My Yoga Journey - International Yoga Day 2025

My yoga journey began around 10 years ago thanks to Yoga with Adriene (the queen! <3) on YouTube. I was in my first year of uni, looking for a way to stay active that didn’t involve the extremely busy student gym (I went once, waited 15 mins to go on the cross trainer, got my ankle stuck in between the pedals, and went straight home lol).

So yoga it was!

Back then, I saw yoga as purely physical, a way to stay fit and improve my flexibility. I gravitated towards fast-paced, core-focused videos and often squeezed my practice in just before going to bed after putting it off all day. I didn’t know anything about the philosophy or deeper layers of yoga, I just knew that I felt better after doing it, although I hadn’t connected the dots as to why.

My Yoga Routine Era

My practice started to develop after I moved home from uni. I was unemployed, feeling a bit lost, and in need of some structure. I began following Yoga with Adriene’s monthly calendars religiously, one video a day, every day, even if I didn’t feel like it. The stability of a daily yoga practice kept me going, and the 20-60 minutes of practice each day got me out of my head and made me feel slightly more capable and a bit less overwhelmed.

During the first Covid lockdown, I committed to 100 consecutive days of yoga. Once again, yoga gave me a sense of purpose and routine, and it was the one thing (except the daily chocolate torte my mum and I were eating - yum!!) that I looked forward to after being sat at my desk all day. I think this is when I really fell in love with yoga, not just as a physical practice, but as a way to feel calmer, more grounded, and more like myself again.

When Routine Becomes a Prison

But as my daily streak continued, I began to feel trapped by it, and I became almost scared to skip a day. Even if I was feeling tired or unwell, I’d still make myself practice, even if it was just for 10 minutes. I’d beat myself up if I didn’t practice ‘hard’ enough or if I wasn’t progressing as quickly as I thought I should.

Me in 2020 in my self-inflicted daily yoga prison

Embarrassingly, I remember rolling out my mat and doing a few sun salutations after getting home from a pretty heavy night at Wetherspoons, and not just the once! 😅

Yoga had become a chore, just one more box to tick off. I didn’t know what ahimsa (non-violence/kindness) was at this point, but there wasn’t an ounce of it towards myself in sight!

Being Brave

It was at this point, in 2021, that I decided to attend my first in-person class. I was so nervous, convinced that everyone would be more ‘advanced’ than me, that it would be cliquey and competitive, and that I wouldn't fit in or be able to keep up.

I couldn’t have been more wrong! I found teachers who offered kind feedback, explained things in ways that made sense to my body, and created spaces that were welcoming and warm. I was so relieved to find that yoga classes didn’t have to be exclusive or intimidating, and that’s something I now try to offer in my own classes.

Practicing alongside others, wobbling together, laughing and encouraging each other completely changed how I saw yoga. I realised that there was room for fun, that the focus wasn’t perfection, and that I didn’t have to take myself so seriously (phew!).

In one of the first classes I went to in 2021 with the lovely Jo Beach (https://just4today.org.uk/)

And when teachers wove in bits of philosophy, gentle reminders about kindness, presence, or letting go, it added a depth to the practice that I hadn’t experienced before.

Seeing the Bigger Picture

From there, I became more curious about yoga philosophy and history. Through my own reading and during teacher training, I began to understand that asana, the physical poses, are just one tiny part of a much bigger picture. Yoga isn’t about performing or perfecting poses, building a flawless routine, or achieving the next milestone. It’s about presence, awareness and compassion.

Eventually, I felt drawn to learn more, not to become a teacher (at first!), but just to deepen my understanding. That curiosity led me to teacher training, which opened up a whole new layer of what yoga could mean, and I found that I wanted to share what I’d learned (hello Elli Yoga!).

A Kinder Approach

These days, I don’t physically practice yoga every day, and I no longer feel guilty about it. I’ve let go of the need to strive and achieve, and I’ve learnt to offer myself grace, especially on days when I just don’t feel like it.

My yoga is now much broader than the asana. Sometimes it’s a few deep breaths in between meetings, sometimes it’s noticing an unhelpful thought spiral and trying (really trying!) not to get caught up in it. It’s no longer about ticking a box or beating myself up, but meeting myself where I am with kindness.

In a world where everything is so fast-paced, where there’s so much pressure around productivity, achievement and ‘aesthetics’, especially online, yoga is where I strip all of that back. It’s how I ground myself, reconnect to my body, and find stillness when life feels overwhelming.

Most importantly, yoga has taught me to let go a little, to accept things as they are, and to not take myself too seriously.

What I Love Most About Yoga

Yoga meets us where we are, not where we think we should be.

It doesn’t need to look a certain way, despite what you might see on Instagram. You don’t need to perform or perfect poses, curate an aesthetic, or fit into any kind of box. Real yoga is non-performative and non-competitive. It invites us to slow down, to be with our breath, and to return to ourselves, again and again, with kindness and compassion.

So, this International Yoga Day, I’m feeling blessed (too blessed to be stressed actually), and very grateful for the practice itself, for the teachers who’ve supported me, for everyone who comes to my classes, and for the lovely sense of community we’ve built and that continues to grow. Thank you all for being here! 🥰💖

Lovely Monday class - always embracing the wobbles and having fun in Tree pose

I’d love to hear about your own yoga journey if you feel like sharing! Send me a message or we can chat the next time you come to a class. 💌