4 1GT Thursday August 20 2020 | the times

times

was in a pickle because it was doing all

the work.” Drugs prescribed just in

time repaired the damage. “But that

was a real wake-up call.” After this she

decided to take three and half weeks

off work to do a yoga teacher training

course. Even knowing that she still

works at Goldman’s, I’m expecting her

to gush about how this epiphany had

led her to want a new life instructing

trust funders on a Goa beach.

In fact, she explains, she had no

intention of teaching, but such courses

were the only way to fully understand

the philosophy and history of yoga.

“The embolism made me realise I

could not apply to my practice what I

The City yogi —

the secret life of

a bendy banker

She isn’t your typical guru, but her top job in finance didn’t

stop her becoming a lockdown star. By Julia Llewellyn Smith

W

e’re all

familiar

with the

cliché of the

burnt-out

City high-

flyer who

jacks it all in

to become a yoga teacher. Yet Rebecca

Anderton-Davies refuses to succumb

to the stereotype by leading a double

life, which she has done for years now.

By day she works as an investment

banker for Goldman Sachs, while out

of hours she lives the life of an

international yoga guru whose two

social media accounts featuring her

contortions have a combined adoring

following of 312,000.

“For a while my two lives did feel

quite disconnected,” says Anderton-

Davies, 34, over Zoom from her

home in southwest London. “I had

an Instagram pseudonym for a reason.

I was nervous about what yoga

people’s reactions might be to finding

out what my actual job was, that they

would make assumptions.”

Only last year did she unmask

herself when she published The Book

of Yoga Self-Practice. Anderton-Davies,

who has a two-year-old son, originally

wrote the book on maternity leave to

help those who lacked time to attend

classes to practise home alone. She

also wanted to counterbalance the

“yoga is for beautiful people” myth,

Goldman’s physiotherapist suggested

she try Iyengar, a very slow form

of yoga. Initially, the “very alpha”

Anderton-Davies found weekly classes

hard going. However, as her yoga

improved, so did her shoulder. By the

next year she had started practising

the more dynamic Vinyasa yoga and

made her private Instagram public so

she could complete yoga challenges,

set by members of the community.

But, as ever, she pushed herself too

hard and soon she broke her

collarbone again falling while trying to

do a handstand on a concrete floor.

An important lesson was semi-

learnt. “Someone like me who is very

driven needed to see that yoga was not

a competition,” she says. “Nor was it

exercise — that was a side benefit, not

its purpose.” Yet Anderton-Davies still

continued to push herself harder than

most, until a couple of years later she

was diagnosed with multiple bilateral

pulmonary embolisms — blood clots

on her lungs, a condition with a

30 per cent mortality rate. This was

the result of an underlying blood

disorder exacerbated by taking the

contraceptive pill and constant flights.

The first symptoms were when she

started struggling to breathe, then she

rapidly lost about 20lb in weight. Busy

with work and her yoga, she kept

putting off doctor’s appointments. By

the time she was diagnosed, one lung

had partially collapsed. “So my heart

exemplified by the recent story of

the Duchess of Sussex entrancing

Prince Harry by stretching “into the

perfect warrior pose” while camping

in Botswana.

“There’s still a home for you if, like

me, you were practising at home,

surrounded by mess,” Anderton-

Davies says. With characteristic drive,

having been told that publishers had

no interest in yoga, she published and

distributed the book herself. Then

came lockdown, and overnight the

whole world seemed to be doing

YouTube Yoga with Adriene, so

Anderton-Davies found her book

the subject of a bidding war between

three publishers, who saw that —

even with restrictions easing —

people would no longer want to

inhale/exhale in crowded studios,

favouring a DIY approach.

Anderton-Davies wasn’t a sporty

child, but everything changed when,

aged 27, she decided to combat the

effects of nearly a decade of 14-hour

days behind a desk by cycling to work.

After six months she was hit by a

white van turning left, breaking her

collarbone and badly damaging her

shoulder tissue.

“I had to sleep upright, I couldn’t

tie my hair back, I couldn’t put my

knickers on and after eight months I

still couldn’t put my arms behind my

back to do up my bra. I was worried it

would be broken for ever,” she says.

I could be

promoted

while

doing yoga

— it’s a

credit

to the

industry