Swiss Alps - Yoga Teacher

Michelle Riordan

Hi! My name is Michelle and I'm really looking forward to meeting you at The Little Yoga Cottage. I'm the co-founder of Yogatraveller and this is the combination of all the skills and experience we have gained running retreats and yoga holidays all over the world. We've settled back on home ground after many years of travel and living abroad and are delighted to offer yoga weekends at our own little retreat centre in one of the most beautiful places in the world. The Little Yoga Cottage is the culmination of all of my yoga, mediation and food passions over the past 12 years of my life and I'm excited to share it all with you!

I've been practicing yoga for 12 years and teaching full-time for the last 5 of these. I trained initially at the Sivananda Ashram in the Himalayas, India, and have continued to learn and grow, working at the Health Oasis Yoga and Detox Centre on Koh Samui, Thailand, then studying teacher training in Galway, Ireland with Carol Murphy of Green Lotus Yoga.

My style is grounded in the Kristyamacharya lineage with influences of Iyengar, Ashtanga and classical Hatha. I have completed the Level II Anusara Immersion and has been fortunate enough to have attended workshops from some of the world’s greatest yoga teachers, who have all inspired my own style of teaching.

My teaching style is friendly, informative, challenging and fun. I teach Hatha, Vinyasa, Yoga Therapy, Restorative, Yin Yoga and meditation and can offer different classes to suit different needs and levels. My morning classes are more dynamic with a strong focus on standing postures and alignment, focusing on hand and foot positions, and allowing the natural intelligence of the body to build strength and flexibility.

On a physical level, we work through the main areas of yoga: Warm-ups, sun salutations, standing poses, sitting poses, hip openers, twists, core work, balances, back-bends, inversions, warm-downs and savasana. With only small groups, I am able to tailor the classes to each level focusing and observing each student in the capacity of strengths, weaknesses and limitations. It can really help your practice to have someone assess areas to work on, and tips for getting the most of your body type, which isn't always possible in a busy studio environment.

There is a strong focus on breath-work in my classes, and I encourage students to find the ease and flow in all their postures, whether holding a standing posture for a long time, breathing into a sitting hip opener or jumping through sunsalutes. You will be guided to tune into your energetic body and to explore what it is you need in your practice, to balance you on all levels. I encourage students to find the softness in the postures, and that even when we are working really hard, with grace, flow and ease, we can achieve more, not just physically, but by allowing the work to seep deep into our mental, emotional and spiritual planes. 

My afternoon classes really allow us to travel deep into the body, and give us the opportunity to tune in with what's going on with our bodies, mind and emotions. We use the breath and a strong sense of self-awareness to generate prana; allowing us to work through physical and emotional blocks to let this life-energy to flow through us freely. We use these classes to explore the Yin side of yoga, the softer, more feminine side. Sometimes the work we do in the afternoon classes can have a far more profound effect than the stronger, more Yang based morning practice.

I have been teaching for years and have taught many different things. I have taught children in school, English as a second language to adults in Hong Kong, Scuba Diving in many many remote places around the world and yoga at all our Yogatraveller destinations. I love meeting people and love to get to know guests on my yoga retreats. I have trained in Buddhist meditation and have undergone other meditation trainings too.

Besides yoga, I love to surf, dive, snowboard and hike, I love reading and writing, and one of my particular interests is in food. I love cooking and preparing raw food and especially enjoy serving people tasty, delicious and yet healthy food on my retreats.

One of my greatest interests is travel and I have lived and worked in countries all over the world, including many parts of Asia, Africa and Europe and I have travelled to many other far-flung places, some of which my family have never heard of! I am married to Michael, co-founder of Yogatraveller and together with our 2 year old son we are settled on the West of Ireland and are currently expecting our second child.