01
After a loss, a change, or a long season of putting yourself last. Beginning again is its own kind of strength — and Poonam has done it herself.
Most women who come to Poonam are not looking for a workout. They are looking for something that is theirs again.
“I used to be someone who looked after herself.”
Somewhere between work, family and everything else, the hour you kept for yourself quietly disappeared.
“I don't recognise my own body any more.”
After a birth, an illness, a decade at a desk, or simply time. Nothing dramatic, just unfamiliar.
“I've started things before and stopped.”
Gym memberships, apps, a mat in the cupboard. Starting was never the problem.
“Everything changed and I'm rebuilding.”
A separation, a bereavement, a move, a job gone. You are putting a life back together and need one thing that is steady.
Poonam rebuilt her own life after thirteen years in London ended in loss and a return to India. Yoga was not exercise to her; it was the way back. That is the difference between being taught and being understood.
Most women start with the morning class. Some prefer to build confidence one-to-one first, then join.
Nobody transforms in a fortnight. But most people notice something sooner than they expect.
The first week is about getting there, not getting it right. Expect to feel a bit lost and a bit stiff. Both are normal.
Pranayama stops feeling like an odd beginning and starts feeling like the reason you came. Most people notice sleep first.
Poses you could not hold, you hold. Stairs feel different. People usually notice the confidence before they notice the strength.
You do not need to be ready. You do not need to be flexible, fit, or sure this is for you. Poonam has taught enough women who arrived unconvinced to know that the deciding usually happens after the first session, not before it.
Where you are. Poonam builds the first few sessions around what your body can do now, not what it could do before. Most women who come to her are restarting rather than continuing, so this is the ordinary case, not the exception.
No. That is the thing practice builds, not the thing it asks for. If either were a requirement, almost nobody would ever begin.
Group classes are mixed. If practising among women matters to you, say so when you message — one-to-one sessions are private, and Poonam can tell you what the current group looks like.
Nearly everyone arrives thinking this. Sessions are adapted person by person rather than run to one pace, so what you are doing on your mat is yours. Nobody is watching.
Twice a week is the honest minimum for noticing change; three is better. Most people feel something in their sleep before they see anything in their body.
Then you stop, and you start again later. Life interrupts practice — that is not failure, it is just what practice looks like over years rather than weeks.
Message Poonam and tell her where you are. She has heard it before, and she will tell you honestly where to start.
