A Graduate Story: Small Movements, Deep Impact
Reflections of a Jala YTT graduate.
Like most humans, my life journey has been bumpy and winding, with some epic highlights, and some very low points. Similarly, my relationship with yoga has adapted and changed over my lifetime. I am a woman, a mother, a partner, a social worker, I’m in my late 30’s and still figuring out my place in this messy world.
Yoga has not only enhanced my physical and mental health by giving me tools to care for my body and mind, but yoga philosophy has given me a framework for navigating the ethical dilemmas of privilege and power that inevitably rear their ugly heads.
Yoga ethics are not a checklist for moral superiority, they are tools for practicing care, presence, and choice in difficult places. Having a personal practice grounded in integrity has been especially important when working with communities with lived experience of disability, mental health, addiction, homelessness and generally under-resourced.
I always knew Yoga existed, but my personal yoga journey began as a teenager, attending a weekly community class with my mum. We all hung out afterwards and chatted over a cuppa in the local coffee shop. I learnt so much more more than how to bend and breathe, I experienced community that has withstood decades and long-distance.
Since then, Yoga has been an anchor throughout my life, through studying and practicing Social Work, navigating parenthood, to picking up the pieces after divorce, and now I get to share yoga as part of my working life.
I yearned to teach yoga early on, but could not reconcile how to make enough to live on while also making the teachings accessible to the people who could really benefit from them.
Many moons ago when I moved to the Gold Coast, I came across Mollie and Jala Yoga. Her down to earth teaching style and commitment to ocean conservation, on and off the mat, was inspiring. I took my kids to Community Yoga and Beach Cleans, which I still do over a decade later. In 2023, I took the plunge and enrolled in Mollie’s 350 hour trauma informed Yoga Teacher Training, hoping to find ways to share Yoga and mindfulness tools with under-resourced communities.
Jala has given me the confidence to share yoga tools in a safe and supportive way, and profoundly enhanced my personal and professional practice. Not to mention the deep friendships I have made along the way with fellow students and teachers, and the community we share.
Since graduating, I have had a consistent stream of opportunities to share yoga as my passion project/side hustle, alongside my part time work as a case manager for people who have experienced traumatic brain injuries.
From teaching in gyms and studios, facilitating the Chase the Sun Wellbeing Program in a high school, covering classes for the QHealth Adolescent Day Program for Heal.ed Tribe, representing Jala at one of my favourite events of the year (SWELL Sculpture Festival), teaching Puppy Yoga, to recently becoming a Prison Yoga facilitator for Yoga on the Inside, I am immensely grateful for the doors that have opened and proud of the facilitator I have become.
It’s also important to remember that it’s not about us as teachers, or as business owners, it’s about the communities we serve, and learning and growing in ways that support our purpose with integrity. I’ve let go of work that doesn’t align with my values.
Now, I am even more motivated to expand my teaching in social impact spaces, although this work is not without its challenges. Often, students have little or no experience in yoga (with the odd student who has an advanced practice thrown in), may not be attending completely voluntarily, have a lot going on in their personal lives, significant experience of chronic pain and/or reduced mobility, and class attendance is transient at best.
I’ve learnt it’s important to be prepared, but also able to adapt my classes on the day (sometimes mid class), as well as tailoring to individual students. Sessions often prioritise grounding practices, simple movements, and breathing that can be used independently, tools for inner stability in an otherwise unpredictable world.
This is also reflective of where my own practice has landed over time. Your use of self is imperative, bringing humour and humanness, creating respectful spaces that honour and value your students, regardless of their background. Offering adaptive yoga for all body types and catering to a range of energy levels and nervous systems.
Acknowledging that yoga is not a cure-all, it’s definitely not the only way, but it can be a powerful support. This kind of teaching reminds me again and again that Yoga is not about perfect poses, it’s about presence, and offering people a moment of agency and stillness, even just one breath at a time.
There’s a growing conversation around yoga and social justice, and I was honoured when Mollie asked me to facilitate a module on the Jala YTT, drawing on my social work background and experience teaching yoga in community settings.
In this module we unpack how yoga and social justice intersect, looking at how the practice can move beyond individual wellness to support community, challenge systems of exclusion, and honour Yoga’s roots while making it more accessible and inclusive for all bodies and backgrounds.
To wrap up, I will leave you with a quote from Rodrigo Souza- founder of Alliphopa Yoga: “Yoga does not aim to fix what is broken; its purpose is to establish a safe space to embrace and nurture a healthy relationship with our imperfections, allowing us to see ourselves as whole, just as we are.”
With Loving Kindness
Villia
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