Jude MacDonald from North Uist is taking care of our island minds and bodies through her yoga classes and detox retreats. Like many others, it wasn’t always so for her though.

After some time away travelling and working, she began attending yoga classes in Glasgow. Hooked on the yoga high, a penniless Jude decided to book a flight to Los Angeles to expand her yoga practice and do her Bikram Yoga Teacher Training. This is a 9 week intense training regime, living and breathing Bikram Yoga. Jude has continued to achieve certification in different styles of Yoga and holistic healing to add to her art. She is now also trained in Hot Vinyasa Flow, Yin Yoga, Pre & Post Natal, Mum & Baby Yoga as well as Children’s Yoga. She is also a qualified Reiki Practitioner.

As a teenager I went off the rails for a bit. I very quickly dropped away from sport and started partying a lot, and putting on a load of weight. But then one day I found this Yoga DVD. It was just in a house that we were living in at the time – now I’ve gone down the yoga rabbithole. I enjoy being taught things with the body and I can easily absorb what I’m being told. I can adapt it, feel it, get it and understand it.

Well, if there’s a hole to fall into, Jude surely chose the right one.

The DVD was by this old lady and it was by chance that I found it. I’ve realised since that the yoga technique I learned back then was quite advanced, it’s called Angi Sara. It’s when you’re working with your stomach and holding the breath out, sucking the belly in and rippling the belly to make it work with your digestive system.

Jude strongly believes that yoga and meditation can transform your life and that it’s an essential tool to do a 180 on your unhealthy habits.

Yoga can tackle degenerative habits naturally. My life changed as a result and I was able to go from strength to strength.

It was slow progress for me, but when I got into it I really got into it in a big way. Then I started to realise the mental side of it, which was then a whole other world. I smoked from the age of 15 to 25 and then suddenly with yoga I was able to have a different perspective of my body and my health. I got an honours degree at university, I sorted out my debt and it helped to bring more integrity to my relationships, I feel.

While living in Glasgow, Jude was working in a job helping homeless people. A noble cause, you might think, but in her mind she wasn’t making a difference or having an effective impact in other people’s lives.

When you talk about life, you’re just reliving experiences and traumas.

I didn’t really feel like I was helping anyone in that job. I was working in homelessness and I realised that I just really want to be able to teach yoga. That is really what’s empowering, not sitting talking about problems, I didn’t feel like I was really achieving anything there.

In the night shift I would sit with women in the middle of the night and do meditations. These were people who were going through extreme circumstances and their lives were riddled with raw realities. I would do exercises off the cuff because it felt like the most appropriate thing to do at the time. I realised then that teaching yoga was what I really wanted to do, that was how I could really help people.

You might ask, what actually is the power of yoga? How does it really transform your mindset? and what is it doing to you that makes it so effective? Well, I did ask, and luckily for us, Jude is here with the answer.

The breath is the bridge between the mind, the body and the spirit. 

The techniques that you’re using are designed to detach you from the things that are not for you. So, degenerative habits, bad relationships and the things that we do because of it being part of our culture that we don’t question can change.

As Jude says, yoga can effectively change your habits. It’s an art where people start to become very in tune with themselves; maybe they’ll decide to eat better, or stop smoking, or break-up with a person. Suddenly something can change from within.

Sometimes it’s good to have a pen and paper with you while you’re doing yoga because it brings lightbulb moments which you might forget, especially if you don’t come back to a class for a while.

You get so many lightbulb moments. The breath is the foundation of the practice and it gives you a deeper insight into yourself. It’s good for you and fine-tunes your body. It’s not about being fast or reaching a level of strength. It works on a subconscious level which a lot of things don’t and you’re accessing a different energy in the body.

People may think that a yoga class is an exercise class, but no it’s not, it’s more than that. It’s the breathing techniques you do while you’re doing the poses that are really effective in getting you into an elevated mental state and improving your fitness.

In this age of distraction and being busy, people’s attention tends to be elsewhere and their lives are very busy, but Jude says that taking that time to look inward is very powerful and very poignant.These practises encourage you to connect to yourself and no one else, giving you a chance to focus, unplug from your phone and the outside world.

To add to another string to her bow, Jude has recently started training in Ayurveda, the science of life. It’s the Indian ancient knowledge of healing and preventative medicine and she is launching a new year long course on her menu of retreats. This course will combat the new normal habits of staying up late, eating badly and mistreating your body and mind. The techniques she is promoting are really simple but combined they can bring the body into a healing mode.

I’m starting a transformational guided Year Journey with “Club Rise”. It’s a Year package. I am using the same model as Cate Stillman, thought leader and author of “Uninflamed”, “Body Thrive” and “Master of You”. She has been leading Guided Transformational Year journey’s successfully since 2007. It is now a Global movement and I am now part of her Thrive Community training as a Yoga Health Coach. These methods via the primal habits are extremely effective in reversing symptoms of chronic disease and eliminating pain.

It’s all about getting people to the root of the problem and helping people to heal from inflammation which is the root of all illness and serious disease. So, it’s about tackling the effects of modern society, head on. A lot of the things which are part of our day-to-day lives, stress is part of the norm these days.

At first glance, this year-long course which includes detoxing, mindfulness, meditation, reiki and of course yoga, might seem daunting and difficult but Jude will be doing all the thinking and planning, holding her participants hands through the process of this club.

Trying to make it as affordable as possible. The best fit for the club are the people who don’t think they can actually do it. The people who are suffering in silence and have pain, a diagnosis or mental health issues.

Advertising is not my strong point at all so I’m trying to find ways to reach out to people and I know it will work, so I’m very excited.

I’m trying to give people confidence, to those who are really in pain or struggling and have never had the chance to truly invest in themselves. I suppose it’s just building trust so that people can believe in me, until they can believe in themselves. I’ll believe in them until they believe in themselves. 

For anybody that is wanting to start off and introduce yoga into their lives, Jude recommends to begin with the breath. Try some breathwork and just don’t put it off, even if you just start with 5 minutes.

Don’t feel intimidated and always go back. Don’t assume that anything is too hard and don’t feel too intimidated to give it a go. We define ourselves at the edge of our comfort zone. I put a lot of energy into the people who show up for my classes and I try to make sure that they understand what we’re trying to do with the body.

Jude also offers online zoom and has some videos that she can send people to kick-start or continue their yoga practice.

I try to simplify things so people can learn fast.

When you work with people who come to a yoga class, these are people that have already decided that they want to change or that they want to do something. There’s nothing more disheartening than helping someone who doesn’t want to help themselves. Still rather than talking, I’d rather do breathing exercises to get out of the prefrontal cortex and get into the subconscious mind.

To learn more about the retreats, classes and year long club that Jude is offering, you can follow these links and get involved.

Yoga is very provocative, it’s major. It’s good for you, for being good at being you, which is a different thing for everyone – it’s about connecting with yourself and becoming empowered.

Yoga is for everyone.

Namaste!