I’m Judy. I’m a yoga teacher, based in Cockermouth in Cumbria, just outside the beautiful English Lake District. And this is my new yoga blog.

So… first, a little about me — and the long, meandering path through life that led me here, and to my four-word strapline: Breathe Yin Flow Restore.

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I came to yoga perhaps a little later than some — in my fifties — and to yoga teaching even later, so I know a little about how life impacts the body, physically and mentally.

With me, it’s been learning to understand and work with the occupational scoliosis and hitched right hip brought on by so many years sitting on one leg at a drawing board (all the better to hitch that right side up to access whatever it was I was working on). Then there’s the more recent right ‘mouse’ shoulder (courtesy of the need to embrace technology in order to continue earning a living).

My interest in yoga grew from the ongoing need to rehabilitate my grumbling, aching body.

And then I discovered breathing. Yep. I know, I’ve heard all the jokes. We can all breathe, right? But learning to really harness and direct the breath has been a game changer. Not least when Covid struck — and all its lingering after-effects.

Learning to move with the breath has kept me flowing. Literally. And learning to breathe in stillness — and appreciate the movement of my body within that stillness — has taught me to allow rest. (Okay. Full disclosure. This is still a lesson I struggle with: What? You want me to do nothing?! For how long?)

Sure, my body still grumbles. Just about every day. And there are days, too, when I need to remind myself how to breathe more easily. But, thanks to yoga, I have a few more tools in the wellbeing toolbox.

It’s not a miracle cure. It’s not an instant remedy. But it does give me the best chance I have of being a healthier, more flexible version of myself than I might otherwise have been.

This is what I bring to my classes. And what I hope to bring to this blog too. Inspiration to keep faith in our bodies. To keep moving. Keep resting. Keep breathing. Keep as well as we are able.