Joanna Gilbert Yoga

10/09/2025

27/08/2025

My nervous system was frazzled.

Yep - even as a yoga teacher doing all the things I ‘should’ I was the kind of person who ran from one thing to the next, constantly changing hats and with a never ending to do list.

I remember flat out passing out in yoga classes, of course with no idea my nervous system was so fried, I just knew I felt better after svasana.

Looking back I feel like I’d have burnt myself out if it wasn’t for the forced stop of covid that brought the world to rest. You only realise how fast you’re running when you stop.

During this time I connected with olive trees and spring flowers, I danced in community, and nourished the flame of a new love. I begun deepening into Osteo-Thai bodywork and experienced deeply dropping into the soma (the felt body). My saving grace in this time was touch, movement, breath and the great outdoors.

Little did I know it but I was diving deep into nourishing my nervous system, regulating it daily in a way I’d never had space for.

My question for you is, do you realise your holding your breath until I remind you to breathe? Do you realise your shoulders a squeezed tight and jaw clenched? Do we notice we are walking around braced for a fight to protect ourselves?

Exploring the nervous system has changed my life, my body, my sleep, my food choices, my relationships… it’s a muscle to nourish and train, it’s a whole relationship on its own.

At UNFURL NYE retreat and I dive into the nervous system and tools to regulate it, practices to nurture it.

Let’s enter 2026 together with less stress, less pressure, and more possibilities, love and joy!

Interested to join us? Comment UNFURL!

26/08/2025

Captured in action by 🧡

Loving teaching yoga, sharing movement, bring community together at the beach this summer!

I checked and my WhatsApp group opened 20th Feb 2022 - so that’s over 3 years sharing yoga through all the seasons at Badalona beach.

Grateful to everyone who’s been to class and especially those who have stuck with me through the years.

Excited for September energy and feeling creativity flowing this year! Watch this space for new offerings, retreats, women’s circles and more!

18/08/2025

Women are powerful, we know it in our bones, we have the capacity to create. We birth consciousness into existence. Nothing short of magic.

Have you ever asked yourself why we were burnt? Labelled as evil? Or pushed into the background to be admired and not heard? Our power has been tamed and feared.

The system thrives off our disempowerment and division. We learn to judge one another and pitch ourselves against one another, rather than thrive from collaboration and support.

This wasn’t always how it was, women in tribes were the respected elders and the wisdom keepers.
Women gathered in red tents or meeting spaces to share wisdom, to honour their cycles, to support one another through life’s stages and trials.

We had our own pace and space to honour our wild power as women.

These days we struggle in the race to do it all, to be a good daughter, mother, friend, to build our careers to do everything in time, to hold it all at once, and to keep up with the patriarchal system.

For me women’s circles have been a chance to remember my power and essence of being a women. To move my hips, to feel my body, to allow the primal sounds and screams to release, and to come home to myself.

Women’s circles have offered me non hierarchical spaces to share wisdom, to learn and to listen. They have taught me about honouring my cycle instead of holding shame for my blood.

Women’s circles have cracked open my eyes and heart to how we can rise together and support one another’s visions and dreams. To see each woman as both a unique sister and yet a mirror with a vivid reflection.

From September I will be holding monthly women circles at Moonlight studio. The sessions are themed and yet the flow of the circle is determined by us all.

The first circle is on 6th September and is on ‘Heart Connection’. A chance to meet one another and to learn to tap into sharing from our heart spaces. To open our throat chakra, the space of communication, and join our voices in sound.

We will move our bodies in rhythm, we will write and reflect on where our hearts have been blocked or closed in connection, and we will see where else the circle flows.

I hope to see you there!

14/08/2025

As a yoga teacher I often get asked if I practice yoga every day.

If you’re talking about the physical asana practice of yoga, then believe it or not… the answer is no! And I definitely don’t do a 60 minute flow when I do get to the mat! More often you would find me laying on the ground having a roll around, yawning, or putting on my favourite playlist and having a shake.

In the early days I wish someone had reiterated to me how unimportant it is to commit to a long daily practice, and to focus on committing to any practice at all. That can simply be waking up for a 5 min meditation in bed or a 10 min stretch. 15 minutes daily commitment is 100 x more beneficial than once in a blue moon full yoga practice.

I can’t tell you the amount of times I set my early alarm with good intentions to jump out of bed before my office job (in the London days) and I would snooze, and snooze, until it was ‘too late to do anything now’. I would spend the rest of the day feeling guilty for not getting up and the next day the cycle began again. Sound familiar?!

These days, the alarm only rings when it’s really necessary, otherwise I listen to my body and allow her to take the rest she needs (this is yoga). When I wake up I check in with myself and see where I’m at in my cycle, I listen to what my body needs to feel aligned, connected and alive. Some mornings this is slow gentle candle lit meditations, others it’s a sweaty gym class with pumping music! Other days it’s a sunrise walk at the beach or writing morning pages, and sometimes it’s getting on my mat for yoga.

All of this is yoga. Yoga means to unite or to become whole again and find a sense of peace within, to stop the internal war (know what I’m talking about?!)

Ahimsa means non-violence, meaning to have compassion and practice self love in the choices we make and how we treat our body from the inside out.

Asteya means truthfulness, for me this means showing up with authenticity and truthfully choosing each moment what honours your body.

Based on this, yes I practice yoga all day every day 😅

How does your daily 'yoga' look??

12/08/2025

The best New Years Eve I ever had was in silence.

I was in the middle of a 10 day silent retreat at Hridaya yoga in Mazunte, and we sat in meditation from 6am until 1am the next morning. We meditated with the turning of the year for almost every time zone, sending love, metta, and energy all around the world.

At the strike of 00:00 we could hear the fireworks exploding outside, the sounds of celebration, and we sat in silence, stillness. I have never felt so ecstatic. My heart exploding with love and joy and yet there was no need to do anything, no need to be anywhere, just sitting in the ecstasy of love and the sound of silence.

Around 7th January we came out of silence and began responding to new year wishes 😂 !

There was no pressure to be setting intentions and making big changes for the year to come. There was no need to make plans that often hold high expectations and can disappoint. There was no anxiety over doing something special for ‘just another night of the year’.

Instead I was held in retreat, with others who also had chosen to be there in the comfort of community, with the intention to consciously move into the new year in the way we wanted to move through the year.

Last year many people I spoke to were craving a different way to celebrate the new year, to step outside the norm, and yet to be together.

This is how the idea of UNFURL was born. A New Year Retreat offering:

🧡 The opportunity to make this time of year sacred and enter a new cycle in ritual - without the urgency
⭐️ Practices to honour yourself and your own sacred rhythm - without the pressure to do and to be
🌙 A space to come together with community - to gently reflect and celebrate

Early bird pricing is available until 22nd September! Would you like to know more? Comment NYE for more information and booking details!

01/08/2025

This one deserves a place on the grid.

What do you see here?

I see a woman being celebrated, I see a woman being seen and adored. I see a woman who is empowered by that adoration that it’s ok to take up space.

I also see the little girl who was full of nerves to walk down a catwalk with a photographer at the end. I see the girl who learnt through the magazine, tv and pop culture that her body wasn’t ‘perfect’, that she needed to beautify herself and lose weight to be accepted and loved. I see the girl grasping for validation.

Both of these version of me are here and I am welcoming them both to have a space and a voice.

I’m learning to love and nurture the little girl rather than punish and scold.

I’m leaning into the courage it takes to step up into the big shoes with responsibilities of a woman.

There were big lessons this last festival, but the essence was to allow myself to be seen, and from there receive. Receive appreciation, receive love, receive the holding I deserve. To step down from doing and pushing and always holding others and allow myself to be seen and held.

I see this transformation in this photo. So it deserved a place on the grid to be seen and appreciated.

Thank you for the 📷 and thank you for the space to play and celebrate love 👰 🤵

29/07/2025

A snapshot of a very full July! It’s a good sign when there’s not so many photos to choose as I’ve had my phone away and been in the moment.

From starting July with my mum on the north east coast of England, to camping in the Catalonian mountains. Sunset drinks with and cuddles with Lulu. Cycling the canals of Amsterdam with and eating Dutch fries, to love angel-ing at the festival in a castle.

Grateful for this journey of life and all the lessons that come. Welcoming in a quieter August and time to enjoy beach time, friends visiting and coming home from India! ❤️ ☀️

23/06/2025

Grateful for this man who entered my life 5 years and 3 months ago.

I look at this photo and I don’t just see the fun and colour, I see the journey we have navigated together since the day we met.

I remember the exciting beginnings of new romance with an exotic Latino man, as the world was collapsing with lockdowns. I remember the joy of discovering the world again together when we could leave the gates of Suryalila. I remember the moments in community with friends, and solitary moments up mountains as he guided me to unknown heights and adventures.

I see the confusion and fear when my heart was so afraid to open up to this man who had shown up to love and hold me. And his persistence to stay around and crack me open, allowing me to trust again.

I remember the highs of festivals, world travels, new experiences and so much delicious food. I remember the lowest lows when he held me through loss and aches that my heart and body had never known before.

I see the challenges of an international, multilingual relationship with parents and family all around the globe. Yet I see the magic and all I’ve learnt from this too, as my mind opened to new cultures and languages. I am reminded that despite the challenges we are still doing this, showing up for each other and committing every day to love.

I see in this photo the past, the present and our future, and for that in grateful and proud beyond words.

09/06/2025

TW on body image.

A big theme for me and for many women around me is body image issues. What does this mean exactly?

Well it means having an issue with how our body looks. Thinking whatever we have is too big too small, too tall, too hairy, wrong colour etc etc.

I know that men have their own body image stories coming up but I’m talking from the perspective of a woman in the western world.

Why have so many of us ended up with such strong aversion and judgements of our bodies? Well… on one side it keep us small. Scared. Hiding… until the day we feel perfect (which obviously will never come as the perfect we strive for is unreachable).

We had projected images of airbrushed, touched up, impossibly skinny women through all sorts of media from so young (look at the shape of Barbie for gods sake). We are taught to idolise unattainable perfection.

We watch mothers, sisters, friends, look in the mirror and try to touch up, make up, hide or dream up different versions of themselves.

And so, we learn. However we look, it’s not quite perfect.

I am on the lifelong journey of unlearning. The revolution of self love. The statement of being different in a society that thrives on us fitting in and being the same.

I share all this because recently I was asked to do a photoshoot for and this brought up so many fears and stories. I didn’t want to show my ‘imperfect’ body through the camera lense.

Anyway, the day came and went. I bought a new outfit I felt comfortable in and I didn’t hate the experience. In fact I am inspired to do more. To face my body, to see my imperfectly perfect flaws, to embrace how I look and all the stories this body holds.

This vessel we are in is a friggin magical wonderous gift that we have the chance to experience life with. How sad to be kept quiet an small for fear of our body being seen.

So I continue on with my body revolution. Learning to love and showing up with pride.

📷 .photo 📍

13/05/2025

Just 5 spots left to join the next Kombucha workshop!

Kombucha = a fermented tea with many health benefits!

🗓️ When - Sunday 25th May 10-11:30

📍 Where -

❓ What - learn more about what is kombucha, what are the many health benefits e.g. supporting gut health/ boosting the immune system/ providing antioxidants.
Also leave knowing ho to make it yourself!

➕ Includes - your own baby scoby (for a lifetime of kombucha supply), a coffee at AO, a PDF ‘how to guide’, and spend a lovely Sunday morning with the Badalona community!

Get in touch to save your space!

11/04/2025

I have a video from 2018 on a visit to Barcelona. I’m with Lucian on the beach, full of so much love and excitement for life.

With enthusiasm and 100% belief in myself I say… ‘one day I’m going to live here in Barcelona and teach yoga at the beach’. I also said I’d live with Lucian too (which we did at the start).

Now, although it’s Badalona (which I prefer), here I am teaching yoga on the beach for the last 3 years. It’s not always easy to continue to make the effort to show up, to do the marketing, to create from scratch again. But when I remember that this was the dream and now I’m here… it gives me the inspiration to continue. To keep believing and creating.

Especially as women, and women running creative business, we can always look at what else we need to do, where we are heading, what we are manifesting next, how to be more successful… but today my reminder is stop and look back at where we have come from.

To take a breath, look around, give ourselves a pat on the back, and enjoy what we have created and what we are living!

Happy Friday my loves - see you tomorrow at the beach for yoga by the sea!