#yogaconcierge

This is the story of Yogassential and our story as we bring the UK's 1st yoga concierge into a reality.

So what's it all about?

In the summer of 2016 I decided to make it my mission to learn yoga; I've always been  into active, intense exercise, struggling with the calmness and flexibility yoga required and considering it, dare I say, boring. :o

Anyhow, I'm a keen show jumper and was finding in competition sometimes I would over ride and needed to be calmer as excited energy can be passed to the horse.  Now I have a slightly fiery chestnut mare who doesn't need help to be over-excited.

Going back to basics I realised to achieve this calm I needed to learn to be still as I am a person of perpetual motion.  Yoga provides that sense of stillness if you have the mental discipline to achieve it.... and the challenge was set to myself...

1st attempt - go to a yoga class at the local country club

My Mum is a long-time yoga devotee and passed that on to my sister who is a yoga teacher.  So, when I said let's go to a yoga class, needless to say she was delighted.

The country club classes are free with our membership so it was fairly easy to book our place in the class online.  Arriving at the lesson there was a hustle for the best spaces in front of the mirrors in the room, the teacher took her mat and class commenced.  As silence fell the thud of the dance music in the gym next door could be heard and I realised this definitely wasn't going to be the type of yoga lesson you fall asleep in.

I was slightly surprised to see her reading poses from her notebook so there were a few pauses.  For the first time in my life I was really giving the poses a try and feeling those ever so good stretches.   Despite the teaching leaving something to be desired I started to understand that yoga really can do something for you so I'd pursue it further.  Just not at the country club.

2nd attempt - a specialised yoga studio with an experienced yogi

Having had a yoga taster at the country club I wanted to try more in a specialised environment.  I felt the teacher at the country club had too many students (18) to check our poses (plus she was too busy reading her notebook) so I wasn't even sure if I was doing it right.  Anyone who knows anything about me knows if I'm going to do something I'll at least do it right!

One of my showjumping friends is a keen yogi given my new interest invited me to come along to one of her classes.  It was a good half hour from home, hitting rush hour traffic and trying to get there on time was slightly manic.  Arriving in a fluster I found this studio tucked away in a little enclave.  Walking in to the lesson was a real gear change from go, go, go to slow, slow, slow.  Huffing and puffing I took a mat, settled down and listened.  There were 8 of us in the class in a cozy room  across 3 rows with no possibility of escaping the teacher's gaze when the going got tough.

Now this was challenging but my body was coping surprisingly well.  I was fighting the urge to rush and do, taking a considered approach and shockingly, with that mindset, it came easy.  The teacher was clearly passionate, explaining the benefits of each pose and checking how we were doing it.  All in all I enjoyed it, just not the drive there and back when all I wanted to do after was relax.  As much as I enjoyed the class and felt the benefit, there was no way I'd regular be able to make that journey for a yoga class.

3rd attempt - a private yoga lesson at home

Now I decided to be serious about practicing yoga, as I could see the discipline could be a real asset to my equestrian skills I needed to learn properly.  To do that, you can't beat a private yoga lesson at home.  Now, just to find one, surprisingly not an easy task.

Thinking for sure there'd be a trustworthy yoga site to find a teacher I was shocked to realise finding a decent yoga teacher in Cheshire isn't that easy.  I googled around, found a few random ads, majority of which on the bio alone I didn't want to call, the ones I did call had no availability for the next 3 days.  Eventually I found a teacher who squeezed me in, she had a lovely phone manner as I explained how I wanted yoga to help me improve my riding.

She came over, gave me an in depth analysis of my body and it's natural strengths and weaknesses.  The poses she was teaching me contorted me like never before in all directions and my body responded.  Yoga started to feel good.  She created a bespoke flow for me to practice each morning, I came away so excited to become a yogi pro.  A statement that a couple of months before I wouldn't have been heard dead saying.

The start of the Yogassential adventure

Just trying to get a yoga lesson really hadn't been as easy as I'd assumed.

I'd assumed that classes were the way to practice yoga.

I realised they just meant you couldn't receive much individual attention to improve, they were annoying to get to and teacher quality wasn't guaranteed.

I'd assumed finding a teacher to come home to teach would be easy.

I found few teacher profiles online inspired confidence, those that did were busy and it was generally not an easy task to find someone decent when you want, where you want.

Given yoga is so popular nowadays I was shocked at there was no way to reach local yoga freelancers, despite the majority of teachers being freelancers.

As my sister is a yoga teacher I asked her if there was any platform where freelancers could share their availability with potential clients.  This would save all the back and forth:-

"Can you do this time?"

   "No, what about this?"

"No, this?"

And so on, would be much easier just see when they are free.

My sister thought for s moment before confirming there wasn't but she wished there was.  Although she now has her own studio she used to teach private lessons at client homes and said she would've like to post her free time for more work as teachers often only generate new work through word of mouth.