Helen Yoga Coach
Helen took up yoga over 10 years ago, initially in order to be able to sustain her fell racing hobby, finding that the stresses and strains on the body in maintaining race fitness all year round couldn’t be achieved without the stretching and strengthening that yoga provides. It didn’t take Helen long to appreciate all the other benefits of yoga, and continued to practice yoga as her primary recreation.
Helen has been teaching yoga since 2019 after completing her training with 2 Diplomas which is double the required level. Continual development includes completing a Diploma in Meditation and a Diploma in Teaching Meditation.
Helen encorporates a sound bath in all her sessions using authentic tibetan singing bowls. Helen is currently studying for her Sound Therapyqualification.
Helen values the inner aims of yoga: living a yogic lifestyle; gaining inner knowledge and truth; and developing new levels of consciousness. Helen enjoys her own personal practice for physical emotional and spiritual wellbeing.
Helen offers a unique way of developing a deeper awareness of self and realising our strengths through 'connecting with self through horses'. Helen has led equine assisted growth and development sessions for over 15 years including with vulnerable young people, team building and sport psychology.
Helen has journeyed from leading a busy lifestyle, absorbed in competitive sport to opting for a more peaceful and accepting mindset.
Keen to pass the benefits and enjoyment on to others, Helen completed her certified teaching status with 2 Diplomas which is double the requirements. What gave Helen the final nudge to become a teacher was a request from a friend (who is now one of Helen’s most loyal customers) to become the local yoga school due to a lack of schools in the local area.
Helen enjoys nothing more than hearing how much her clients are gaining from the sessions, and seeing how much each one progresses, no matter where they were when they started. Clients often report that they feel more supple, have increased energy, sleep better, and on the whole feel more peaceful within themselves. Helen’s climbing clients experience vast improvements in their technical climbing, even after 30+ years of climbing.
Helen enjoys teaching people of all abilities and ages, and is of the firm mindset that anyone can benefit from doing yoga. Helen is very proud of her sister who having a had a knee replacement has recently managed to achieve ‘The Crow’ pose, which is a huge achievement for anyone. It’s one of those poses that is very difficult and when you finally achieve it, you get a huge sense of success. Most poses can be easily achieved, and can be adjusted to suit.
As a climber Helen appreciates the advantages that yoga brings: the feeling of freeness in movement; and climbing that grade harder. As a runner stiffness in the lower back ad hamstrings can be a huge impingement to performance: yoga helps free the lower back and hips enabling greater efficiency. Day to day life is more comfortable, for example, being able to put socks on without feeling a stiff back, increased lung capacity, freeing the sciatic nerve from driving the horsebox.
Helen loves to maintain her personal yoga practice finding that morning sessions set her up for the day; and evening sessions help her wind down for a good night’s sleep. Helen’s daily routine consists of breathing exercises, asana and mindfulness / meditation. Helen is committed to personal development and to live a yogic lifestyle inline with yoga philosophy.
Helen’s background is in horse racing, in her late teens Helen was an apprentice jockey for a top trainer and is still a keen horse-person. The family stables has seen many successes competition wise, and on a completely different scale, the horses have worked with Helen in a therapeutic way, as mediums to working with some of the most vulnerable young people with truly amazing results, assisting these young people to gain in confidence and self-esteem, build resilience, develop problem solving skills that transfer to real life situations, and to be able to see themselves and their actions in order to bring about positive change. One of the equine team’s favourite jobs is team building for professional teams, performers, ie choirs, and families. Helen has been asked to help with sports performance using the horses as a medium, again amazing result were achieved with lots of competition success.
