Yoga for hip mobility with Amy Muir
I was struck by how lovely Amy is when I first met her. During the course of her training it became apparent just how warm-hearted, thoughtful and funny she really is. Amy says…
"I completed my yoga teacher training at Merchant City Yoga in 2019 and it was life changing. I started practicing yoga as a way to de-stress during university exams but teacher training really supported me in delving deeper into my relationship with yoga, moving my attention away from an asana-only practice and exploring meditation, philosophy and breathwork. My practice has allowed me to move my attention into my body which has been so beneficial for living with my chronic gut condition. Yoga helps me appreciate my body as a functional and beautiful instrument, and even on the days that I feel unwell, it helps me love and accept my body.
Amy celebrating graduating as a yoga teacher with a backbend
In my day-to-day life I'm a PhD student researching paediatric leukaemia at Glasgow Uni. I used to think that yoga and science were opposing forces but I've come to understand how one supports the other; yoga is built on experience and science needs imagination and a leap of faith! As you can imagine, doing a PhD can be pretty stressful so yoga offers excellent respite and allows me to completely remove myself from that stressful mindset.
In my spare time I'm an award winning illustrator, working mostly with digital art and you can check out some of my work on the GIST magazine website and on my instagram. I'm a huge music fan, I especially love anything that contains synths and I pride myself on having the best class playlists (in my opinion), no 'plinky plonky' music here! I'm also a huge Star Wars fan (practicing yoga is surely one step away from becoming a Jedi?).
I'm passionate about being really real when I talk about my relationship with yoga. As someone with a chronic illness, anxiety and depression, I understand that yoga may be quite unapproachable for some people. Often yoga is represented as young, slim, able people bending into impossible shapes, which can alienate many people. That's why I love the 'keep it real' approach to sharing the practice of yoga that Merchant City Yoga has. You don't have to look a certain way, wear the most expensive outfit or practice a certain style to bring yoga into your life!
Amy balances yoga with studying for her PHD & winning awards as an illustrator!
I don't believe that yoga will instantly fix your mental health or physical ailments, but it can really help. It helps you accept that good things and bad things will happen in your life and it teaches you to view these occurrences with a level head. It's taught me not to seek out positivity all the time, and then feel sad when I can't attain that. Instead, I look for the good and accept the bad. I believe that we could all do with increasing our body awareness, no matter how our body looks or works. When you really bring your attention into your body, it allows you to appreciate the gift that it is.
If you're interested in following my yoga journey, you can find me on instagram at @badbadyogi . I hope you enjoy the class and get a good laugh from my cat Lemon's constant interruptions, she knows that she gets cuddles when I'm in child's pose so she associates the yoga mat with love- who doesn't!"
Amy brings all of her personal and professional knowledge and experience to her teaching. No matter what challenges you’re dealing with you’ll find Amy’s class helpful and inspiring.
Yoga for hip mobility with Amy Muir
If you'd like to practice along to Amy's session with music, you'll find her playlist on Spotify. Click here to get to the playlist.
Remember if you have any questions please get in touch. You can email me at judi@merchantcityyoga.com, message me through Facebook or Instagram or you can text me on 07880 631599.
Judi x
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