Live Light Yoga & Wellness

Interview by @likemindscreate

You followed your passion, what are you doing now?

 I currently work full-time as the Business Development Manager for Victoria at Loving Earth, which for me is so in line with my life and values. Loving Earth are a company that started with raw organic vegan chocolate and has now expanded over their 12 years in business to have a large port folio of the certified organic raw ingredients which go into the chocolate, as well as gluten free and paleo cereals, natural sweetners, activated nuts and superfood powders. From day one the owner of Loving Earth wanted to create a company that was built around being healthy, sustainable and fair, to not only their staff members but also the growers which we source all of our products from. We also love the planet and we want to do everything we can as a company to make sure that we leave no footprint (or very little), the majority of our packaging is recyclable or compostable. But most importantly all of our products are healthy, meaning dairy free, gluten free, vegan, no GMO’s, soy free and refined sugar free AND super delicious!! Alongside this a took the leap of faith and followed one of my other great passions in life and completed my 200hr Yoga Teacher Training in Bali with Eoin Finn who is known for his incredible unique style and approach to not only yoga but also encompassing nature appreciation, food awareness, meditation and gratitude into your daily practice. This was life changing for me and within 8 weeks of returning from Bali I was offered to start with a brand new studio in Red Hill called Hot Hut Yoga. The studio has grown phenomenally in the last 12 months and went from only one teacher (me) and 5 classes per week to 6 teachers and 17 classes per week, which has only fuelled my desire even more to bring together everything I have learnt, my 10 years in sales and marketing and my passions to one day in the near future open my own wellness centre. 

 

What were you doing before this?

 

Before this I was working for a very large global beverage company in the licensed side of the business as a Business Development Executive. Although this was a great working experience for me and I gained a lot of experience and business skills, in the end my heart and my values were screaming at me and I couldn’t ignore it anymore. I was selling something I did not believe in and that I myself did not drink, on top of this I would cringe when trying to sell the features and benefits of products that were loaded with sugar and preservatives. 

 

Why the change?

 

I went through a challenging time about 2 years ago now when I was coming to the end of a very challenging relationship, when I say challenging it was almost the same as working in my previous corporate role. I was with a partner who started off to appear great on paper, the rewards and perks were good (loving and thoughtful) and then that changed about 18 months into the almost four 3.5 year relationship. He was challenging my values, my morals and I found myself compromising these constantly to keep the relationship going. All of these challenges ultimately led to me being a shadow of myself and feeling very empty and lonely inside, as I turned away from my friends, my family and most importantly I turned away from myself and handed the core of me over on a platter to this man and he betrayed this along with my trust time and time again. I guess you could say I hit rock bottom! I was still working in corporate at this point in my life, and my work and health were starting to suffer greatly as I lost 10 kilo’s (weighing 53 kilos at 5 ft 9). I could have stayed in this rut, but I chose to find a strength that I never knew I had and I left and started a whole new life. I bought my new house and moved where I wanted to live and I started practicing yoga again. After practice I noticed each time that something would shift in me, as It was the only time in the day that I wasn’t obsessing and constantly thinking about my past and the pain I was feeling. As time went on, I increased my practice to sometimes twice daily and incorporated meditation into this also, this went on for months and I started feeling happy and healthy again. I wasn’t sure what this feeling was but it was as if someone had been standing on my chest for the past 3.5 years and they finally got off and I felt a sense of calm and lightness in my body and mind. I went from eating a liquid diet (which was all I could stomach at the time of the break up/down which ever way you look at it) to eating wholesome foods and really looking at my diet in a new light. I felt so good that I wanted to help others who felt like they might be stuck or going through a hard time and give this gift to them! This was when I decided to become a yoga teacher…and only 4 months after returning from my training my dream job landed in my inbox with Loving Earth.

 

How did you do it, what steps did you follow?

 

For me initially it was shifting my mind from the negative space that it was in to this positive new being that I am now. I did A LOT of work on myself and had quite a bit of alone time and self inquiry to figure out what it was that I believed in, what my values were, what my passions were. A close friend of mine is also a life coach and runs workshops to help uncover your life purpose, and it was in this workshop and a guided meditation that I saw what I wanted so clearly. From that point I took the steps towards finding a yoga teacher that aligned with my values and booked in my yoga teacher training. During this time, I learnt SO much about myself and it really tested me on every level emotionally, physically and mentally. It was a 200hr intensive training over 23 days and some of those days were one day breaks in between to refresh, so we are looking at 10 hr days of intense training. During this time I met some incredible people and I learnt a lot about manifesting the life that you want and how true the old saying is that 

“Energy flows where intention goes”

When I returned from my teacher training it was like the icing on the cake and I felt like I was the best version of myself I had ever been, so I kept up my practice and I started attracting so many like minded people into my life. This is when I landed the teaching role at Hot Hut Yoga only 8 weeks after returning from Bali. I still felt that something was amiss in my life and that was my job at CCA, so I decided to make a list of the top 3 companies I would like to work for and I set up a seek email notification to send me job with particular key words related to these companies or similar roles. The intention was there, I had written it on paper and put it out to the universe and within 4 weeks the energy started to flow and a BRAND NEW ROLE had been created at Loving Earth which was my number 1 on the list. The role was the role that I am in now and I couldn’t be happier! I want to tell you something even crazier, which is only 8 weeks into my role at Loving Earth another email lands in my inbox and it was for a territory manager in my region that I live in for the number 2 company on my list. 

 

Has the business or your role evolved since you took those first brave steps?

 

Since taking those brave steps I have been offered various teaching roles within the yoga world, I have had people asking me to run programs for their clubs. Its crazy how quickly the yoga business is wanting to grow, but at the same time I have committed myself to quite a large role within Loving Earth, so there has been a battle to try and keep up with the requests while allowing myself down time and my own yoga practice. This role at Loving Earth has also grown as we expand internationally into the UK, Europe and NZ.  I was recently in NZ for business and a trade show, and I also have a staff member who reports to me now which is all very new to me but an exciting challenge. It’s only been 5 months at Loving Earth and 1 year into teaching, so I’m very excited to see where the next 12 months takes me.

 

What do you love most about the change you made?

 

I love the change I have seen in myself, I wouldn’t say it has changed me as a person because I was always this person prior to losing myself in the relationship but it has fuelled me and made me the best version of myself that I could be and it was simply because I was brave enough to stand up and say NO. NO to my ex partner, NO to my unfulfilling job and then start saying YES to the things that served a purpose in my life and made me happy. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t all rainbows and dancing unicorns along the way, there were some serious challenges including losing my father and my own health issues, but I was now equiped with the tools to deal with my emotions and not hide away from them. I also love that this shift in my life has started to inspire others and I hope that it continues to do so, because everyone deserves happiness and fulfilment in their life. 

 

What advise would you give to others thinking about following their passion and making a career change?

 

Break it down in to small size goals, and set yourself a 1 year plan, 5 year plan and 10 year plan. This way it doesn’t feel too overwhelming and you won’t be looking at a 10 year plan on day 1 and wanting to throw your hands in the air and say “too hard”. Think about that one thing in your life that you spend all day doing but it only feels like an hour. Write write write! Put the intention out there, start a vision board if you are more of a visual person, start putting yourself into networking opportunities in that field that you want to be in. Put the intention out there, do the hard work, remain positive and I promise the energy will flow back to you xx