Starting Over
It’s amazing how much can change in a short period of time. Only 3 years has passed and personally I’ve moved home 5 times (built 2 of them ourselves), moved country twice, given birth to 2 wonderful boys and finally settled. The world has also changed in that time. Everyone (bar a few exceptions) seems to hang out on instagram permanently, online yoga is more popular than classes and yoga is finally “mainstream”.
When we moved to Lisbon and I suggested Skype yoga to clients as a way of keeping up their practice even I thought I was mad. Luckily most people were willing to give it a go. It was all so new then. One particular evening Skype class I taught, I got up to turn the light on so my client could see me better and she exclaimed “oh I actually thought you were coming to adjust me then!” No, that would involve taking a flight.
Eric is now just 4 and Marlon is 2.5 and for the first time in 4 years I have time to build a website and write my first blog post. It’s amazing how occupied kids keep you, in a good way. And I thought housewives just swanned around having a lovely time!
8 weeks ago I decided to take the plunge and start over again teaching in the new city I live, Poole. People are “sporty” and “healthy” here, it goes with the territory, but whether they would take to yoga was anyone’s guess. Pre Christmas I taught my first workshop at the Haven Hotel on Sandbanks. What a place to teach!
The other evening I took a drive past the Haven and sat at the chain ferry looking out to the Isle of Purbeck. It felt like sitting at the juncture between two worlds. Literally the lights of Poole set against the expansive nothingness of deeper Dorset. And there is the Haven, perched at that very point. It’s said that Marconi invented the radio in a room at the hotel and now that room is dedicated to him. It seems very apt to be writing my first social media blog about teaching in the place where Marconi invented our primary means of communicating with the outside world.
It’s amazing how nervous I felt about teaching again. I’d taught a few privates here and there but a full blown public class - what if no one turned up, what if no one liked it, what if I’d forgotten how to teach…what ifs. Three deep breaths and you can launch yourself into anything. Motherhood and being with the kids is a blessing, it gives you a warm glow and feeling of wholeness but if you can also do your passion and balance the two, well that’s the ultimate.
And blow me down, the people of Poole love yoga. What a joy! Everyone on the pre Christmas course has started again for round two this January and I have a whole new class of yogis on a Monday evening too. Word is spreading. Social media is great but word of mouth is always best in my book. Bring on the new decade and new yogis in the fold!