Tell us a bit about your background and your yoga journey…
I came to yoga through injury, not curiosity. At 18 I broke my back in a boating accident in Australia, and yoga was part of my rehabilitation. It helped me recover physically, but it did far more than that. I was dealing with depression and an eating disorder at the time, and yoga, alongside walking, hiking and wild swimming, became the thing that pulled me toward a healthier way of living. It was a slow rebuild, and nature was as much a part of that as the practice itself.
What inspired you to start Zest Life and how long have you been running retreats?
I've been running retreats since 2001, so 25 years now. Zest Life came directly out of my own recovery. I'd found a combination that worked: yoga, walking, good food, good people, beautiful places, cold water, and I wanted to build something that let other people experience that same shift, without having to go through what I did to find it. It started small and has grown, but the intention hasn't changed.
What is your mission with Zest Life?
To create calm, carefully held retreats that help guests feel safe, restored and reconnected through yoga, nature, movement and cold water. My own recovery taught me how powerful that combination is, and the mission is really about making that accessible to guests without it ever feeling overfilled, rushed or performative.
How is Zest Life different from other wellness spaces?
It's personal, built around real relationships rather than a fixed template. I'm still in the room, teaching, hosting, often cooking alongside the team. Guests eat with us, sharing the table as part of the group. We keep groups small, and every activity is curated to suit the guests actually on that retreat, rather than a fixed programme repeated regardless of who's in the room. The locations, like Plas Cadnant on Anglesey or the Lake District, are chosen with real care rather than picked for a photo. Because the brand came out of my own recovery rather than a business plan, the care behind it is genuine, and guests tend to feel that difference within the first few hours.
What advice would you give to someone who is thinking of starting to run their own yoga retreats?
Know why you're doing it before you worry about how it looks. The retreats that last are built on something real, your own experience, your own values, not on trends. Start smaller than feels ambitious. A tightly run weekend for 10 people teaches you more, and builds more trust, than a chaotic one for 30. And look after your own capacity from day one. You are what guests are booking, so protect that energy or you won't be able to sustain it.
Do you have a quote or mantra that you live by?
There's a piece by Rupi Kaur, from her book Milk and Honey, that I come back to again and again. It's about love mattering more than anything else, in the end none of the achievements, job titles or money matter, only who you loved, how deeply, and how you touched the people around you. That's the thread running through everything at Zest Life. At its heart, it's about love and connection, and giving people the space to remember that's what counts.
Find out more about Zest Life:
Enter our Prize Draw to win a retreat space with Zest Life - https://www.yogamatters.com/pages/30th-anniversary-prize-draw
