I came across Yoga on a beach in Thailand when I had left school, left my job, gone to college & Uni and then gone off travelling with my newly discovered overdraft.. I though Yoga looked a bit pretentious to be honest, the teacher was a super buff American man, and all the attendees were sunburned white women, most of whom were just watching the performance of the "teacher" (lets call him) it was a bit of a cliche, and I thought it looked a bit like bad gymnastics..

However, a few years later I met a great woman, who was to be my first teacher, A Scaravelli inspired teacher called Claire, who taught just outside Bath where I was living when I returned from travelling very poor, with my tail between my legs.

She told me about her yoga, and said she'd let me know when a space came available, this took a year, so in the meantime, I learned Tai Chi short form Wu Tang style, and Qi Gong, as well as playing my fiddle very scratchily with a Kirtan group. (It was all about the love, not neccerily to be in tune all the time, thank goodness) And working like mad to pay back my travelling debts.. Youth was not wasted on me!

A year later Claire let me in, and I was suddenly aware of a whole load of places around my body that had been a bit "absent" since childhood.. I couldn't touch my toes!  this is a life long journey I'm discovering.

She encouraged me to teach, so I gave it a go at a couple of retreats, and this is where I realised I needed formal training, so as I packed my bags to move to Devon, I looked for a school to learn from.

The Devon School of Yoga enveloped me straight away and once my young children were old enough to manage without my chest for a day or two, I started training.

I was freshly in love with moving, It was like all the restrictions of sitting still in class were all lifted, 13 years of school, a year of college, and 3 years of a degree seemed to morph into one bubble of learning things that seemed like other people had chosen them for me, this I was choosing for myself, and It felt and still does feel extra-ordinary.

Years later and Im still in Devon, my teens are planning jumping out of the nest, and I am also looking further than the safety of Totnes to see what else is out there.. I am not disappointed!

Im also very inspired by other teachers, and have devised a few additions to my teaching over the years to incroporte others, and often work alongside other practitioners.

I am always at the end of an email so if you want to get in touch and chat about what might work best for you on your journey, we have after all got a plethora of excellent teachers in Totnes!

katie@katiesyogacollective.co.uk

instagram katie.yoga.totnes