Amy’s Yoga Story (so far)

As I sit here in my London apartment with the afternoon sun beaming through the window, my first thought is ‘hello sun it’s been a while’ after a long UK winter. I can feel my Aussie roots seeping through, that craving for sun on the skin! And then as many of us do, I question how did I get here. Me, an Australian yoga teacher living in London. To be super bold and say the answer was YOGA would be a complete lie, but the teachings of yoga have definitely shaped who I am and where I am today. So here it is, my yoga story (so far). In many ways, I’m sure it’s familiar, simply a deep love for movement that drew me to practice. But the practice has unfolded so much more than I could have ever imagined. A beautiful, unexpected and never-ending journey.

Since I can remember I have danced. My afternoons as a kid consisted of back-to-back ballet, jazz, tap or contemporary dance classes. When people used to ask me what I wanted to do when I grew up, the answer was always “be a professional dancer”. I was lucky enough to make this childhood dream into reality. After High School, I went to full-time dance college where I danced all day every day. It was here I experienced my first yoga class. To be honest, I didn’t like it much. It was slow, boring and I really just didn’t get the point of it. Shortly after graduating, I landed my first overseas dance contract in China. Thanks, Mum for letting me jet-set at the age of 18! After many years and contracts overseas, touring and performing, I found yoga again. There was so much that led me to this point. A severe hamstring injury, ongoing tendonitis in my hips, over-exercising, under-eating and overall not really taking care of my body. My chiropractor suggested yoga as a complement to my rehab program. And so my practice began with a brief addiction to Bikram Yoga. I want to say I’m not proud of that, but it was my entry point and also an important part of my journey. The discipline and ritual it brought into my week was profound.

Although, after a couple of months of practice, my body was getting worse, not better. I began to do more research into local yoga studios. This is when I found what is still the most meaningful yoga studio in my life. It was a true community, in the heart of Darlinghurst, my home away from home! There really is something to be said about finding a ‘teacher’ and I think many of us are searching for a guide like that in our lives. I began to practice every day alongside performing and teaching dance in Sydney. I had flirted with the idea of doing teacher training for a couple of months at the studio, then a week before the yoga teacher training started I maxed out my credit card and applied for the training! Gut instinct is such a powerful thing. I had no intention of teaching. In fact, it was the last thing I wanted to do. I just loved yoga and wanted to learn more about it. All I wanted was to be a student and embody the practice. After completing my teacher training with Annie Carpenter, I was so inspired that yoga could be so powerful yet kind to the body. 

At first, I resisted teaching. I wanted this little treasure of my personal yoga practice to be my own and not be shared. After 6 months I taught my first yoga cover class which grew into many more classes and eventually, I found I was turning down dance work to teach yoga. This is where I met Janet, at another yoga studio in Sydney where we taught together and she was managing the studio. I admired Janet’s ability to run such a successful studio and interact with students and staff in a personable way where we all felt equal. I look back at this time as such a transition for me. This period was where I found my voice, grew my teaching confidence, made lifelong friends and had so much fun doing it. After a breakup and reassessing what the entertainment industry was doing to my mental health, I decided to take the plunge. I quit dancing and took up yoga teaching as a full-time career. I was teaching at that point 20+ classes a week, running a teacher training program with Janet, living by the ocean and life was, well, amazing! So of course (the adventurous spirit in me!) decided to shake everything up and move across the world to London, with no job but a hunger for adventure. You could also say teacher burnout was in full swing and I was in need of a break.

The first couple of months were incredible. I travelled and practiced yoga in many different countries where I didn’t understand the language. Some serious shark eyes going on! I didn’t teach and it was a gift to simply be a student. I believed, and still do, as teachers, we need to always be a student first to keep our ‘spark alive’. I felt so lucky to learn from so many teachers and experience the many ways yoga can be practiced and taught. Then reality hit! I was in London, summer was ending, money was running thin and trying to land yoga teaching work in a massive city where I had no connections was really HARD! It was a slow build and of course, as things started to fall into place, Covid hit. It was such a strange time for all of us and we all have a story. One day I was racing around London on the tube teaching at three different yoga studios, the next day everything was shut. This is where the practice of yoga really became an embodied experience off of the mat. I resisted flying home, trusted my gut and was reminded yet again of the benefits of pranayama to keep my anxiety down. With no income and dwindling savings, I had to figure out how to make it work. So, like many other teachers, I jumped into the world of online yoga. I threw together a website, fumbled through all the technicalities of recording and teaching live classes, and all of sudden we were connected from around the globe, offering each other support. After many, many zoom yoga sessions, yoga continued to surprise me. I really felt like I had built a community of yogis to feel at home with and keep each other motivated during this uncertain time. My happiest teaching moments have always been moments of connection. My heart wants to explode with joy when students who met over Zoom Yoga in lockdown send me a photo now having coffee together in real life. Pure magic!

Throughout one of the lockdowns in London, Janet and I started to dream big about Nectar, over zoom of course. It started very small. One retreat to give students the opportunity to connect with like-minded people and find a community through yoga. Ideas continued to flow so I returned back to Australia seven months to work and build Nectar with Janet. This definitely came with its challenges no doubt. After many London lockdowns, I arrived into a two-week hotel quarantine and another four-month lockdown in Sydney was not ideal. I was also doing long distance with my now fiancé Nick. You could say I was a lockdown queen and I don’t know what I would’ve done without yoga to keep me sane! At the same time, I felt immensely lucky. I had my health and I was surrounded by family. This beautiful opportunity to reconnect. I hadn’t spent this long at home since I was 18. It was filled with long beach walks with my mum, wines with my sisters on the veranda, and hanging out with my niece and nephew! Once things reopened, we ran Nectar’s first yoga teacher training in Sydney and two special retreats in NSW before I returned back to London to be with Nick and expand Nectar to the UK and Europe.

Since arriving back in London, my personal practice has started to take a shift, being drawn to more subtle energies. I completed my yin training last year with Norman Blair, which felt like such a nourishing gift to slow down, listen and dive deeper into meditation and the subtle body. This has helped me cultivate more balance to the very ‘yang energy’ in London for both myself and my students. Yin has been a reminder to slow down, reflect, be more present and continually work to be kinder to my body. Teaching in London, a busy city, with everyone always in a rush and on the go, restorative practices have been the perfect way to find calm. This led me to my crystal bowl sound healing with Holly Husler. I’m currently completing her training, which in many ways has felt like a life training! The power of intention, manifesting and exploring the chakras has taught me so much about myself and offered a roadmap for healing. I always find it fascinating what shows up during a yoga training. I love learning from people's life experiences and it makes me fall in love with yoga all over again.

Sound healing is a practice of using different sounds and instruments to create a deep connection with self and your intuition. Sound healing sessions (or sometimes referred to as sound baths) are practiced lying down and help improve your emotional well-being. I’m specifically training in sound healing with a crystal bowl. The quartz crystal or alchemy crystal, depending which bowls the healer is working with, sends out a vibrational, cleansing frequency to work on all layers of the body - the physical, emotional, mental, cellular and spiritual. Incorporating mediation techniques, mantra and intention setting allow you to dive deep into relaxation, unwind and heal through the frequency of sound. If you haven’t tried it I highly recommend it. For me, this might sound over dramatic but it’s been life-changing! And who doesn't love lying in Savasana for an hour or so!

My day-to-day in London is a mix of teaching private yoga classes (some are still on zoom), teaching in studio and spending more laptop time than I ever had in my life, searching for retreat venues and creating experiences that inspire people's zest for life through yogic teachings. What I don’t do anymore is practice vinyasa and strong power class every day. I've been practicing yoga consistently for over 10 years and teaching for almost eight. Some days I practice for 20 minutes and other days for 75 minutes! A practice a mix of hatha, vinyasa, yin, meditation and mantra and I’ve found now in my life this is the perfect medicine. I also find running meditating (keep in mind I run very, very slow!!) and it’s been a great way to explore the city. Yoga is a massive part of my life and in many ways is my ‘church’ and home away from home! So far it has taught me that you can be powerful yet soft and how to be a better partner, listener, communicator and friend. It reminds me every day to ‘look up’ and remember where you are. To practice gratitude and allow me to feel moments that aren't so ‘bright’ and sometimes embody the darkness to fully appreciate the good times!! I love this quote by Brianna Wiest - “Little by little, you will begin to see that life can only grow outward in proportion to how stable it is inward - that if the joy is not the little things first, the big things won’t fully find us”.

I think we are all on a journey to find out who we are, how we can show up fully and ride the rollercoaster of life together. I feel immensely lucky that I found yoga. It keeps me curious and continually wakes me up to the moment. The practice of yoga for me is an ever-evolving story, to help guide us through life. I feel my practice and yoga story will continue to shift and change just as my life will. Through the highs and lows what I do know is yoga will always be there. A grounded support, like a safe island I can always return to. I hope my story (or story so far) has inspired you to keep practicing or take up your very first yoga class. Life is a wild ride and how incredible we have yoga to guide us through.