What brings you to practice? What are your motivations and intentions?

When I was younger I played squash to a fairly decent, competitive level...so much of my motivation for moving and exercising was for competition. And up to my mid 20s aesthetics were also a big motivation for me - simply put, I wanted to look better.

When I found yoga, the motivation moved away from aesthetics...I loved exploring the movement and flow of the practice. But without realising it, I'd come to play out a lot of my existing patterns and behaviours through my practice (in yoga these are often referred to as samskaras...all that really means is a conditioned way of doing / seeing / thinking about things).

I'd push myself hard and really test the limits of what my body was capable of...striving to 'get the next pose' which was a big motivation in the system of yoga I was practising. It took me a long time to realise what was going on...that I was striving and pushing so hard because I didn't feel good enough as I was.

In the last few years the focus for my practice has shifted to a more functional approach - trying to get my body to work as well as possible. I still include a lot of challenging, strength building elements in my practice because I believe in the benefits of cultivating strength, proprioception and mobility...but my contortionist days are over. I'm also increasingly exploring other movement disciplines because, well, I love movement and I think it's healthy to mix things up.

But is it 'yoga'? For me the answer is a resounding yes - these days I believe that the form of the practice is much less important the its function. After all it doesn't really matter 'what' we do but how we're use our practice to cultivate greater awareness, presence and compassion.