Katherine Cullis, founder of Yogaviva, trained to teach under Simon Low, one of the UK's leading yoga lights. Five years later, she counts actress Kristin Scott Thomas as among her students. Yoga-abode travelled to Chelmsford to meet her.
What first led you to the yoga path?
I began practising yoga in London in 1999 - I was 19 and studying drama but I found that the regular yoga practice changed my perspective.
Yoga grounded me and suddenly the pull to act didn't seem quite so strong. It was almost as though I didn't want to escape myself anymore - through yoga something had shifted and I felt as though I was back in my own skin.
I found I could accept myself and where I was without wanting to take on another character to feel fulfilled.
What was the background to your training to teach?
I practised yoga for three years before I begun teaching. After continuing my studies in London I travelled in Australia, working my way up the East Coast, practising and studying yoga as I went.
When I came back to England I fell pregnant (with my son Gabriel). I and my other half, Paolo, moved slightly further out of London, to Chelmsford, where I am now based.
In Chelmsford, there were only a few yoga classes and nothing like the challenging, dynamic, vinyasa sessions that I had been used to practicing.
I was also limited in choice because not all of the teachers would accept pregnant women. This led me to a very focused self-practice, partly born out of the fact that there were so many changes happening within my life as well as within my body.
It felt as though my practice was the only constant that I had - we moved five times when I was pregnant - and instead of focusing on how I would decorate the nursery or on which baby clothes to buy, I found that through yoga I could focus on what was really important - my body, my breath and my baby.
Although I had only practiced yoga for a few years and was (and am still) humbled by its potential, I felt as though I had something to offer to others.
That was my main reason for starting to teach - that I found it so hard to find classes that resonated with me and that despite finding yoga invaluable for my pregnancy, labour and birth, it simply wasn't available locally.
Where do you train?
I undertook teacher training with Francoise Freedman and the Birthlight charity (www.birthlight.com), where I specialised in Pregnancy and Post Natal Yoga.
My original practice in London was often with Simon Low (amongst others) and I took his teacher training a few years later with the Yoga Academy (www.yogaacademy.org).
These have both been incredible, inspirational teachers and with their encouragement and guidance I felt that I was able to teach authentically and to pass on the knowledge that I had benefited from myself.
What type of yoga do you teach? What drew you to this particular style?
I tend to teach a flowing vinyasa class as I have found that, for me, this is the best way to observe and convey to others the mind/body connection.
My emphasis in teaching tends to be on the breath in both the quality and the structure of not only dynamic flow but also static poses.
From my experience I feel that, as a teacher, the more I can lead students back to their breath and other internal dristis, the more their awareness of themselves is accentuated throughout many different levels and layers.
What is the most important quality that a yoga teacher should have, in your opinion?
As a student myself, I have found the saying, "When the student is ready the teacher will appear" to be true.
Different styles and teachers have been suitable for me at different times. I know that I have learnt something and gained in some way from every teacher and every class that I have taken. Provided the intention to teach is sincere, I believe that the student will benefit on some level.
Where do you teach now?
I teach at Yogaviva, the studio that I run in Chelmsford. It is in a converted 19th century chapel (we converted it ourselves over the summer) and I hold regular classes here. It is a beautiful space to teach from and to practice in.
How do you fit in your own practice around your teaching?
As I am a mother, a teacher and I run my own studio, I have found that my own practice is vital for replenishment more than anything else right now. I tend to alternate between a sustained physical practice and periods of concentration on more restorative and meditative techniques.
I always used to like a physical challenge in my personal practice but as my awareness has deepened (and perhaps as other areas of my life have become more challenging), I find now need to ‘do' less to gain more.
Finding the meditative quality of any given moment is often more important to me now than perfecting a new sequence or posture.
I think Donna Farhi describes best where my practice lies right now, "The world doesn't need more people who can bend their bodies into amazing positions. What is does need are kinder, more compassionate, generous people with open hearts and minds."
What do you particularly enjoy about teaching?
I love the state of potential that yoga creates within people and, as a teacher, I am fortunate enough to be a catalyst for this.
Teaching is a practice in itself and exploring my own strengths, weaknesses, capabilities and limitations as a teacher emphasises to me that yoga is ultimately about accepting, adjusting and balancing these qualities within ourselves, whoever we are.
What aspects of yoga do you find challenging, or difficult?
I find teaching yoga as a business and teaching yoga for the love of it a difficult balancing act.
Having the best interests of each at heart can sometimes make you feel like you are being pulled in two directions. Paradoxically, this can also be the most rewarding - to balance the material and the spiritual.
How did you think yoga is perceived in the UK now? Is its increasing popularity overwhelmingly a good thing?
In my mind there is no doubt about the benefits of the increasing popularity of yoga- a regular practice should help us become stronger, calmer, more open and connected to ourselves.
I think the fitness and physical benefits of yoga are becoming well known but it seems that the more subtle benefits beyond ‘relaxation' aren't widely talked about.
So I would say that although yoga may be becoming more popular, the perception of yoga in the UK barely scratches the surface of the practice and it seems unlikely that the subtler, quieter (and often more complex) aspects of the practice will ever become completely mainstream.
