Yoga found me over 20 years ago and what a journey it has been. Being an ex Military Policewoman and a keen runner, I arrived at that first class thinking ‘what can this teach me that I don’t already know?’ I soon found out and was hooked. The ensuing years have been an incredible journey of self-enquiry and liberation along with the joy of sharing its fruits with others.
During my early practice years I was working as an international event producer. Yoga helped keep me grounded and gave me clarity and focus to run a very successful and fast moving events business. It also helped me through divorce and ill-health.
As my practice progressed I had a quest for more knowledge and in 2007 I took a 200-hour teaching training with the prestigious London based training organisation, The Life Centre. I soon started teaching and for a short time ran a small yoga studio in Bedford. It was here that I started to learn the craft of teaching and taught some fast and fun Hatha Flow and Vinyasa classes inspired by the teachings of Shiva Rea and John Scott.
My yoga education continued with a further 200 hours Anusara Teacher Training with Bridget Woods Kramer and several Scaravelli inspired intensive trainings along with restorative training with Judith Hansen Lassater. As my skills bank grew, so too did my confidence and like any teacher of any subject, with experience comes a style and teaching personality unique to that individual. The words somatic, experiential, embodied, curious and fun becoming my mantra……
So Yoga was working its magic and as I moved away from Bedford I met a beautiful teacher called Sarah Lo. Sarah is a gifted Yin and Meditation teacher and personal assistant to Sarah Powers. The timing was right for me to fully embrace the bitter sweetness of self enquiry and ‘POW’ it was like a something that I had been waiting for all of my life. Yin Teacher Training followed and the invitation to turn inwards, to start the process of letting unwanted patterns of behaviour and unhelpful thinking go. To live a life that I didn’t think possible.
In 2014 I met and studied with James Reeves who is currently the only certified iRest Yoga Nidra and Meditation teacher in the UK. James is a student of clinical psychologist and yogic scholar, Richard C. Miller PhD, whose work in establishing the Integrative Restoration Institute [iRest] has helped so many find freedom and equanimity. It is with magnitude and heartfelt gratitude when I say that the iRest Teacher Training Level 1 and 2 has been transformative both personally and in my own teaching.
Ali currently teaches privately and at Whitespace Yoga studio in Stony Stratford and still continues to produce 3-4 corporate events a year. She is also the [sometimes] Staff Manager on the iRest Yoga Nidra and Meditation UK trainings. www.restfulbeing.co.uk
