Well hello there! I'm Fay, your accessible yoga and mindfulness teacher
Two… four… six… oh… ONE! Just me?!
Wife, musical theatre nerd, theatre lover, bookworm, piano player, clumsiest person I know, skiing, snowboarding and mountain enthusiast, mental health advocate, yoga nerd, fast and eager learner, learning to be mindful one moment at a time.
Looking for a yoga class where your size, colour or ability doesn’t matter?
Want to join a community where we giggle while wobbling around in all the yoga poses?
Or perhaps you’d like to learn to manage the incessant internal chatter?
I’ve been there! And created a community just for you!
I was born and bred in Suffolk, and after a brief spell exploring the delights of London as a young 20 year old, I moved to Derbyshire to be with my now husband, Craig. It’s been over 10 years and although I retain my fairly RP accent, I am now able to translate into Derbyshire and know when to shorten my vowels if need be!
I LOVE living in the Peak District, the rugged beauty that surrounds us, the colours throughout the year are phenomenal and the people, let’s just say I’m still getting used to how friendly you all are! I’ll get out walking as often as I can help it, there’s always something new to see and somewhere new to explore in the area.
At the time we moved, I decided to try yoga. I had been promised by a colleague that it would stop my clicking knees (spoiler alert, nothing can stop joints clicking, they’re just expelling trapped air) and because I was worried it would just be another fad, I asked for yoga stuff for my birthday so I didn’t have to fork out for anything!
One yoga mat, block and DVD later I was hooked.
Feeling all the fear when joining a yoga class for the first time?
Want to feel the quiet, subtle benefits of yoga?
I got you!
Practising along every day to the DVD, I didn’t realise what benefits it was giving me until I was going through a rough patch at work and Craig suggested I make sure I continue doing yoga. I don’t always notice when I’m feeling stressed, so just a small noticing that it was working for me and keeping me less stressed then made me realise how wonderful this thing called yoga is.
I tired of the DVD and searched out other free yoga classes online (there weren’t as many back then as there are now). I came across Erin Motz, aka Bad Yogi, who I still follow to this day and she is one of my main inspirations in my teachings. She promotes functional yoga, which I am all about, keeping it accessible and relatable to our every day lives.
About a year, maybe two, later I finally joined my first yoga class. And believe me, I felt ALL the fears. I didn’t think I’d be able to keep up, I thought I wouldn’t know any of the poses, I thought I’d fall and bang my nose, I felt like I’d stick out like a sore thumb. Needless to say, I didn’t, but I did take my time to find a teacher that I actually gelled with and who made yoga understandable for me. It was he who suggested I did my yoga teacher training and in 2018 that’s exactly what I did.
I don’t want anyone to think they can’t or shouldn’t do yoga.
Yoga helps me to stay true to myself, my essential essence
I’d seen friends and family struggle with mental health and mobility over the years, which was also a huge push for me to become a yoga teacher so that I could share this amazing practice and help those who wouldn’t normally think about exercise or yoga to ease aches and pains, gain strength and improve balance and mood.
On top of my yoga teacher training, I have completed extra trainings in chair yoga, teen yoga and mindfulness so that I can make my classes as fully rounded and accessible as possible. I don’t want anyone to think they can’t or shouldn’t do yoga.
Now, I hail from a family of teachers and always swore that I would never enter the teaching profession! Er… Whooooops! Although I still swear I don’t want to be a school teacher, I can’t deny how much I have really come into my own as a yoga teacher, it’s the best thing and I just love being able to share the practice with you all!
I honestly feel that yoga and mindfulness help me to feel like me. There’s no other way I can describe it! Keeping up a regular practice helps me to stay true to myself, my principles and my essential essence. Whenever I’m faced with stressful situations I use the tools and techniques I’ve learnt over the years and find I can face them all now with equanimity and a sense of true calm.