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Life Lessons: Cheryl Parsons, yoga instructor

Cheryl Parsons moved to Dubai from the UK in March 2005. After working as a radio news presenter for three years, she decided to become a yoga instructor. Since completing her training in India in 2008, Parsons has been teaching with Dubai’s Zen Yoga studio

Be present. For so much of the day, our minds run a seemingly incessant race between the past and the future. We stress over imagined scenarios and dwell on awkward events to such an extent that it is amazing we get any work done at all. Yoga has really helped me to calm this “chitta vriti” or mental chatter, or at least learn to turn it down a frequency. So today, why not stop and smell the roses? Be mindful of this moment because it will pass, and if your mind is somewhere else, you will not have lived it.

Variety is the spice of life. Through my job at Zen Yoga, I have had the pleasure of teaching so many different people from a range of backgrounds. From golfers to runners, injury recovery patients to pregnant mums, every person presents a fresh challenge. I try to count myself lucky, regularly, that I have this opportunity to live and work in such a cultural and social melting pot.

Just breathe. The breath is the biggest indicator of how we are feeling at any given moment. The marriage of breath, mind and body is also at the heart of yoga. So next time someone cuts you off on the Sheikh Zayed Road or a red light threatens to make you late, try to tap into the simple power of your breath. After a few deep breaths, I find it easier to act rationally rather than react.

The impossible is always possible. If I had a dirham for every time a new student said to me: (a) I’m not very flexible or (b) I’m not very strong, then I would probably be a very rich woman. Yoga has taught me to see the seemingly impossible as achievable. It just takes determination, patience and practice. Whether it is being able to do a difficult yoga pose or kick-start a new business, the journey towards the “challenge” can also be half the fun if we allow ourselves to enjoy and learn from the ride.

Laughter really is the best medicine. Since starting yoga I think I have fallen over more times than I ever did as a child. Whether it is face planting on the floor during a new arm balance or toppling over in a handstand, I have learnt to pick myself up, dust myself off, and start all over again, and most importantly, to laugh and enjoy my efforts. I also try to do this off the mat, approaching challenges with a playful rather than serious spirit.

 

As told to Helena Frith Powell

Helena Frith Powell was born in Sweden to a Swedish mother and Italian father, but grew up mainly in England. She is the author of eleven books, translated into several languages including Chinese and Russian. She wrote the French Mistress column The Sunday Times about life in France for several years. She is a regular contributor to the Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday, The Times, Daily Telegraph, Tatler Magazine and Harper’s Bazaar.

Helena has been the editor of four magazines, including M Magazine, a supplement for the Abu Dhabi-based National Newspaper and FIVE, a high-end fashion glossy, also published in Abu Dhabi. Helena was also editor-in-chief of 360 Life, a quarterly glossy magazine published with the Sports 360 Newspaper in Dubai, part of the Chalhoub Group.

Helena contributes regularly to UK-based newspapers and magazines and holds a Masters in Creative Writing from the University of Cambridge. She is working on a thriller set in Sweden as well as a novel about the relationship between Virginia Woolf and Katherine Mansfield called Sense of an Echo.

In 2022 her short story The Japanese Gardener came second in the Fish Publishing Short Story Prize. One of her stories was also shortlisted for the Bridport Short Story Prize. When she’s not writing, she works as a headhunter for the media and entertainment industry for the Sucherman Group. 

Helena, who was educated at Durham University, lives in the Languedoc region of France with her husband Rupert and their three children.

Bibliography

More France Please, we’re British; Gibson Square 2004

Two Lipsticks and a Lover 2005; Gibson Square (hardback)

All You Need to be Impossibly French; (US version of above) Penguin 2006

Two Lipsticks and a Lover; Arrow Books (paperback) 2007

Ciao Bella Gibson Square; (hardback) 2006

Ciao Bella Gibson Square; (paperback) 2007

So Chic! (French version of Two Lipsticks) Leduc Editions 2008 (also translated into Chinese, Russian and Thai)

More, More France; Gibson Square 2009

To Hell in High Heels; Arrow Books 2009 (also translated into Polish)

The Viva Mayr Diet; Harper Collins 2009

Love in a Warm Climate; Gibson Square 2011

The Ex-Factor; Gibson Square 2013

Smart Women Don’t Get Wrinkles; Gibson Square 2016

The Arnolfini Marriage; Amazon Kindle December 2016

Smart Women Don’t Get Wrinkles (paperback); Gibson Square spring 2018

The Longest Night; Gibson Square spring 2019

 

 

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