Margaret Holland – Local Yoga Teacher

MARGARET HOLLAND

PURSUING SOFTNESS THROUGH YOGA

WORDS MARISA CUTILLAS PHOTOGRAPHY ANDRIA HOOPER PHOTOGRAPHY

Around 300 million people practise yoga worldwide – a result of the proactive role people are currently taking in their health and wellbeing. Margaret Holland, a yoga teacher with 33 years’ experience of practice and 10 years’ experience of teaching, knows the transformational power of this millenary discipline. It came into her life at a challenging time and restored the balance she craved. It also became her passion, calling, and profession.

Margaret, who hails from Glasgow, married young and moved to Guernsey, where she and her ex-husband raised a family and launched a restaurant business. They had an apartment on the Coast and eventually decided to move here with their children, Callum, Megan and Christie. “I had always been into fitness and began practising yoga when I was pregnant with Christie. When I first started, I wasn’t aware of the mind-body connection. I just wanted to look like Madonna!” she laughs. After a few minutes with Margaret, you realise she does that often – laugh, smile, and share her experiences. She is everything I imagine a dream yoga teacher to be – kind, encouraging, funny, warm, and generous. Her life is, indeed, graced. She is a happy mum and grandmother and she is engaged to be married to her long-time beau, Andy.

HONING HER SKILLS

After practising yoga for around a year, Margaret decided to train in a Hot Yoga method called Absolute Yoga in Thailand, a style which “has around 50 postures (compared to Bikram Yoga’s 27.).” When she returned to the Coast, Hot Yoga studios didn’t exist. Because Hot Yoga rooms range in temperature from 33ºC to 40ºC, she decided to teach her classes on the beach – something she still does today.

GOING WITH THE FLOW

“Hot yoga sequences can be very challenging,” says Margaret, “and many of my clients were close to my own age (around 50, at the time). This made me think about ways to add more softness, fluidity and comfort to my classes. I was attracted by the movement and grace of Vinyasa Flow, so I decided to train in this discipline in Bali.” In Vinyasa Flow, practitioners move through set postures in time with their breath. When Margaret returned, she continued to teach hot yoga but “changed it up a bit to incorporate Vinyasa flow.” ›

“With ease, we can let go of the tension that squashes our intuition, physical and mental ability and creativity” Tara Stiles, Founder of Strala Yoga

DISCOVERING STRALA YOGA

Margaret was on a continuous quest to make yoga more inclusive. “People who are beginners to yoga are sometimes not body-aware and the postures can be too hard for them to sustain.” She instinctively knew that a more inclusive yoga style was in demand. She found it in Strala Yoga – “a way of being, moving and healing, that helps people connect with how they feel, move how it feels good, and handle challenges with ease.” Strala Yoga’s benefits include greater strength and mobility, mental wellbeing, stronger immunity, and relaxation. The bonus is that your energy levels also skyrocket.

TRAINING IN THE CITY OF DREAMS

Margaret trained in Strala Yoga in New York. This style was created by classical ballet dancer and yoga practitioner, Tara Stiles. Its science and movement are also guided by Mike Taylor, a Harvard- and Oxfordtrained mind-body specialist who has studied complementary medicine and practised Eastern movement and healing (including Tai Chi and Qi Gong) for 30 years. Strala Yoga combines these practices with traditional Chinese medicine to help people release stress, heal, and break through a myriad of challenges. The Strala philosophy suited Margaret to a tee since she notes that “everyone has different joint lengths and depths, strength, and balance. If new knowledge has become available, it seems contraindicative to follow tradition ‘just because’.” Yoga should not be about achieving precise alignments or mastering “the perfect pose,” but rather, “listening to your body, finding ease, being comfortable where you are, and being ‘soft’ enough so that your breathe itself moves you. Softness is a big word on Planet Strala.”

Margaret is continuing to learn and grow. She is currently training in Tai Chi and Qi Gong with the Strala group and will be guiding sunrise Qi Gong on the beach next year. She and her pupils have so much to look forward to! You can get a taste of the style of yoga she teaches on her YouTube channel, which has a host of useful free videos.

g Margaret teaches beach yoga every Tuesday and Friday at 10am at La Sala By the Sea. She also teaches classes at Ushna Yoga Studio in Marbella. Contact her on: margaret4hotyoga@mail.com Instagram: @margaret4hotyoga YouTube: Margaret Holland

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