Q&A with Beppe Nightingale

Where are you from originally and where do you live now?

I am from London but live in Madrid since January 2020.

Please tell us about your story and why you do what you do.

Yoga is a lifestyle that came to me ... when a well known celebrity made a Yoga video in the 90's, it was a Christmas gift and for the next year it would be my regular practice. It wasn't long before I knew some names of the postures and sequences that I started attending classes. I'd meet some really interesting people, felt positively inspired by the teachers and found myself prioritising my practice. It felt good, and soon my friends wanted a piece of the action and asked me to teach them, though teaching others was something quite alien to me, so eventually I did a course to become a qualified Ashtanga-Vinyasa teacher. Yoga was a physical, emotional and spiritual practice that I gravitated to through disappointment and injury resulting in a calmness and temporary state of relief. The injury threw me off track, yoga saved me. From years of weight training in gyms and poor stretching, I'd lost my flexibility, and eventually my body called out for help and this started my journey to Yoga around 16 years ago. I wanted it back. With a degree in Psychology I've always had an interest in the human mind, being the student would help me, and teaching would help them. It's a self discipline ... From focused breathing and movements I am able to become completely present and be grateful for that moment. ​To maintain the best shape of the body and mind is Yoga, Yoga inspires fitness in different aspects for everyone, and I want to help people connect to that.

How do you look after your physical and mental health ?

Of course Yoga, but also listening to happy music, constantly learning (typically languages), exercise and open communication with my support network. I have a degree in Psychology and the power of communication is key, and for me, being able to communicate in 5 languages really works. I lived in Italy once, and I found that when I moved back to the UK I felt frustrated as I didn't know how to articulate the same way about certain things I had become used to in Italian - the fact is you can't so I had to find new ways to communicate. Languages also delay the onset of dementia by 5 years per additional language.

Tell us one of your life hacks.

Wearing leggings if you want to do arm balances in your practice - no more slippy-sweat problems!