I have been teaching yoga for over 8 years now & I started in Germany, running a tiny boutique studio in our home. I booted my son out of his bedroom, insisting sharing with your sister is a wonderful opportunity (she loved it, him not so much!) & after completing my teacher training I taught classes & privates out of this small room.
I named my business Master Yoga. It was a play on words: an homage to Master Yoga as he was a firm favourite of my kids; a nod to them because they inspire me but I have always managed my work around them & a tongue in cheek attempt at self-depreciation because after all you would never call yourself a Yoga Master, this an honour that is bestowed on you, not one you would bestow on yourself.
But I always felt like I needed to explain the branding. So when we moved to the UK & I was re-launching my business I decided to re-brand. This was how MYAnanda was born & what my business has been known as for the past 3 years. The MY stands for mindfulness & yoga & also MY = me; Ananda is Sanskrit for bliss, so mindfulness & yoga for bliss or my bliss & ultimately your bliss if you choose to work with me.
I loved the branding & all it stood for. I loved the lotus flower in the branding as it is a sign of new beginnings: lotus flowers grow & bloom from the mud at the bottom of the pond. It was reflective of the journey I had been on: the heart-breaking demise of my marriage & our return to the UK. Never one to mince my words: we were emerging from the sh*t & blossoming just like a lotus flower.
Recently however, I felt the need to rebrand again. I follow several spiritual guru’s, Gabby Bernstein, Jay Shetty, Marianne Williamson, Abraham Hicks, lots of people who inspire me & whom I aspire to be like (well a little like – fame & notoriety don’t really excite me, unless of course it meant I could guest on Strictly…haha sharing a little pipe dream there!) and so inspired by these guys I realised it was time to rebrand & be, well, me after all none of these guys are branded, surely it was time for me to just be me.
The more I thought about it the more it made sense. After all, even when I married I didn’t change my name. I am the daughter of an only child & my beloved dad sadly passed away when I was 7 & so traditionally his name would have died with him. I was determined to keep my name & allow his legacy to live on. When I learnt I was having a boy who could carry on my Dad’s namesake my husband agreed: both the kids have my surname & his surname as their middle name.
So rebranding became a natural progression: Alex Bannard Yoga & Mindfulness
It was also symbolic: I have been on an amazing spiritual awakening journey over the last year. Many of us have. We have been given the amazing gift of a chance to slow down, for life to be simpler (& easier in some ways). Finally, we had the time & space to turn inwards, do The Work, with less distractions out there. There was a need in many cases to do this, such have been the challenges of recent times.
Part of this spiritual awakening was realising the importance of being my authentic self, speaking my truth & not dulling my light. Don’t get me wrong, I have always placed a lot of weight in integrity & authenticity but I am getting more confident sharing about my own challenges & the journey I have been on, this is the kind of authenticity I’m talking about.
And so began a journey of rebranding & revising the website began. It took longer than I anticipated but finally we got there & here we are! I am so proud of the journey I’ve been on personally & professionally & just as proud of the new look to my business & excited about where I am heading. And so I just wanted to share the story behind the re-branding.