Maggie & Yoga
Raised in Boston, Massachusetts, USA, Maggie O'Grady was drawn to yoga as a child, as her mother practiced yoga in the 1970s. A yoga practice became part of her daily routine in 1993, attending classes in West Africa, during her Peace Corps training.
Maggie went on to serve as Chief Executive of an international children’s rights organisation for ten years. Alongside this work, Maggie's yoga practice continued until she felt the need to share the benefits Iyengar Yoga brought to balancing her work and family life.
She teaches Iyengar Yoga mostly in London, UK (she has also taught in Bali, Italy, France, Thailand, Turkey, India and elsewhere in the UK) in the corporate sector (e.g., BP, Goldman Sachs, Rothschild, The Ned, JP Morgan) and privately. She teaches five weekly in person classes (at Arup, the Laboratory Spa, JP Morgan, at an artist’s studio in Primrose Hill). She assists Yoga Therapy Classes and is mentored by Patsy Sparksman at The Iyengar Yoga Studio. Her online classes on Monday, Tuesday and Friday are open to the public.
The yogic path is a way of life for her now. She is inspired by the teachings of Patanjali's 8 angas, which includes the continuous study of yogic philosophy, chanting, pranayama, focused attention to the present moment and meditation. She has visited India many times and has studied with many different teachers there. She visited Iyengar Headquarters in Pune, India, for the first time in 2017 and was fortunate to observe Geeta Iyengar teaching before her departure in 2018. She visited again in 2019, 2023 and is set to visit for the forth time in March 2025. She adores the early morning sessions with Prashant Iyengar.
Meditation has been an essential part of her daily routine since 2005 and has anchored her during the most difficult time of her life. She practiced Insight (or Vipassana) andother forms of meditation, mainly rooted in Buddhism, for many years before taking up Transcendental Meditation in 2014 to which she was drawn because it was closer to the same Vedic roots as Iyengar yoga. In 2016 she became an Independent Teacher of Transcendental Meditation. Her daily practice now feels much more integrated. Maggie spent the months of October 2017 & September 2019 and Febrruary 2023 in Pune India, studying at Iyengar Yoga HQ. She attends classes, workshops & conventions regularly with senior Iyengar teachers. She loves sharing her knowledge and experience with her students!
Maggie completed an MA in Traditions of Yoga and Meditation from University of London's SOAS in 2022. She sees the yoga path as a journey full of wonder and delight, and this enthusiasm is palpable in her yoga classes and meditation courses.
Maggie’s Plea: Give it a Go!
The Way Out of Suffering is Through the Body
In the West, most of us come to ‘yoga’ through asana, the third of Patanjali's Eight Limbs of Yoga. Here, we might catch glimpses of something deeper within ourselves. Many of us, at one time or another, thought of 'yoga' as these asanas that people do in the gym or yoga studio.
If we are curious enough, we give it a go and many of us recognise that it affects far more than our bodies! We might feel a sense of joy after a class or a sense of peace at the beginning of class if we chant three oms or bow our head to our heart or at the end of the class when we lie in Savasana and have a go at complete surrender.
For many of us, particularly those of us who overwork and overdo life, asana classes and workshops offer a reprieve from our busy lives.
At some point, we may realise that yoga is about more than these asanas, as gorgeous as they may be; it is a way of life, codified by the Indian sage Patanjali in the Yoga Sutras and other classical Yoga texts.