We give you... YogaHappy!

Building a business and a brand has been nothing close to what I imagined it would be. It's been a hard lesson for me, learning that a brand has fuckall to do with logo or letterhead, and everything to do with who you are and what you want to give to this world.

After this venture, I feel a little more akin to Master Oogway who sat in a cave for 30 years asking, "Who am I?", than any kind of businesswoman🤣.

Although, very unlike Master Oogway (who was meditating for the greater good and on his journey to inner peace), I was just plain hiding.

I have been hiding. I have been quiet and afraid and really really hard on myself for just being myself.

Like so many other people.

I have been quiet and hiding because I keep looking outside of myself at what other yoga teachers are doing and how they're teaching and how perfect their handstands are and how perfectly vegan they are and how much they meditate and how many followers they have and how high their class attendance is and how much experience they have (and trust me, I can go on😀).

Like so many other people.

I absolutely respect and admire those teachers. To a self-destructive extent, I have guru-worshipped them and put them above myself. I have compared myself to them and I have come up short. For so long, I have been quiet, and I have been hiding.

Like so many other people.

I have been quiet and hiding, because I keep coming up with excuses for why I'm not good enough, why I'm less than because of, why I can't do what I want to do or be what I want to be because of xyz, why I have no right to be thinking so big because I'll never be ready, never be perfect, no one wants to hear what I have to say, I have nothing to contribute, there's someone else that's already doing it this way, teaching it that way, no one will want to come to my classes because I'm me!

Like so many other people, my self-talk has been the root of my fear and my procrastination. My excuses and my justifications. My self-talk has prevented me from taking action and from living the lifestyle that I dream of. For too long, my self-talk has kept me quiet, and kept me hiding. At some point, you just get fed up with your own BS.

"I've never seen any life transformation that didn't begin with the person in question finally getting tired of their own bullshit."

Elizabeth Gilbert

And this is the space and the courage that yoga, and a very loving family (that have way more faith in me than I even feel I deserve), have given me. They've given me the space that I needed to examine my self-talk. They've been both the loving arms that I needed all those times that I've sobbed from fear of failing; and they've been the fire under my ass that I needed when I realised that this excuse is no longer going to fly.

It's ok to love eggs and still be a yoga teacher. It's ok to have balance issues, and still be a yoga teacher. It's ok to fall off the wagon now and then, and still be a yoga teacher. I will never meet everyone's standards or expectations, and that is also ok. They've given me the courage that I needed to realise that all I actually need to be, is me.

Because there are other women like me. Other women that also need space to re-examine their self-talk, and their excuses. They also need loving arms, and a fire under their ass. They also need a space where they can fall over (multiple times🙂), cry a little bit, laugh at themselves, and get right back up again.

Without further ado (in other words: without any more excuses, justifications, procrastinations and self-doubts), we give you the result of my native spirit walk:

www.yogahappy.co.za

Classes officially open on Monday 18 March!

Check the website out for details! (OMG...I have a website...borderline freak out/sob/scream/laugh hysterically🙂🙂🙂)

Lots of love, light and laughter

Jo