I am Claire, a yogini, intuitive yoga teacher, mum of 2 boys, a lover of life and founder of Embodied Voyage. I live on the small island of Malta right in the middle of the Mediterranean.
I am passionate about experiencing life from the totality of the body. I believe that we have so much wisdom inside our body but too often we fail to acknowledge it.
I envision people awakening to their gift, to their true potential and to have the possibility to be able to manifest their dreams. I believe that this can be done when we start to slow down, to feel deeply connected with ourselves and to start to be alive in the whole of our body.
Where did I come from?
I was not always in a good space, centred and aligned as most people describe me today.
I am sharing parts of my story with you with an open heart and total vulnerability. I believe that sharing stories is healing for myself and others. It is very powerful and inspiring to others who are in similar situations.
We all go through periods of pain and sorrows, in different times and different circumstances yet deep within all the mess, we all want the same thing, to come back home to our heart, to feel safe in our own body and to find our soul’s purpose.
The intention here is purely to show you that you can connect to your own truth, to your heart, from whichever space you are right now once you start to be grounded within the body. If I did it, you can do it too. You deserve to connect to your own inner truth and if you need to change, you change.
The Descend
For a lot of years, I was in situations of sexual and emotional abuse, manipulations from people who should have cared, loved and protected me. I developed a huge hate towards myself and my life. On most days, I felt ashamed of who I was and where I came from, leaving my body feeling destroyed and nauseous. Sadness and fear were a constant in my life.
In order to survive, I learned to disassociate from my body and what my body was trying to show me. The pain that was coming up was too much and it was easier for me to numb it.
It was so hard for me to stay with the pain and confusion that was arising that a safer way was to not focus on it. I chose to simply ignore it and keep living a superficial life as if nothing was wrong. This went on for a good number of years. At first I felt I was handling it well and nobody was aware of anything. Truth was, I was living an illusion and my body made it very clear. At some point my body collapsed. I felt like going mad and I felt like I hit rock bottom. For 3 whole years I felt like I was in a dark cloud and could not see a way out
The Rising
Yet there, within all this confusion and darkness there was this little flame of light. Somewhere hidden in the depths of my heart, I believed that I deserved better; I believed that I had the power to change.
Then one day I really decided to change. I realised that I had to step out of being a victim and take full responsibility of my state of being. If I did not love myself, who would? It took a moment of honesty and a strong decision to change my life. I searched and asked for help and support and I received a lot. The journey of coming back home to myself, healing and loving all parts of myself began. It was a very hard and difficult time.
I started practicing various styles of yoga, I danced, I did boxing, I meditated, I screamed, yelled, screamed, hated myself and my life over and over again. I tried everything that you can possibly think of. The emotional pain I went through in my earlier years was becoming physical.
The body never forgets.
I have experienced this on my own skin. I believe that a lot of physical pain that we feel is caused by ignoring our emotions or by staying in situations that do not honour our truth. If I only knew how to listen to my body earlier, life would have been easier.
If you are reading this, please do take some time to sit with yourself. Make it a habit.
It was very hard to be present with my physical and emotional body. Yet I trusted, persevered and I kept practicing yoga and ‘sitting with myself’. The path was tough.
I took one step at a time. I started to know myself better and why I was reacting to life in such an unhealthy way. Things started to look slightly better. For the first time in my life I was being compassionate with myself.
How Yoga supported me
Yoga provided me with a technique that guided me back into my body. I started to make peace with my pain and coming into a place of acceptance of whatever I went through. I saw every encounter, pleasant or unpleasant as an invitation for growth. I stepped out of being a victim and took full responsibility of my life.
From this empowered self and space of awareness, I quit my managerial safe job. A big, scary leap into the unknown. I trusted life and my heart so much that I took this risk. I was so connected to my purpose and to the desires of my heart that I overcame my fear of not being able to financially sustain my family. I decided that I would live a life that honoured the totality of who I am and what my purpose is. From teaching yoga as a part time, I was a full time yoga teacher.
I terminated my 17 year marriage because it was not supporting us into becoming the best version of ourselves. It was a tough decision that needed to be taken.
Change is never comfortable and the unknown is intimidating.
Nevertheless, throughout my life I have started to love and become intimate with the unknown. We think that we can plan and predict and anticipate, but this was all taken away from me. It taught me how to be in the present moment.
At this point in my life I am in love with myself. I am proud of the woman that I have become, I love my life, my children and I am in love to an amazing human being.
I changed because I listened to my body and took action of what needed to be transformed.
I substituted living in the outside world by stepping inside of my body. Within me, I found wisdom and abundance of love that I want to share with you.
I believe that we are always being guided; it is entirely up to us if we choose to see and feel or just go around being busy like headless chickens. If I did it, you can do it too. You can change. You have a gift to share with the world. Know yourself better and from the depths of your heart allow your gift to shine through every part of your being.
With Love,
Claire.
For those of you who are interested in my credentials, here they are:
I graduated in business management in 2001. I worked for 10 years as a Manager at the Malta Stock Exchange. Yet my inner calling led me towards the path of yoga and intuitive healing. I completed my yoga teacher training in 2007 with Kevala Institute and began teaching shortly thereafter. I obtained my 200hr in Kriya and Vinyasa yoga in 2013 and my 300hr in 2018. I completed my facilitation training in sexual awakening for women in 2018 from the Shakti Shiva Academy.
I am founder of Yoga Space Malta, a yoga studio, where I teach sacred sexuality, yoga and its philosophy through my classes, workshops and yoga retreats. Practicing yoga with me is a practice of transformation arising out of a direct outpouring of my own personal journey and transformation.
I am founder of Embodied Voyage, an online community that aims to support the practitioners on their Journey back home to the body.
If you are interested to be part of this community, you are welcome to join our Facebook group. A space of support with free Yoga classes, meditations, challenges and learning units created with the intention of guiding the practitioner into the stillness and wisdom of the body.
