support Felicity's dream to become certified as a QOYA teacher to help women become Wise Wild & Free
Support my dream of becoming certified as a QOYA movement teacher so I can share the profound gift of this beautiful practice with women.
Auckland
QOYA is a movement practice for women, created by Rochelle Schieck, that brings together yoga, sacred movement, dance, breathwork, meditation, community, ritual, ceremony and more.
QOYA classes are based on the simple idea that through movement we remember.
We remember as women that our essence is Wise, Wild and Free.
Wise: calling on the wisdom of yoga.
Wild: the creative expression in dance.
Free: expanding our capacity to enjoy being in our bodies through feminine movement.
---
WHY I NEED YOUR HELP
I am absolutely passionate about QOYA and have been dedicated to training this year to become a certified QOYA teacher. I want to spread and share this amazing movement practice with as many women as possible.
My big dream is to offer special QOYA classes to women who have gone through a miscarriage. I want to offer them a way to embody their grief on their healing journey the way QOYA helped me with my grief.
I thought official certification was a far off dream as the trainings are always held overseas and, with a new baby, a trip to the USA is definitely only a dream!
But I found out a few weeks ago that there was a very small possibility the founder of QOYA, Rochelle Schieck, could be coming to NZ for a one time training. There was no indication of dates or price. A few days ago it was confirmed, which feels like an absolute dream come true.
The 17 spots available have all been taken by my fellow NZ QOYA teachers. I have managed to get some money together to put down a deposit to secure my space, but time is not on my side and I need a miracle to pay the full amount by January.
Without much warning this training would happen, the downside is Mike and I have had no time to put money aside and what savings we have are for Baby West's arrival and covering my maternity leave. We have been listing things on Trade Me to start rounding up some funds but time is running out.
After sharing the joy of QOYA with many wonderful women in my community I now get ONE chance at the start of next year to become a certified QOYA teacher when Rochelle comes to NZ. I will teach a full QOYA class to Rochelle and my fellow students and deepen my knowledge of the movement practice during my time with her. I am so ready for this!
---
COSTS: (subject to exchange rate fluctuation as payment is made via a USA website):
$2535 NZD (3 x payments of $845)
Tuition cost covers:
Intensive Tuition for the training
7 x nights accommodation
3 x meals a day
---
WHY AM I SO PASSIONATE?
QOYA found me during the darkest time of my life when I had a miscarriage in January 2016. I was at my bleakest, most hopeless point when Samar, the bodywork therapist I was seeing, suggested a QOYA class, which she was also a certified teacher of.
I did my first class online and it was the absolute turning point in my healing. Things didn't get better overnight, but I was back in my body for the first time in weeks. I started attending monthly real life classes and each time I did I was no longer numb.
QOYA is what pulled me out of depression during this time. I have done QOYA classes and my own home practice all the way through my miscarriage, recovery and then the conception and pregnancy of our precious rainbow baby, who I am now blessed to be carrying.
This baby is absolutely a QOYA baby and has been along for the ride on this journey with me. I truly believe that without this practice, I would never have been able to heal the emotional wounds and grief of losing our first baby to allow the hope and faith to come into my life to get pregnant again.
--
QOYA TRAINING & A BABY!
While this is an absolute blessing that QOYA founder Rochelle is coming all the way here, the timing isn't the greatest. Our rainbow baby is due January and the training is February 27th to March 6th, 2017.
While my incredible husband Mike has been so supportive of my journey through miscarriage and my dream to finally be certified in QOYA, we simply do not have the funds to cover my training with the baby due so soon.
If I can attend the training, Mike is going to come with me to offer support with our baby while I complete the final requirements to become a full QOYA teacher. I have the support of my own QOYA teacher Samar along with the women I am attending the training with to balance my role as a mother and complete the requirements of the course.
My deepest wish is that I don't have to give up my dream of becoming a certified QOYA teacher when QOYA is such a huge part of why I am blessed to be pregnant again.
Asking for help is not something I am very good at, but I realise that it is something I must do in order to not give up on being certified as a QOYA teacher.
I am so blessed to get this second chance at motherhood, but I am also blessed to be able to bring this incredible practice to women in my community. I hope to continue to spread this important work to as many women as possible and to model directly to my child what an empowered, embodied women is like.
--
WHY IS QOYA SO INCREDIBLE?
I have shared the gift of QOYA with many women I've met through my yoga teaching and my heart and soul is lit up by this practice and holding space for women to move freely and simply enjoy being in their bodies.
In QOYA, we focus less on how it looks and more on how it feels. There's no beginner, intermediate or advanced levels because there's just one level and that is when it feels good you're doing it right.
QOYA encourages a shift from seeking external validation on how you move and the tendency of waiting for correction or praise to see if you are "doing it right" to a place where you reclaim the innate ability to move the way that you want to move and feel a sense of inner validation that the fact that it feels good in your body is enough.
As a yoga teacher, during my miscarriage I stepped away from teaching classes as I couldn't find a way to navigate the grief I was experiencing while holding space for others.
With QOYA it was different, I could show up for other women and at the same time feel and acknowledge where I was at emotionally.
>> Qoya invites new ways of being to be expressed as a woman in her life.
>> Ways we can build our strength: physical, mental, emotional, spiritual.
>> Ways we can be flexible: not only in our hamstrings, but in the flow of our day.
>> Ways we can be agile: like a child who falls down and gets right back up.
>> Ways we can savor: an exhale that takes us into a hip circle of remembering the gift of being a woman.
>> Ways we can love and honor: what is — as it is — and still dare to dream bigger dreams.
---
You can read more about QOYA on the website:
---
To experience the joy of a QOYA class for yourself, try one of the free moment videos offered by Rochelle:
http://www.qoya.love/movement-videos/
---
Elephant Journal published two pieces on my experience of a 7 week long miscarriage. It was my hope to share this so other women didn't feel so alone:
http://www.elephantjournal.com/2016/01/coping-with-miscarriage-why-i-refuse-to-suffer-in-silence/
http://www.elephantjournal.com/2016/03/patience-faith-surrender-my-7-week-miscarriage/
Other page links
Latest update
We did it! I am officially a QOYA teacher 7 March 2017
Hello dearest friends & family!
My heart is just exploding with joy after a week immersed in Qoya while attending the NZ Qoya Teacher Training Intensive with 20 other incredible, inspiring, soulful women - including the woman who birthed Qoya into the world, Rochelle Schieck, and the woman who brought Qoya into my world, Samar Ocean Wolf Ciprian. So much gratitude to these pioneering women who fully embody the idea that through movement we remember that our essence is Wise ~ Wild ~ Free.
I could not have made it to this training without your generous donations and your belief in me to follow this huge dream!!! Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Most of you know that I gave birth to our beautiful daughter Oriah Livia West on 23rd January. As life always has twists and turns, I needed an emergency C section which certainly was an extra curve ball in regards to being physically able to attend this training!
Oriah turned 5 weeks old on the first day we gathered and with a body that was still feeling weakened and sore as I healed, I simply took each day as it came and listened to what my body needed. By the last day of our intensive after 18 Qoya classes, many rituals and workshops, long days starting at 7am and ending 10pm and a newborn baby needing my care (and meaning not much sleep) I am happy to share just how much stronger I am feeling emotionally and physically from the experience. Qoya is more than just a workout (although you certainly do move your body and sweat if you want to!). It has nourished my heart, my mind, my womb and my soul.
Oriah was a dream and, with the help of her Daddy Michael, I was able to balance being a Mother and being a Qoya teacher. She seemed to soak up the energy of all the Qoya ladies who welcomed and initiated her into the sisterhood of being a women. She is one very blessed little girl :-)
In the words of Rochelle herself "We gathered together in Auckland, New Zealand for the last week. On one level ~ for the Qoya Teacher Training Intensive. On another level ~ to remember our essence and co-create a container where there is space and encouragement to learn, grow, grieve and celebrate like an old soul family reunion."
My deepest thanks to every single one of you for supporting this wild dream of mine. I send you blessings, gratitude and love.
City (Felicity) xo
Latest donations
Thank you PIp for giving these classes a go and for supporting me with this fundraising for my training. I a so looking forward to dancing with you again next year. Sending love, hugs and big thanks xo
Thank you so much for your support and for supporting my fundraising! So amazing having cousins from so far away supporting me. Much love and gratitude xo
Thank you for your words of support and for kindly donating to my training! So glad we got to cross paths. If you ever feel moved to, I would LOVE you to come to a Qoya class next year when I'm back teaching. Sending love and hugs x
Thank you so much Peta. I am so humbled by the support from people who I've had connections with from such a long time ago. Much gratitude for your support on this next leg of my journey! Big hugs x
Thank you so much for sending love and support from afar. Your donation is so appreciated :-) Many thanks and blessings xo
Who's involved?
Page Q&A
Ask a question hereAny concerns?
Report this pageThank the donor
Your message will be displayed on the page and emailed to the donor.
Your new message will also be emailed to the donor.
Saving a blank entry will delete the current comment.