"In my late teens, when I finally got out of a toxic relationship that had completely isolated me from the world around me, I realised I’d let fear dictate my life to the extent that I’d lost myself, and I decided that this had to change"
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"As part of a conscious effort to figure out what I wanted from life, I began looking after my body. I started practicing yoga in the comfort of my bedroom; building strength and confidence, until I became interested in fitness and weightlifting and incorporated yoga into my warm-ups at the gym and later the climbing wall
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After almost two years of solo practice I attended my first yoga class and I absolutely loved it, it opened up a whole new side of the practice to me, and I started to explore my breath and my mind in ways I’d never anticipated 🙏
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To be clear, yoga didn’t instantly 'fix' me. My life was not instantaneously changed the second I stepped on a mat
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But yoga provided me with the physical and mental space I needed to figure out who I was again
. The approach to life I’ve gained through my practice; learning to be present and mindful, encouraged me to open myself to others in a way I’d denied myself for years, I learned to be playful and explore both in my practice and outside of it, I took on daunting challenges with the knowledge that success cannot be achieved without failure
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Perhaps most importantly, it was yoga that taught me to breathe through the tough moments, to pause, to connect, to exhale, to let go
. My practice continues to be a constant in my life that I can always turn to to remind me what I’m capable of; that I will become whoever I choose to be, that I am strong, resilient and powerful, just as much as I am soft, mindful and tender, and no one can take that away from me 💚 Hannah"
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