The art of less stress

Transcript: Hannah Stuart-Leach, 34, yoga teacher

I first tried yoga in South Korea. So I used to work there, teaching and then at a newspaper. I was quite stressed out because I was working long hours and just working at a newspaper anyway is quite stressful, so a friend suggested that I try yoga because she had done it and said that it was really relaxing and it kind of helped her de-stress. So, I went along to this class and it was just amazing. From the first class I felt so much better. Even just walking I felt lighter and, yeah, a lot less stressed. I practiced yoga for a couple of years just personally and in classes in South Korea and back in the UK. Then I decided that I wanted to learn more about it and go over to India to train. So that was really an amazing experience because obviously yoga’s from India. There was a lot of incredible scenery, so you’d kind of get up at 6 am and practice in the foothills of the Himalayas and beautiful studios on rooftops and things. It was incredible from that side, but also learning the theory and philosophy behind yoga I think was brilliant in India, and I absolutely loved it. So I came back to the UK and also felt that I needed to do some Western training as well to complement it. There’s quite a different approach in the UK to yoga, partly because people here haven’t necessarily grown up in ashrams and been able to get into some of the poses that some of the teachers in the ashrams in India can, so there’s a bit more of a therapeutic focus and maybe slightly more scientific focus. I learnt a lot more about how to help Western bodies get into supportive yoga poses and get the most out of it really.