My Classes
About me...
Let's be honest : I never liked sports. Even as a child, gymnastics classes at school were not a tea party. I have always liked swimming and walking, but please, don't talk to me about sports! And then, one day, I wanted to learn how to dance salsa and the gym next to my then-office offered some classes, so I subscribed. And discovered Les Mills Body Balance(tm). This was a revelation : for once I could follow almost from beginning to end and everything seemed kind of easy. I started taking o weekly class and soon found myself taking a class almost everyday!
One year later, I became a Body Balance instructor after a magical training in a small gym near the Sacré Coeur in Paris and decided this was what I wanted to do with my life so I could allow more people to enjoy the benefits of this class which empowered me and settled the basics of yoga in my body. In 2010, I became a Pro Instructor and, strangely enough, this was when I started to shift towards yoga.
Discovering yoga was a pivotal shift in the way I practised and taught.
I realised that you don't have to push or force your body into a pose when there are so many options available, that you can modify it so yoga adapts to you and not the other way round (something unheard of in Body Balance). Thus I decided to undergo a Yoga Teacher Training and I chose Vinyasa Flow beceuse I love the dynamism and the freedom of creativity it offered. I also felt it gave a better and more logical structure to my classes. For about a year, I travelled monthly to London for a week-end in order to become a RYT 200 Vinyasa Flow Yoga Teacher under Alessandra Pecorella (Aditya Yoga School), guidance, then another 200h with Juan Gabriel in Prana Flow. Both of them are direct students of Shiva Rea.
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Since then I have had the great pleasure and honour to follow workshops with all those great and unique teachers : Jason Crandell, Anna Ashby, Kathy Wolff, Veda Ela, Linda Spackman, Jafar Alexander, Charlotte Saint Jean, Richard Rosen, François Raoult et Laura Antelmi (anatomy) . Whenever I can, I go and follow a vedic chanting class with Shantala Sriramaiah. In the spring of 2017, I broadened my teaching skills with Adelene Cheong in restorative yoga. In 2018, I discovered gong baths thanks to Swann, and I fell in loe with this powerful meditative practice that pur meditation back at the forefront of my life. I am now looking forward to his monthly visits in Brussels.
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I am just aiming at bringing wellbeing to a wide range of people through yoga and meditation.
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Even though my trainings are Yoga Alliance recognized, In 2017, they reviewed their rules and guidelines, which makes sense if you are based in the UK but not when you live abroad. Why would you go and follow a workshop in London or Manchester that they organised with one of their approved teachers when you can follow exactly the same orkshop for 4 to 5 less times the cost? Since it wasn't enough anymore to follow a requisite amount of workshops a year to further your yoga education (which is completely normal), I decided not to renew my membership with them.
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Over the years, I developed my own vision of the teachings I have received where I strive to listen and respect my students. Sometimes a class may not go according to plan but yoga is just like life, full of unpredictabilty and adaptation as long as you always come back to what's important : you and your practice. If I were to use one word it would be:
"compassion".
When I started folllowing classes, I was in good general health, quite flexible (well, actually I have a larger joint mobility than most), I really noticed the benefits for my body along the years. My arms became stronger, I now can achieve postures I never thought I could and can go deeper into others that I could do, but all this took time. Yoga is like life : a constant evolution of the mind, the body, but also observing them. I believe anyone can improve with time, no matter where they start from. Of course, Rome wasn't built in a day and it requires a lot of patience regarding some postures and that's ok! Everyone evolves at their own rythm, without any kind of pressure. What happens on the mat next to you is not as important as what happens on your. We have more than enough competition in our everyday lives, so forget about it when you arrive on a yoga mat ;-) you do your best and that's what's important.
This is also one of the reasons why you will find me more on my mat than next to you adjusting.
I have experienced several negative adjustment experiences with experimented teachers (one of them was a foot injury that lasted about a month), thus I'd rather adjust verbally than physically, as it's as effective and less traumatizing.
If and when I do adjust, it will rather be small things to help you find more benefits to the pose within the limitations set by your body as I will never have you do an advanced posture or a posture that doesn't do you any good because that would be going against my principles and also the one that's the most important in yoga : Ahimsa.
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Of course we always strive to get better and it's ok, as long as you don't push yourself or wish to go too faar too fast. We don't all have the same bodies and all have our strenghts and weaknessses and we all arrive onto the mat with our daily issues. But when we manage to let all that aside, even next to the mat, then we get closer to yoga and to ourselves. And if on top of that you respect your body during the practice, you will find even more benefits to the classes.
If you wish to learn how to make your practice more mindful or how to just to learn what it is to practice mindfully, you're in the right spot.
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There are many ways to get there: some will need gentle classes while others will prefer more dynamic. some need to be more active, others more passive but together we will find the best way for YOU.
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Yoga is a wonderful tool to help you reconnect with your body and you breath, find your center, enjoy the moment, but also to help you in your everyday life to deal with stress better. Asanas (postures), pranayama (breathing) and dhyana (meditation) are the main components of the soft or more energetic classes I'm offering you.
