About Me
Practicing yoga changed my life. In 1996 I attended my first yoga class at the Sivananda Yoga Centre in Putney. I still remember how weak, tense and tight my muscles were and how hard it was to switch off and relax. Back then, years of work stress and painful family bereavements had left me anxious, stressed and exhausted. I had neck problems, I wasn’t sleeping well and my mind was frazzled. It was a joy to discover practicing yoga meant I could stretch away the tension in my body, heal my neck, strengthen my core muscles, lengthen my hamstrings, increase my energy levels by breathing deeply and truly relax to calm and still my mind.
In 2007 I completed two years of Yoga Teacher Training, with my yoga master Saraswati, who gave me the yoga name Ananda. It means bliss or joy: the sense of peacefulness experienced when practicing yoga.
Over the years I have trained with several other yoga teachers. Most notably: Sarah Powers (Yin Yoga, 2011), David Swenson (Ashtanga Teacher Training 2013), Tim Goullet (Anatomy in Motion 2014) and Laura Gilmore (Teachers Training Retreat 2015). I continue to train with Saraswati every week in an advanced class and attend mindfulness meditation courses to deepen my own practice. As a senior yoga teacher with the Yoga Alliance, I am qualified and insured to to teach all ages and abilities, including pregnant ladies and children. I am also a first aider with St John Ambulance.
