Student of the Month - January 2025 - Tom

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🧑‍🎓🎓🌟𝐒𝐓𝐔𝐃𝐄𝐍𝐓 𝐎𝐅 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐌𝐎𝐍𝐓𝐇!!!!🌟🎓🧑‍🎓

January 2025 'Student of the Month' is................. Tom Doble! Tom attends the Level 2 class in Yetminster and I have had the pleasure of teaching him for several years. I often wish we had 'before and after' photos so students could see how far their practice has progressed from their very first class. When I see Tom in Uttanāsana or Supta Padangusthāsana now, I often have a flash back to the very tight hamstrings and shaky legs he had at his first classes - those days are definitely long gone. It has been such a delight to watch his progress over the years and thanks to his commitment and focus in class he is now a very accomplished practitioner. Tom is a much valued member of his class - he always has time to chat to everyone afterwards and is missed on the odd occasion when he's not there!......

❓Tell us a little about yourself.....
🧘Hello my name is Tom Doble, I'm 33 and I live in an extended family household in Stoke Sub Hamdon with my parents and brothers, one of whom is married - his wife lives here too, and the other has a daughter who lives with us on the weekends. We also have a labrador and a cat so it can be a rather packed household when everybody's home. I grew up and have lived in Stoke for most of my life and I work a retail job in Yeovil. I do one class a week, I would do more but my work schedule gets in the way so I like to do a session at home once or twice a week.

❓How long have you been practicing Yoga?
🧘I find it hard to recall a specific start point, but I started yoga with Lisa at Nuffield gym in Yeovil as you got classes for free with your membership. I cancelled my membership March 2019 as I was leaving the country to travel around New Zealand for a few months. I must have been doing yoga maybe a year or so prior to that so I think maybe 7 years now give or take.

❓What made you start yoga?
🧘I used to listen to health / lifestyle podcast and one guest was a professional mixed martial artist - can't remember his name unfortunately - who talked about how beneficial yoga was to him and other athletes in their field, I'd wrongfully assumed yoga was more for women so had never considered trying it before. I had nothing to lose trying out a free class with my Nuffield membership so just thought I'd give it a go and it became a weekly thing for me.

❓What's your favourite pose?
🧘For me nothing beats a well deserved corpse pose / savasana. I never feel more relaxed or just at peace with it all than I do when I'm in savasana at the end of a challenging yoga class, I sometimes wish I could have a blanket put over me and be left to stay in the hall quietly for an hour or two after.

❓And what is your favourite prop?
🧘Definitely the bolster because it's used a lot in nice recuperative poses.

❓How has practicing yoga benefitted your life?
🧘I find yoga is a good sort of reset physically and mentally, I nearly always do a Monday class and it's a great start to my week. My line of work is quite physical, I work mainly in a warehouse so I'm always on my feet and do a lot of lifting. After particularly heavy days where I'm feeling tired and achey I like to do some nice recuperative poses when I get home, especially poses that decompress the spine - the forward bend and resting your head on a bolster is one of my favourites for this.

❓What makes you keep practicing:
🧘I enjoy the challenge of it - the mixture of strength, flexibility and co-ordination needed to maintain the different poses and the steady progression to more advanced ones. It feels good to see improvement in myself too, when I started I found it very hard to just keep my legs straight in dog pose because my hamstrings were so tight. I also enjoy the small community we have in our class and look forward to seeing everyone each week.

❓Anything else you like to add?
🧘Lisa has been there for entire yogic journey and I'm very grateful for her tutelage and encouragement over the years. The classes always have a warm and welcoming atmosphere and I look forward to them every week.

❤ Well done Tom and thank you for sharing your yoga journey with us! I'm looking forward to seeing where it takes you in the future..... 🙏

#iyengaryoga #iyengaryogastudent #yogaformen