You know yoga is working for you when:

1. You don’t have tantrum when your usual teacher can’t teach your class and you don’t know the cover/substitute teacher.

2. Your usual spot in class has been taken and you don’t give the unsuspecting person in it the hairy eyeball.

3. You no longer clock watch when doing your 5th Sun Salutation.

4. You don’t notice your toenails need painting in Paschimottanasana.

5. You no longer try to keep pace with “Mr./Ms. Go-Fast” practicing next to you.

6. You can miss your yoga practice without berating yourself or sticking pins in your eyes.

7. You no longer flick the V sign when someone cuts you up on the way to class (or, at least, not on the way home).

8. You don’t leg it to the toilet when your most feared pose is coming up (pose runner).

9. You no longer think about what you’re cooking for dinner in Savasana.

10. Your body no longer aches when you practice yoga, it aches when you don’t.

Cherie Lathey is a London-based dynamic yoga teacher who has had more than 20 years experience in body work, both as a fitness trainer and a yoga teacher. She has travelled far and wide to practice yoga, from India to the Bahamas. She is Yoga Alliance accredited, having gained her yoga teaching qualification in San Francisco .She has studied yoga with Nancy Gigoff and David Swenson to name but a few….the journey continues. Cherie has a practical East meets West approach to yoga. She is a pre and postnatal yoga teacher and is the director of Yoga Mama and joint director of The Putney clinic in London. Email her at [email protected], and find her at her website, blog and on twitter.