Meet Eloise

Summary of yoga background:

200hr yin & vinyasa yoga training. Experience working with SEN students. Teaches yoga to Oxfam volunteers. Experience working with schools and ‘Brownies.’ Experience running children’s yoga camps.

Eloise’s Story:

Yoga has helped me personally to grow, to challenge myself and my beliefs, and to lead a fuller life and cope with its unavoidable challenges. I first viewed it as something I was either ‘good’ or ‘bad’ at, focusing solely on the asana and contorting my body into what the poses ‘should’ look like. Then over time, I began to acknowledge that yoga was the process itself and that the end result or ‘shape’ didn’t define me or my ability to practise. I found meditation and eased my way into meditative practices. My yoga teachers taught me a lot about how the western world has taken yoga and moulded it into a more palatable idea for a western society, centred particularly on asana, and so I aim to seek to understand yoga’s roots, its origin and rich eastern heritage. 

Yoga Strengths

I am trained specifically in Vinyasa and Yin yoga. I trained in Bristol, and since then I have been developing my teaching style to include application of trauma sensitive techniques and to encourage a mindful, body integrated practice. I see yoga as a form of coming back to ourselves, rather than just movement, and I aim to embody this in my teaching. I am very interested in yoga for children and adults with learning difficulties, ADHD, and autism, as well as yoga as a tool for emotional intelligence development in children. I have studied and practised somatic therapies and I find it helpful to relate the neuroscience behind yoga to the practice itself.

Interesting Facts:

I began practising yoga about 5 years ago. I love being active and I play a lot of sports and like to get outdoors in nature whenever I can! I now use yoga less ‘actively’ and more meditatively- I often do body scans & breathing techniques to self-regulate. 

For the last few years I have been travelling around the world, working for charities and volunteering.

I am learning Spanish, and even tried teaching yoga in Spanish at one point! (which was extremely difficult!) I love languages and I hope to start learning another soon! I think that’s something I really enjoy about life- the unlimited potential for learning. I like learning new skills alongside others and going on adventures! Equally, at the end of the day you’ll probably find me curled up in bed reading an adventure book, or a historical fiction, or watching a film.

Why are you passionate about being on the Shift Team?

I am deeply passionate about childhood development. This being said, school forms a major part of our formative years and our teachers and peers will shape us and who we are. We are now seeing progress in the introduction of the importance of emotional intelligence in schools, and Shift is forming a major part of this movement by providing teachers with the tools to help their students and peers regulate their emotional state, as well as themselves. I want to be a part of this mission so that children, and adults, get the emotional tools they need to move through their lives and the challenges it brings, as well as the many joys. And with such important research being made now on the impact of yoga on our central nervous system, I am inspired to share this knowledge through, and alongside Shift.