Allow myself to introduce...myself

I thought it might seem a bit rude to just jump right in without introducing myself more thoroughly. Hello, if you're reading this that means you're visiting my blog, yay!! and thank you!

So, as mentioned in my profile, my name's Chelle (short for Michelle but I feel like I'm in trouble if you call me that) and I'm just embarking on a teacher training course in Hatha Yoga. I have been practicing Yoga for over 10 years and I have come to deeply cherish and appreciate my practice as it has connected me with living a healthy and holistic way of life and most importantly has opened up a Spiritual path for me to follow.

My first experience of Yoga was at age 18 and it came in the form of an MTV yoga video (that's right video!) I used to practice this video over and over again in the evenings after college until the video practically wore out (do you remember that you could wear out videos!). I had done figure skating and ballroom dancing from a young age and was looking for something to help me with my fitness and flexibility but what I hadn't expected was how much I would enjoy the spiritual and meditative aspect of this type of "exercise".  I loved the feeling in Savasana where you would feel like the floor was coming up to support your heavy body and where you could just leave all your troubles behind (and there are a lot of troubles at age 18) and how relaxed and refreshed I would feel afterwards. There followed a pause for a couple of years whilst I went backpacking and partied hard and then I rediscovered my practice when I moved to Bondi Beach in Sydney.

The great thing about living in Bondi is that it sort of forces you to be healthy, active and in good shape, mainly because everyone is walking around naked most of the time, even in winter -they're just naked but with Ugg boots on. Every cafe is serving amazing organic food and it's the only place I've ever felt truly comfortable ordering a Soy Dandelion Latte... with honey of course! And so it was in Bondi that I found my first Yoga school and there I stayed for 5 years. The school is called Dharmashala and it's nestled on top of the hill in North Bondi, I never attended a bad class there, every teacher was inspiring, compassionate and authentic. I remember how happy I felt one Tuesday evening class when I finally managed to get in to headstand and how grateful I was for the kind, supportive and non judgmental guidance of my Tuesday night teacher. I knew in my heart that one day I would love to train as a yoga teacher and to hopefully guide people through the same inspiring classes that I had attended at Dharmashala.

Attending these yoga classes at the Shala had started to peak my interest in finding a spirituality or a faith and I started to attend regular classes on Buddhism and Meditation in Sydney. I fell in love with the teachings and integrating them in to my daily life and I found them to be perfectly compatible with what I was learning at the Shala. I joined a teacher training program at my local Buddhist centre and started teaching weekly meditation classes. A couple of years ago I moved to Melbourne to help set up a new Meditation Centre in the heart of the City - an incredibly exciting and rewarding project to be involved with.

Everything changed last year when my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer, suddenly living on the other side of the world from my entire family was just too hard and I didn't want to miss anymore family time. I'm happy to say that my mom is now fully recovered and I'm also happy to say that I am now back in the UK living with my folks whilst I get myself settled over here. Part of getting myself settled is embarking on this journey of training to be a yoga teacher, the timing at last feels right. As I mentioned in my profile, part of my course is to keep a journal of my studies, insights and progress and as we live in the digital age I thought...why journal when you can blog!

Congratulations if you have read this far, I hope that means I haven't put you to sleep, thanks for taking time to read my story and I hope you come back for tomorrow's entry.

Chelle x