“Your body is your temple, your breath the wind that blows into all the corners and spaces of your being.” BKS Iyengar
I first encountered yoga while back packing around Sri Lanka and India aged 19 and instantly fell in love with this most profound and beautiful practice.
There was a sense of familiarity in moving and breathing through the different asanas (postures). I loved the way it left me feeling calm and centred, more embodied and at home in my own skin. Yoga has been a constant refuge throughout my life since.
I trained to become a yoga teacher within the Iyengar tradition and qualified at introductory level in 1989. In 1991, I visited the Iyengar Yoga Ashram in Pune, India and was taught by BKS Iyengar, his daughter Geeta, and his son Prashant. I went on to do further training with senior Iyengar teachers and gained my junior intermediate level 3 certificate in 2005. This allowed me to specialise in teaching antenatal yoga which, being a midwife and a mother, was of particular interest to me. I have since been taught by so many wonderful teachers in the UK and from all over the world .
My Buddhist faith influences the way I practice and teach Yoga with a focus on the meditative experience that arises when we align body, breath, heart and mind. The posture becomes an ‘asana’, ( ‘seat’ in Sanskrit.) We relax into our embodiment and find stability and ease in the pose. Our breath flows freely, our mind becomes quiet and more reflective and we sense an opening of heart that embraces each moment from a place of clarity and kindness.
Yoga is often called “ the path of return”. As soon as I step onto my mat, I feel I’m coming home to my authentic self. There’s a sense of stepping out of the busy world of doing and thinking and resting into “just being”. The mind begins to quieten and tension dissolves away. A deeper presence arises and an inner peace is glimpsed. I feel more connected to the world both on and off the mat.
“I started Clare’s class with some trepidation a year ago with an old ankle injury and plenty of creaking joints! What a difference the class has made to the strength in my injured ankle and my general feeling of health and well-being. Clare is an excellent teacher and makes everyone in her classes feel comfortable.”
Sheenagh Adamson
Clare Stephen Yoga 