I went to my first yoga class over 10 years ago because I wanted arms like Madonna’s. Despite hating every minute of it, weirdly I was hooked. I am a Yoga Alliance 500 hours registered teacher, and have taught in drafty village halls, massive corporations, nation-wide gyms, award-winning spas, and internationally renowned health resorts. Today I am the founder of Real Life Yoga, a movement to help people find ways to bring a little (or a lot) of yoga into their real lives. Real Life Yoga (RLY) isn’t about changing your name to Shanti and retreating into an ashram for 6 months, nor is it about the filtered-to-perfection Instagram shots of #gratitude #yogaeverydamnday #kaleisamazing. (And, just for the record, no one ACTUALLY LIKES KALE.)It’s about taking your real life (as it is – right here, right now), finding what you want to change, and using yoga to help you do that. Yoga is about being curious, not a contortionist. It’s about using amazing practices so that you can become the best version of you – physically, emotionally and (yeah, I’m going to say the ‘s’ word) spiritually. And that’s why anyone can do it – all you need is to want to feel better. RLY doesn’t care if you can barely see your toes, let alone touch them. RLY couldn’t give a toss if your yoga kit cost as much as a small car or came from the charity shop. RLY isn’t going to tell you to do this every day or every week because we know that sometimes life (REAL life) gets in the way. And that’s why RLY exists – to blow up all the reasons why you think you can’t start using yoga to make your life more amazing TODAY. Think you need loads of time? Wrong. Think you need to be flexible? Definitely wrong. Think that your body can’t do it? Couldn’t be more wrong. (Spoiler alert: if you’re alive and breathing, you can do yoga.)I also write a monthly column for Om Yoga magazine and still don’t have arms like Madonna.