Jeanette Price
25th November 1960 – 5th December 2023
Inner Yoga Trust teacher Jeanette Price sadly passed away on Tuesday 5th December.
I first met Jeanette when she attended one of my yoga classes in Windsor. She was new to yoga but started to come to class every week. After one session she stayed a little longer and asked how she could learn more. She could feel the positive effect yoga was instilling in her and she was curious to explore further.
I introduced Jeanette to the Inner Yoga Trust foundation course, run by Chris Wyeth, and she loved it. She graduated to teacher training, again run by Chris and assisted by me. We saw Janette flourish.
Yoga became a big part of Jeanette’s life, so much so that she decided to put her much loved golf clubs into storage and concentrate on her own practice and her teacher training.
Jeanette had her own hair dressing business and worked hard, sometimes too hard, as she admitted to us, and herself, during her teacher training. Jeanette was a fun, loyal and honest friend who will be missed by so many.
Lots of us will hold fond memories of this strong woman. I especially remember Jeanette singing and dancing on our last evening of the teacher training course. We laughed our socks off!
I was fortunate to visit Jeanette the day before she died. We chanted and hugged and I believe that small yoga practice helped her in her last hours.
Jeanette leaves behind her husband Mick, daughters Angela and Michelle and her one year old granddaughter Olivia who lit up Jeanette’s life over the last 12 months.
RIP Jeanette
Namaste
Lisa x
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It seems unbelievable that a year after Jeanette had qualified as a teacher on the IYT Diploma course we would be announcing her death from oesophageal cancer at 63 years of age.
Our thoughts and condolences are with her family and friends. They are much better placed than me to give a more intimate picture of Jeanette but nevertheless I will share some reflections in my role as her tutor
Jeanette was a student of Lisa Christensen and she joined the course (2018-2022) when her 60th birthday was on the horizon and she was considering making changes in her life.
She would often arrive at the retreat weekends feeling drained. The space away, silent reflection and yoga practice would help her reconnect to herself, unwind and allow her inner voice to be heard. The yoga, group support and close friendship of the group and her special ‘buddy’ became essential in this new journey she was undertaking.
Jeanette was constantly giving out to family especially. How much she loved them all was so clear. The family was her rock and she was everyone’s rock in return . She was the one relied on to bring everyone together for special occasions. She was a great organiser, planner and homemaker.
As well as this Jeanette was also a mobile hairdresser with a thriving business but it was starting to take its toll on her especially as she had to do so much driving in the London area (she lived in Farnham Royal).
Her elderly clients were very fond of her and hairdressing was an outlet for her to share her friendly, kind nature. She was trustworthy, supportive and an understanding presence in their lives. It was going to be a wrench for her and them whenever she decided to cut her hours.
This capable and quietly confident person that she became had its roots in the challenges experienced in childhood when she suffered speech difficulties . She was hard of hearing during her entire life and also had asthma. She must have experienced many difficulties and misunderstanding about her capabilities when young at school. Rooms full of people and yoga group discussions and practice were not ideal for Jeanette’s condition. I am so grateful to her for all her patient advice and guidance on what she needed in these settings although I often felt I failed her.
How often in her life she must have felt marginalised and unable to participate but Jeanette had other preferred ways of communicating- small groups, one to ones, and above all acting and creativity.
She produced a colourful banner on the Chakra weekend showing where her energy was focused on love, family and friends and caring for the environment.
Her presentations on the Bhagavad Gita and the Upanishads were full of humour, instructive and grounded in day to day language and imagery. Like the best of teachers her manner stimulated much discussion afterwards.
I also admired in her the quiet inner confidence she developed as a yoga teacher. She always seemed unfazed when she had to stand in front of the class to teach yoga and receive feedback. She took it all in her stride. Her teaching was clear, uncluttered and without ego. Jeanette started her own classes during the week and was looking forward to doing more teaching and a bit less hairdressing.
I was in awe of her when she told us that prior to our final weekend at Monkton Wyld she had completed a marathon night walk. A few months later her illness was diagnosed as terminal.
I feel how fortunate it was that Jeanette came on the very last course. The timing was just right . Out of it came greater insight into her needs and where some attachments were no longer serving her in the later stage of her life.
A quote by a teacher in the Buddhist tradition mentioned by Bjorn Natthiko Lindeblad in his book ‘I may be wrong’ springs to mind:
‘You will know
What you need to know
When you need to know it’
Jeanette will always be in our hearts with fond memories.
Namaste
Chris Wyeth