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I am indebted, first of all, to Audrey Pattison - one of BKS Iyengar’s first students in the UK - for having had the foresight and courage to start a children's Iyengar yoga class in a London state primary school in the 1970s. As a 6 year old without any conceptual understanding, I simply knew I had found something which helped me feel at home. Yoga became part of my life and over time the discovery that I could choose where to place my attention - and that that choice influenced how I felt - grew into a curiosity about meditation and the Dharma. In my early 20s I spent a year working with the Tibetan community in exile in Dharamsala, supporting Tibetan architectural heritage and living amongst Lamas and Rinpoches (senior teachers of Tibetan Buddhism). Their presence, lightness, laughter and friendship was a more profound teaching than the words themselves. By the end of the year I felt ready to attend a 20 day silent vipassana meditation retreat near the Bodhi tree in Bodhgaya. An insight which landed deeply in my being on this first retreat is distilled in these words by Kalu Rinpoche: “We live in illusion and the appearance of things. There is a reality. We are that reality. When you understand this, you see that you are nothing, and being nothing, you are everything. This is all.”
The seeds of profound potential of this new reality were then watered by life as I learnt to live into their promise. I look back now at both the challenges and blessings that have come to me in my life with increasing gratitude, knowing them to be the friction and fuel for the fire of transformation and growth. I am devoted to exploring what it is to live with warm-hearted and open-minded awareness in everyday life: as a long term partner, mother of three children, student, teacher, mentor, friend, daughter, sister, woman and deepening human being. To this end, I am grateful that the rivers of yoga and meditation continue to blend with insight into our psychological and emotional landscapes. Together these supports allow me to lovingly hold and heal previously suppressed childhood trauma and to grow rather than collapse during times of personal challenge. I am equally grateful to have discovered the Andean-Inkan Holy Mountain tradition, which continues to expand my relationship to the natural and spirit worlds. These mysterious relationships have profoundly increased my capacity to trust and surrender, allowing deep self-limiting beliefs to surface and be released. Together, the gifts of yoga, meditation and ceremony continue to guide me into an ever deeper relationship with the great mystery of Presence, in the delightful and humbling ways it keeps revealing itself! To this end, I am grateful to Alaric Newcombe for the depth and subtlety with which he understands this human form and the playfulness with which he shares; to Martin Aylward for his guidance, contagious passion for the goodness of Buddhist meditation practices, and his delight in finding the richness of teachings amidst daily life; to my beloved friends, teachers and mentors Sarah and Ty Powers, for embodying and sharing a path that so elegantly unites body, mind, heart and spirit; to wisdomkeepers Jeffrey Wium and Tupaq Titto Kuntur, for showing me my wings and the path of the heart; to Elizabeth Anne Hin for the vision and trust which she imparts; and in all ways to my precious husband and children who mean so much to me. Deep Bow Deep Love Deep Gratitude |
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Trainings and Practices
From 1977: Iyengar yoga
From 1995: Insight meditation
1995-7: Iyengar Yoga introductory teaching certificate (Elaine Pidgeon and Meg Laing)
1996, Oct-Dec: teachers' intensive with B.K.S Iyengar, Geeta Iyengar and Prashant Iyengar, India
2001, Jan-Mar: Ashtanga yoga study with Patthabi Jois, India
2001: Birthlight pregnancy yoga training (Francoise Freedman)
2002: Doula training (Lilliana Lammers and Michel Odent)
2006-7: Dharma Facilitation Programme (Christopher Titmuss)
2007: Iyengar yoga junior intermediate level 1 certificate (Alaric Newcombe)
2007: Meditation and yin yoga teacher training (Sarah Powers)
2007-8: Anusara yoga immersion (Bridget Woods-Kramer)
2009: Iyengar yoga junior intermediate level 2 certificate (Alaric Newcombe)
2013-14: Mindfulness teacher training (Mindfulness Training Institute: Martin Aylward and Mark Coleman)
2014: Insight Yoga endorsed teacher and mentor (Sarah and Ty Powers)
2015: Mindfulness Training Institute accredited teacher and mentor (MTI)
From 2018: Andean-Inkan Holy Mountain tradition (Jeffrey Wium and Tupaq Ttito Kuntur, Peru)
2020: Tantra and Feminine Temple Arts (Aude Barras)
From 2021: Kalyana Mitta (Martin Aylward)
From 1977: Iyengar yoga
From 1995: Insight meditation
1995-7: Iyengar Yoga introductory teaching certificate (Elaine Pidgeon and Meg Laing)
1996, Oct-Dec: teachers' intensive with B.K.S Iyengar, Geeta Iyengar and Prashant Iyengar, India
2001, Jan-Mar: Ashtanga yoga study with Patthabi Jois, India
2001: Birthlight pregnancy yoga training (Francoise Freedman)
2002: Doula training (Lilliana Lammers and Michel Odent)
2006-7: Dharma Facilitation Programme (Christopher Titmuss)
2007: Iyengar yoga junior intermediate level 1 certificate (Alaric Newcombe)
2007: Meditation and yin yoga teacher training (Sarah Powers)
2007-8: Anusara yoga immersion (Bridget Woods-Kramer)
2009: Iyengar yoga junior intermediate level 2 certificate (Alaric Newcombe)
2013-14: Mindfulness teacher training (Mindfulness Training Institute: Martin Aylward and Mark Coleman)
2014: Insight Yoga endorsed teacher and mentor (Sarah and Ty Powers)
2015: Mindfulness Training Institute accredited teacher and mentor (MTI)
From 2018: Andean-Inkan Holy Mountain tradition (Jeffrey Wium and Tupaq Ttito Kuntur, Peru)
2020: Tantra and Feminine Temple Arts (Aude Barras)
From 2021: Kalyana Mitta (Martin Aylward)