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INTERVIEW
Wellness expert Anastasia Williams, known for her innovative Resonance Yoga and holistic healing techniques, is returning to The Upper House for an immersive 3-week residency. Building on the success of her sold-out workshops in 2023, Williams presents a series of breathwork, yoga, and meditation sessions, including the notable full moon meditation. The integrative coach has dedicated her career to promoting personal growth and health. Her role as an integrative coach and healer spans more than twenty years and across nations from New York, Bali, Hong Kong and Sydney.
To Williams, true healing comes from the within. In the practitioner's own words, "I absolutely love empowering people with a clear understanding of their personal wellness across not only their body but their mind, their emotions, their energy, their actions and their whole self". Here, we saw down with Anastasia to take a closer look at her journey in wellness teaching, her latest project at The Upper House and a few foundational tips for those looking to start their wellness path.
1. Can you tell us about yourself and how you have found your passion in the wellness industry?
I am a mother, integrative coach, healer, retreat facilitator and the creator of Resonance Yoga, I found a passion for Wellness from a young age when my Aunt used to use herbal remedies to heal chronic tonsillitis that I used to experience frequently. This moved into a journey with healing energy bodywork from the age of 18, yoga from my 19 and it just unfolded from there. I love how we are able to use a variation of modalities to shift our experience of ourselves, how our operating systems are so responsive to these modalities to heal and find a whole new way of being. I absolutely love empowering people with a clear understanding of their personal wellness across not only their body but their mind, their emotions, their energy, their actions and their whole self.
2. What does the term “wellness” mean to you?
Wellness to me means that you are embracing your whole self. All the operating systems alongside the whole range of your experiences. You are working with and through what is showing up through you at any given moment. You embrace yourself with the same love and acceptance in your moments of flow as well as you moments of struggle. Wellness is your respect for the capacity and beauty of the vessel you are living through. Wellness is not a luxury; it is the foundation of taking care of this vessel.
"Wellness is your respect for the capacity and beauty of the vessel you are living through. Wellness is not a luxury; it is the foundation of taking care of this vessel."
- Anastasia Williams, Wellness Practioner
3. For those looking to start their wellness journey, could you offer a few foundational tips on incorporating well-being practices into their daily routine?
Start with a small morning daily practice that you do before you head out in your day. Start with 10 minutes, how we start our day sets us up for our day.
Some movement to open the spine, some breathwork to fortify and nourish your nervous system and a small meditation to connect with your heart and soul.
It is important to look at your Wellness from a holistic vantage point. Attention to your body, your mind, your emotions, your energy, and then the interconnectivity between them all. How it all comes together into a state of oneness. When this occurs, you operate from a courageous, inspired place, and you meet, face and process stress and challenges from a heart centred, receptive, expansive operating state.
Watch your breath throughout your day. Keep it moving in and out through your nose and slow the rate of it down whether you are moving between meetings, working on your computer or in the service industry there is space to pay attention to how our breath is moving through you. Bring more conscious attention to it. As the repeated day-to-day stress builds up, our breath moves into a shallower, fast paced rhythm and this is detrimental to our nervous system and all our operating states and our experience of ourselves and life. Our patience grows thin, we become more reactive and our ability to process and release stress becomes less.
With anything when you first start it feels potentially arduous, more time-consuming that it actually is, and brings up levels of discomfort. When you align with consistency overtime with any of these practices and levels of attention you will experience a revitalised version of yourself on all levels. This will pout into how you live and show up for life in all its facets.
4. Can you share the core philosophy behind your teachings at ANASTASIA WILLIAMS RESIDENCY with The Upper House and how it came to being?
I would say my core philosophy is looking at ourselves in three different ways.
Your approach must consider your body, your mind, your emotions, your energy and your whole self.
Your approach must come with acceptance, compassion and love paired with the willingness for it to be at times uncomfortable so you can move through the transmutation and transformation stage of yourself with kindness. This is then repeated.
You must be willing to take consistent action, to embody long-term change.
Along the way, allow a sense of humour and joy to wave itself into the journey.
I also believe that there are three spaces that we need to experience ourselves through. A group setting where we are supported through that group energy experience. Learning to have our own personal practices which builds self-integrity, self-confidence and deeper connections to self. Lastly entering the one-to-one experience, tailored to your needs specifically and you open yourself to being metaphorically held by the practitioner, you can experience feeling held and supported, we all need this.
"Taking care of your wellness on all levels gives you a stronger foundation to love fiercely and live abundantly now, because this all ends. So embrace it all now."
- Anastasia Williams, Wellness Practioner
5. How do you believe a dedicated wellness practice impacts one's daily life and overall happiness?
I believe when you have solid wellness practices in place that are taking care of your whole being, you move through your life from a more nourished and connected state. This impacts how you receive your experiences, how you show up into creating life, how you show up in your responsibilities, and what you believe is possible. You are cleaning and filling up your cup so that the output is coming from this, versus a depleted running on empty cup. Over time you embrace the bravery to take more action for yourself towards your goals and dreams. You feel and live from a deeper alignment with your intuitive nature. You experience richness in your ordinary moments.
We are living in this life now, I am of the philosophy that we want to give this life everything we have got, and then some. Taking care of your wellness on all levels gives you a stronger foundation to love fiercely and live abundantly now, because this all ends. So embrace it all now.
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