A Little About me
I'm Carly (she/her), I'm a mama, writer, yoga teacher, circle facilitator, menstrual mentor and rewilding advocate and I live for all things wild & cyclical.
As a certified Hatha, meditation, Well Woman Yoga Therapy, Restorative, Pregnancy & Yoga Nidra teacher, I offer wild and cyclical practices and circles for women of all ages, life stages and cycle phases.
I've lived all over and now live in a caravan full of cactuses in the Buckinhamshire countryside with my husband Josh, a writer & silversmith and our daughter, Dolores.
I love sunrise and tea, dancing and dogs, cactuses, birds, music and books.
I've shared a little portion of my story below and I can't wait to hear yours.
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Photos: @primalembrace
Why I do What I do...
From addiction to obsession
Before I discovered yoga I was in survival mode. I went from work to sleep to work and from addiction to obsession looking for something I felt was missing in places I would never find it.
My first yoga class in an East London gym cracked through the barriers I'd had up for a lifetime and as I sat there cry laughing in confusion I knew I was close to that something that was missing but it wasn’t until I left London for a simpler and safer life in the countryside and re-established a relationship to myself and to nature that I remembered what it was.
It found me on a mountaintop
I still remember the exact moment I found myself again. Sat at the peak of a mountain in the Lakes I closed my eyes and sat quietly for a while. When I opened them again the mist parted, the expansive panoramic view opened up before me and I remembered what it was to be free. That precise moment changed the course of my life.
For 5 years I opened up boxes I'd locked away and with each unfolding story and its accompanying cascade of physical and emotional pain I discovered new ways to cope: yoga, meditation, restorative, yoga nidra, therapy, journaling, the forest, the ocean, the mountains and then eventually the most medicinal of them all...
A circle of women
I remember being completely terrified the first time I sat in circle, I had no idea what to expect, I was terrified of speaking in a group and had always had tricky relationships with groups of women (girl gang school vibes) but it was completely transformative and healing in ways I could never have anticipated and changed the course of my life's work completely.
I am not a natural feeler. I have always run from challenging emotions given half a chance and if left unchecked still catch myself trying to! Women's circles helped me connect to my emotions, reminded me how important it is to feel fully and offered the space for my stories to be heard, held and healed.
I started offering gatherings that I called wild yoga but no 'yoga' ever happened. We just sang, shared, cried and danced under the moonlight.
The crash and burn
I kept opening boxes and I kept finding new ways to run from their contents and then at 29 years old my body gave up on me. After years of trying to contain and suppress my stories and pain through addictions and obsessions I found myself in bed exhausted, swollen joints, in excruciating pain and unable to move.
It took 3 years to recover and a huge part of that journey was learning to live a slower, more cyclical life that honoured the rhythms of nature and my body. And so Moon Forest Flow as born: a wild and cyclical approach life and practice.
The recovery
Yoga, nidra, nature, circles and Menstrual Cycle Awareness have helped me to integrate trauma, heal anxiety, ride the waves of moods and emotions, recover from addiction and eating disorders, heal period pain and continue to support me in learning how to break habitual patterns, open my heart, make peace with my mind and live in my body.
Yoga, nidra, nature, circles and Menstrual Cycle Awareness have helped to heal my body and mind in ways I had never thought possible. These practices have taught me to take a stand for rhythm, to feel the rumble of rage pulsing through the earth and our bodies and reject any expectation of consistency, predictability and infinite resource. In the forests, on the mat and in circle I have been shown how to truly live from a place of simplicity, congruency and connection and to honour my wild and cyclical nature.
A homecoming
Bringing yoga, women and nature together feels like a homecoming.
I want nothing more than for every woman and every person with periods to know their worth, reclaim their body as their own and be empowered with the body literacy they deserve to live a life of freedom.
If you're here and you're feeling drawn to these offerings then welcome! I can't wait to meet you.
Carly x
'Yoga is not a workout, it is a workin. And this is the point of spiritual practice; to make us teachable; to open up our hearts and focus our awareness so that we can know what we already know, be who we already are.'
~ Rolf Gates
My Approach
When it comes to yoga I love to work hard, play hard and rest incredibly hard!
Some days I like to sweat, dance, roll around on the floor, laugh, cry, try things I don't think I can do, explore things I love and liberate myself from the confines of structure and form to invoke feelings of freedom and wildness.
I also love to explore challenge as I feel yoga can reveal to us that we are capable of so much more than we think we are and helps to challenge self-limiting beliefs. And challenge doesn't always need to be hard work, some days the greatest challenge is to surrender to what we truly need.
My Intention
My intention is to invite the exploration of the many individual pathways to freedom and wildness through movement, self enquiry, meditation, breath, community and of course deep rest!!
Autonomy is also really important to me so in my classes I try not to tell you what to do either and instead seek to use permissive, invitational language that invites you to discover how your wild animal body wants to move and feel in each and every moment.
I Offer: Wildness
I offer movement inspired by our wild nature; playful, spontaneous, fluid, cyclical, rhythmic and self-guided and regularly weave stories, themes and ideas from daily life and nature into the practices. My approach is very much rooted in the modern day whilst also drawing inspiration from, honouring and respecting the rich lineage and traditions of these practices.
I Choose: Honesty
I choose to bring the truth of how I feel to each and every class because I truly believe the more human we can be with each other, the easier it becomes for us to be human.
Please read my Inclusivity and Diversity page to learn about my commitments in terms of how I show up as a teacher.
Music
And finally music is a huge part of my life and therefore my classes, I am a musician, music lover and worked in London in the music industry for years before becoming a yoga teacher. My playlists are diverse and eclectic seeking influence from rock, folk, blues, soul, gospel, dance music, Indian classical, world, fusion and more.
'For me yoga is all about feeling, about being intuitive, authentic and true to yourself. I can’t take someone else's coat and think that I will ever be truly comfortable by squeezing myself into it. I prefer to rip up the best bits of all the coats that I like and tailor them into an absolutely perfect fit for myself. That is how I practice and that is how I teach. I encourage everyone to make their own coats, I don’t want them to try and wear mine but I’m happy to give them a needle, thread and some fabric if it helps.'
~ Dan Peppiatt, Yoga Like Water
Photo: @ellieblack.jpg
Accreditation
Training
I completed my 200-hour Yoga Alliance Registered Yoga & Meditation Teacher Training course through my local training provider, Whitespace Yoga, in June 2016. Since then I have taken the training courses below and am committed to always learning, developing and growing.
Certification and Experience
Certification
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200-hour Yoga Teacher Training at Whitespace Yoga Studio ~ March 2015-June 2016
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Introduction to Yoga Nidra and iRest with Restful Being ~ October 2016
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Teaching Vinyasa Flow with Dawn Wright at Whitespace Yoga Studio ~ January 2017
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Well Woman Yoga Therapy Course with Uma Dinsmore-Tuli ~ November 2017
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Total Yoga Nidra Immersion with Nirlipta Tuli ~ January 2018
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Healing Early Developmental Trauma Through the Body with Ralf Marzen ~ October 2019
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Restorative Yoga Teacher Training 50 Hours with Deborah Berryman at Whitespace Yoga Studio ~ December 2019
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Pregnancy Yoga Teacher Training at Whitespace Yoga Studio with Dawn Wright ~ October 2020
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Professional BSY Holistic Fertility Therapy Diploma ~ 2021 pending
Mentoring & Study
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Mentoring and workshops with my mentor and guide Naseem Khakoo
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Wild Power Course with Red School and TreeSisters ~ February - April 2018, Online
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Menstrual Cycle Awareness practice since 2012, cycle tracking since 1999, Menstrual Cycle Awareness Mentoring since 2018
A Note on Certification...
As fellow Menstrual Cycle Awareness advocate, Vickie Williams, once said. 'I'm a woman, that's my training' and I wholeheartedly agree. I also live and breathe this work each and every day of my life. My menstrual cycle is the foundation from which the rest of my life grows and flows. I have facilitated women's circles since 2016, regular Well Woman Yoga classes since 2017 and have seen many women 1-1 over the years in my Menstrual Mentoring sessions which over time has exposed me to the goldmine of many different experiences of menstruation and the menstrual cycle.
Some of the best teachers, healers, facilitators and musicians I've ever met are the ones that are self-taught. I believe wholeheartedly in trusting a person and their innate skills and passions over a certificate, particularly because often the people with a lot of innate skill and passion don't have the resources to train as training is expensive! I have a vision that some day we'll be able to pass yoga on through mentorship for free like the old days and sack off all this officialdom.
