So after a helpful suggestion that I get some professional yoga pictures taken for advertising (ugh - I hate the two of those words in one sentence), the Universe dropped into my lap a wonderful photographer on a similar hippy wavelength called Alan (Instagram - Images by Alan Thomas). We were both very open-minded about the whole thing and decided to just go with it. With the help of my lovely friend, Denise, we found some lovely spots in Ayr, Scotland and even timed it with the best Scottish Summer we have had in years!
Before we took the photos, we both looked online for inspiration and I found some lovely photos, but also went through a period of self-doubt as I looked at all of the pictures of extremely lithe women in fantastic poses and compared myself to them. Thankfully I have now learned to catch these thoughts and can say to myself that there is no perfection - not in life or in yoga. I am enough in the body I have, doing the yoga I am doing. The purpose of the photos is not to look like an image of yogic perfection, but to portray 'me' expressing myself as I move my body and breathe. Thanks to Alan, my photographer, who was all about expressing ourselves and having fun, I felt at ease and just did whatever felt good at the time.
The ones at the skatepark were purely for fun. I was really nervous that day because as we drove up we could see a big row of young 'dudes' hanging out. Thankfully Alan was cool and went straight up to them and told them we were just going to take some photos. One of them was like straight away, "You want me to do some moves for the photos?" "Skating, yoga, it's all the same thing man..." was his take on it. Once I got over my nerves, it was great fun and I am really pleased with these photos. I don't claim to be a 'true yogi,' whatever that is. I'm not an expert or a guru, as I said to Alan, "Every few hundred years you get enlightened souls, the rest of us are just humans doing yoga." It's taken a lot of work for me to find this self-acceptance, but I am pretty cool with being a human doing yoga.
For my yoga classes in Ayrshire and online - go to www.vhairislavenyoga.com/book.
