Welcome to my blog about yoga, meditation and general wellbeing
I'm Mary - Owner and Founder of Body and Soul Yoga. I've been teaching classes in and around Romford, (officially part of the London Borough of Havering so technically East London - but generally considered as Essex (ie TOWIE land). I am a Romford girl myself having lived here all my life (unless you count my first ten days spent in the maternity ward of Queen Mary's Hospital in Stratford - which really is part of East London!).
Yoga has been my life since I first discovered the practice in my teens and realised it was something I could enjoy and do without competing with others. I have practised yoga regularly ever since then and reaped the benefits physically, mentally and emotionally. It was only when I began my yoga training (initially with the British Wheel of Yoga and then with Yoga Professionals/YMCA and Dru Yoga) that I realised what I was experiencing was the koshas, the subtle bodies that yoga philosophy tells us makes up each of us.
I am is a passionately committed yoga teacher and devotee (arguably that makes me a "yogi"), also a wife (40 years married to husband, Brian), mum of one (Mark, who kindly helped me design this website and set up the blog) and foster mum to Bob (our talking cat - more about him later!). In my past life I've worked in banks, social work and, most recently, 17 years in London colleges where I taught adults various things from Basic IT (very basic, as in "this is the "on" button!), Basic skills (Literacy and Numeracy) and ESOL (English for speakers of other languages). I qualified as a yoga teacher in 2015 and as a meditation teacher in 2021. Having retired from what I called my "proper" job teaching ESOL my attention is now completely focused on yoga teaching although I plan to combine that with ESOL very soon (Yoga for ESOL enabling non-native English speakers to improve their vocabulary, grammar and fluency at the same time as practising yoga).
What to expect
I plan to write about my life, yoga, meditation and all things wellness. Whether you're a yogi yourself or you've just discovered this amazingly beneficial and rewarding ancient practice and want to know more about it I'm hoping my blog will interest you.
Please join me on my journey. If you live in Essex or London maybe you can come to one of my in person classes or community events. If not, we can meet virtually via zoom or Facebook live. If English is not your first language maybe I can help with ESOL for Yoga.
Contact me to say hello, let me know what you think about my blog and comment below. I'm really excited about starting this blog and look forward to interacting with this growing yoga community.
Om shanti
Mary