Shona Lawson

I started practicing yoga consistently when I was 21 and finishing my undergraduate degree. I found that moving my body in this way helped me feel calm and concentrate better in my studies.

A few years later I moved to Utrecht in the Netherlands and there I discovered Iyengar yoga. I became a dedicated student going to classes daily. My 20s were hard years as I struggled with job insecurity difficult relationships and confronting my painful childhood. Yet my consistent yoga practice was building sturdiness and resilience in me. I was spending more and more time in my body rather than totally diassociated and feeling increasing joy in being alive and being present in my life.

In 2021 I decided to start training to be a teacher. In 2022 I finished my vinyasa teacher training and I am currently working towards my Iyengar certificate too. Teaching has been such a beautiful new evolution to my yoga journey, it’s teaching and challenging me in unexpected ways.

Practicing yoga has done so much for me, but to summarise it simply it has built a robust, sturdy, resilient foundation within myself. Being in my body is good.

While still in my 20s, towards the end of the Covid Pandemic I started to experience some urinary incontinence, this was quite distressing. It lead me down a path of learning about and trying to heal my pelvic floor. This is how hypopressives came into my life and they have been absolutely transformative in my healing journey. I used to have 4-5 UTIs per year, now I it’s been over a year since my last UTI.