$18 an hour rich 🎪

I'll be completely honest with you...

When I first decided I wanted to enter the realm of teaching, I assumed that all teachers were masters of what they shared with their students, effortlessly guiding others with the wisdom and grace that I so badly wanted to embody myself.

My sudden and random passion for circus arts began in my early twenties.

Despite never setting foot on the stage within any kind of big top, I emptied my wallet for the thrill of learning these new skills. Night after night, I attended classes and workshops across Sydney, eagerly soaking up as much as I could, determined to embody these teachers and performers I so adored and looked up to.

Eventually, I mustered up the courage to share my skills with others, assuming this would be a shortcut to joining some sort of circus troupe one day. I vividly remember sitting in the office of my management job, scrolling on Gumtree, and coming across a wanted ad for flying trapeze instructors. "Six weeks of unpaid training and no experience required, $18 per hour". 

I couldn't sleep that night. I was going to be rich (rich as in epic flying trapeze skills rich because I don't know any adults who can survive on $18 an hour). 

Before I knew it, I was finally the one standing atop a flying trapeze board, gently pushing quivering adults over an 8-meter drop on staff bonding days while their co-workers laughed as they took pictures from the bottom.

But here's the thing right—despite my best efforts to become this jaw-dropping circus performer who embodies discipline and abs you can grate cheese on, I remained unmistakably myself.

 I was an all-rounder type of human. Terrible at spelling. Distracted easily. Talked way too fast when nervous. Chin ups, I could do, but the splits? Not even with the force of my strongest circus friends.

I look back now and I can see that I was still just trying to fit in somewhere.


A few more years of this, I then stumbled across yoga (because that's how everyone seems to find yoga these days, right? Stumbling on it).


I got on the mat, and it was different.

 
I didn't need to do my best. I didn't have to do anything. I just needed to listen to my body.

 
There were no grandiose goals or lofty aspirations, but I was still driven to keep moving forward—not for those around me to see. Just for myself.


I had found a home, and as cheesy as it sounds, it was within me this whole time.

Doing and then sharing yoga was not about becoming a master of any of these poses. They were just tools to create space and connect. Not just to hold space for others, but for myself too.

It's been a decade since I started these musings and I STILL can not do the splits, or bring my feet to my head, or even hold a dancer's pose (that fancy pose you always see people do when they are balancing on one leg and holding the other one behind them in a sunset silhouette overlooking the ocean) without falling over after 4 seconds.

Over the past ten years, I have gained something far more precious—a deeper understanding, a profound gratitude for the journey, and a community with which to be myself (because being anyone else is just darn right exhausting).

Release that need for perfection. That need to be anyone else.

There are enough goals in everything else we do in life, so let's not have any for yoga; just them endless opportunities for growth instead.

You do you boo 

Annika xx

P.S Pictured above with Suzie Q, who is one of the teachers on our yoga teacher training starting MAY 5TH (she teaches alignment and anatomy) as well as an ACTUAL REAL LIFE circus performer. She has worked very hard to do what she does, and I respect that a whole bunch! 

P.P.S The splits are a pretty cool party trick, but in no way, shape, or form do you need to be able to do the splits to enroll in our Yoga Teacher Training.  I am simply sharing this photo to show off these beautiful new pictures we took for our next version of the  Yoga Teacher Training manual, all thanks to photographer Charlotte Dabb