I returned to Shelley's classes a year ago after many years tied up in work and kids. She suggested the Yoga for All class for me, as I'd attended in the past occasionally. I like variety in my lessons as I’m easily bored by repetition - so this class is ideal as each week is subtly different, focusing on different areas of our bodies and picks up energies and emotions which tie in with seasonal and planetary energies. I have a career I love: teaching outdoor education that requires fitness and strength to keep me safe from injury. Over the years I have needed quite a bit of physio/massage for injuries and tight muscles as my body ages and I still try to do what I did 30 years ago. I started classes carrying a number of injuries, some long term: fluid on the knees, lower back trapped nerves from carrying heavy things, stiff neck and tendonihsits from computer work and a damaged foot as I recall. A year later with weekly classes, even with a few breaks for holidays - I have had so many less problems and when I have had them they have been eased out before they become painful. The class seems to address exactly what I needed so much so that sometimes I wonder if Shelley is psychic as I feel the stretches twists and holds being exactly what I need! I have spent a lot less time in pain feeling stiff and being grumpy, and have been able to do more work with the groups - which makes the yoga a very good way to keep myself strong and flexible and has saved me money on on needing to hire extra staff or get physio to unlock tense muscles. Every yoga exercise suggested and demonstrated by Shelley comes with adaptations for all our individual strengths and weaknesses. I can do some positions easily and others not at all, and looking round the room of folks of all ages is helpful in seeing the range of bodies doing it differently, sometimes this gives me ideas for adapting and sometimes it helps me to see that I can get there with a bit more practice. I am a very visual learner so find this aspect of being in a class helpful. I find each week; even if I am rushed from a work day and it feels like an effort to get to class -that when I leave class I feel lighter; mentally, emotionally and in my body, I’m energised, and what was an exhausted person at 6pm is a bouncy one at 9pm able to wind the day down in a positive way having the focus to do something that feeds by wellbeing and feeling of spiritual connectivity. For me yoga is not my main spiritual practice but Shelley’s yoga classes support me in looking after and valuing myself, and in taking care of my mind my emotions and my body which free me up to follow my own spirituality in a balanced and motivated way. My aims for my yoga practice going forward are to learn to breathe in a way that aids my body in moving safely strongly and wholesomely, and my mind in thinking and also in Not thinking! To free myself from the pressures that distract me from being the best person I can for myself and for the people and everything else that I interact with.