Yoga helped Zoe Marlowe find stillness from a busy hectic life

My journey into yoga began in 2014 after we had completed a major renovation project on our family home. My life felt like it was spinning at 100mph and I couldn’t keep up with life’s demands. Juggling a relocation, three children, a dog and a house build. Looking back to my childhood, and through my teenage years and then into my twenties and becoming a parent, I had always worked and moved at that same speed.

I had buried my anxieties by having fun and keeping busy, but as the children got older and life’s demands seemed to become more, I started to feel the pressure of juggling everything. Cracks started to show. I was exhausted. But I didn’t know how to slow down. My regular runs weren’t giving me enough and my body wasn’t enjoying the brutality of heavy street pounding. I found hot yoga. My muscles loved the heat. My mind loved the stillness and, suddenly, I felt like I could truly shut down the external noise and be still. It became an obsession, every day needing to get to the studio, not wanting to see anyone or do anything until I had practiced. From here, my journey really started to evolve. I wanted to understand about the philosophy; to learn how to breathe properly and meditate. I found a new studio and an incredible teacher, who had been teaching for 20 years. She was soft and gentle, and I started to unravel, but I felt safe. It was such a gift. For the first time ever, I felt as though I had permission to ‘just be’. No expectations, no demands, just be.

Two years later I signed up to do my yoga foundation course with the British Wheel of Yoga. I never wanted to teach, I just wanted to keep learning. But I found the more I learnt the more I wanted to share what I was learning with others.