I was drawn to yoga in 2014 while pregnant with my son. At the time, I had a stressful job in finance with long hours. I had always loved working out in the gym and had assumed yoga wasn’t for me. I could barely touch my toes, I didn’t think I was spiritual enough and I was convinced it wouldn’t give me a ‘real’ workout.

After my first class, what brought me back to my yoga mat time and time again was the strength I found inside. The mindfulness yoga teaches helped me to shift my outlook on life. And it made me sweat and work harder than I had in the gym!

Being a mother can be tough. My daughter was born in the summer of 2017, and her birth and start to life were very traumatic. I don’t think you can ever be prepared for having a child in intensive care, and I was hit with postnatal depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. The breathing techniques, meditation and physical practice of yoga gave me an outlet to cope and feel strong again in both my mind and body. And today my daughter is a beautiful soldier who loves nothing better than to be beside me while I practice.

Through yoga I am happier and spend more time enjoying the present rather than living in the past or worrying about the future. Those days of wishing to be in ‘a future place where I am happy’ are gone. I’ve seen a big difference in my stress levels and the way I handle situations that in the past would challenge me. AND I’m stronger and more flexible than I’ve ever been.