How yoga can help you to get through big life changes with Kat Farrants

Movement for Modern life founder Kat Farrants was a busy lawyer before a car accident forced her to slow down and change her outlook on life.

She says that her life before the accident was "frenetic" and that she lived for her holidays. "everything was all about planning for the future and some kind of amazing beach. And it had to be some crazy, adventurous or luxurious holiday, because life was pretty bad in the moment. It just wasn't. I just don't think I was there… I think I was absent for a decade or so of my life."

Although Kat practised yoga before her accident, it wasn't until afterwards that it began to be really important to her. "The car crash basically made me reevaluate yoga and my whole life," she says.

After the accident, she was immobilised for a long time and was unable to walk, but found herself thinking about going to yoga class all the time. As she recovered, she found that yoga made her feel better – both physically and mentally. Her injuries included cracked ribs and fractured vertebrae in her spine, so breathing was uncomfortable. Kat says practising yoga taught her how to breathe again. Practising yoga also helped her to focus on living in the moment – something she'd struggled with before the accident.

Her new appreciation for yoga eventually led her to found Movement for Modern Life when she realised that she wanted to help people fit yoga into their own lives, with access to inspiring teachers. Now the website offers thousands of classes, from short sessions to longer sessions.

In this episode, she reveals how yoga helped her to recover and gave her the tools to become more resilient. We talk about how we can use yoga to ease stress and find balance in our own lives, how to fit yoga into your daily routine and much more.

Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Acast or on your favourite podcast app. Alternatively you can listen online below.

This podcast is sponsored by Movement for Modern Life. For more information about their classes visit www.movementformodernlife.com. Don't forget to check out Kat's own podcast Champions of Change.

Kat Farrants was photographed by Karen Yeomans, specialist in Sports, Fitness, Health, Well-being and Yoga Photography. Based in London.