Kat Bennett: Yoga Teacher

What brought you to yoga?
I wanted to do some form of exercise that wasn’t competitive, and had mental and emotional benefits, as well as physical. I had first started doing yoga classes in 2006 when I was in Year 12 as my friends and I were looking to have study breaks that would also help us with managing stress in the lead up to completing Year 12 exams.

What made you stay? 
Unlike going to the gym, heading off to yoga never feels like a chore, it is an activity I ‘get’ to do. I also love that yoga can be a solitary and individual practice, but also, it can be a very grounding and connecting practice. Feeling the collective energy and enthusiasm in a class is soooooooooo inspiring, motivating and comforting.

What is the best part of being in the Green Room community?
The people! The absolute legends I have been so very lucky to share my yoga journey with.

I completed my level 1 training in 2014, as well as kids yoga teacher training soon after. Kids yoga is always one of the highlights of my week!  They create never seen before yoga poses, turn everything into a dance move and don’t take themselves too seriously.They are my kind of people!

When you’re not bending and sweating, what do you like to do?
Plotting various excuses to sleep in, waiting for the sky to pour down rain so I can get to dance in it, stopping traffic to run after stray dogs (the reason I have been late to many yoga classes), lobbying Nutrition Australia to add guacamole as a food group and making up dance routines with my miniature sausage dog to hits of the 80s and 90s.

What is your sound track to life?
I am currently listening to my most played playlist and it consists of Celine Dion, Kanye West, Active Child, Ace of Base, the Beatles, Lady Gaga, Rod Stewart, Karnivool, Taylor Swift…. I always have tunes playing either on my speakers, headphones or singing/dancing to myself. My dream is to attend a school like in Glee where it’s totally normal to break out in synchronised dance routines in the playground.

What is your fav word?
I say ‘actually’ and ‘seriously’ like an American teenage girl allll the time. I also say ‘mmm it is interesting to note…’  and ‘jolly good show’ more than the average person should normally say in a day, unless you are an old English explorer, in which case it is fine to use these phrases every day. I lovvvve the Sanskrit word Isvara pranidhana, meaning surrender. While on the mat, I practise this by being mindful not to let my own criticisms or judgements cloud a pose.  I work on putting those thoughts aside, and cultivating the willingness to just trust in the cues and in my body, that my yoga practice will be what ever it will be that day, and that is just what my body and mind need right now. This is something I try and practise just as much off the mat as well!

What has been the major turning point in your life?
My time in Mexico studying in 2013 rocked my socks off. Not only did I learn one can survive and thrive off tacos for breakfast, lunch and dinner, but being so out of my comfort zone, opened up so many new possibilities for me. Finding peace traveling alone, living in a share house with 7 other girls and 6 Mexican guys, and sharing all this with them was incredible.  In Mexico, they honour their past, but the focus is on the present, in the now. They are so humble, content and always see the positives, a pretty beautiful outlook on life!

Hidden skill?
I make the best chook noises ever, like chooks actually respond to me I am that articulate.