My Story
Yoga and lifestyle is my passion
My love affair with yoga began when I was 18, whilst working as a beauty therapist at a Health Farm. It was there that I discovered (old school) Hatha yoga which was nowhere near as hip, cool and main stream as it is today, however, after about a year, I was hooked, I loved the new found flexibility and strength that it gave to my body, but there was something else – I also felt a sense of calm after every class and at the same time quite euphoric.
When I turned 21, it was the late ‘Eighties’ and London was beckoning, so I swapped the Health Farm and Yoga for an exciting, high flying Executive Career with a large well known Cosmetics company, ‘Clarins’. I worked really hard and earned promotion after promotion. Before I knew it, I was introduced to a taste of the high life, from; big hair, big shoulder pads, expensive clothes, company cars, mobile phones, champagne lunches in plush London hotels to many promotional trips abroad. I worked 24/7 and with that came big pay cheques but also huge stress levels!
Fast forward to the late 90’s, I was married with 2 lovely children, lived in a beautiful house in the country and had the lifestyle to match, on the outside my life looked picture perfect, ‘I was living the dream’! However, behind closed doors, I knew different, my marriage was falling apart, I was extremely unhappy and I certainly wasn’t living my truth but I couldn’t see a way out.
It was at this time that I was introduced to a very different style of yoga, Ashtanga Vinyasa, and so began my next love affair with yoga. I practiced Ashtanga religiously twice a week for 3 years, I totally got it. Yoga got me out of my head and in to my heart, it made me more aware of my innermost feelings, it made me feel free and more connected to my intuition, I decided that I wanted to learn more. At this time, by chance, my yoga teacher had just taken a class in a yoga studio in Cornwall with Bridget Woods Kramer.
Bridget was teaching a new style of yoga (after spending several years in the States studying personally with John Friend), it was named ‘Anusara Yoga’, so I looked her up and booked her very first training course of Anusara in the UK. That first week of training with Bridget absolutely intensified and sealed my passion for yoga forever and had a profound effect on the direction my life was about to take. She is such a sweet, humble, caring lady and has magnified my understanding of yoga in infinite ways. I am so immensely grateful to her for everything she has taught me on and off the mat over the years. I will always refer to her as my primary teacher.
After my first training with Bridget in the Spring of 2003, I started teaching almost immediately and doors have been opening for me ever since. At first I was asked to cover a couple of classes in local health clubs, then before I knew it, within a year, I had 18 regular classes per week which was not ideal and exhausting to say the least. However I found that practising and teaching yoga was my dharma (vocation), it also helped me through an extremely traumatic, intense and difficult period of my life. Yoga was my lifeline of sanity and stability, it literally offered me the strength to process a family death, an abusive alcoholic relationship, my divorce, bankruptcy, as well as giving me the empowerment to raise and support my 2 children as a single Mum and move forwards in my life – those classes also paid my bills.
Fast forward again and that seems like a lifetime ago, as the saying goes, ‘after the dark times there is always light’. I am now an established yoga teacher with 20 years of teaching experience and have accumulated over 2000 hours of personal development, training and study over this time which has qualified me as a Registered Senior Yoga Teacher with Yoga Alliance Professionals UK. I have been privileged to study and learn from numerous world class teachers of immeasurable excellence and consequently, have gained a wealth of knowledge, skill and experience in many different styles of yoga.
I am happily remarried and live in Woburn Sands with my husband Brian and our 2 cats, we both share the same vision for our future and live a very contented life. My children are now grown up, my son is a very talented artist/musician currently living in Czech Republic with his (yoga teacher) girlfriend, and my daughter is now married, living back in Woburn Sands with her husband and has an extremely succesful career in London. I am hugely proud of them both, they are conscious, open minded, kind, generous, unique individuals and they totally get yoga/meditation as well as the philosophy behind what I do.
So my life now – I teach and mentor yoga teachers, I teach small group classes and private clients in my yoga cabin studio. I write articles, I read, I walk, run or bike daily in the beautiful woods near us, my new love is lifting weights and circuit training, I enjoy all genres of music, concerts, theatre, festivals, travel, exploring different cultures, as well as socialising with friends. However, when I am not doing any of these, I’m also just as happy to stay stay in, I’m a homey at heart and really enjoy home cooking and hosting family and friend gatherings.
In a nutshell, I am now living my best life!
I believe that when we can align our Body, Mind and Heart, we are literally choosing to become more conscious – of ourselves, others and the world around us. My yoga journey has taught me to sit with my shit, process it and then to make self affirming choices, I can choose to be inspired, live my truth, grow and evolve in to a more balanced happier person or choose to live a life of lies, regrets and unhappiness. Yoga has given me back my freedom of spirit, it’s opened my heart to love, it’s given my mind such clarity. Its enabled me to wholeheartedly embrace every moment and cherish all that life has to offer. It has also encouraged me to seek adventure, try new things and above all laugh and have fun. I feel that one of the the greatest dangers in life is routine and becoming regimented.
Lastly, the most fantastic thing about teaching yoga is that I will always be a student, there is always room for further positive personal growth. I am passionate about what I do and I feel blessed that I am able to impart and share my learning experiences, so that I can inspire confidence, promote healing, and offer a sense of well being to others .
Brigitte xx
