Dublin-based yoga teacher swaps Alan Sugar’s Apprentice boardroom for Wellfest stage

WellFest is taking place at the Royal Hospital, Kilmainham next Saturday and Sunday. The festival is Europe’s largest outdoor health, fitness, and wellness festival – it will see over 150 health and wellness experts across 15 festival areas.

Maura Rath, who has her Yoga with Maura studio based in Dún Laoghaire, will be on the WellFest Main Stage and Well Yoga stand over the weekend.

Maura is known nationwide for her 'Sunrise Clubber' events and her online yoga classes. She has also been praised for creating an environment where everyone feels like part of the tribe, whether you're a seasoned yogi or a newbie.

Earlier this year, Maura introduced Alan Sugar to positivity and well-being. She wanted to make her business boom with the help of his investment. Just two months later, she’s back on home soil to share her knowledge of yoga with the people of Dublin.

"My career really kicked off with yoga in 2017, I was living abroad for a long time and then I found yoga,” she told the Irish Independent.

“I came from quite a corporate background. I went to India for a little bit of eat, pray, love and and found myself, found yoga.

“Then when I moved back to Ireland in 2017, I thought to myself that I'm not going back to an office. I'm going to find a way to make this work.”

Maura decided to leave the fast-paced business world for the calm world of yoga, and she hasn’t looked back since.

“Personally, I feel that we are all in that fight or flight mode so much,” she added.

“It’s our stress response because the world moves so fast and when we're not in work, we're on our phones scrolling. Our attention spans are on 10-second videos.

“I think yoga is more important than ever because it really helps us rest and helps our parasympathetic nervous system. We need yoga to help us get rid of anxiety, that's the mental side of it.

"It helps us just wind down. For me, it was a tool to be able to separate myself from work and home life.

“The more I got into it, I realised even how powerful it was. For me, yoga is a key part of the toolbox. Yoga means people coming together and it's a practice where I believe that there's a teacher for everyone.

“If people haven't enjoyed yoga, they possibly haven't found the right teacher for them. When I found the right teacher, it really shifted it for me.

"I feel that there's a yoga practice for everyone. If some people are dabbling in yoga and life gets in the way, they get busy and then they come back in a year and yoga welcomes you back always. You can dabble in and out of just even try out and see how you go.”

Maura says it doesn’t matter if it’s your first time doing yoga, anyone can do it and it’s not as hard as newcomers might think.

“The most common thing people say to me when they're starting yoga is that I can't even touch my toes. I say if you bend your knees then you'll be able to touch your toes.

“I'm not the most flexible person. The asanas, which are yoga postures, are only a very small part of yoga.

“Even just connect with your breath and be kind to yourself. I have an online studio so it can help you build a little bit of confidence at home before you do it in person.

"Sometimes it's a confidence thing that can hold us back. I think a lot of us don't like to be beginners. The advice for people would be just start, just give it a go, and see how you feel.”

Overall, Maura claims that yoga has fantastic long-term effects, especially for those who live a fast-paced life.

“Long term physically, it helps with injury prevention. It helps with keeping your muscles long and strong. Posture is such a big thing, we're on our phones all the time hunched. We're driving, we're in seated positions and sedentary jobs and just stretching out your spine, stretching out your muscles can just be so powerful for your flexibility, your injury prevention and even just building strength as well.

“I went to my first WellFest back in 2018. You can try so many teachers. I'm all about yoga, but I'll definitely be doing fitness classes myself and going to the talks.

“If you're not even into yoga, come and test it out, just enjoy the atmosphere and like-minded people.”