Connection matters to me

The biggest surprise at the World Yoga Festival wasn’t a trick shape or a new style, it was how powerfully certain teachers affected me. Some classes felt physically familiar, yet the right teacher made them land completely differently. I usually pick dynamic practices in the morning and restorative in the evening, but I loved one teacher’s Friday session so much that I pivoted and did Yin first thing on Saturday to experience her teaching again. It became my favourite session of the weekend. Not because the shapes were new to me, but because of how she offered them and the language she used. I realised that how something is offered can matter more than what we actually do. I tried many styles at the festival, but the sessions that stayed with me weren’t the flashiest or most demanding. They were led by people I connected with. It wasn’t the sequence I remembered so much as the way they made me feel: safe, engaged and curious. They taught with warmth, humour and authenticity, reminding me that yoga can be less about the movement that is offered and more about the teacher–student relationship and the experience we create together.