i.
Breath before shape
How a pose feels matters far more than how it looks. We find the breath first, then let the shape arrive in its own time.
About
a slower way home
Breath-led yoga from someone who believes the exhale is where the good stuff happens.
MAYA · BRISTOL
A note from Maya
I found yoga on a very ordinary Tuesday.
I was tired in the way that sleep doesn’t fix. A friend dragged me to a class in a draughty church hall in Hackney, and somewhere between the first sun salutation and the last long exhale, something in me quietly unclenched.
That was twelve years ago. Since then I’ve trained in London and Mysore, taught in community halls, boardrooms and on windswept Cornish beaches, and slowly built a practice around one simple idea: the breath leads, the body follows.
Our studio is a converted mill in Bristol, full of plants, warm light and mismatched mugs. Come as you are. Leave a little softer.
— Maya x
BREATHE
The long way round
- Hackney, 2014 — a first class, second row, very stiff
- Mysore, 2016 — six weeks of dawn practice and pranayama
- London, 2018 — 500 hours of training, a thousand cups of chai
- Bristol, 2021 — an old mill, a lot of plants, a studio of our own
BREATHE
What I believe
Three quiet promises
Small things that shape every class, whether it’s your first or your five-hundredth.
ii.
Rest is practice
Savasana is never skipped. Stillness is where everything you’ve just done quietly settles in and stays.
iii.
Kindness, always
No one is behind. Props are encouraged, questions are welcome and laughter is very much allowed.
Training
Still learning, still breathing
Every year I go back to being a student. It keeps the teaching honest, and the curiosity alive.
- 2023
Pregnancy & postnatal yoga, 85 hours
Bristol - 2020
Advanced pranayama & breathwork
Mysore, India - 2018
500-hour yoga teacher training
London - 2017
Foundation course
British Wheel of Yoga - Ongoing
Member, British Wheel of Yoga
Accredited teacher