Last March we thought it was only going to be for a few weeks. Gradually, the penny dropped that this lockdown meant that it would be some time before we'd we able to do yoga classes, go to the gym or do any kind of organised group exercise and I started to feel rather hemmed in and stir crazy.
Someone who has helped us make the best of yoga in lockdown has been Mandy. With no live classes to look forward to, we started doing things differently. We hunkered down at home and Mandy led us into a new virtual yoga world on Zoom technology, starting with just 1 class and branching out into 6 new classes broadcast into our kitchens, living rooms and bedrooms on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Mandy was on a fast learning curve grasping the technicalities of the virtual world and honing her presenting skills to camera. As well as being an exceptional yoga teacher and communicator, she has developed into an extremely competent and engaging broadcaster. Things have been different, restricted and somewhat insular but nonetheless, our virtual Yoga-Connect classes with Mandy have offered us new yoga challenges, kindness, learning experiences and strange new ways of doing things. We're very lucky to have her.
I must confess to feeling particularly lucky as I wouldn't usually be able to join one of Mandy's in person classes. I work as an Assistant Stage Manager (pre-lockdown) which means that I live in London when I'm not on tour and always struggle to find yoga classes to fit my rather strange working hours. One of the few really good things about this lockdown for me is that I've been able to do Mandy's wonderful classes. I'm now working for the frozen ready meals company Cook in south west London until theatre picks up again. I love coming back from work on Thursday evenings and diving into Mandy's Stretchy Flow class to help me relax and de-stress the day. I'm becoming more flexible and strong which helps me now when restocking the freezers and will certainly help me haul large bits of set on and off stage in the future. I was working on the musical 9 to 5 at the Savoy Theatre before lockdown and love the world of musical theatre and also really appreciate the music that Mandy spends time selecting. She chooses an eclectic mix of calming pop and motivating upbeat tracks to perfectly fit the choreographed poses to ease you into the morning, spice up the day or welcome the weekend - and the relaxing mantra at the end is pure bliss. One thing is for sure, I'll be checking out the recorded and virtual classes and carry on doing yoga with Mandy, even when the restrictions end and her studio based yoga opens up again in Harrogate.
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