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Today it is our privilege to bring you an interview with Yoga Teacher, Andrea Megale. We discuss the benefits that finding and practicing Yoga brought to Andrea’s mentality, her approach to finding balance between priorities in different areas of life, her tips on how to follow our passion and much more…

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How did your passion for Yoga begin and develop?
In 2005 I used to live in London and had a very demanding job working as an architect. I used to be constantly anxious, suffering from insomnia, always feeling tired and on the edge.

That is why I decided to start practicing yoga.

How have you transformed your passion for health and fitness into a successful business/career?
I actually didn´t plan it. I just fell in love with Ashtanga Yoga at first sight, or you can say at first class. I started to practice first 2 days and then 6 days a week, even though my working hours were silly.

It was just few months later that I started to practice with the lady that would become my teacher, my mentor and Guru.

She suggested, because she noticed my interest and dedication, that I did a Yoga Teacher Training. I used to have many questions for her after the classes, till one day she told me: “Andrea, why don’t you do a teacher training?”

I remember looking at her wide opened and seriously surprised –

“Me?? But I am an architect. I have my career. “

To what she replied: “But are you happy, Andrea?”

This was the moment that I realized that the seed was there.

I just started practicing to live a better and healthier life.

I had no idea in how this was going to change my life. Forever.

I started to study but at first, thinking that it was only to learn more.

Just as the transformations due the practice became so intense in my life, I realized that I could help others to achieve the same.

That is how it started. I moved back to Brazil to live in my farm and started teaching one to one classes, and small groups.

What advice would you give to someone who is demotivated or doesn’t know where to start with getting into sport and fitness?

People tend to wait to get things done, wait for the big revelation, for the big moment, or next Monday, or next month.

All you need is discipline and dedication. With that you find time, you get inspired, you get motivated.

Discipline goes from your time schedule to your diet. It is not only having an idea of how you would do or will achieve something.

Are there any people, books, or experiences that you would be willing to share with us that have really helped shape your mentality?

My teacher Aruna was a huge inspiration for me. She was Indian, trained with one of the biggest names on the Ashtanga Yoga tradition. But she never got big headed by it, opposite; she taught me I could be humble and tough, strong, but kind. It was a type YTT that doesn’t exist any longer.

We would go from many aspects of the practice and psychological challenges that would appear through the process. We would talk about a diet, right food and wrong food for the practice, and how everything will change out of the mat too.

I always been a healthy person, but for the type of response I wanted and needed from my body and mind, I had to really take care of it.

Again, commitment and discipline come along. You change, your goals change, the people around you change.

The book Light on Yoga by B.K.S. Iyengar and The Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramhansa Yogananda are two main books that also inspired and still inspire me. Among others, the list would be huge….

What’s your approach to finding balance between your priorities in different areas of your life?

I teach here in the farm, where I live, and keep my one to one students locally only, or to the very distant ones, I teach via video classes.

My priorities are my family and my teachings and practice, doing like that, keeping all close I can balance practicing, teaching and enjoying my family and rescued pets here in the farm.

My social life is mild, I am teetotal, I wake up early, I go bed early and for years, I found this balance.

My priority is keep myself healthy, if my body AND mind are healthy, I can keep everything above functioning well.

What’s some advice that you would give to yourself 10 years ago now if you could?

Just live the present moment – you don´t live in the past any longer, and you can´t reach the future.

So, worry less. Live here and now.

What advice would you give to someone who is trying to take their passion for health and fitness, or anything else, and turn it into a successful business/ career?

Be prepared to be yourself, to work hard, and really live the lifestyle that you are showing or promoting. You can´t be everything for everyone.

You can be extremely gifted, but if you don´t focus, and prepare yourself for the work, the gift fades very quickly.

Choose whom you associate yourself with, and choose carefully, which brands you might represent.

What are you goals and plans for the future?

I co-wrote a book last year, about yoga and meditation.

I have an idea for a new book inside my mind for a while already…Let´s see how it would develop.

And I also want to start teaching children.

They are the future, and I do believe that the more yogis and yoginis out there, the world would be a much better place.

Instagram: @andreamegale.yoga