Virtual Yoga for every body
At Footprint Yoga we focus on you! When you practice yoga, it is your practice. The teacher is only there to guide you, but you choose which parts of instructions / suggestions you want to follow. There are options given throughout the practice. If something does not work for you, don’t do it.
At Footprint Yoga we strive to create a safe place to practice and be yourself.
I guess my story with yoga begins around 2008 when my friend tried to persuade me to try yoga. She was adamant it would be good for me. For around 7 years I have refused such invitations, coming up with various excuses of why I shouldn’t try it – among those most repeated ones were: I am not flexible enough (I can’t touch my toes!), I am not strong enough, I don’t know the forms being practised (I know – a very odd excuse as if you think about it, you are coming to classes to learn them) and yoga is weird (e.g. the usage of Sanskrit terms have put me off for years).
It has taken Life to throw me in a few year’s pain cycle and to lose a family member, when I took a hard look at my life and decided to give yoga a try – after all, people do say it’s good for relaxing? Mind you, I still had excuses for delaying this by a couple of months and going to the gym first to get myself ready for yoga. I still recall the first yoga class – arriving to it when everyone looked like they know what they are doing. I picked up a mat (as everyone around me had one!) and chose a spot at the back of the room in the corner (teacher can’t see what I am doing then, right?). I thought I was ready after hours at the gym every week that I finally would be able to do yoga. All my preconceptions melted away about halfway through the class when my arms and legs were turning into jelly. That may have discouraged me from ever coming back, have I not had an amazing first teacher. He has encouraged everyone to take a break whenever needed and was funny when some (all almost entire class) could not do something. He was genuine and admitted his own limitations. He made it ok not to be able to do something at the time. At the end of the class, we had Savasana (i.e. a lie down on your back on your mat with your eyes closed). For the first time in a couple of years I had a pain-free minute (or two) and I could not have been happier. From that moment I knew I would be coming back for more.
And I did! One weekly class increased to three, then to five, then expanded into other types – anti-gravity aerial yoga – and experimenting with other teachers. All my excuses have melted away and I was questioning myself, why has it taken me so long to try yoga? The pain I was having every day, every minute of the day has decreased to occasional episodes and today I do consider myself being pain free (even though I do get bad days from time to time, but who doesn’t?). These are my experiences and they can and are different for all people.
Fast forward to 2018 – I have finally decided to take my yoga teacher training course. Well, I completed a foundation course first prior to starting my teacher training. Initially I had so many excuses of why I shouldn’t do it and how I am not “good” at yoga (what does being “good at yoga” even mean?). I’m not flexible enough. I’m not strong enough. I can’t do this. I can’t do that. Does that sound familiar to the excuses I used for not trying yoga in the first place? But then eventually I just decided to stop. Stop coming up with reasons why I shouldn’t do something and instead just try and do it. And I couldn’t be happier with my decision. Barefoot Body Training had an amazing faculty and their focus on embodying your own experiences has helped me to realise that I do want to be a yoga teacher. Getting my yoga teacher qualification in 2019 was an absolute highlight of that year! I have been teaching ever since.
Weirdly enough I used very similar excuses before I started my yoga therapy qualification. I always knew there is more to yoga than just doing the poses. Consider only how much it helped me with my own pain issues? And at the time, I wasn’t doing anything special – just a few yoga classes a week. It has been an immense learning curve and there are only a few more months left to fully qualifying. So 2023 not only will mark the 15 years from the humble beginnings of my yoga journey (8 of which have been full of yoga practice), but also mean that I can work with many more health conditions. My yoga therapy knowledge continues to seep into my general yoga classes, which too become more and more therapeutic.
I absolutely love sharing the joy of yoga with others. And that’s how Footprint Yoga was born. Why Footprint you may wonder?
Footprint Yoga means a lot of things to me. It’s about the change, the journey, the compassion. It’s about constantly improving and getting better at whatever your passions are. It’s having a wild side and a passion in life. It’s about caring. And above all it’s about freedom – freedom to express yourself, freedom to be yourself, freedom to be true to yourself. The list goes on and it can be different each day. It’s ever changing and evolving.
All those things add up into having a footprint in your personal life and then all around your close circle of friends and family and perhaps around the world. All the actions and choices you make on and off the mat leave the footprint in the world. What kind of footprint are you leaving right now? What is yoga to you?
Are you ready to come and join Footprint Yoga?
Whether you come to a Footprint Yoga class to relax or to rest, learn a new form or are working towards deepening your practice or are looking for a workout – you can find this in the classes. Yoga is not about achieving a goal or some aim, so perhaps you want to learn to let it all go and just immerse yourself into your practice. Footprint Yoga classes are a gentle, slow flow – pausing in places to explore the form and answer any questions you may have. They can be strong and energetic, if that’s what participants want.
Come and learn to be with you, when there are no distractions. Allow the time for yourself. Where will your practice take you?