Hi! I’m Valeria and I welcome you to my new blog with this very first article dedicated to presentations and discovering who I was and who I am today.
Before becoming a Yoga teacher my life was totally dedicated to China and the Chinese language, although the practice was with me for several years during this period. I attended Ca ‘Foscari University of Venice and in 2018 I graduated in Chinese Language and Culture.
During the years at university I went to China to study, a first period in Beijing, during the bachelor degree and a second opportunity came during my master. Beijing called me back and so I spent another six months at Peking University where I left part of my heart.
And it is precisely here that the first interest in Yoga appeared timidly. I started by pure chance in the university gym, in 2015, after long afternoons spent studying. I was going to class every evening to practice, without knowing that this would be the beginning of a great journey that I would never abandon.
For me China and her language have always been a love at first sight, which then turned into a great passion and at the same time a sense of revulsion and hostility. Opposite feelings, of love-hate, which however tied me very much to all of its culture and its people, almost creating a sort of “addiction” that did not make me doubt along the way even in the most difficult moments.
After my master degree I didn’t have clear ideas, not at all! I didn’t know what to do with Chinese language and all the years of study behind it. The only great desire, or perhaps better to say, a dream, that I had kept for years was to reconcile my great passion for sport with the Chinese language. I have been dreaming for years, almost forgetting that an opportunity could really come after graduation.
And that occasion knocked a few weeks after my thesis discussion.
Incredulous, I accepted the proposal and my “adventure”, as I define it, has begun.
Living almost two years as an interpreter for a team of Chinese athletes made me believe that dreams must be haunted and that anything is possible.
I got to work for the Chinese Winter Sports Federation which in 2018 decided to open various projects for the training of Chinese athletes around Europe for the upcoming olympics in Beijing 2022.
It was a 360 ° experience where I was able to practice not only language skills in an absolutely new field, but to experience what it means to manage a team of Chinese teen athletes in all its parts.
From the moment I joined this big family, as I like to describe it, I understood what they were teaching and transmitting to me (not without difficulty). The great enthusiasm for this work, which I felt sewn on my skin, pushed me to accept the second project, which arrived in 2019.
For those who have never experienced competition, it sounds strange and sometimes almost excessive, but what it can transmit, beyond discipline, is a great sense of belonging and mutual trust. Mine was not just a job as a translator or interpreter, but it then spontaneously turned into a figure on which the gyys could rely, share their thoughts, emotions and beautiful and difficult moments.
We traveled to China, to Harbin and Urumqi. We stayed there for two months, between training on the snows of Inner Mongolia and on the Indoor ski slopes. Living this side of China that I had never seen has taught me a lot and I still thank you for teaching me that anything is possible.
In January 2020 I was in Urumqi, Xinjiang, at the regional training center for winter sports, still unaware of what would happen shortly thereafter.
It was the last trip before returning to Italy a few days before the closure of air flights.
Two years of pandemic forced me to rethink my path and where I was going. It was difficult to find a balance and a new way.
In that period I started to devote myself to teaching the Chinese language and slowly I began to rebuild my life with a different dimension.
I opened the doors of what is now my main field of study, that is Traditional Chinese Medicine and I embarked on a path of deepening the discipline of Yoga that has been following me for more than 7 years.
I never thought I’d find myself realizing all this, but life is wonderful for that! If you keep your heart open, the way is shown step by step.
I believe in the wisdom of the body and its complex language. It fascinates me and attracts me and for this reason I decided to put together all my experience and curiosity and create Yin Side Project.
A project dedicated to the exploration of our inner space through reading the body language and taking care of it according to the ancient disciplines of Yoga and Chinese Medicine. An encounter between millenary arts, resized to our modern life, to ensure that everyone can have access to the great benefits and transformative powers, without losing sight of their origins and great teachings.
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