Donna Noble is the Founder of Curvesomeyoga, and has been practising yoga since late 90s.
She has been a certified Yoga Teacher since 2011. A Master NLP Practitioner, Body Positive Advocate and Wellbeing Coach. She has taught in America, India and all over the UK at workshops, wellbeing events. She has been a speaker at corporate events and conferences.
Donna has been featured in Daze Magazine, Metro online, The Guardian, Women Health Online and contributes to Om Yoga and Lifestyle Magazine, Yoga Magazine, Elephant Journal and various other publications including the HuffPost. She had her own show the ‘Noble Art of Wellbeing’ on Natural Health Radio.
Donna came has over 20+ years experience for working in a corporate environment.
Tell us a bit about yourself, background and your current role
I am the founder of CurvesomeYoga (CSY). CSY is body positive yoga. My goal is to make yoga more inclusive and to show that every body is a yogaBODY. I am also a Well-being Coach and a Certified NLP Master Practitioner. I work with women to fully appreciate their bodies.
Did you ever sit down and plan your career?
Not really, I just go with the flow and allow things to happen organically. I worked for Allen & Overy for over 10 year in the IT Department before being made redundant. I believe that it was as a result of stress I became ill with Bells Palsy in 2005.
It was shortly after this that I started my love affair with Yoga. I decided to attend a Yoga Teacher Training Course – (with the intention of maybe becoming a teacher when I retired).
Becoming a Yoga Teacher happened much earlier than anticipated after having a discussion with a Coach on my NLP course – who wanted to know what was happening in my life.
I explained my dilemma that I was being made redundant and didn’t know what to do. To my, surprise I was informed that unconsciously I already knew what I wanted to do.
When I talked about yoga I lit up, and when I talked about corporate I did not.
In that split second, I decided to give this thing called yoga a chance.
I completed my course then decided to travel to LA and do the Bikram Yoga Teacher Training. I wanted to just become a Hippy Yogi for a while.
Only intending to stay was for 11 weeks – I stayed for six months travelling and teaching in New York and Texas.
I know it sounds like a cliché but yoga has transformed my life and continues to do so.
Redundancy was one of the best things that happened to me.
Have you faced any challenges along the way?
I have certainly encountered many challenges – becoming ill with Bells Palsy – which had a profound effect on my confidence. However it was instrumental in helping me re-evaluate my choices resulting in loving what I am doing now.
Working in a new industry at the age of 40.
How do you feel about mentoring? Have you mentored anyone or are you someone’s mentee?
I have being mentored by numerous times in my career. I feel that mentoring is an excellent way to help with development and growth both in career and business. Having the guidance and support of a mentor has been invaluable to me. Providing me with the accountability and helping me to take my business forward. It is also so good to give back and pass the ladder down and being a force for good.
What do you want to see happen within the next five years when it comes to diversity?
I love how much more body positive our society is becoming. We still have a long way to go but we are making good progress. Social media platforms have enabled marginalised individuals to have voices and to stand up for their beliefs and can speak up for what they believe in. I am certainly seeing more inclusion in terms of individuals of all sizes, shapes, ages, genders and ethnicity being represented. Representation matters.
I can wait to see the impact this will have in five years time.
What has been your biggest achievement to date?
Helping women to make peace with their bodies cultivating; self-love and self-acceptance.
Changing individual’s perceptions about their bodies proving, they are stronger and more flexible than they thought both in mind and body.
Showing individuals how they can create more time in their busy lives, so that they can live their life with simplicity and ease.
What is your next challenge and what are you hoping to achieve in the future?
My next challenge is growing the CSY movement/brand; and to make yoga truly accessible. I am passionate about yoga and want to continue to share its many transformational a benefits; especially when we are seeing high levels of stress and mental health issues. As a body positive advocate I want women be comfortable with who they and see the truth that there is no such thing as perfect body. To realise that the body is an amazing creation and can do amazing things.
I would like to help to work in a corporate environment to help the Management team provide their staff with the best tools to help navigate working in busy environments.
Writing a book – something I am being told to do on a regular basis.
