I met my husband when I was 17. One day we went to an open-air swimming pool and he started doing some unusual exercises by the side of the pool. One involved sitting cross-legged in a double lotus and holding his toes with his arms crossed behind his back. He said: “This is bandha padmasana”, and that was how I first heard about yoga.
I started taking classes in 1966. I was attracted by the composure of the yoga students and the reflective nature of the activity. I continued taking classes for the next seven years before training as a yoga instructor myself.
I’ve been teaching yoga for 34 years now, and I’ve never missed a day of work due to ill health. Along with my active practice I incorporate lots of movement into my daily life. For instance, I deliberately have my computer upstairs with the volume turned up so, when I hear an email notification, I walk up to read the message. I go up and down those stairs at least 30 times a day.
If you want to wake your body up, it’s useful to do something it hasn’t done before. If you do the same activity all the time, you will get bored – you need to be stimulated. Engaging your mind is as important as your muscles.
Exercise definitely affects your mental wellbeing, in a very down-to-earth way. My best advice is not to overthink exercise – something is always better than nothing, you just have to make sure you do it.
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