Tirau yoga tutor’s twist of fate

Yoga has changed Tirau’s Thuy Pham.

The stress of a marriage breakup and adjusting to a foreign country took its toll on Pham. Months of insomnia led to mental and physical health problems.

At her wits end she found her saving grace in yoga.

Fast forward three years and Pham, who is originally from Vietnam, is now a qualified instructor and ready to meet the South Waikato’s growing demand for yoga. She opened her new studio, Yoga Body and Mind, at 17D Main Rd, Tirau on Monday.

She said yoga has transformed her life and she wants to help others improve their lives through it too.

‘‘I was breaking up with my husband, I couldn’t sleep for a long time and I had come from a place where they had eight million people straight to Tirau which at the time only had 900 so everything was a shock,’’ she said.

‘‘Through a year of practising yoga I improved my physical and mental health and became more peaceful and nice because of it.’’

She said for over a year she has been teaching yoga from her house which began as a way of helping women involved in Tirau’s The Biggest Loser weight loss programme. Demand has now outgrown space.

‘‘Many people from Putaruru and Tirau have had to go to Matamata and Cambridge because there has been nothing local,’’ she said.

‘‘For the last five months I’ve been having more and more people coming so I decided to move from my house to the studio so I could have more classes.’’

‘‘The more I’m teaching, the more I love it because I want to help others and with the new studio I’m now happy for more people to come in,’’ she said.

She said her clients are already seeing results.

‘‘After a few months of doing it they sleep better, are less stressed, and now know how to breath properly,’’ she said.

‘‘Yoga also helps you recover from other exercise as well and your body will be soft and your mind will be calm which people get a lot of benefit from.’’

She said yoga was for all ages and was particularly beneficial for older people. Her senior classes are done with chairs.

‘‘With older people it is about bringing them out of the house, working together, meeting other people, and caring about their health,’’ she said.

Tirau Fire chief Jim Phillips said Bhana’s car was hit after crossing the centre line.

‘‘The driver of the [northbound] vehicle was uninjured, but understandably shocked.’’

The road was closed for three hours following the crash, as both lanes were blocked by the vehicles and debris.

Phillips said that his crew had attended five crashes in the last two months. Two of them were fatal.

The New Zealand Transport Agency is planning short-term safety improvements this year on the nearby stretch of SH1 from the Cambridge section of the expressway to the SH1/29 intersection at Piarere.