Speaker at a Brand New Yoga Festival- June 2024 – a Major 2024 Goal accomplished!

Lisa of Ashtanga Life Anglesey, had asked me to be a speaker for the Yoga Festival back in November 2023, and I was really honoured to have been asked. I’d just done a sponsored yoga challenge and posted on my Instagram every day, and my daily leggings updates I believe caught her eye!
My mission for 2024, is to work on the “Public speaking” direction of my business, so I pinned this down as the “big” opportunity of 2024.

I did a public speaking workshop back in March (Read about that here) in which my idea was to gain knowledge about how to speak publicly with ease and confidence. The final “Project” of that workshop was deliver a 5 minute presentation, but this Yoga Festival was asking for a 60 minute workshop/talk.

I was confident that I could do it, yet on the night before my talk, I could be find jotting down a few notes in a notebook to use during my talk (I ended up holding the notebook, but barely referring to it…!)

Arriving at 4pm on the Friday was nice. It gave me chance to meet Lisa and Paddy (the main hosts), reconnect with Liza, and meet the assistant Chef (Chris) as well as some of the other speakers/teachers.

The festival officially kicked off at 5.30pm. I started with Somatic Yoga with Clare Mace (Who normally teaches in Bethesda) The weather was against us that evening, it was pouring down for most of it, and windy too, the marquee sides flapping loudly in the “storm”! Clare was trying to talk over the noise, and I just about managed to hear her, but the somatic yoga was more gentle than the adverts had been throwing at me on Instagram, so that was a nice session to kick off the weekend!

Paddy and Chris dished up Jacket Potato with Dahl for tea, that was lovely, and warming too! Of course they were serving under cover, but everyone else was out in the open, so once served, most rushed for cover in the “music” tent, where Joseph Sarven was playing his guitar and singing some upbeat songs (with regular comments about the weather) Despite the rain, there was an ice cream van parked in a tucked away corner, so I got myself a very chocolatey sundae for dessert!

Once the musical interlude was done, I chose to attend Dawn’s Yin Yoga session in the dome. The weather wasn’t as loud in there, but yin yoga I found quite challenging, as I’m not as flexible as most of the yoga enthusiasts who were there! Still enjoyed it though, and loved the fact that Dawn tends to choose “Blues” music for her backdrop. She gave everyone little head massages towards the end of the meditation section.

I chose to go home every night because it wasn’t too far away to me, being in Rhos y Bol, north of Anglesey.

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Back on Saturday, the day of my talk! I’d brought plenty of copies of my book, as well as my Nintendo Switch/Ring Fit Adventure kit, and a TV screen. I was late arriving because I stressed about the TV/monitor, but there was some Face Yoga going on before my talk in the same area anyway.

I wandered around a bit, exploring the different areas. The Sound Bath on the decking sounded amazing!

There was a half hour gap between my talk and the Face yoga finishing, of which people came out of Face Yoga looking like they were melting!

The sun had come out for us, but that meant the “Fire” tent was a little bit too hot!

I was going to set up my Switch to show off my Yoga game and Ring Fit Adventure, but due to the soaring temperatures, I decided against it and decided to go “alfresco” on the decking instead!

It was indeed cooler, I talked for 45 minutes, but cut it short of the hour because of the lack of tech availability. I did however pass around the Ring Fit Adventure Ring, so people could get a feel for it, as this was the game that truly changed my life! I wasn’t shaky at all, I may have gone off tangent occasionally (and not referred to my notes/mainly winged it) but people loved it, and said they could follow it really easily. I had such an inspiring story. I started with my experiences with anxiety, and ended with “now I have confidence to attend things like this Yoga Festival” <3

There was a small group watching, but they were very engaged throughout, and one lady stayed behind for a chat afterwards too.

Thanks to the lady who airdropped me the photos she took of my talk <3

I’d gone for my matching leggings to my nails, rainbows seemed so much brighter with the sun out too!

After my talk there was a gap for lunch, of which Paddy and Chris were serving (*gluten free) minestrone soup. (*I’d mentioned being Gluten free the day before, so it was lovely to be accommodated for, especially when they decided to switch the whole batch to gluten free pasta!)

I ate lunch with a couple of friends on a bench, and I loved this view I caught of Stevie painting <3

After lunch, Dawn gave a talk on Gut Health. It was really insightful, and was also very straightforward and made complete sense! Basically if your gut “complains” you need to change what you eat!

Next was supposed to be “Yoga with Katy Stylli” but as we waited, it transpired that she hadn’t shown up, so Vikka took over with some spontaneous Rocket Yoga (That was super hard, but I also found it amazing, the shapes Vikka could throw with ease, hopefully I’ll be able to do that one day… must be consistent…)

I ran out of steam then though, because hayfever was exceptionally bad that afternoon, my eyes had got so irritated I couldn’t see properly! I was spotted by Caroline and Vikka. Vikka explained that she suffered similar, and had some eye drops she could offer me. I’d never been so grateful, I’d tried (in vain) to wash my eyes with cold water, but all that had done was make them bloodshot, so the eye drops actually meant I was able to drive home again in the evening!

Tea was Vegetable Curry, with samosa. Loved it, but the spice made my stomach a bit fragile, so I didn’t dare do another yoga session after. I attended Caroline’s talk about mind coaching. I related to so much of her story. Most notably she said that her journey to loving herself took about 3 years. Me too! The negative self talk used to be so overpowering. Learning to quash that and the resilience needed to build your self up, is the best thing you can ever do <3

I decided to head off after that, as the hayfever was playing havoc with everything else (apart from my eyes!)

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Back on Sunday, raring to go (not much sleep though!)

First session was Voice Toning – Clearing the Chakras with Laren. That was an interesting experience, because when she was doing the chants, and everyone was chanting back, I was picking up the notes, and at one point the harmonies created a nice C Major inverted chord! I made the rest chuckle by saying the note references too. (The joys of having perfect pitch!) The colours flowed fairly easily though in my mind they weren’t always going the ways they were supposed to)

Straight into Laughter Yoga with Paula of Happy Yoga Wales. I’d attended something else yesterday, so promised myself to try it today. I’m a ‘quiet’ laugher, so I may have looked uncomfortable, but even when I tried to laugh loudly like everyone else, my voice just didn’t want to do it! It was an interesting experience nonetheless, and I think the most I laughed was when everyone tossed a beanbag at me, and I ended up with 5 in one go! oops!

There wasn’t an official gap for lunch this time, but I wandered into the kitchen and Dawn asked Paddy if I could have a bowl of the soup a bit earlier. Paddy happily obliged. Leek and Potato soup with nettle. It was perfect <3 I’ve absolutely loved the food provided over the weekend, as it was mostly stuff I wouldn’t have had normally.

I finished the yoga festival with one more session: Dawn’s Dragon Yin Yoga. That was a challenging one as well, but I did what I could, and I could really feel the stretches in the right places. Dawn offered her little head massages again too.

I sold a small handful of books, but it was hard to properly promote them as well as get involved. Thanks to those who supported me though, it was super appreciated <3

I decided to leave quietly, as I hate goodbyes, and I’d had such a good time, I was emotional it was ending. I said goodbye to Liza but that was it! Everyone else I was so glad to meet you <3

Thanks to all the speakers and yoga teachers who contributed to the content over the weekend too:

I hope the Yoga festival happens again, I’d recommend it to anyone wanting to learn more about yoga, and looking for different types of yoga that they might be less familiar with.

And finally, Thanks Lisa, for having faith in me to deliver a talk confidently on a stage, that’s a huge win for 2024 for me <3