Steve Malcolm

I first tried a yoga class in my early 50’s, so I’m not what you would call an early starter. I signed-up for to an 8-week beginner’s course hoping to ease some general body stiffness accumulated over a life of moderate but constant sport and exercise, all done with little stretching and no real body awareness. I was also hoping yoga may be a sort of relief valve for the stresses I generated in my middle-management job.

While I have a very happy and loving marriage, I always seemed to be looking for something to give my life more purpose. I had previously sought satisfaction through buying new things and them selling them when they didn’t fill the missing something in my life. I suffered from what Clive Hamilton and Richard Denniss of the Australia Institute describe as “Affluenza”; loosely defined as buying things we don’t need and can’t afford to impress other people (who we may not even like).

Along came yoga, and my once a week class grew into several classes a week and, with mindful guidance by my teacher, on to pranayamah and meditation. I had found that “something” I was looking for and followed its path to my Level 1 Yoga Teacher Training in mid-2013.

There has been no one or series of life challenges that brought me to yoga. I was and still am a very middle class, suburban male who enjoyed a moderate degree of career success and has usually been fairly healthy but never very athletic or flexible. Yoga has and continues to give me a healthy and fulfilling focus for my energy, both physically and mentally. Now, as a yoga teacher, I am grateful to be in a position where I can introduce and guide others along the same path.