This is another personal story, this time written by one of my lovely long-term students, Kelly. I've been so inspired to see how Kelly has navigated her journey and connection with Yoga, self-care and herself. As teachers we are still eternal students, and it's through Kelly's deeply connected journey that I've also learned so much myself.

Written by Kelly Girardi

As I sit to write this, I am in a cross-legged seat on my yoga mat. The sun is shining outside the window, and a robin is perched on a branch singing. This is a position and a backdrop that immediately signals to my brain that I am safe, that I am taking time to ground, to find quiet and space, to stretch and breathe, to set my racing thoughts aside, to give myself permission to think about nothing, for now, except this

breath, then the next one, and the next one.

The knowledge of this oasis of calm, and the ability to locate it within myself, are in large part thanks to Claire; thanks to the journey we have taken, as teacher and student, over the past five years. For five years, I have been a student of Claire’s, and the fact of this number surprised me somehow when I sat and considered that - five years! Because I am an impatient person, a person who likes what I like and struggles to tolerate what I don’t; I am a person who, over time, and despite attempts to be different, have accepted that I struggle to stick to something long-term unless I can feel that something, or lots of things, about it are good for me on a deep level. For five years, I have known on a deep level that Claire’s presence, guidance and offerings are immeasurably good for me.

I first attended Claire’s Restorative yoga class in early 2020. I was looking to learn sustainable, long-term ways to be more gentle with my body and mind, and serendipity stepped in - I happened to see a poster that Claire had put up in a local café. I followed my gut, sent her an email, and attended my first class with her. Since then, through in-person classes; live online classes; educational workshops and series spanning topics such as body structure, tending to specific areas of the body, Chakras awareness, the power of the breath, understanding and remedying the effects of stress, yoga theory and philosophy for the modern world; recorded playbacks, meditations and breath-work; life changes and moves to new countries; a pandemic; personal grief and loss, absences and returns, I have frequently been reminded that what Claire offers to the world, to me, is something much-needed, something valuable.

I have valued Claire’s offerings, her calm presence and joyful personality, her immense skill as a teacher, her thoughtful emails, her sense of humour, her ongoing guidance and support, her empathy and kindness. I have admired her constant willingness to work with her students on a personal level and to always take their needs and preferences into account - it is abundantly clear to me, always, that what guides Claire’s work is understanding what her students need, and providing that, or as close to that, as she can in her role as teacher. I have seen this demonstrated in her ability to adapt and pivot her business, her offerings and her mindset on various occasions in a way that suits all as much as possible.

Restorative yoga with Claire, over time, allowed stillness and calm to seep in on a regular basis. It allowed me to start to remember what it could feel like for this to be a norm; to inhabit a body and mind that knows how to be still and calm, to soothe itself. This is something we all know, or have known, in our lives, but we forget it, or it is taken from us. Yoga classes with Claire are a way to relearn that way of being. Having enjoyed Restorative classes so much, I soon moved to joining in Claire’s Yin offerings - again, another way of learning that the slow and still holding of a pose is equally as important as the faster flow of a Yang practice. That said, even Claire’s Yang practices, despite the slightly faster pace, still embody the aura of peace and calm. It is thanks to Claire’s calming voice and way of instruction, her ability to impart that there is no “wrong way” in her class - there is just moving your body in a way that feels good, either following her pace, or finding what suits you. You can challenge yourself, or you can be gentle with yourself - it’s up to you, but Claire is always there to guide.

More recently, Claire’s transition to a mix of both live and on-demand videos once again demonstrates her awareness that there are many ways to tailor a practice to best suit people’s needs in a world that is a very busy place, in lives that can become so, too. Through regular communication as to our experience of her offerings, Claire is in touch with what her students’ needs are when it comes to their practices. She is realistic about the fact that busy lives affect the amount of time and energy that people feel able to dedicate to their practice. Claire embodies the reminder not to let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Her gentle guidance and reminders over the years have seeped in enough that I find myself regularly reminding myself to not get bogged down in an all or nothing approach to my time on the mat. If I can’t commit to an hour or half an hour, rather than throw my hands up and decide “well there’s just no time to practice today!”, I know from experience that just five or ten minutes of movement, or of being still, can be enough. Even just two minutes of stretching and breathing, or lying on the mat resting my eyes, my body, my brain, can be enough to leave my mind feeling quieter, my body feeling more spacious, the day feeling more manageable.

Spurred by her determination to make sure that her offerings meet the needs of her student’s as best she can, Claire has created this platform to suit those who wish to practice live, those who prefer to catch up with replays, those who want to get a bit of movement, meditation and breathwork into their day but might only have ten minutes to do so, those who enjoy slightly longer practices, and those (like me!) who want a bit of all of it, depending on what’s going on in our lives. To meet Claire, to speak to her, to be guided by her myriad generous and wide-ranging offerings, to know she is always at the other end of an email, is to feel the reassuring, bolstering presence of a truly kind person who wants the best for you, and who hopes that she can help you achieve that for yourself through consistent and manageable practices. To have such a presence in our lives isn’t a guarantee; not all of us do or will. I feel lucky to have found Claire, and I feel lucky to have spent five years following my heart and my gut, and showing up to practice with her. I’m starting to get pins and needles. The sun is calling to me. I think I’ll take a leaf out of Claire’s book, and sit outside for a few minutes before moving forward with the rest of my day.

Kelly is a writer who is currently working on a documenting project. Her pieces delve into food, nature, creativity, gardening and storytelling. To visit Kelly's website, click here.