OM meets...
Gemma Williams
This issue’s cover model is Gemma Williams, an independent soul seeker and experienced yoga teacher trainer based in the southwest of England. Here, she talks to OM about how yoga can help us to live our most pure, authentic lives in the face of societal pressures that want to take us away from who we truly are
How did you first get into yoga?
I was 16 years old when I started yoga classes at my local leisure centre. I have no recollection of why I felt the need to go. Maybe a past life called me there!
What inspired you in those early days?
It was an inner journey. As a child, I remember lying awake at night contemplating the infinite universe and why we are here, and that has never gone away. After university, I felt I had done what society expected of me but the examples of living I had seen didn’t resonate. So I left the country and went travelling on my own for a few years. Whenever I came across a yoga class, I went. I would busk, playing guitar on the street, or work in hostels to make the money to go to class. I went to many different yoga classes and teachers and read endless spiritual books. I attended vipassana and completed my yoga teacher trainings in India. It didn’t really feel like something inspired me, it was more my mind continually searching to make sense of this reality.
What style do you practice today?
In 2020, I moved from Brighton to the southwest of England. I went from living in a yoga hub to living out in the sticks, which means I self-practice at home — something I never thought I could do, but I’m still going! I practice Ashtanga, Yin, meditation and Yoga Nidra regularly.
What does yoga give you personally?
Asana grounds me and brings me back home to myself. Yoga aligns my mind, body and spirit so they are not experienced as separate, so that I can live in the wonder of all that is. Yoga helps me understand and unpick my conditioning so that I can move towards a life of freedom, joy and peace. Yoga keeps me humble.
Any yoga highlights after so many years on the mat?
For me, the asanas have been my most transformational practice and help me to cultivate a meditative state. Continually practicing self-enquiry and discernment helps me to break down the illusions of my mind so I can live this human experience with more awareness and presence. As the ‘veil’ creeps away, or temporally shifts, the physical doesn’t seem so real. Time on the mat feels like life-force flowing through me as the physical becomes lighter and malleable. Breath, bandha and vinyasa cultivating freedom.
How would you describe your own teaching style?
When teaching yoga I care about staying true to the core of yoga philosophy, whilst weaving in modern life experience. I have a background in other healing modalities, body work therapies and personal training, and this comes through in my teachings. I teach a slow integrated vinyasa style, breaking down functional movements. I also love teaching Yin and meditation. I continually give options and modifications and use language to enable the student to choose what is best for their body today — mentally, emotionally, energetically and physically. I believe when we honour our own needs we develop our inner trust and can be open to new experiences, on and off the mat. It is important to me to create a safe, welcoming, inclusive, non-judgemental space.
Three words to describe your classes?
Grounded, empowering, fun!
How do you want people to feel after a class?
My intention for my classes is to bring students back home to themselves, away from overthinking, back to the truth of who they are. If they can connect with their breath, if they are able to find some stillness in Savasana or experience a moment of being, my heart is happy. For me, yoga is about being with what is, so I would want them to feel whatever is true for them in that moment.
Any favourite yoga teachers or studios?
As I mentioned before I’ve been a bit of a loner in my yoga journey, travelling alone, and not really dedicating myself to one yoga lineage or teacher. I had resistance to putting my trust into one teacher, as the philosophy and teachings are so vast. And then in 2017 I kept dreaming about Astanga Mysore practice. After a month of Mysore showing up in my dreams, I signed up to Brighton Natural Health Centre’s Mysore programme and committed to a daily practice there. I had already been practicing Astanga for many years, but alongside hot yoga, Iyengar, Yin and even training at the gym (I was a personal trainer for a few years). As soon as I started Mysore something shifted in my practice for the first time. Arriving at 6.15am every morning on my bike, sometimes cycling through the snow along Brighton beach, it felt like we were spiritual warriors. Showing up, no matter what, with just the sound of our Ujjayi breath, purging our conditioning and meeting our resistance. Sarah Miles was the first teacher I put my trust in and I found Mysore to be a powerful transformational practice. Sarah Miles and Kathryn Duckenfield are still running their Mysore programme at Astanga Yoga Brighton. Their dedication to their practice, and their students, are a big inspiration! On days when I’m finding it hard in my practice at home, I connect back to my time with them and it pulls me through.
“Yoga aligns my mind, body and spirit so they are not experienced as separate, so that I can live in the wonder of all that is.”
Tell us about your teacher training school?
I was teaching yoga in Brighton and two yoga schools there asked me to work on their yoga teacher training programmes. After a couple of years, I found the confidence to start my own training school. I ran my first teacher training in Thailand, because…why not? But that was before covid. I now run yoga teacher trainings in Devon and Cornwall. I choose beautiful locations in nature so students can go deeper into the yoga experience.
What’s the ethos behind your school?
For me, the process of learning more about yoga, and teaching it, is about understanding yourself. So, the school’s focus is about the student’s journey. The yogic practices and philosophy are the tools and structures yoga provides to go deeper within, overcome limiting beliefs and move closer towards truth and freedom. Gem Yoga trainings blend the sacred and the practical, supporting teachers with their sadhana (practice) while also helping them create aligned, sustainable yoga careers.
What can people expect from your teacher trainings?
The students and I always say it is so hard to put the teacher training experience into words. Students sign up for a certificate to learn how to teach yoga. They finish the course realising yoga is nothing about how good you are at an asana! A yoga teacher training is an invitation to go deeper into yourself, to unpick past conditioning and to have space to reflect. This is not easy, but it is transformational, cultivating inner strength and power to live a life that is more aligned and truer to you. This is done through a journey of practice, studying yoga philosophy and reflecting on dharma, away from the distractions of everyday life.
What are your yoga and teaching plans going forward?
I currently offer 40hr Yin, 200hr foundational and 300hr advanced teacher training. I also offer mentoring to support yoga teachers in business. Many students complete their 200hr teacher training qualification but are then lost in how to implement that into supporting themselves financially whilst living their dharma. I created the Soul-Aligned Yogi Membership, a mentorship scheme for yoga teachers specifically to help them thrive in business, cultivate their offerings and live a life of abundance and flow. I am passionate about my mentoring programmes as I would have loved to have something like this available to me in the past, to overcome lack of confidence, lack of self-belief and understand how to run a successful business. I also offer 1:1 yoga business coaching for high-level support. One day, I wish to have my own yoga studio somewhere beautiful in nature, a healing space for yogis to gather.
“My intention is to bring students back home to themselves, back to the truth of who they are. If they can connect with their breath, if they are able to find some stillness in Savasana or experience a moment of being, my heart is happy.”
What do you do when you're not doing yoga or working?
I love being in nature, walking, running, swimming and chilling! I regularly journal and create sacred space for ceremony and connection to the land and my soul’s path. I play guitar, piano and write songs, which I often share in my classes.
Any tips or life hacks for incorporating yoga into daily life?
A regular daily practice on your mat is amazing, but due to life responsibilities that is not always possible. You can listen to mantras whilst washing up. You can listen to yoga philosophy books or yogi podcasts whilst cleaning or driving. You can turn making a meal and eating into a sacred activity, by honouring and blessing the food. You can practice Yin yoga or listen to guided meditations in bed. And lastly, you can practice ahimsa (non harm), which I feel is the most important part of our practice and happens to be the first mentioned in the eight limbs. On the days when you don’t manage to practice, you can always practice ahimsa, showing compassion to yourself for not making it to the mat — then you are still practicing yoga!
What would you say to people who feel they can't do yoga because they’re not in shape, too old, or too inflexible?
Yoga practice can look like so many things. One part can look like throwing shapes on a mat. Yoga is not about how good those shapes are, but how you are ‘being’ in the shapes. Yoga practice can also look like meditation (sitting or lying), breathing practices, singing healing mantras or dancing at a community Kirtan (singing a mantra together with Indian musical instruments). We’re not here for long! The practice of yoga is about aligning mind, body and soul so that we can live our best lives with the time we have on this planet. I often share about my Grandad — always cycling and walking, now in his late 80’s. When he’s on his own in nature he is so present, humming and taking everything in. I think that’s a beautiful yoga practice.
Quick Q&A
Favourite yoga or spiritual book?
The Untethered Soul. I love Michael
Singer’s work!
Go-to health drink?
Hot Cacao
Favourite quote?
Favourite quote?
"Attachment to the world makes it seem
real, while detachment makes it a
wondrous play.” — Amachi
Favourite yoga pose and why?
Savasana, after a strong Astanga
practice — pure bliss!
If you could take a class as a student with any teacher from anywhere and from any period of time (now or in the distant past) who would it be with and why?
Tirumalai Krishnamacharya —
he seems like a dude!
Find out more about Gemma Williams at: gemyoga.co.uk or connect on social media (Facebook and Instagram) @gemyogateachertraining and on Youtube @GemmaWilliamsGemYoga
Om Magazine
First published in November 2009, OM Yoga magazine has become the most popular yoga title in the UK. Available from all major supermarkets, independents and newsstands across the UK. Also available on all digital platforms.
