Behind the Scenes

My passion is breathing! Is that a bit strange? Why be passionate about something as ordinary as breathing? Well, when we breathe deeply and consciously we up-end an incredible treasure trove of blessings upon ourselves – better health, greater alertness, deeper relaxation, more energy and power, and we discover our potential! Who wouldn’t be passionate about that?!?

I’ll tell you about some of the other things that make my eyes twinkle and my toes tingle… I love nature. I only realised how much I love nature upon moving to Dahab after living in London for about six years (too long). I hadn’t understood why I was never happy there – until I left. 

I spend my time teaching yoga, meditation and freediving, as well as designing courses and programmes to help people learn and experience some of the things that I have found to be most helpful and most profound in my own life. I practice all of these myself too, and see them as a great way to learn new things about myself, what I’m capable of, and what my true nature is. They help me to banish my fears, put things into perspective and find new, challenging and exciting ways to continually move forwards in life.

My garden is full of fruit trees – olive (are they fruit?), guava, lemon, orange, pomegranate... What my gardener, Ali, doesn’t nick for his family, I eat. What a gift! At the risk of sounding pretty cuckoo, my tallest olive tree has taught me patience - when long meditations, or even life, feel insurmountable, imagining I’m a tree, with nowhere to go, nothing to do other than be a tree, allows all the suffering (which is created by my thoughts, rather than the situation) to melt away. Try it some time; find a tree you consider beautiful and allow its spirit to enter your heart and see what happens. 

I love animals, pretty much all animals, apart from spiders, but I’m learning how to make friends with them too - at least the small, non-scary ones. I have three dogs (Noura, Poppy and Max) and two cats (Twinkle-Toes and Teleta) and regularly rescue abandoned and mistreated puppies and kittens here in Dahab. I support Animal Welfare Dahab and the neutering and sterilising projects that run whenever they have enough money.

I’m finding more and more joy in cooking – simple, vegetarian and vegan, sometimes raw, always nourishing, food. If you have any recipes to share with me, please do email, and you can find some of my creations on my blog soon. If you’re visiting Dahab, I have a constant wish list of food items that I’m not able to buy here, so if you happen to be passing an organic whole-food store on your way to the airport, I’m always extremely grateful for presents - of course I'm happy to pay for any food you can bring too :-) I also cook all of my dogs’ food too.

Dahab has been my home for almost 14 years now, and I have no plans to change that in the near future. The combination of the ocean (blue, warm, clear, full of life, infinite), and the desert (mountainous, harsh, silent, seemingly barren, but full of tiny plants and creatures somehow surviving), feeds my soul and fills me with joy. There is almost nothing I love more than seeing my dogs run free up in the mountains, or along the beach, and feeling my own heart beating as I climb, explore and run with them.