In my early salon days I used to go to Lake House in Wiltshire to do beauty treatments for Trudie Styler. I always found Trudie to be warm, generous and fascinating. She never took her fortunate circumstances for granted and both she and Sting always looked to give something back.
My very first encounter with yoga was at Sting and Trudie Styler’s house in Tuscany. I used to get a few twinges in my back from standing over a beauty couch, and I had just stopped teaching aerobics (I taught for 10 years from 1987-1997) when Sting invited me to the house in Tuscany as we often discussed my love of Italy. After dinner I was sat with Sting’s yoga teacher, Jules Paxton (he has since left his body and passed away) who invited me to do yoga in the chapel. There was a tiny chapel under the house which had just been freshly frescoed, it was beautiful and this was the place for yoga practise. The following morning I went down to the chapel to meet Jules and promised to have an open mind as at the time I was of the old western mindset that one had to sweat and pound the ground for anything to be effective!!! Well I never looked back. Back pain and stress were a thing of the past. I am not saying that I don’t get stressed and have become super human, no, of course I get stressed, but the effects of stress and the recovery time is about 10% of what it used to be.
So why am I telling you this? Well I wanted to share with fellow therapists the benefits of doing yoga. There are two very good reasons why beauty therapists would benefit from yoga.
The first reason is the body, which in the west, is what yoga is mainly focused on. Yoga has tremendous benefits for back pain and all the tightness created from leaning over the couch and having to be a beauty therapist and a psychologist in one.
The other reason, just as important as the first, is the mind. Do you get stressed out and the mind starts to race? Do you feel like you are constantly running and can’t slow down? Do you loose sleep when you are stressed? Yoga has answers for all that stuff and is a path of personal growth as well as physical health.
The pose that I am in this photo is called Chakrasana or wheel pose, and no I could not do this on the first day!! Over time you will find your body will do things that you never thought possible. As an example this pose stretches the entire front of the body which encourages openness in the heart. It creates pressure on the internal organs of the abdomen and therefore increases their vitality, it also stretches the muscles on the front part of the thighs while working the calves and strengthening the leg muscles. This pose is extremely beneficial for us therapists that are hunched over the beauty couch and the backward bend relieves tension and stress from the body as well as tone and strengthen the entire back.!!!!
It’s practise and dedication…if you can do that, you will emerge calmer, more flexible and allot healthier!
Anyone for yoga then?!!