Olga Borys

I’m a yoga and mindfulness instructor, handstand coach and a transformational guide.

 I’m a certified instructor with Yoga Alliance (RYT 200) and I’m currently in the process of getting certified in trauma sensitive yoga 300RYT at TCTSY (Trauma Center- Trauma Sensitive Yoga).

I believe that a teacher is also always a student so I am constantly reading, doing research and taking new trainings so that I can best serve all the folks I work with. Some of the other trainings that I’ve finished: Ashtanga Yoga TT with David Swenson (Triyoga,London), many hours assisting my former Ashatnaga Yoga teacher (Yoga Republic, Warsaw), workshops with teachers like David Robbson and Eddie Stern and Mindful Trauma-Informed TT at Yoga Medicine (Colorado, USA).

I believe that Yoga is for everyone and EVERY body, that’s why I teach in a way that’s accessible, inclusive and trauma informed. In my yoga classes the focus is on awareness (mindfulness) of our present moment experience and noticing the interplay of the inner & outer sensations from the body with the working of the mind, not on performing the “perfect poses”. Practicing yoga in mindful way may over time help us to gain a deeper understanding of who we really are, to gain a heightened sense of body awareness, cultivate compassion & empowerment and resilience. 

I’m very passionate about handstands and I love teaching them just as much as I do practicing! Practicing handstands has taught me how to leave my comfort zone and face my fears, which also shows up off the mat in my everyday life. They made me stronger, not only physically but also mentally. I am self taught and I strongly believe that anyone can learn if they just put their mind to it and practice!

I love animals and have been actively volunteering at the city’s Animal Shelter Paluch https://napaluchu.waw.pl/. I work with all the sick senior dogs and being a witness to their suffering isn’t easy, but I often feel like these dogs teach me way more than I can ever give them. Before the pandemic I was organising charity Yoga events to raise awareness and donations for all the doggy seniors of the shelter. If you are interested in becoming a volunteer or adopting a senior visit OUR INSTAGRAM.

I have been through a lot of trauma and hardship in my life, but I was also able to see the silver lining of it all and to make these difficult things my greatest teachers. I believe we all have the strength inside us to overcome and blossom after even the biggest tragedies, and that’s the reason why I decided to become a transformational guide- to assist others in discovering their own strength and healing potential. 

I lived trough my own dark night of the soul at the age of 23 when I almost died from an overdose. A couple months after that I left  NYC, the city I lived in for most of my life and made my way to start my new life in Poland. 

Starting a new sober life wasn’t easy but I knew it was my last chance. Years of therapy and NA meetings helped me see life from a different perspective. I realized that I was asking the wrong question all this time, it wasn’t about “what is wrong with me” but “what happened to me”!?! 

I realised that I didnt “act out” and become an addict because I chose to be “a bad person”, when things are missing in your childhood (neglect) or you experience things like abuse (emotional, physical or sexual) this puts you on a whole new life trajectory and the toxic stress you go through puts you at risk for things like addiction, toxic relationships, destructive behaviour and both physical & mental issues down the line. Which is what unknowingly happened to me #ComplexTrauma ( or some would call it Borderline Personality disorder but I dont like the stigma that goes with this label).

 I wasn’t “bad” inherently, my parents even though they had good intentions had their own trauma and I was just never taught how to self-sooth or how to deal with emotions and life. I lived in constant anxiety, fear and low self-esteem. I was an extremely sensitive child and it didnt help that at the age of 5 we moved from Poland to New York City. We kept moving around and I had 4 different elementary schools, always the new girl trying to fit in and make friends which was extremely difficult.

The first time I got drunk at 11 I thought I found the Holy Grail. I finally felt NORMAL for the first time! The anxiety and fear that I was trying to escape from, were instantly gone! Thats’s what substances did for me. They helped me to quiet my survival brain and feel calm and made it easier to connect to people, which as a teen was all that I wanted – to fit in and be accepted!

But like all addictions, what starts as a coping mechanism and self medicating after a while more and more consequences started appearing in my life but by then substances were a part of me – I didnt know who I was without them. And so I kept accumulating more and more pain and suffering from toxic relationships and traumatic experiences. It wasn’t until 10 years later when I ended up alone on the street and almost died from an overdose, that I realized I had to change my life or else it would be the end.

Thanks to therapy I was able to change my internal narratives and I understood what had happened to me “cognitively”. Thanks to AA and NA meetings I found a supportive community, I learned how to trust again and how to function in life without substances. But I still felt unsafe in my own body. I had intrusive thoughts, major anxiety and lived on constant high alert as if a tiger was lurking behind every corner (PTSD). I started to let go of the guilt and shame and was living a good life, but I still felt like there was something wrong with me.

I didnt start practicing Yoga to become enlightened, I wanted to stretch after the gym =) But before I knew it the practice started to change me from the inside out. It helped me to reconnect to my body and to start feel safe for the first time without substances. 

Yoga not only helped me get stronger and more flexible physically, but the practice also helped me become more resillient. I got in touch with my own inner self and found strength, which was turns out was always there. I started to face all the uncomfortable feelings and emotions that I learned to runaway from in early age as a coping mechanism, I finally for the first time in my life started to learn ways how to self-soothe my nervous system and to regulate my emotions. This was the start of the next chapter of my healing journey.

About a year or so into my yoga practice I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer, it was quite shocking and traumatising to say the least. But looking back now I think it was one of my greatest teachers and my body’s way of saying NO. NO to the way I had been living, NO to the supressing of emotions, NO to the people pleasing, NO to hurting myself, Not to self doubt, NO to thinking I was never good enough, NO to the NOT speaking my truth, NO to NOT being MYSLEF! I knew that if I wanted to live, I had to start taking agency over my life and to forgiveness and compassion for myself.

I quit my job as a kindergarten English teacher. And it wasn’t even that I hated it, kids were awesome! BUt my mom was a teacher you see, it wasn’t mine! I quit drinking (once again), I cleaned up my diet, cut off toxic people and started a mindfulness and meditation practice. 

This new found awareness of my internal states (interception) was a bit scary at first but also super insightful. I also began to realize that my thoughts were just thoughts, not necessarily reality. They just come and go as they please and I have no control over them. What I could control however, was the way I responded to them and to the emotions & sensations that arise in my body. That was my epiphany – no external thing could change what was inside me, the only thing that could change me was ME! The power was in me all along. 

I was forced into religion as a child and it wasn’t my thing but thanks to these practices I started connecting to life on a spiritual level. I realized that I wasn’t just this body, but something much much more. Call it what you call it; a soul, energy, quantum particles, loving awanress a consciousness… but knowing this somehow made difficult things in life seem not as scary, I found gratitude and faith that everything would turn out alright.

I started learning more and more about trauma and how it affects not only our minds, but also our whole body and spirit. How it affects us on an individual level and on a systemic & collective level. Humans are complex and there are many layers to our being.

Today I am 5 years cancer free and feel stronger and healthier at 40 years old than I ever did in my life! We all have this inner strength and innate healing capability, that is my message to you! 

Paths are many but the destination is the same. There are many different methods that can help us grow and start to heal. We are all different so what worked for me may not necessarily work for you. So wether we find healing through therapy, religion, dance, spirituality, yoga, meditation, running, animals, nature, meetings, or all of the above… all that matters is that it’s what we CHOOSE and that it vibrates with us. 

“No intervention that takes power away from the survivor can possibly foster her recovery, no matter how much it appears to be in her immediate best interest.” Judith Herman