I am a climber, a yoga teacher and an exercise referral instructor. I’m lucky enough to have climbed all over the world and to have travelled in many wild places in our van.
Yoga started to change my life about 10 years ago. I’d just finished a period of intense computer work for the final stages of a doctorate, and my shoulders and back had become debilitatingly stiff. I started with gentle classes, and progress was slow to start with, but eventually I found that my body could do things it hadn’t been able to do for years.
Yoga made such a difference to my life and climbing, that I wanted to share. I qualified as a yoga teacher in 2019. I’m also qualified in exercise referral, enabling to me to teach yoga to people with common health conditions. I teach yoga for love, not money, and most of my teaching is either for fund-raising or within the voluntary sector.
For me, yoga isn’t about ‘making the shape’. It’s about making the most of our lives.
- Whether it’s helping a climber prepare her body for the next route…
- …Someone with a physical health condition carry out the activities of daily living…
- …Or someone with a mental health condition find a safe, calm space each day to focus on himself.
Top climber Hazel Findlay has a mantra which really resonates with me:
“Let the body climb”
Yoga helps us do just that.
Vertical Yoga 