How photographing surfers got me into yoga.

When I was little I would clamp my forefinger and thumb together, squeeze my eyes shut and hum "Ommmmmm" with much force and intent, and do "the candle" which I suppose is what they were calling a Shoulder Stand at the class my mom went to in the 90s.

The next time I noticed yoga properly was when I was 19. Durban beach at sunrise is full of surfers, and I would go down to photograph my boyfriend and his friends catching waves. At the end of the pier, I saw a surfer dude doing this pretzel thing, before flinging his board and himself into the waves below.

Cool, I thought.

So an embarrassing Geri Haliwell DVD and a couple of gym contracts later, me and the boyfriend started going to yoga classes. In the years that followed I would practise occasionally, struggling to keep up with a video at home, and at one point awkwardly navigating my way through classes in German when I lived in Berlin. A different, well-meaning boyfriend had bought me a trial membership to the local gym in an effort to encourage my natural release of endorphins. While I was staring helplessly at the instructor, trying my best to value the experience as an opportunity to practise German and yoga at the same time, she did something I will never forget... What is the opposite of pouncing? Can you pounce backwards? Can you stand on your hands and pounce with your legs? Well this lady could, and I just thought, "Oh. Mein. Gott. I want to move like that."

Yoga classes were expensive though, and my priorities were more aligned with making art and having fun so my practices were intermittent and purely about the physical exercise. Only after experiencing some serious LIFE STUFF did I start to realise the emotional and mental benefits of yoga. Stretching out of Savasana, living in the bliss of that moment rather than the stress of my life made me realise that yoga was something I needed to be doing EVERY DAY. So I started doing it every day, sometimes even twice a day.

When we have no sense of control in life, sometimes just having that hour to yourself, extending your control over your body is the most empowering and liberating feeling. Already, the mind and spirit have begun to benefit from the physical practice.

Since I saw the feline Fraulein, the epitome of poise and control as she performed her jump-back-to-plank, I had longed to possess this power, to live in and to own my body. One day, I'll go to India to learn yoga, I thought. It wasn't until a serendipitous conversation with Tanja, my favourite instructor at the gym, that this arbitrary dream (because I have many dreams) suddenly became reality.

I spent 4 weeks in Goa, learning Tantra Yoga at Shri Kali Ashram, which introduced me to the history, concepts and philosophy that inspired yoga as we know it today - and I have taught and studied yoga pretty much every day since!

How did you get into yoga? Leave me a comment below!