Right now I’m 4 days deep into a yoga teacher training immersion retreat in Pohara Beach, Takaka. I’m feeling equal parts strong, vulnerable, balanced, off kilter, nourished, confused and inspired. A fertile breeding ground for creativity, some might say!
But let’s rewind a bit. I want to acknowledge why I’m here in the first place. I’ve been working in corporate communications for a decade now. Writing, editing and connecting with people has brought me joy for as long as I can remember.
It’s also hard work, and it requires a certain level of inspiration and passion to keep delivering quality work. And when you start to lose a bit of your mojo with said hard work, sometimes you need to take a step back, find something else that interests you and go follow that for a bit until your inspiration returns.
I’ve been practicing yoga for 10 years now – I discovered it in 2007 as a naive, wide eyed graduate working in New Zealand Post’s marketing and communications team. A girl I worked with was a teacher and invited me to her class. The rest is history.
Yoga has changed my life in many ways that I’ll explore in other posts.
Throughout my corporate career I’ve also grown and changed in ways I never could have predicted. But there has always been this little voice in my head that likes to remind me I’m a dreamy sappy hippy at heart, and to not stray too far from that.
Becoming a qualified yoga teacher has been on my bucket list for years, and I’m not getting any younger, so I spoke to my boss and she supported me in taking most of my 2017 annual leave to complete my yoga teacher training. Legend.
This isn’t about quitting what I’m doing now and running away to be a hippy, although that does sound fun… For me this decision was about having options for the future and having a side hustle that keeps me fit, happy and strong. Plus I’ll get to share yoga with any friends and family who want to give it a go – how cool is that?
So that’s the back story. More to come over the following days.