Meet The Team : Heather Archibald Yoga Teacher
What is your mission as a yoga instructor?
To facilitate a safe space where students can embrace the practice of yoga to help encourage compassion, awareness and self-reflection. Having seen the potential for yoga to nurture meaningful relationships with mind and body, I hope to encourage students to have a regular yoga practice as part of their selfcare routine.
What can people expect from your yoga classes?
A flowing practice with creative sequencing reflective of my training with Seasonal Yoga Academy, where there is a focus on harmonizing energy and practice with outside seasons and personal energy. I enjoy being inquisitive and learning about my own practice and try to encourage this within students. Expect to leave the class feeling energised yet deeply relaxed.
What does your self care routine look like at the moment?
Combining a busy job and a research degree means ensuring I have some selfcare is important and can be the simplest of things. Morning walks with my puppy Otto in the park, listening to my favourite podcasts or doing face masks and movies with friends. My home practice can be 5 minutes or 45 depending on the day, and I try to make sure to go to community classes each week.
What is your mantra?
Be true, be you, be kind
How has your yoga practiced change and developed over time?
Initially I came to mat and discovered the ability to listen to my mind and body, and respond to its needs. Yoga taught me most importantly to be kind to myself. I discovered yoga could be social and personal, fun and reflective, energetic and relaxing. As with the eb and flow of my career and changes in lifestyle, so too my yoga practice has evolved and changed. Yoga helps to give me balance and to find quiet in busy periods.
What’s your favourite yoga pose?
Finding a favourite pose is difficult, I feel like it changes regularly as the needs of my body change. When I’m feeling more energetic, I love poses that offer me more challenge, and when I feel lower energy, I like poses which are closer to the mat and are supportive. At the moment I love the transition and movement between poses, making these deliberate and considered.
What advice would you give to someone who is just starting out on their yoga journey?
At the start of a yoga practice, it is so important to not feel a need to compare yourself to others in class. My first teacher always said each body and each practice was different – these differences can be anatomical, emotional or from previous experiences. Also be patient – which is definitely easier said than done – but your practice will come.
What do you like to do for fun when you’re not teaching/ practising yoga?
Outside of yoga I love spending time with people – my friends and boyfriend, my dog, my family. I love being creative – designing, making, cooking. Yoga has also helped me to develop a love of being active and moving my body by going climbing, running, and to the gym.
Heather has been teaching yoga for over three years, graduating from her 200hr YTT with Seasonal Yoga Academy in 2015. Although she predominantly teaches Vinyasa Flow to adults, Heather is also a qualified children’s yoga teacher. Heather draws influences from her training at Seasonal Yoga Academy, where there is a focus on harmonizing your practice and energy with the outside season. Heathers teaching also encourages awareness of self, and development of a compassionate relationship with your body and breath. While teaching yoga part-time, Heather has also developed yoga brunches to share food and develop community; taught children’s workshops; and held a series of yoga retreats on the Isle of Mull. As well as teaching yoga, Heather teaches fashion at a College in Glasgow and believes in links between creativity and yoga. You can book into Heather’s classes here.