WHEN aerobics got boring and yoga became mainstream, I wasn't in the queue at the local sports centre desperate to have a go.

It sounded tame and I never really understood what was to be gained from wrapping my legs around my head while deep breathing.

But I've suffered a long winter of cold, dark and depressing days so after I heard about a new studio opening in Leigh that claimed to help you feel like you'd escaped to paradise, I thought, why not? It's cheaper than buying a one-way ticket to Thailand.

Shambhala Studios is a new business set up by two friends, Dawn Arno and Lyn Long, who met through painful circumstances just over a year ago.

Lyn, 45, discovered she had breast cancer in November 2005. Ten days later she had a mastectomy.

"I found myself at home for a couple of weeks after the operation," she says.

"I'd seen an advert for holistic healing with Dawn, so I called her and she came over to give me some one-to-one yoga sessions and massage.

"She got my mobility back almost straight away and when I found out I had to have chemotherapy she came and gave me some yoga poses to do if I felt sick.

"After the first chemo session I felt really sick and I went home and tried the pose and I felt fine afterwards.

"I wasn't sick at all during my treatment and when I was a patient at a Harley Street hospital I was only the person there at the time who wasn't sick once."

But as Dawn proved to Lyn, yoga isn't just about positions. She told her to practise visualising the cancer leaving her body - an exercise that proved invaluable to Lyn during her toughest times.

"It's about believing you're taking control of the illness and healing your body," Lyn explains.

"I used it to help me sleep. There are different techniques, but I used to imagine a ball of light that starts in your feet and you can see it travelling through your body. It got to my chest area and would heal the cancer. It helped a lot because when you have chemotherapy it takes away your immune system and the steroids you take make it difficult to sleep, but with the visualisation I had no problem sleeping."

Lyn endured five months of chemotherapy and has since been cancer-free and is on the mend.

She swears by the ancient Indian craft and claims that as a yoga virgin she was stressed, stiff and totally unsupple. Now, Lyn, who works for a busy shipping company in Kent, can contort her body into all sorts of shapes that make you gasp and ask "how the ..?"

Up until then, I hadn't thought of yoga as scary, but watching Lyn and Dawn - who has been practising it for 20 years and teaching for 17 - wrap their legs around their heads, I started to feel slightly nervous.

Sitting on the mat on the heated floor of a very welcoming room, however, things quickly got a whole lot better.

Dawn explained that yoga isn't simply about bending your body into strange positions. It's all about massaging your inner organs which help to keep your insides healthy, while strengthening and toning your muscles.

A large part of the process is about rhythmic breathing which helps to send you into a meditative-type trance, which is why everyone feels so relaxed and calm after a session.

I seemed to breeze through the first two or three poses with relative ease and my body started to get that lovely feel you get after a really good stretch first thing in the morning. Everything started to loosen up and I'm sure I saw a cobweb or two blow away.

But things got a little harder from then on and a few times Dawn analysed my pose and tried to twist or push my body into the correct position.

I can't say it didn't hurt, but I got the impression that if I became a yoga regular, my body would start to accept the poses and I would eventually be able to touch my toes without bending my knees - something I've never been able to do before!

However, yoga is not something you can learn over night. Teaching your body to loosen up and practising the complicated positions takes time, but even from my short introduction, I could see how rewarding it could be, especially with combating stressful illnesses.

At the end of my class, I was instructed to lie comfortably on my mat and was covered with a warm blanket.

Dawn talked us through relaxing each and every muscle in the body and with her deeply soothing voice I felt like I was floating on air and almost drifted into an intense sleep.

However, unfortunately I couldn't lie there forever and by the time she ended the class with a "peace chant", I was awake again and felt calmer, fresher and ready to face whatever life had to throw at me.

Classes at the centre also include different types of yoga - hatha, ashtanga and sivananda - pilates, tai chi, meditation and pranayama (breath control).

New clubs will include classes for gay men and lesbians, yoga for couples and chanting.

There's also a treatment room offering reflexology, massage, nutrition, counselling, reiki, Bach flower remedies, alignment and acupuncture.