EP 1.05: John & Helen Rees - "The biggest thing is making the commitment to yourself"

Show Notes Episode 5

In this fifth episode of No Ordinary Yogi podcast, your host Katherine Biggs talks to her friends and former yoga students John & Helen Rees.

“The biggest thing is making the commitment to yourself.”

John and Helen are in their sixties and were my yoga students for a couple years whilst they were still living in Malvern.  I apologise that the sound isn’t great.  We were all preparing for Storm Dennis and it was blowing an absolute hooley where they are in Snowdonia.

We discuss what makes a good yoga teacher and how they are getting back into yoga after a bit of a break.  John talks about when he started his yoga practice and things he finds hard about it.  And Helen talks about her round and about journey onto the mat via Pilates and rehabilitating her sports injuries.  They both talk about when their practices became important to them and how no two yoga practices are ever the same.  We also talk about the emotional support offered by a yoga practice and motivating yourself to getting to yoga.

One element of the conversation I found particularly interesting was when we talked about athletes and yoga’s place in modern sport.  John played some seriously high-level rugby in his time and I found his insights about how they trained then versus how modern athletes train now very interesting.  I wish we’d had more time to talk about this.  But maybe in another podcast, eh?

And finally, we hear about the joys of living in Snowdonia and all about what they’re doing in their “retirement”.

John and Helen always have been two of the most real people I know.  There are no pretences with them.

About John and Helen Rees

John and Helen live in Snowdonia with their three dogs and their daughter Elizabeth who was on Episode 2 of this podcast. 

John is officially retired, but he runs photography workshops around where they live in Snowdonia.  His website is https://www.johnreesphoto.com/.  You can also find his beautifully curated Instagram account here http://www.instagram.com/iamjohnrees.

Helen is a nurse and works in the local GP surgery, as well as looking after the shepherd's hut on their property - it sounds flipping idyllic.  If you've not listened to the podcast - do(!) because they tell us all about life in Snowdonia.  If you fancy visiting them and staying at their shepherd's hut, you can find it here https://www.glynshepherdshut.com/.

More about your host Katherine Biggs

Katherine Biggs is a yoga teacher, studio owner and she’s based out of Great Malvern Yoga in Worcestershire.  Having taught over 3000 hours of yoga, she is on a mission to make yoga accessible to everyone and that is the reason behind this podcast.  She believes there is No Ordinary Yogi.  Anyone can practice yoga.  

Let’s have ordinary conversations with ordinary people who practice yoga.  There will be no unveiling of the Vedas and there will be no breakdown of the Bhagavad Gita.  These are real conversations with real-life yogis and you don't need to have a yoga practice in order to listen in.  There might be an occasional bit of swearing!