever, relying totally on the Yoga Nidra.
In my personal practice and during my teaching of Hatha Yoga (the Yoga of Movement) I had always found difficulty finding the flow of the practice, there would be pauses throughout while I wondered which posture should come next. Then I attended an introductory course for Ashtanga Yoga, I was bowled over by the beauty and flow and style of this practice with synchronized breathing and immediately attended David Swenson’s Christmas Retreat a month later. The following Easter I went to a John Scott Retreat and eventually found my way to the AshtangaYoga Guru Pattabi Jois in Mysore India. This practice is sometimes difficult and painful for me but it keeps me very fit and stops my body seizing up completely.
One of my best teachers and favourite friends is Philip Xerri. Phil teaches Pranayama and is a reflexology teacher. I began my career many years ago as a Reflexologist after Phil’s teaching and after much instruction from another reflexology teacher Julie Weaver (Dacrelands Clinic). Since then I have established my own intuitive Dreamyoga Reflexology Treatments and have practiced on hundreds of clients.
All this Yoga and teachings have made me feel complete freedom. I own very little apart from the old house-bus I live in, I feel safe and confident to travel the planet alone. I feel strong and compassionate and extremely positive about myself, and that is real freedom as far as I’m concerned.
