G’day! My name is Robin and 19 years old, I am half ozzie, (hence the G’day but you wouldn’t tell as I have a very English accent! I was born in Tasmania, the heart shaped Island at the bottom of Australia. Home is in the Cotswolds with my mum and three brothers. I recently finished a foundation in art and design where I did a project combing my passion for art and yoga. I now teach yoga to primary and secondary schools, prisons as well as regular public classes and one to ones. I love sharing yoga with young people because of my journey with yoga at a young age I feel that I can relate to them, but I equally enjoy teaching all ages!

My training was in bath, a 200hr Sivananda Hatha Yoga course with Charlotta Martinus, founder of TeenYoga. I trained when I was 16 years old, making me the youngest qualified instructor in the UK, to date!

My interest in yoga first started with meditation at the age of 12 when in Scotland I decided I needed to start change my attitude and behaviour from being angry to taking responsibility for my happiness instead of blaming the world around.

An exciting yoga project I am involved in with Charlotta is the APPG (all party parliamentary group) for yoga in society and this year have ventured to the house of lords for meetings with MP, lords, GP’s and yogis to discuss the need for government to put yoga into 4 main areas of society: schools, prisons, healthcare and business

Why you are excited about being a Wanderlust ambassador

I am beyond excited to be an ambassador because I want to support Wanderlusts mission – I love the yoga community and how the majority want to support each other, and I think they embody that. Most importantly, they aren’t just focusing on the benefits of asana but the bigger picture of yoga as a lifestyle, sustainability, nutrition and creativity and this is important when sharing yoga with the public, and the wanderlust events are significant so their holistic approach can really heal because they are incorporating more of the eight limbs of yoga than just asana which can often be the focus, it’s important for new commers to yoga to have the opportunity to see that yoga can be more than stretching, as it’s the extras that often change peoples lives deeply. Their mission is very aligned with my own purpose and goals in life and I feel that I can support their community and feel grateful for them reaching out and welcoming me into their family!

How you find your ‘True North’?

Through a daily practice, when I wake up and before I leave the house I always do at least 10 minutes of breathing, my regular ideal is to wake up, read a page of something inspiring, have a lemon and ginger tea, gentle stretching, I like mixing yoga and Tai Chi recently, 20 minute silent meditation and then plan/ set an intention for the day ahead – but occasionally I stay up late with my friends or work and I sleep through the alarm and I don’t have much time before college or work so then I return to simple breathing.

Discipline is important and yoga is great at encouraging that and having discipline helps me self-care and find inner happiness, it’s also my natural comfort zone planning and controlling but I have also recently learnt to make spontaneity part of my practice too – everything in moderation and balance so I don’t beat myself up if my body is tired and sleeps a little longer – because the yoga practice has taught me how to be in a natural state, for me this is what it returns to. Knowing this, I believe I can practice yoga anywhere and everywhere – its about a state of mind and this really acts as an anchoring to better myself, that even when things rush and move fast, just having awareness of that brings a sense of peace and compassion to the situation.

Another huge part of finding my truth north is through art, being creative, light hearted and playful – art, movement and meditation are very much linked for me and I try to combine them – I like being able to express without words, it’s a real challenge sometimes and always brings up interesting things.