How Yoga Transformed My Life and Career.
Want to see how I went from student to teacher to studio owner in 10 years from just the power of intention…
(…and be inspired to recommit to your dreams before January is out?).
OK… let’s give it a go.
In 2013 I started a blog with the question: ‘Does blogging create personal abundance? ‘
I had no clue that from that single post, life would change forever. Keep reading to see how the power of intention changed my life.
My First Post | September 25 | 2013
Back then I was a have-a-go triathlete that thought (naively as it turns out) that because I was training in three disciplines, I was training my body in a ‘balanced’ way.
Boy was I mistaken!
Indeed I was also mistaken that I could side-step all the stress and overwhelm I was experiencing in my career, with vigorous exercise.
You may not know this about me but I’m a professionally trained journalist and in 2013, had worked on and off in the industry for 25 years.
I’d gone back to work after having kids and three years into running my own publication, I ‘sold out’ to work in a communications agency, caving to pressure to ‘get a proper job’ that would be both financially supporting and ‘fit in’ with family commitments.
The Pressure to Conform and the Price of Selling Out
Eight years into that decision I was a mess. Crippled with back pain because of the nature of my training regime, and mentally and emotionally spent because I was not living a life I wanted.
I was out of alignment and living inauthentically, and I knew it.
As a result, I ended up clinically depressed and in physical agony. Yoga was at first, my solution to fixing my back, so I could get back out there and starting training again – and go back to the life I had so painstakingly created and that I thought was ‘who I was’. But that’s not what happened.
Instead I found my first teacher, Charlie Carter, meditation, Deepak Chopra and from somewhere got the necessary courage, insight to quit my job and begin all over again.
Not look after taking my first ever meditation retreat in California, with Deepak as my teacher, I went on to train in Ayurveda, as a process for healing my Self.
The Perfect Lesson at Perfect Health | Feb 27 |2015
And then I trained as a Yoga teacher– purely as a way to learn more about practice. If you want to learn it, teach it, so they say. I never dreamed I’d be the one ‘upfront’. But that’s what’s happened.
Seven Aha Moments during Seven Spiritual Laws of Yoga Teacher Training | December 15 | 2015
The initial teacher trainings I took were all wrapped up by November 2015 (having travelled numerous times to and from California to the home of Deepak Chopra) and in January 2016 I landed my first teaching gig at a retreat and spa near my home.
Yoga Local was born.
Rewriting Stories | May 22 | 2016
From here on out I grew as a teacher and a practitioner over the next three years, created a small following, led a couple of retreats and then, in another fateful way, everything fell into place for me to open a studio and really start my yoga business.
As you can imagine, I’m now a million miles away from the person who quit her career as a journalist and everything that went with it 10 years ago.
Truly transformational
The back pain took three years to shift, but thanks to yoga, I did it. And I’ve shifted other things too.
My friendships, my relationships, my finances, my emotional state and mental resilience have all been influenced by the power of Yoga.
What can I say…it’s been truly transformational.
Take a look at just a few of the posts I’ve blogged in that time.
Locked Down Take 1 |March 21 2020
Take 2 Lock Down | November 2020
Launching the YL APP formerly Hug Club | March 24, 2021
We’re On Demand | October 9 2021
Finally On Retreat | November 1 2021
We have the Map | April 9 2022
And life continues to transform and unfold – all from that first single blog post!
But before we tie all this up, let’s rewind to Covid. March 2020.
The Practice in Bali and its principal teacher Octavio started offering online teacher trainings and I was one of the first to sign up. Life shifted again. I had access to lineage-based teachings that had previously only been taught in person, orally.
Tales from Teacher Training | March 4, 2021
And now, with a further 300hr training with the Practice completed, and Ali having completed her 200hr, together we’re somehow getting to share these incredible lineage-based teachings and traditions with you.
We’re back to that first intention | October 1 2013
“To find happiness and fulfilment in my life and share that experience with others so that they can find happiness themselves.”
Finding Healing and a New Path Through Yoga
Now I don’t pretend to have all the answers about the meaning of life, but what I do know is there are ways to get more out of life, develop a better understanding of who you are, overcome blockages and guide you to a healthier, happier, more fulfilling life.
The answers are all beautifully packaged within the Yoga tradition and its many practices.
An abundance of scientifically based, systematically laid out practices that can progress us ALL sustainably towards personal growth and evolution.
The Power of Intention!
We all deserve to be happy and live fully, we all can be – it just takes an intention – and practice!
So what’s in store for 2023 for Yoga Local?
We’re approaching the end of January already so are you ready to double down with us.
Here’s our intentions.
- We will continue to assemble yogis seeking meaningful practices and teachings, not gym memberships.
- We will be seeking out and supporting anyone treading water with just more classes.
- We will be searching for anyone who wants to be inspired to work towards spiritual and personal growth.
- We will encourage anyone who wants to work hard, to study, to practice. To do what needs to be done… but yeah…make time for rest too.
People like YOU!
- If you want to make the transition from freshly enthusiastic practitioner to a ‘going steady’ student.
- If you want to delve into the depth and nuance of practices that will be truly impactful in your life.
- If you want to enjoy hours of opportunity to incorporate the subtle practices into visceral living experiences with a ‘go-where-you-go’ YL App.
- If you want to enjoy the sweetness of connecting with students, teachers and like-minded folks who we may never have the pleasure of meeting in person.
Then You are our People.
Do, it! Set your intention!
Join us now. Come and be part of our YL App community. It’s amazing what one small intention can lead to!
Go do it – and let life begin to unfold perfectly and sometimes imperfectly perfectly, at your feet.
