International Lifestyle Magazine Issue 52 | Page 43
About Helen
I love the individual journeys that people have taken which have
led them to yoga. Many seem to be almost by accident but at the
same time, yoga was exactly what they needed at that time in their
life and many people have gone on to create some wonderful
businesses around the world, sharing their experiences and helping
others to find their own personal peace and balance.
The first part of Helen’s life was dominated by competitive
swimming, culminating in being county champion and third in the
southern counties by her late teens. Fully focused on health and
fitness, the first time she tried yoga she thought it was too easy…
but had no idea of the true meaning and benefits of yoga.
Helen went onto complete her initial yoga teacher training with
Sivananda, in northern Scotland, after returning from living in New
Zealand and Japan. Japa n was where Helen started practising
yoga regularly, having started karate and being shocked at her
inflexibility!
Starting a yoga practice and learning about Zen meditation
changed Helen’s way of thinking and life profoundly. Helen was
living there teaching English as a foreign language, having studied
French, Spanish and German at university and finally finding a love
for teaching in Japan.
After gaining yoga teacher status, Helen then went on and studied
to be a primary school teacher, during this time Helen started
teaching her first yoga classes.
Whilst teaching full time, Helen tried to maintain teaching a weekly
yoga class, with the little spare time she had. More significantly
Helen was able to incorporate yoga into class time and PE lessons,
developing her personal way of teaching yoga to children. Seeing
the phenomenal effect that yoga had on young people, Helen
developed a suitable, appropriate and engaging way of teaching
yoga to children in the educational setting. Determined to share
the experience with other school pupils, Helen began promoting
yoga as part of the school curriculum.
Helen no longer swims but now loves surfing, and moreover, trail
running. At the start of 2013 Helen started offering Yoga for Athletes
classes, as a way of advocating the benefits of yoga to athletes of
all sports, using her knowledge of yoga and training regularly for a
sport.
Now dedicated to teaching yoga, Helen has more time for her
own practice, allowing her to continue with further training, classes
and retreats. This summer saw Helen hold her first Trail Running and
Yoga retreat in Turkey. This retreat will take place again in April 7-14
http://www.helenclareyoga.com/retreats/
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