A JOURNEY IN YOGA: Looking back in time

As we know, life is made up of beginnings, endings and those parts in the middle. There is a season for everything. So looking back in time, meaning making you might call it, I am called to share about project which is still very dear to me: Shala Yoga Dakar.

Throwback to 2013 and the creation of Shala Yoga Dakar, a project born out of my own exploration of spirituality and interest in practices to help understand ourselves and this life. Whilst Shala Yoga no longer exists in its previous form, with it were planted many seeds that continue to bear beautiful fruit today....

My mum took me to my first yoga class when I was 11 years old. She intuitively knew this would be nourishing for me. Fast forward to my 20’s where I experimented with an array of practices from yoga and meditation to drum-circles, biodanza, ecstatic dance ….it was on one grey morning morning in October 2009 I found myself at a yoga class, in an unsuspecting living room of an apartment in Putney, London. As Diana, tucked her students up in a blanket during savasana, I experienced that sense of peace and bliss that draws so many to yogic practices.

From there, I embarked on a journey that took me on adventures to Samahita Retreat created by Paul Dallaghan in Thailand, to practice with Sharath Jois and James Boag in Mysore India, to tropical Bali to learn with Prem and Radha and to the Sivananda Center in the Bahamas, delving into practices and learning, in particular the practice of Ashtanga Yoga Vinyasa and Bhakti yoga. Alongside these adventures grew a desire to share what I was learning, and this took shape in Senegal, West Africa, which is still my home today. Through encouragement from my parents, Shala Yoga Dakar was born in my living room and became a dedicated space to experiment with sharing what I had learned and stepping out into the world...

---

---

This took different shapes and forms from: offering Ashtanga Mysore classes to a group of dedicated practitioners. Running laughter yoga sessions with 80 year old ladies from Capo Verde in Point E. Hissing my way into cobras with 3-5 year old kids at the Montessori school in N’gor. Teaching athletic Senegalese guys on Yoff beach in collaboration with a social enterprise Begue Coco, with the backdrop of the powerful waves of the Atlantic ocean. Co-creating a range of yoga-related products with funky colourful West African fabric with El Hadji in Ouakam. Saluting the sun with scruffy heartwarming street kids in Hann-Mariste. Offering yoga at the women’s prison in Rufisque in collaboration with NGO Tostan. Sharing relaxation practices with women and girls at a women’s shelter, La Maison Rose in Guediawaye. Running a weekend retreat at a beautiful creative space in Toubab Dialow.

As we know, life is made up of beginnings, and endings. There is a season for everything. And so this Heart Project Shala Yoga Dakar also came and went. Yet, the threads of curiosity, to learn, to be of service remain. As does my heavily adapted, irregular (!) Ashtanga practice now I am a mummy to a beautiful energetic five year old. Above all, however, it is the essence, the energy that created this came from the heart, and that remains and continues to infuse and animate what makes my heart sing and what gives me a sense of meaning in my life.

As a dear teacher Paul’s teacher, Tiwariji, said: ‘Some things just cannot be expressed or explained in words, they can only be felt’. Gratitude, gratitude, gratitude.