Ciao! I’m Francesco, a yoga teacher and dad based in East London, UK.

I grew up in a small village by the sea in central Italy, moved to Milan in my late 20s and then to London. I told myself that I was moving around looking for more opportunities in the music industry but the truth is that I was just trying to make sense of my life. Even if moving to a foreign country with no plan and no money doesn’t sound like the smarter idea it turned out really well. For years I lived with very low self-worth, not taking care of my mental health and binge drinking to avoid reality but when I started to attend regularly yoga classes I started to see more clearly that a change needed to come from myself. At the beginning just moving the body and controlling the breath created a huge impact and helped me to stand on my feet again. Another very important aspect was the need to be around people in a completely different environment and it wasn’t just going to yoga classes that helped me but also changing the people around me in social life and work life. I’ll never stop being grateful for my years working at Mother cafe and hanging out with other musicians at Love Shack where I learned to be a new self without alcohol. 

The first yoga practice I got hooked on was Rocket Yoga, probably because of the teachers I met and the digestible sequence. I decided to deepen my knowledge and do a 200h in Asthanga Yoga. From there it has been a long journey, still ongoing, discovering my body and mind and the techniques that I can incorporate in my everyday life. I struggle to stay with a lineage and I keep on jumping from style to style and learning from different teachers to create my own recipe. I studied Rocket, Vinyasa, Yin, Katonah and explored movements outside the yoga world such as calisthenics and hand balancing. Lately I spend most of my time learning about the human brain.

The biggest lesson I learned from trying stepping up and taking care of myself is that it is an ongoing process and work. It’s like cleaning a house, you can’t expect that it stays clean, you have to do the things to keep it clean over and over or the dust and dirt will settle again. Practice on the mat is a small part and it’s the most simple and direct way I have to feel present in my body. The way I’m changing my mind is reflecting in the way I approach my everyday life (music, social interactions, parenting, being part of a system) and the time off the mat is feeding my practice on the mat. It is all woven together.