Meet Your Guide
Hi, I’m Isabella.
I spent years becoming who I thought I had to be.
I arrived in this country at eighteen with a suitcase, a little English, and a secret.
I hated my body. I punished it in private and smiled in public. I was very good at smiling.
The first time I felt safe in my own skin, I was on a yoga mat in a stranger's living room. She was my boyfriend's mother, and she was healing her own shame. I came to keep her company. I stayed because, for one hour, I could breathe without apologizing for it.
I'd love to tell you that was the moment everything changed. It wasn't.
What came next took me years to say out loud. I made myself small so I would be chosen. I went quiet so I would be kept. I kept waiting for someone to rescue me, and some of the people I let in nearly took everything instead. I lost my father. I lost my home. There were nights in countries far from anywhere I belonged when I didn't recognize the woman I had become.
Some of that story I save for the rooms where it's safe to tell. What I'll say here is this: I didn't find my way back by being strong. I found it by finally being honest with myself.
I got sober. I started telling the truth on paper, then on the mat, then out loud. I learned to stay in my body when every part of me wanted to leave it. I learned that the versions of me I had built to earn love weren't broken. They had kept me alive. They just weren't me.
I'm still learning. That's the part no one puts on their website.
200hr RYT · Yin Yoga Certified · Integrative Nutrition Health Coach · Ceremonial Facilitator