I was first drawn to Yoga at University. It helped me to study, stay healthy and beat the social and academic Blues. Unfortunately exams often got in my way so the Yoga lapsed. When I began teaching English in a large comprehensive, life became much more stressful. Most of the pupils were much bigger than me, but I rose to the challenge, and went back to an oasis of weekly classes to relax and recharge. Occasionally between teaching and hours of marking, I offered Yoga tasters to pupils at lunchtime.

When I first became Head of English in another school, I found no time to attend Yoga classes, but some children asked for them. To oblige and to do it properly, I started my Yoga Teacher training with the Friends of Yoga - FRYOG, and finished it during my first maternity leave in '83. During my second pregnancy, I carried on teaching and joined a regular Yoga class again for relaxation and a healthy labour

When I returned, I started introducing aspects of Yoga into the classroom: asking the children to sit perfectly still and focus on the breath. After some wriggling and giggling, most of them settled. It was a great way to calm them down on windy days. I extended it to inspire their creative writing, by visualising a favourite pet or animal and observing in detail what it felt, looked, sounded and smelt like, and its personality.

To the alarm of the Headmaster, we would go AWOL, stealing out of the classroom silently though the disinfectant corridors, hearing the noises from other classes, across the hard playground and onto the muddy playing field. All the time they used their senses to feel the wind on their skin, the warmth and the cold, the smells from the kitchen, the feel of concrete or muddy grass beneath their feet. The resulting details and observation in their writing were amazing.

I gave up teaching when my children were two and four. My husband and I opened our Toy Museum in Lincoln and I did fun activity sheets and interactive demonstrations of moving toys for younger primary school children. We closed The Incredibly Fantastic Old Toy Show at the end of May 2003. By that time, I had qualified in all the therapies I now practice and love. I wanted to devote more time to my clients.

I confess I rarely teach Yoga classes - only as a peripatetic teacher when the usual one is away. When both my children were facing GCSE and A-levels, I taught Yoga at their school for a term to stressed exam pupils, at lunchtime. I really enjoyed that. Many of the healing modalities in Holographic Repatterning are based on Yoga, which benefits my clients. Of course, I make time to attend regular Yoga classes for the good of my soul, mind and body.