It wasn’t until my late 20s that I realized my very first meditation experience was when I was walking back home from school when I was around 11. It was a crisp spring evening, the darkness was about to shield the city and the city lights were dancing with one another. I remember sitting on a big rock up on the hill, watching the day turn into night. Looking back, that moment was very present and I was able to connect to something beyond the physical body.
I grew up in a small northwestern town on the Black Sea in Turkey called Eregli. Eregli is special because it’s also known as Heraklia and was home for the Greek mythical hero Hercules. Compared to living in a very multicultural, fast-paced and highly populated city like Istanbul, spending the first 18 years of my life in a small community surrounded by many stories and arts shaped me differently as a person.
We store memories, emotions, experiences and their effects in our bodies, minds and souls. We try to press them down, sometimes even totally live our lives ignoring them. The teachings of yoga wanted to sneak into my life many times and I ignored them many times until finally there was no place to hide. We all have those moments in our lives where the need for change is inevitable. We feel it, we know it and we have to stop resisting it.
My turning point came one very hot day in June. My journey in Istanbul first started when I was studying and working as an architect. My curiosity for understanding the human body and psychology had never gone away and my interest in design was starting to shift into something new. On that hot day in June, I had a very long walk along Bosphorus and arrived to Cihangir Yoga.
It was my first yoga class with a teacher named Chris Chavez. Without knowing that my life was about to change forever, there was also the feeling of ‘inner knowing’ that I was exactly where I was meant to be, at the right time with the right people.
The teachings of yoga and understanding life from its wisdom started to become my life purpose. I immersed myself in yoga classes, workshops and personal development trainings to deepen my understanding of the practice. Not long after, I signed up for a teacher training with Chris, in order to dive deep into the teachings.
The impulse of discovering new cultures and connecting with different societies was also a big part of who I was becoming. A desire for nature and new experiences, led me to move to Vancouver in 2014. This city has quickly become my home away from home. Since then I’ve dedicated myself to more and more studies of yoga. I’ve been learning, teaching and constantly growing in the last 5 years.
My dream is supporting people to find freedom within the guidance of the yoga practice. I believe the more you open your heart to the possibilities, the more fearlessly you live your life!
Yoga begins right here, right now…