'Now, take a deep breath in and see if you can kick your leg higher than your neighbour' says the perky Australian Vinyasa Flow instructor in her Lululemon tank top and Spiritual Gangster leopard print leggings. I'm struggling here, and no, I cannot kick my leg out higher than my neighbour who is a lithe, taut Pixar Elastic Girl creature who has even managed to incorporate a reverse arm bind pose. I am out of my depth yet again.  But I also find myself asking why I should be comparing myself to my neighbour? Is the politics of yoga, and our own competitiveness at being good at it, getting in the way of why we're there in the first place?

Entering a studio brings with it a minefield of potential errors. It starts with where you sit: are you good enough to sit up front? Too far back and you look uncommitted, too close to the communal rental mats and you're in for the olfactory distraction of other people's stale sweat. And what is the optimum position to ensure you don't end up with someone's feet on your head during your corpse pose? Should you make the 'Om' sound if you don't know why you're doing it? These are questions that tormented me on my return to yoga after a protracted hiatus.

I speak to my yoga and meditation teacher Jane Kersel, who taught for some time at Triyoga and now runs her own practice, Ishy Shala amongst the leafy crescents of London's Holland Park. As always, (this woman is the most intuitive, astute and knowing human I've ever met) she sums it up in her exquisitely succinct way: 'for me the biggest stumbling block for a beginner is one of internal prejudice - what we already think and believe yoga is and how we aren't 'suited' to it. So many of my beginner clients ask if they can have a few private sessions first to 'get good before I come to the course'. It says a lot about the Western attitude to doing anything, one of having to get it right, compete, excel, be as good at or better than. Ultimately it's about the student finding the space to drop out of their ego, expectations, stuff they think they know and just explore possibilities.'

"So many of my beginner clients ask if they can have a few private sessions first to 'get good before I come to the course'. It says a lot about the Western attitude to doing anything" - Jane Kersel

I once read that if you truly need a guru in your life, they will find you. This is what happened to me with yoga. I moved to another country and came to discover a studio down the road. It was everything I needed - the combination of meditation, breath work and dynamic movements that has me sweating and pushing through what I believed were my personal boundaries, it gave me back strength that I had lost. And in spite of the concerns I used to have about where to sit, the depth and longevity of my ‘Om', my inability to do a full wheel pose or even sometimes touch my toes, I realise now that this is not the point at all. The more I practice, the more these concerns seem entirely superfluous. Every time that I practice, I'm moved out of my comfort zone physically, even if it is something as minor as bending a mere centimetre further than the day before.