Thank you so much to everyone who commented online or in person about the first episode of our Ashtanga Yoga Shala podcast. This second episode is with our friend and long-time student Aoife Donnelly. Aoife has been a student of ours, on and off, for around ten years and she freely admits that she has had something of an on-again, off-again love affair with ashtanga yoga. Part of the reason I wanted to get Aoife on the podcast (other than the fact that I find her hilarious and great company) is that I wanted to share the perspective of somebody who has had that love/hate relationship with yoga. Because of the nature of our society and the fact that experts who appear online or in the media are usually fanatical about their chosen subject, we're mostly met with images/videos/blogs/Instagram posts from yoga teachers and practitioners who were struck by the practice from day one and have never had a moment's doubt that this is what they should be doing on a daily basis. Sometimes it can be hard to relate to those kinds of people and we can be made to feel that, if we're not like that, then we're doing it wrong. The reality for most students is that they will go through a sticky patch at some point (for a huge variety of reasons) and will struggle to find the time to dedicate themselves to yoga practice. That's normal and is part of being human. Aoife's story is one of consistently returning to ashtanga yoga and realising why she started it in the first place and also of using the tools that she has learned through practice in other areas of her life.