Hello, I'm Jo Bushell. My yoga journey began in 2011 when I was working as a photographer and had a photoshoot with a yoga teacher. She invited me to her class and it ignited something within. I fell in love with all the postures and stretches and the feeling of calm it brought during and after the class. I was going through a tough time transitioning between careers and yoga became my go-to for improving my mood. I also found that the lower back pain I had experienced since turning 30 started to ease. Fast forward a few years years and two children later, I found that yoga continued to help my mental health and wellbeing. Life can be crazily fast-paced with two small children and I often felt overwhelmed with anxiety. Coming to my yoga mat and finding some stillness in the mind has been a life saver. There is a saying that yoga doesn't make life better, it makes us better at life and this really resonates with me. I find I'm better equipped to navigate the inevitable bumps in the road and can live in the moment more if I've been on my mat first!
Lacking in some self-confidence, I was persuaded to train as a yoga teacher by my lovely mum in 2019 and so I qualified in 2020 after completing my 200 hour teacher training in Ashtanga Yoga with YogaLondon. During a year that will forever be remembered for Coronavirus, lockdowns and homeschooling, yoga yet again saved my sanity and the training was a life-changing experience. I loved learning about the history of yoga and philosophy behind the practice. The course confirmed to me that yoga is more about stilling the mind than flexibility...and I don't just say this as someone who cannot do the splits and would rather lie in savasana than be upside down. I want to share my learning and experience of practising yoga with everyone and truly believe that it should be accessible to all.
After qualifying, I taught an online class every Monday evening and then in September 2021 I started teaching a Chair Yoga class at the RAF Association. I began teaching Hatha Yoga in person in January 2022, after leaving my job working for the NHS in mental health, and I have loved welcoming lots of new students into my class ever since, some new to yoga. There is now a wonderful community of regular and drop-in students.
A dream of mine was to teach yoga outdoors and in May 2022 I started an early morning Yoga in the Park class, which attracted lots of like-minded souls and lovers of nature...as well as a couple of interested dogs on their walks! In December 2022, I started a Friday Night Yin class, which is a beautifully nourishing, deeply stretchy class, perfect for the colder, darker months. I'm so excited to see what 2024 brings after what has been a challenging but incredibly rewarding two years self-employed.
Namaste x
