A few months ago, a new librarian moved into our area. When we met, she said: “I heard there’s a yoga master living around here.” She meant me.
I laughed, perhaps even blushed a little. I don’t usually think of myself in those terms. I’ve always seen myself as a lifelong student, someone who has simply been fortunate enough to walk the yoga path for a long time. But her words stayed with me. They made me reflect on how we see ourselves, and how others see us.
It also made me reflect on what “mastery” really means in yoga.
A Lifelong Path in Yoga
I first stepped onto a yoga mat in the early 1990s, long before yoga studios dotted every town and social media feeds were filled with images of advanced postures. What captivated me then, and still does now, wasn’t just the physical shapes — it was the philosophy, the way yoga connected body, mind, and spirit (as a tangible experience) into a living practice.
Over the decades, I have been immersed in study, teaching, and practice. I founded and ran Ard Nahoo, Ireland’s leading eco yoga retreat, a place where thousands of students came not only for yoga classes and yoga workshops but also to experience meditation, nature, and community. I became Ireland’s leading Anusara Yoga® teacher trainer, and every certified Anusara teache trained in Ireland has passed through my school. I’ve had the privilege of teaching yoga retreats at home and abroad, leading yoga teacher trainings, and being invited to share my expertise with students and teachers internationally.
Does this make me a “master” an “expert”? I still hesitate at those words. But what I can say with confidence is this: I am an excellent teacher.
Teaching as Service
One of the beautiful paradoxes of yoga is that it makes us both humble and strong. It shows us the limits of our bodies, minds, and habits — and it also reveals our limitless capacity for transformation.
For me, teaching yoga is not about demonstrating the most advanced poses or offering a perfect lecture on yoga philosophy. It is about service. It is about guiding others to reconnect with themselves, to discover the wisdom already within, and to use the tools of yoga to live with more equanimity and balance in their lives.
Equanimity is one of my guiding words. Yoga philosophy (Baghavadgita & The Tantras) reminds us that the goal of practice is not to escape the difficulties of life, but to meet them in a balance way.. To find steadiness in the storms, and gratitude in the joys, for the good times.
Through Anusara Yoga®’s Universal Principles of Alignment©, the rich teachings of yoga philosophy, and the integration of meditation, mantra and breath, my aim has always been to help students bring yoga off the mat and into their daily lives.
What Makes a Teacher?
When I look back at my own yoga journey, I remember clearly that many of us who trained as teachers in the early days did not always receive the depth of tuition we longed for. There just wasn’t enough time. Some trainings skimmed over yoga philosophy, or treated anatomy as a checklist rather than a living, embodied understanding. Others didn’t offer much space for teachers to truly develop their own practice.
That gap has shaped my mission. When I lead yoga teacher training or yoga immersion programs, I make sure that students come away not only with teaching skills but with a deeper relationship to yoga itself.
- In yoga philosophy, we explore not just the history and ideas, but how these teachings can guide real-life choices and relationships. How can we apply this to our lives in a way that resonates from deep inside as opposed to being a measure of how ‘good’ or ‘advanced’ you are at yoga.
- In yoga anatomy and biomechanics, we go beyond muscles and bones, into an embodied understanding of how movement, alignment, and energy work together.
- In asana practice, we learn from the inside out, rather than striving for external perfection.
- In meditation and self-inquiry, we cultivate the inner witness that helps us navigate life’s ups and downs.
Whether in yoga classes, yoga workshops, yoga retreats, or long-form teacher trainings, my goal is to offer education that is both rigorous and compassionate, grounded in wisdom and alive with curiosity.
Gratitude for the Privilege of Teaching
So perhaps that’s what the librarian sensed when she called me a yoga master. Not someone who has “arrived” or perfected the path, but someone who has walked it long enough, with enough dedication, to offer guidance to others.
I feel immense gratitude for the thousands of students who have sat before me over the years — in yoga classes, on yoga retreats, in yoga workshops, and in yoga teacher trainings. Each one has been my teacher as much as I have been theirs. Their stories, struggles, breakthroughs, and joys have shaped me, softened me, and deepened my understanding of what yoga really is.
Yoga, to me, is not about contorting into advanced shapes or chasing an ideal. It’s about presence. It’s about learning to inhabit your body fully, to quiet your mind when it races, and to open your heart again and again to life — even when life is messy.
And that, I suppose, is why after three decades, I still feel lit up to teach.
Looking Ahead
The word “master” might never feel comfortable on my tongue. But what I can claim with honesty is my passion for this practice, my devotion to teaching it well, raising the bar in yoga education and my gratitude for the privilege of sharing yoga in all its forms:
- Yoga classes that ground you in presence.
- Yoga workshops that dive deep into specific practices.
- Yoga retreats that allow you to step away from daily life and immerse yourself fully.
- Yoga teacher trainings that equip you to educate, inspire, and grow as both teacher and student.
- Meditation practices that anchor it all together and bring you towards the deep stillpoint of Self.
If yoga is, at its heart, a path to equanimity, then I hope to continue guiding others along that path for many years to come.
And perhaps that is its own form of mastery — not of postures or philosophies, but of showing up, again and again, with sincerity, curiosity, and love.
Final Reflection
When the librarian called me a “yoga master,” I was taken aback and shook my head. But inside, I felt something stir: not pride, but gratitude.
Because the true gift of my life has been the opportunity to share yoga — to see students light up with meditation, to watch teachers grow into their confidence, to guide bodies towards alignment and healing, and to help reflect the brilliant light of the human heart.
If that makes me a master, then it is only because I have been mastered — by the practice itself, by its wisdom, and by the grace of my students.