A Seasoned Yogi By Shelley Osman

I’ve been practicing yoga asana (the physical side of yoga), along with the devotional and philosophical side of yoga since my teens. I was self-taught for many, many years practicing daily. Yoga has been with me my whole life nearly and it has helped not only me in many, many ways but I've witnessed it help so many people through so many different areas of their lives, when they've wanted to gain physical wellness or they've needed to feel grounded in their life while they go through turmoil of some kind, or they’ve needed emotional balance or they've wanted to connect deeper on the spiritual level, or they've just wanted to quiet their busy minds and find some peace in their hectic lives or just to find some solace and comfort for themselves.

One thing that I've always encouraged is a sense of community with all the students that I teach, and I feel very blessed to have the most amazing students who've been with me, some for over 20 years and some who have been with me for 11 years. All of my students are incredibly compassionate and kind, I feel very, very fortunate to be able to share the beauty and the sacredness of yoga with so many wonderful people.

I came across these photos recently, back then we didn't have Android phones or phones with cameras so my first pregnancy I had no one to take photographs of me practicing yoga, but my second pregnancy my husband took these photographs and this was 4 days before I gave birth to our second daughter Mani. I was teaching in the living room of our home and I recall one of my students from down south, Simon, absolutely panicked that I could give birth there and then. I wouldn't try this if you're newly pregnant and you haven't done Yoga before! 

My new classes after the summer break will start in a new location in Victoria Hall Grange Over Sands, this beautiful space was the first place I taught in when I lived here for one year in 2002 and now 22 years later I'm going back. How time flies, our daughter is now 21 and here I am still offering classes, a little bit older, and many things have changed but my love for yoga still remains.