Becoming a yoga teacher can be an option at at virtually any age. Dorothy Steedman re- trained at the age of 50 as a YogaBugs instructor. She now teaches in schools and centres around Edinburgh.
Dorothy Steedman came to yoga late in life. Her interest began at the age of 50, when she jokingly told friends she wanted to revisit the hippy trail of her youth.
"I had been envious of those of my pier group who had a free spirit and did the hippy trail in the Himalayas, while I had been busy raising children and building my career. It had only taken me 35 years to get here," she says.
Health and travel
Steedman's initial interest in yoga was prompted by a health drive: "I took up yoga because I believed it was the best recourse for my health. Yoga enabled me to travel worldwide to various yoga retreats and gave me some unique experiences.
"My real ‘Eureka' moment came during sun salutations on a beach in Crete greeting the sunrise of a new day. I knew I was ready to get off the treadmill and get myself into back into shape, and so I started to ask myself what I wanted to do with the rest of my life."
The goal was to continue to be independent as well as doing something beneficial to other's health, as well as her own:
"I wanted to help people who were suffering from anxiety, obesity, stress, arthritis, depression, bereavement, backache, destructive thinking and many more of the western life syndromes that I had experienced.
"I had always taught young designers and I felt that I had something to give back. I wanted to be my own boss and have flexible hours so I could be at home more, grow my own vegetables and do more cooking. In short, more time to be myself. I wanted serenity, energy, strength, toning and focus."
A new career
Her path to a new career started with a phone call looking for private lessons: she was overweight, unfit and lacked the confidence to dive straight into a class.
She says: "I compared the cost of these lessons to a hairdo and decided it was definitely the best money I ever spent."
Steedman had to show dedication to daily practice before she could be considered for teacher training. She travelled worldwide to deepen her practice and went along to as many workshops in Edinburgh as she could.
She also spent hours learning Sanskrit names for postures and Latin names for anatomy.
She explains: "Yoga philosophy was the most fascinating for me and I learned that yoga is more about learning to stand on your own two feet than to stand on your head. My stiff body loosened up and my conditioned mind developed a new understanding and purpose."
When she extended her training to teach YogaBugs it started out with a wish to teach more during the day so that she could have more time with her husband in the evening.
She also wanted to teach at local schools and nurseries so that she could walk to work and extend her green efforts to be more in keeping of her newly adopted yogic way of life.
Reaping rewards
"YogaBugs has been the icing on the cake of my yoga journey. The pleasure and rewards of teaching children are immense. The classes are fun and the kids are so receptive. I feel like I am doing something really worth while."
So far, Steedman hasn't looked back. "By the time I embarked on my yoga career, my children were all independent and so we had less financial pressures. My husband was delighted to watch my body, mind, mood, shape and my total health transform before his eyes through my new practice.
"It changed our priorities from the years of striving to build our careers and finance our family to the realisation that there was more to life than this treadmill we were on."
