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‘[In reference to a houseplant] You don’t put off watering it until it shows signs of needing water, that’s the same with your mental health. Even if you don’t feel like you’re suffering right now, there are still really important things you can do in your day-to-day life to support yourself and prevent yourself from getting a burnout. You shouldn’t feel bad for wanting to take some time off to focus on your mental health… You can’t give from an empty basket, and I always see yoga as a way to refill mine.’

Sabrina was no stranger to yoga, exposed to it at a young age as her mum is yoga instructor,

'It's something that formed a really nice bond between me and my mum - I saw how much she enjoys that and all the benefits she is enjoying because of that. There was never a pressure to make me join her, I feel like a lot of yoga is like that, you know, you shouldn’t feel pressured to do it. Yoga isn’t something ‘I have to’ do everyday, I’m not being forced but I have it there, it’s something I want to do.  It’s become a feeling of home to me especially during this time of lockdown and being isolated from family and loved ones it’s been comforting to come back to myself, this familiar place I know that is on my mat.'

From practicing as a child to helping through major life events, she recalled how yoga helped her get through a major abdominal surgery. A particularly tough time.

'They had to make a cut through my abdomen. I was told that life would take a bit of a pause for about a year after that. I remember sitting in my hospital bed just being so frustrated with the fact that I couldn’t do a chaturanga or a downward dog without being in pain, that I had lost all of that muscle in my abdomen, all of that physical strength that took me years to build.’

It wasn’t until later then she realized that, while she might have lost much of the physical capacity she had gained through yoga over the years, the mental strength she had managed to build was still there.

'I remember saying to myself, "Sabrina, you’ve got all these other things, not just physical strength, in your little toolkit to use to get through this time."’

She reflected that this was a turning point of her yoga journey , ‘Mental over physical strength any day for this practice!’, she laughed. 

Sabrina also thought back to a time when she was at a yoga-festival a couple years prior to the surgery, where Chelsey Korus was teaching. ‘She would move us into a pose, and it would be one of the poses you get into and you’re like, “argh this is so uncomfortable…!” - It’s not painful, but uncomfortable - and you’re like, “I can’t wait for the yoga teacher to be like, move!” You just want to move out.

But I loved the way that Chelsey related it to times in our life that are uncomfortable. She said, this is exactly like when we are going through one point in our life that we are really resisting, that we can’t wait to get out of. She said, “Now it’s like this.”

Those words, “now it’s like this”, have become so comforting to me...It is comforting to know that “now it’s like this”, that the discomfort won’t last forever, that life will move on.’

She paused…

‘I remember rereading that post from that festival in the hospital bed, and I was like, “Sabrina, now it’s like this. It won’t be uncomfortable forever.”’

Sabrina went on to explain that she likes to compare mental health to houseplant: ‘You don’t put off watering it until it shows signs of needing water, that’s the same with your mental health. Even if you don’t feel like you’re suffering right now, there are still really important things you can do in your day-to-day life to support yourself and prevent yourself from getting a burnout. You shouldn’t feel bad for wanting to take some time off to focus on your mental health… You can’t give from an empty basket, and I always see yoga as a way to refill mine.’

'I love this safe space that we have created, how comforting it is to practice with everyone. There’s something quite beautiful about coming together to refill our baskets I always say, to watch people prioritize themselves even if it’s just for an hour, and it makes me really happy.'

Now she is able to share her love of yoga and mindfulness amongst LSHTMs student community.

 ‘I love being able to spend this time with other people from the course which has now extended to their family members, work colleagues, friends. I love this safe space that we have created, how comforting it is to practice with everyone. There’s something quite beautiful about coming together to refill our baskets I always say, to watch people prioritize themselves even if it’s just for an hour, and it makes me really happy.  Students coming to reach out for the classes has really fueled my purpose of being more open and advocating for mental health through movement.’

We caught up with some of the students to see how the classes have been helping them through this time and here's what they had to say:

'I really enjoy them, it’s a nice way to connect with people at uni whilst looking after your mental health. Sabrina has inspired me to start practicing yoga daily again and I feel so much better for it'

'I’ve found Sabrina’s openness about mental health in her yoga classes refreshing –  it's not something I have talked about or reflect on in the past, but it’s now something I try to make time for in small ways'

You can sign up to Sabrina's classes by emailing Sabrina.Page1@student.lshtm.ac.uk, and follow her yoga activity on Instragram: @yogisabs.