Are all yogis and yoginis spiritual hippies?

‘You do yoga? Really? You don’t look the type!’

That’s what my friend of over twenty years said to me when I told her I was developing my own yoga wear range.

I didn’t know whether to be shocked or offended that being a close friend she didn’t even know I practiced yoga or that she thought only certain types of people did yoga.

When I pressed her on what ‘type’ of person does yoga she responded with ‘you know, those spiritual, hippie types Ommmmmmmm,’

Spiritual, hippie type, hmmm, not exactly the term that comes to mind when describing myself. In fact, I’m anything but, but I guess that’s what shocks people when I first tell them because they have this image, this stereotype in their head of what yoga is and then they see me or know me as someone who is into fashion and football and for some reason can’t see how the two could co-exist.

Yoga for me is a form of release. Funnily enough I was first told to do yoga in my early twenties by my doctor because I kept getting palpitations. After doing loads of tests and being hooked up to a 24-hour heart monitor they soon realized that there was nothing wrong with my heart so I was told I should cut down on the amount of tea I drink and do yoga.

Being a good girl I listened to the advice and cut my tea down to three cups a day and took up yoga at the local leisure centre. My first class was very surreal to say the least. There were two types of people in the class, those who found the whole experience very amusing and those who were so engrossed in the practice that they zoned out completely. I was neither one of these.

As the years went on and I became more and more busy with work and other things I stopped practicing yoga … until three years ago.

Three years ago my world was turned upside down when my uncle was diagnosed with Cancer. My uncle was a very special man, and a very important part of my life. He was humble and selfless and always put others before himself. He tried for a long time to shield us from his illness but thankfully, for us he decided that he didn’t want to be alone any more and he wanted us to take care of him.

He didn’t want to leave the village he lived in as it was his home and he had a lot of happy memories there, so we would travel 600 miles every week to be with him. I wouldn’t have changed that for the world.

As you can imagine the travelling and the physical and emotional strain eventually took its toll and that’s when yoga came back into my life.  On the one or two days I was back home I went to yoga classes at Triyoga. Those one and a half hour classes saved me from falling apart and gave me the strength not only to look after my uncle and my family but also to look after myself.

I knew that if I didn’t look after myself I would be of no help to those who needed me most. The time I spent in those classes was time for me to focus, reflect and heal. For that one and a half hour each week I was free and my mind was totally clear.

I found a discipline in yoga that transferred into other areas of my life. Not only did I enjoy yoga as a form of exercise, which it is because it stretches and tones you and makes you physically stronger but it also gave me balance and peace of mind.

It is because of what yoga did for me that I wanted to give something back. I wanted to let people know that yes, yoga is spiritual but yoga can also be fun.

You don’t have to be a ‘spiritual hippie’ who chants all the time, I don’t, and I’m not. All the classes I go to don’t involve chanting and those that do, teachers give you the option to chant if you want to but it’s not mandatory.

Everyone can make yoga work for them. We all practice yoga for different reasons and one person is not better than the other because they’re more spiritual or they’re more flexible, your yoga and your yoga experience is exactly that, yours. It’s your journey and you decide on how you get to where you want to be.