Yoga came to me as an escape from a busy and stressful life in London in 2012. I had tried yoga before as an adult, but had never needed it so badly. I was working in a finance job involving long hours and a lot of pressure. To me it offered a break, an escape from all the responsibilities and tasks of the day.
I would wake up at 5:30am to fit in a class before work or rush across London after a late night in the office to the last class of the day. I was at the studio at least 5 times a week. I was addicted. Of course the 40-degree heat of the Bikram class, during a London winter was also part of the attraction.
Despite the benefits it brought me, somehow real life got in the way when I bought a flat and got a promotion. I lost my practice. At the time I needed it most, I stopped doing the thing that I loved, without fully realising the mental calm that it brought me.
In fact, it was not until my 6-month career break in 2016 that I realised how fundamental yoga was for my mental health. I had quit my high-pressured finance job to re-evaluate my life, and I chose to do yoga every single day to help me with that. I was travelling through Australia and Indonesia, yet no matter where I was my yoga mat, the nearest yoga studio was my home. It changed me, I felt stronger, braver, more centred than ever before.
Finally I started to answer a very important question…..
What do I
really want to
do with my life?
It was pretty clear to me that finance was not what I wanted. It did not resonate with who I was on the inside. Yoga helped me find my centre and realise that.
I made the conscious decision that I would do my yoga teacher training (YTT) but I was fresh out of cash so in order to achieve my dream, I knew I had to make a short term sacrifice. Office work. Finance. However eighteen months of finance work later…
I quit. I left. I escaped.
Now I teach yoga where I travel, and write about my yoga journey. I have two dreams. One is to hold my very own yoga sailing retreat, the other is to help people realise that there is more to life than the thing they worry about the most.
