Hi everyone! I am so happy to share with you today this incredible interview of Rosanna Hopkins! She completed her Yoga Teacher Training last year with me

and 80 other beautiful people and today she opens her heart about this experience and what she experienced ever since. This is a really beautiful interview and I feel so happy that I got the chance to read it and be able to share it with you today. It is definitely reminding me how grateful I am to have fulfilled this journey of the Yoga Teacher Training and also of creating this blog to be able to share this testimonies. But for now, dive in to the story of Rosanna!

Can you introduce yourself quickly?

Hi, I’m Rosie, 24, from the UK. I was working in London before I moved to Australia to Au Pair in 2017.

 

When did you start practicing yoga?

When I moved to Manly back in 2017, after quitting my job in Fashion Buying. I had previously practiced in gyms, but it was only making shapes, it was not really yoga.

 

When did you decide to take the leap with your Yoga Teacher Training?

I kind of fell in to it, as with everything else that seemed to happen in my life around that time. I was looking vaguely at the notice board in the Manly Power Living studio when one of the teachers asked me “are you going to do it?” I didn’t even know what she was talking about until she explained the yoga teacher training program, and I guess that planted a seed.

One day I walked into class and there was a sign on the door about an information evening, and I thought I’d go along to see if it was something I’d like to do, one day. So, I went, and I just knew that whatever happened I had to do it, and it had to be with Power Living, and it had to be now.

 

Tell us about your yoga teacher training journey.

The first step was moving to Wellington. My Australian visa was running out, so it meant moving to New Zealand and carrying out the training with the studio there. I wouldn’t even say this scared me, it just felt like the next step, and in my heart, I knew it was the right thing to do – it was.

The community I was surrounded by were so welcoming, and I immediately felt at home. The training for me was never about becoming a teacher, it was about finding the courage to face myself, and my fears. Beforehand, the mere thought of standing up in front of people made me laugh wildly or cry frantically, both in fear. I was exposed to myself, in a space that I felt safe, and I felt loved. It was hard, but it was the best experience of my life.

 

What is yoga for you?

My anchor in a storm of emotional turmoil, and the light that guides me back to myself.

 

What did you do after the teacher training course?

I am now back in the U.K studying MSc Ethics in Fashion, I am particularly interested in the environmental impact of the fashion industry and currently looking at microplastic pollution from textiles.

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What did you implement from the YTT in your life? Do you see your job, things or people differently?

This is a hard one to put into words because the progress for me felt so massive at the end of the training course, but now I realize more and more that it was only the peak of the iceberg.

Back then I would have said more than anything it changed my relationship with myself, but as this develops I see the change this has on everything around me, and most of all that I must love myself enough to be able to drive that change.

Whether it be the career I choose, the things that I own that I feel guilty getting rid of but no longer feel like ‘me’, or the way I choose to perceive relationships with friends and loved ones.

All I can say is I am proud of myself – I have had people look to me for help and advice on living more happily and more calmly, and that for me is a wonderful reflection on this journey and the power of yoga.

 

Could you share with us one yogi mindful tip you have to help protect the Earth that everyone could be interested to do too?

I write poetry from time to time, so here’s one ..

 

Handle me with care, for today I am fragile like china,

Tomorrow I might be valiant as a gladiator,

Idol as mountain,

Wispy as air,

But for now, I am fragile like china, so please I ask, take care.

 

It is a reminder to always be understanding of others, and to show up with love and kindness, because everyone has good and bad days and that’s okay.

 

And finally, what’s next?  

Graduation is late this year, and although I have ideas as to what to do afterwards, I have learnt to trust the process.

 

Thanks again Rosanna for sharing your story with me, with us today.

Feeling blessed.

Read more beautiful yogi stories here! And read more about Rosanna’s work on fashion and microplastic here!