Gaynor Mullin

Having previously attended just a couple of Yoga classes casually in my twenties, in 1999 I walked into an Iyengar Yoga class for the first time, and walked out afterwards feeling not only a couple of inches taller, but a couple of tonnes lighter mentally.

I was immediately hooked. At the time I was working in a highly stressful, fast paced role in the transport industry, and my weekly Iyengar Yoga classes quickly began to feel like a complete reset each week, with Yoga becoming firmly embedded in my life.

The relaxation at the end of class felt blissful, I didn’t know how much my mind needed some space until I lay in Savasana.

After I had my two daughters in 2004 and 2006, I decided to expand my knowledge and understanding of the subject of Yoga, and enrolled on the two year teacher training at the Manchester and District Institute of Iyengar Yoga in Dukinfield.

I qualified to teach at Introductory level 2 in November 2008, and have been teaching in the Sale area since then, while bringing up my daughters, and also recently working in community roles, including mental health. I am very passionate about the importance of movement, mindfulness, and making time to focus on the things in life that light us up.

I remain a student of Yoga, and regularly attend classes and workshops, both online and at the MDIIY, as well as at other centres. It is a requirement of the IYA to complete regular training to continue to be registered to teach Iyengar Yoga.

Only qualified Iyengar Yoga teachers are legally permitted to use the Iyengar certification mark. All Iyengar Yoga teachers have undergone a minimum of two years training before they are able to qualify to teach, and are fully insured.

In addition to my Yoga trainings, I have completed many other trainings in mental health and psychological interventions which compliment my Yoga teaching. A full list of my other trainings and qualifications can be found here

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About Iyengar Yoga

Yoga is one of the oldest systems of personal development in the world. This system of balancing the body, mind and spirit was formulated by ancient yogis, who understood our essential nature and realised a way to utilise our inner resources to live in harmony with ourselves and the environment.

There are eight limbs to Yoga, each one dealing with a different aspect of mental, spiritual and physical health. In a typical class in the UK, we focus on two of those limbs – asanas (physical postures), and pranayama (breath work).

Yoga offers extensive benefits, offering physical benefits such as improved strength and flexibility, mobility, balance, and correcting misalignments in the body, as well as mental benefits of reduced stress, anxiety, better sleep, and better mood, among many other benefits.

Iyengar Yoga is a form of Yoga developed by BKS Iyengar, who was instrumental in bringing Yoga to the west in the 1950s. It is one of the most widely practised styles of Yoga worldwide, and is practised in over 70 countries. In 2004, Mr. Iyengar was named as one of the 100 most influential people in the world by The Times. He has written numerous books on Yoga, probably his most well known being Light on Yoga, a Yoga ‘bible’ which most teachers of any style will refer to regularly.

The emphasis in Iyengar Yoga is precision and alignment in the poses, gaining the maximum benefits of each pose for the body and mind. Iyengar Yoga is distinguishable by it’s use of props – we use props such as blocks bricks and belts to compensate for lack of flexibility and strength so that the student can still feel the full benefit of the pose.