I would like to take you back to the year 2015, I have been living in Fuerteventura for several months. After traveling back and forth for over a year, I took the gamble. Job quit, house sold and with 2 suitcases I leave to Fuerteventura for love, for a new adventure. Still totally naive, I tell my family and friends, maybe you will see me back in the Netherlands in 3 months. Fast forward almost 10 years later, I am still living abroad, but more on that another time.
Moving to Fuerteventura
Moving to a warm island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean may sound very romantic, for me at first it was anything but that. Adjusting to a completely different culture, language, environment and climate without “my” people around me was not easy for me. It felt like I had to reinvent myself, on Fuerte there are not many distractions, so you are forced to think about things, to make something out of nothing.
In the months that follow, I find more and more my way, discover sides of myself that I did not know. For example, I thought I loved a (socially) busy life, always lots of people around me. But I so enjoy the empty “calendar,” the spontaneous cups of coffee with (new) friends. Walking alone on the beach and looking away into the ocean, it gives me so much peace. I am beginning to feel more and more at home, notice that I can adapt better and better to the different rhythm, language and culture.
Is yoga something for me?
Through a friend, I come into contact with Bharti, an Indian yoga teacher who lives in the same village as me. My boyfriend is an avid surfer and Yoga is part of that, I honestly never need to know anything about it, find it rather floaty. Yoga doesn’t suit such a down-to-earth person like me, does it? Nevertheless, I find that it is beginning to pique my interest more and more and I sign up for a trial class.
I first decide to take private lessons with Bharti to discover if it suits me. More and more, I find myself looking forward to Wednesday evening, the evening my yoga class takes place. It is actually not at all as “floaty” as I thought beforehand, physically I notice that I am getting stronger and I feel more comfortable in my body, a nice feeling for a mom with a newborn. In addition, I notice mentally that it clears my head. That combination causes me to implement yoga more and more into my “day to day life” outside of the weekly class.
In my next blog I will share my positive developments, by implementing Yoga daily in my life, hopefully you will be there again 😊. Until then.
Hug,
Tamara
