Natalie’s Journey
The poet David Whyte said, “What you can plan is too small for you to live”. I’ve come to realise how true this is, and what it takes to really surrender to life - to trust life enough to take you beyond the farthest capacities of your imagination - what you think you should do or what society tells us to do - and to land you right where you need to be.
I grew up in Scotland in the 80’s and 90’s and was caught up like many of us in the rise of consumerism. I always felt this strange sense of being polarised between two worlds - that of financial pressure, making money, succeeding, and that of simple bliss, joy and love of nature, adventure and existence. I went to study Philosophy and Economics at the London School of Economics to understand what makes both these aspects of being tick, and somehow found myself tussled into the corporate world - first in Finance then Technology, caught up in the waves and aftermath of the Credit Crunch. On some level I guess I needed to witness and learn what it was to have what I thought was a successful career.
I found myself around the age of 30 feeling utterly trapped and unsatisfied. Regardless of the comfortable lifestyle I could afford to live, I knew no promotion, no next vacation, no new restaurant could fulfil me. And it was all beginning to take its toll on my health, my mental wellbeing, and my relationships: I was already exhausted and there seemed to be no way out of the rat race.
I kept picturing sitting in a mountain monastary in Tibet somewhere and just craved peace. Since I was a teenager I’d had a part-time connection with yoga and meditation, and this felt like the time to really commit. I trained as a yoga teacher, a mindfulness meditation guide, and devoted myself to these practices. It quickly became my life and I quit my job to teach classes all over London and beyond.
Around that time, I began to become aware also of the harm we’re doing to the planet. I’d always known deep down, but now I was feeling and becoming much more conscious around it, and had a dark and difficult process of grieving around the extent of damage and destruction we’ve caused and set in motion. I became involved with activism, working with Extinction Rebellion as a coordinator to help raise awareness and create change. I sat on many zoom calls and I sat on roads, and I began to deeply reflect on my own views on what change could look like and how it could manifest. I listened, and learned and visited places like the Buddhist activist Thich Nhat Hahn’s monastary and was inspired by that work, and doubled down on practising the principles of non-violence, non-reactivity, and cultivating the power of my heart and mind.
Then Covid hit, and I lost all my work, couldn’t afford to stay in London, and anyway felt like I needed something deeply different - to be out in nature, on my own, and to surrender to where life wanted to take me. This was really the beginning of my journey into intuitive living. Not knowing where I’d end up from one day to the next - who I’d meet, where I’d be guided. And I followed what turned out to be a truly magical path from the tip of Cornwall to the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, visiting sacred sites, following ancient lines of energy and discovering people and places from past lives or that held great gifts and teachings for me.
I learned to trust this process. I came to know that regardless of the many trials that come with van living, that I would end up where I needed to be, when I needed to be there. And ultimately, I ended up in Peru, studying with my shaman and teacher Paul Diamond here at Tantraya, in the high Andean mountains. I’m discovering how to weave together all the trainings and integrate all the teachings I have received so I can share them in a unique and powerful way.
It takes a certain degree of wisdom and insight to understand how to blend Buddhist, Taoist, Western Magickal, shamanic, yogic and contemporary western herbal systems together in a way that genuinely makes sense and is effective for people, but this is what I am uncovering, and excited to be able to share.
The path continues, and with better tools and guidance I keep working with these same themes and going deeper and growing stronger in these areas.
It takes strength, courage, and some emotional resources and skills to surrender to life, to let it take you on a journey down the rabbit hole into great magic, and freedom, and power. Into our rightful place in harmony with this world. This is what I want to facilitate for you. So that each of us can come into natural alignment with existence. So that we can all thrive - you, me, and all the other beings on this beautiful planet.
Selected trainings and accreditations
Traditional Chinese Medicine energy healing and Ritual and Ceremonial Magick Programs, Tantraya (ongoing)
1000hrs+ Yoga Teacher Trainings across different styles
Delivering Mindfulness Meditation to Others 100hrs, YogaCampus
Long Course Secular Buddhism, Bodhi College and Mindfulness Retreat, Plum Village
Pilates Instructor and REPS Level 3 Personal Trainer, Discovery Learning
Vitalist Herbal Practioner Program and Alchemical Herbalism Programs, School of Evolutionary Herbalism
Health Coach Certification, IIN Institute for Integrative Nutrition
Thai Massage Course, Tantraya
Raynor Massage Course, Raynor College
NLP Practitioner, The Brain People
BSc (Hons) Philosophy and Economics, London School Economics