My personal yoga journey to healing

Blog entry by Elena Dana

In 2007 I decided to quit my well paid job in TV and travel around the world with my guitar and a bunch of songs I have written during my last year of the marketing role. 

I was on a spiritual quest for a true meaning of life

So I have embarked onto my travels around South America, India, toured North America, Europe, and even tried to settle down in Cusco, Peru and New York city in the USA. I have lived in a family who hardly spoke any English in Cusco for a month, learning Spanish. Then joined a tour of wonderful individuals to travel for two months around Peruvian Jungle, Bolivian Salt Lake (picture above), Paraguay and Brazil with. Then I went on traveling around Rajasthan and Goa in India, couch-surfed in San Francisco, played the Anti-folk festival in New York and backpacked the most of Europe. Yet in 2010 I have eventually returned back to my home in London town, and with a totally random chain of events found myself in the most gorgeous spot of the world at the time - the heart of Hackney and its famous London Fields. At that time Hackney was a den for artists and I was surprised it was so well hidden from me for the last fifteen years I lived in Britain. The spot seemed to magically attract creative souls from all over the world and was a vibrantly divine space for me to be dissolved in - a true marvel for a creative spirit to flourish! During my seven years living in Hackney, however, the place started to sadly slowly change into a commercial point for investment and has become the most expensive pin on the map! This felt no longer like home, so not long after some heart-searching I went on travelling, again, and as you can probably imagine have ended up right here, yes, in the mysterious to me at the time island of Cyprus, the last country on my travel-destination list!

As brilliant as this may have all sounded, I was not always in a good place emotionally. A constant sense of loss and grief seemed to have followed me around, as if I was living the life of others and not of my own. And so at the very start of my journey, during my nomad travel life in New York, I went to an open air free yoga class in the middle of NY city and to my huge surprise - loved it! I was connected to each movement the teacher was introducing us to, encouraging us to follow our own breath and timing.

The free open air summer class in New York changed my life forever

I heard a lovely expression that day that touched my heart deeply: "Yoga is YOUR OWN practice". This has strongly resonated with me, especially when the teacher went on to inspire us to feel the transformation this meditative practice is bringing to our body, soul and spirit. I have absolutely felt it!

Each asana spoke to me that day, as if my physical and emotional muscles were craving it. I was now a total fan! Sold! I thought to myself: "so this is what it's all about" as if yoga has called out to me, finally, fifteen years after I first was introduced to it, in a local London gym (but that's a story for another time). 

After this class I went up to a teacher thanking her for this wonderful practice, sharing my class experience and pouring out my heartfelt gratitude to her for this magic. She was very glad to receive it, and shared her contacts with me. Her name was Elena too, and she was extremely humble and lovely! At that same moment, a woman about ten years older than me came up to us and said something totally opposite... The student complained about the lack of asanas this complimentary class has provided her with and demanded an amend to this programme in the future! The teacher felt the need to apologise adding that she will definitely take her feedback on and adjust her programme accordingly! I felt embarrassed on behalf of the student and sorry for the teacher who just poured her heart out to create something so magical, for no charge at all, during which I have also had a life-changing experience and connected to so profoundly.

This is what I realised a "Yoga Is Your Own Practice" really meant!

This is when I also had an insight that one practice is not suitable for all. Everyone has their own ways and their own path, and we all learn from the best teachers along the way, like this situation I have just experienced, for example. 

This is when my healing processes have really began and I started to get answers to my most life burning questions one after another in a tornado of realisations. When I came back home that time in 2008 I went to the yoga studios in Camden Town, which used to be located right opposite the Cuba bar in the Camden Market Stables (in case you wanted to find out more about it) and then to the Life Center in Brick Lane, and was happy to discover a dozen of incredible teachers who brought their profound knowledge of yoga to those magnificent studios from all over the world and shared it with people like myself - on the road to discovery, healing and peace.

I started practicing yoga by myself after that, feeling how each asana oiled my guts, gave my blood more flow, a boost of energy and unblocked one chakra after another, connecting me to every single cell of my body serving it as a marvellous medicine it is! 

I was eternally grateful to discover a real meaning of yoga

In the spring 2020 I came across the House of Om yoga teacher programme that I have undertook and completed during the spring of 2022, a long-searched right programme for me, which has finally confirmed all of my suspicions that yoga is a unity between conscious and subconscious, between my own world and the world of others. A practice that connects me to the universal consciousness itself and the source of creation, which gives me a real purpose in life through its healing power of light, making us all, indeed, a one.

As a result of this discovery I have developed a strong conviction that once yoga calls out to you - you embark on your own spiritual journey of inner peace and unity, which will eventually lead you to feeling totally healed, balanced and restored!

Happy Transformation Everyone!

Namaste, yours Elena Dana