Yoga Pathways

About You

Age: Linzi Stivey 59 & ¾   

Work: I’m a course director and teacher during the day at WSC currently delivering Social media and Journalism, film and animation: during the evening I facilitator & manage running Queens Road Studio, a music project putting young people in bands. I am doing event management and marketing with Strawberry Fair.

How do you know Jordanna: I joined Jordanna yoga at The Hunter Club. A mutual lively friend, Amanda, told me about the classes and I’ve been going, at all its various venues and joining in most of the time online in the morning zoom sessions. So its been quite a few years with Jordanna.

Your Yoga Journey

I started yoga at the Moreton Hall gym about 25 years ago after I had breast cancer when I was 36 years old. I had had very heavy treatment for a year and it had left me very weak in the upper body due to the surgery. I actually had one shoulder higher than the other. So I started yoga as a way to strengthen my body. I remember how difficult the six months were, how pathetic I felt. When we were told in class that the ‘resting’ position was ‘down dog’ I nearly pissed myself laughing because for me at the time it felt like hell on earth! (I now love that position and it defo feels like resting!) At the beginning I fought with my body, its weaknesses and it often felt insurmountable but over the past 25 years I celebrate my strength and if I have days where my body struggles, I use this to reflect on how I am feeling and what my body is trying to tell me needs extra attention. Most of the time it is not my body struggling but my emotions: feeling unsupported = lower back issues, emotional stress = poorer balance on my left hand side etc. I now celebrate the messages my clever body, through yoga sends to me. Since then I have always regularly done a yoga class, either in centres around BSE or I regularly did it with Youtube videos when I couldn’t get to or afford classes. Finding Jordanna’s classes when she first started at the Hunter Club was a gift from the angels and I’ve been there ever since. I love the morning online classes and the joy of being in person for an hour every Wednesday eve. Our class is a community, its funny, real and full of love.

Practice & Preferences

Whenever I’m asked about my favourite anything – it’s always the same answer – it depends what mood I am in! I love the security of a traditional sun salutations flow, it’s like putting a comfy pair of slippers on, I love a still tree balance and can happily hold this for hours but I also love the new flows that Jordanna pings on the class every now and then.

I’m not keen on head or handstands as I have never done one, even as a child. I was a very sickly child and couldn’t do what the other girls did, i.e. cartwheels, crabs and handstands. I know the fear runs deep into my inner child and I should get over myself and crack this one but, as a massive rebel, I also need to not do it when I’m ‘told’ to! Maybe writing this will help me to make the decision to conquer it, who knows. I also resist competitiveness so I tend to cheer on all the others doing it rather than doing it myself = a ridiculous storyline I have invented to avoid feeling bad about not doing these things!  

So most unusual yoga hasn’t been the place but the situation. In the last couple of years doing yoga with two small people hanging on my legs and sitting on my back during downdogs etc. I loved those mornings with my grandchildren living with us, all great fun and big smiles whilst their extra weight pulling on me enhanced my strength in the poses!

Life Off the Mat

My hobby is being busy, my brain is fast and dynamic and I love to push life to its boundaries. I am so happy to be alive, having faced the opposite quite a few times in my life. So I burn the candle at both ends. Working as a teacher of film, media and journalism by day, then in the evenings running a ‘school of rock’ in the evenings, gigging with our bands most weekends, being part of running a festival fund raising all year, marketing campaigns and running a stage at a festival, this is why the morning online classes with Jordanna suit my routine. We love spending time with our five children, five grandchildren and our sisters and their families. 

Art is a passion of mine, I have just finished illustrating a children’s book which has taken me all year so far and I have more art projects in the pipeline. 

I aim to do yoga three mornings a week and do an hour class one evening, all with Jordanna. But I also zone into being aware of how I sit, stand and move whilst whizzing around doing all the things I do and I keep my mind clear of overload, staying ‘mindless’ and in the present moment of whatever it is I am doing. I am generally full of appreciation that I am alive, in a wonderful place and still able to do all the physical things I do. 

Water, water I so need to be near the water – rivers in particular, swimming in and kayaking on brings the best peace and makes me feel very part of this planet. Meditation whilst I run is also powerful for me. I receive all sorts of intuitive messages and clarity by meditating on the run. 

Community & Connection

I love being part of this community. Due to the like-mindedness, I feel ‘safe’ and that I can truly be myself with all the members of this wonderful yoga community. I believe we are all drawn together because of Jordanna’s energy. I have been to other classes and not had such a strong community draw. I love our Wednesday classes when in the middle of an intense pose someone cracks a joke and we all chortle and I am so glad we are back in the Unitarian Meeting house as it is so beautiful and matches the energy of the group so well, but I have also loved the workshops, sitting in an old portuguese tram carriage after a ridiculously hot sunny yoga session, our yoga retreat weekend doing Vinyasa in the pouring rain; there have been so many great moments of joy!

Our theme tune should be Better Together by Jack Johnson.

Wellness Wisdom

Other wellbeing practices – mmmm I believe well being is a state of mind which should be a constant. Generally keeping a peaceful, joyous mind and a body/vessel that will keep serving you well for as long as possible is an amalgamation of so many things, choices we make every second of every day. My personal favourite tip is just to keep in the present moment and enjoy everything around you, even if it feels chaotic = it’s great to be alive!

Passing it On

Advice for beginnings, No. 1 – don’t be competitive!  Every time you do a session you are going forwards and getting stronger, physically and emotionally so just appreciate that you are doing it.  Some mornings I’d rather nap – sometimes I do, but even if you just show up to the mat and then sit it out, it is one step nearer than not showing up at all!

Looking Forward

My goal and dream for my yoga future is to be able to keep my body moving with ease for as long as I need it to. 

Yoga poses – I’m not sure I can invent a new one but I do think some we do could have new names – ‘happy baby’ can be rebranded as ‘hold it in, hold it in” and we ALL know why!  And at the end of some sessions Shavasana should be called ‘thank fuck thats over!”