My journey into yoga: finding my safe space
My journey into yoga began about four years ago, as a moment in time where I could step away from the chaos in my life. Practising gentle yoga and meditation helped me feel calm, and find my own little safe space.
I think I was trying everything I could to bring my nervous system back to balance, because every day felt like a battle that I couldn’t escape. I was struggling with some debilitating physical symptoms, and I felt stuck in a work environment which was chipping away at my mental health.
My turning point came when I was diagnosed with Endometriosis in 2019, and I decided to take a stand for myself. I started finding more ways to look after myself, and spoke out about how I was being treated at work. I connected with a yoga studio in Edinburgh where I felt supported, and prepared for a surgery which helped manage my symptoms.
Moment to moment
I started exploring restorative yoga, attending yin yoga classes and practising in bed. For the first time, I stepped into my experience moment to moment and listened to what I wanted and needed.
I stopped doubting my intuition and instead trusted it. Eventually I felt my ‘inner wisdom’ grow. I stepped out of a toxic situation, despite pressure to push ahead. I took the time to fully focus on myself for really the first time in my life, following my happiness and taking time to look after myself.
Doing more of what made me happy led me to complete a counselling course and dive into my yoga teacher training. I knitted a blanket, bought a bike, starting learning how to play the ukulele…. There have been a lot of hard days and flare ups of my condition, but I keep going back to source and tuning into what that inner wisdom is trying to tell me. It always guides me well if I take the time to listen.
Meditation in movement, movement in stillness
My yoga practice is evolving now I’ve trained to be a teacher. Becoming a yoga teacher was my dream for a long time, that part of me never thought I would be able to achieve. But when I was given the opportunity to join a 200 hour teacher training from Authentic Flow Tribe in July 2020, I dove in with both feet, and I have never been happier.
This style of yoga goes beyond asanas or poses. They are seen as containers to bring us into the sense of our body – our connectedness to everything around us and within us. What I love most about Authentic Flow is that it acknowledges the differences between every body. There is no ‘perfect alignment’, something I struggled with when I first discovered yoga. Instead, we guide our students into what is right for their own unique bodies, supporting them to tune into their inner wisdom. It fits exactly with where I am.
Now I have finished my 200-hour training, it has been so much fun seeing how much more there is to learn. I’m finding a way to bring meditation into movement, and observing movement in stillness. This has been especially amazing in yin! By inviting my intuition and inner voice into my practice, I’m letting it guide me where I need to be day by day.
Beyond yoga
I’m loving the time I have with my partner while we’re both working from home. He inspires me every single day – he’s a writer of novels and short stories, an aspiring podcaster, and trainee accountant. I love how he brings his passion into every day, he is the most dedicated person I have ever met. You can find out more about him here!
I love nature, and living in Scotland brings me so much joy, in every weather and every season it is continuously beautiful and magical to me. Some of my favourite places are the Cairngorms national park, the Shetland Islands, Loch Tay, and my home in Edinburgh with its sprawling countryside and coastline.
I love to travel the world too, taking photographs as I go. Photography is my second love after yoga, and you’ll often see me with my camera around my neck! I’m lucky enough to have had adventures in Japan, America, Canada, Australia and Europe.
I’m interested in the stress response, especially how different body systems regulate our reaction to stress. This was the focus of my PhD student research before I left. In the last couple of years, I have explored how experiencing trauma can completely change our nervous system, but also how we can take steps through somatic practices to reprogram it and build new patterns.
It’s a slow process, but we have amazingly plastic bodies. There’s always an opportunity lying beneath the surface to change how we respond. After confronting a deeply held trauma from my past, I have gone through this process myself. It inspires my own practice and I try to bring these insights into my teaching, too. I hope that I can support others going through this journey.
Dreams and goals
My ultimate dream is to make yoga more accessible and inclusive, and to support my local community. I provide yoga classes in Edinburgh and online classes where everyone is welcome and supported. I feel privileged to have found a little bit of community in my own life, where I can share my experiences and connect with people who have the same goals and values.
I’m incredibly grateful for my inspiring teachers who who have helped me through some really difficult times. I want to bring my own teachings and insights to the world, and to make yoga a possibility for anyone who needs it.
My journey into yoga was something that helped me at a time when I didn’t know what I needed. I feel so grateful to have found it and held it close. I seized the opportunity to train as a teacher this year with the support of a scholarship from my school.
Dive in
I’m so excited to share my teachings with you. I’ll share my somatic, authentic, embodied yoga classes through this website. Have a look on the ‘join a class’ page to find out what’s coming up.
I’ll also be sharing blogs centred around yoga, health, and community, which you can find links to on my homepage.
Thank you so much for reading, I can’t wait to meet you!
Georgia xx
