Tales from the Mat: Katie’s story
Katie McNeil, Yoga Teacher
There’s a kindness to yoga. It starts with one of its core principles, ‘ahimsa’, which roughly translates as ‘do no harm’. For Oxford yoga teacher Katie McNeil, it’s been a guiding light in her career. Her early work helping others as an executive assistant inside large institutions quickly morphed into more purpose-led roles within charities.
Fast forward to Katie the yoga teacher. She now extends her regular busy timetable to include classes for charities such as Oxfordshire MIND, Early Intervention Service and Oxfordshire’s sexual abuse charity OSARCC. Her classes reach people, often via the NHS, who are dealing with mental health or trauma of some kind. Katie’s commitment reaches far beyond doing no harm. She is all about pro-actively helping and improving others’ lives.
“I became a teacher as yoga really helped me and I wanted to offer that to others as well. My style of teaching is quite broad but my main focus is on helping people to find empowerment within the choices on their mat”.
Katie, teaching a yoga class
Most yoga teachers can remember a time when yoga first called them. For Katie, it was at a festival. “I think the moment it really landed in my heart was at a peace festival where there were meditation sessions and I felt a sense of calm and groundedness. Since then, my practice has brought me back to that feeling. I started to find myself, a strength within me, and a willingness to open a conversation with my body and mind. Yoga became a tool that I used to help me find calm and balance. It has helped me through periods of poor mental health over the years”. There is an increasing body of research on the profound benefits of yoga to mental health and Katie finds her trauma-informed yoga classes for people with difficult issues to be the most rewarding; “I really enjoy working with people over a long period of time and watching them grow in confidence in themselves. Sometimes that means they find new shapes on their mat, but more than often I love hearing the confidence they have found in themselves as a person”.
Outside of teaching, she does some admin for a few small businesses in Oxford, including one of the studios where she teaches. “Basically, I love organising things! I am an active member of the Yoga Teachers Union and try to support other teachers around me as much as possible. It’s a strange freelance world sometimes and I think it is important to have a connection with others around me doing similar things”. At home, she has helped set up a housing coop “to try and change the narrative on home ownership. I am a big believer in community, whether that's the neighbourhood you live in, the places you work or broader networks”.
Thinking about the future, Katie is fully committed to a life of yoga. “I love teaching, practising and continuing to learn about yoga. I started my teaching journey not that long ago, really, around August 2020. So, I feel like a baby yoga teacher in terms of the knowledge and the depth that the other wonderful teachers around me have. There have been some bumps along the way; it's not always easy, and the job, as with any, comes with its downsides. But I love it all the same, and I am here for the long run”.
Find Katie at IG @katiemcneilyoga
Website https://katiemcneilyoga.org/