Listen to Sylvia’s interview about her yoga journey.

Hello this is Sylvia Goodrick and today they’ve asked me to talk to you about yoga.

So, how did you get into yoga?

I got into yoga thanks to a friend of mine, Saffron, when I was living in Northern California. We were staying at this farmhouse and were doing a lot of heavy physical work. So my whole body would ache, especially my neck and my shoulders. I’ll never forget the first yoga lesson because we were on the porch of our yurt, overlooking the forest. The sun was shining through the branches and we had beautiful blue skies above us and I fell immediately in love with this discipline and I started attending lessons at a studio in Grass Valley, an hour north of San Francisco, and I can honestly say that the weeks I spent practicing there really changed my life for the better.

So, how does yoga make you feel?

Well, yoga makes me feel absolutely brilliant. I, since attending my first yoga class I’ve discovered that by bringing together movement and breath you are able to release tension that is stored in your body and by doing so you release stress from the mind as well. I am now a qualified yoga teacher and I specialize in yoga for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, so I work with people who have been through some sort of trauma in their life and it is scientifically proven that muscles in our body store traumatic memories and yoga is a very effective tool to help release them.

What tips would you give a beginner?

Well, a tip would be to try out all different types of yoga before you decide what style is more you. There’s so many different styles, there’s so many different teachers. There’s Hatha yoga which is the most ancient and most widely taught around the Western World but then there’s also more dynamic styles like for instance, the vigorous Ashtanga yoga which is excellent for very dynamic people and there’s Iyengar yoga which focuses on what the alignment and is excellent for injuries. Then there’s Kundalini, which focuses on energies within the body. There’s even laughing yoga, which is amazing if you’re feeling a bit blue. The most important piece of advice however, would be that when you go to your first yoga class, remember it’s normal to feel uncomfortable. Your body is tense and not as flexible as that of people who have been practicing for a long time. I would say that the most important thing is to not compare yourself to others. This practice is for yourself alone, so give yourself the time and space to discover your body and you’ll thank yourself later for it.

This is Sylvia Helen Goodrick for Learning English Matters.

Words in this story

Ache– in pain

Porch– a covered shelter projecting in front of the entrance of a building.

Yurt– a portable, round tent covered with skins or felt, originally used by nomadic populations

Overlooking the forest– with a view of the forest

Absolutely brilliant– Amazing

Store– to accumulate

What style is more you– what style is more comfortable for you, what feels more natural for your own preferences

Vigorous –  involving physical strength, effort, or energy

Feeling blue– feel down, sad, depressed

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