The problem with being self employed is that there is nobody to tell you "No," or "We need approval from the Management Committee" or "Fill in this project form and wait to hear back." All I have to go on is my heart, my head and my gut and sometimes my gut screams "YES! DO IT DO IT DO IT!" and my heart joins in and my head doesn't do anything to stop them, so I just go with it.
Being a yoga teacher means that you are always trying to be in tune with how things feel in your body, so if I have an idea and everything feels just right, then I go with it, very quickly.
This is one of those ideas.
As I hope you know, I've always tried to use my small business and small amount of influence to do good. Recently I worked with lots of other local small businesses and raised over £2,000 for the DEC and Red Cross, and have since raised a small amount for Unicef.
I've been getting involved in Facebook groups for people who are hosting Ukrainian families locally, even though we haven't space ourselves to fit anyone in. Through one of the groups I was introduced to a young man who wanted some paid work during half term. I asked him to translate my yoga adventure picture into Ukrainian and he did it within a few days. It's almost ready to publish.
I thought about how to distribute it. I could ask people to buy copies, but it's a risk getting copies printed locally. You have to get a few hundred printed to make it cost effective. So I wondered if people would help me by contributing to a print run. A couple of people said it was a great idea, so I went ahead.
The link to the crowdfunder is at https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/boxmooryoga and if I get over £500 I can get more than 200 books printed and into the hands of Ukrainian children. I may also be able to give a copy of an English one alongside the Ukrainian one, to help with learning the language.
Educational and great for physical, mental and emotional wellbeing, particularly for children who have had to flee their homes - I think I'm doing a good thing.
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