Making It Up As We Go Along


Have you ever dreamed about living in a van down by the river? Here is a little inspiration to follow that dream. Meet Holly Gable. Holly, her boyfriend Angus, and their dog Jella are ‘Making It Up As We Go Along‘ while living, loving, and learning in their home-on-wheels. 

Yoga is not an ancient myth buried in oblivion. It is the most valuable inheritance of the present. It is the essential need of today and the culture of tomorrow.” – Swami Satyananda Saraswati

Where are you currently? What are you most passionate about today?

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Currently we are in a small village outside of Berlin. It is very peaceful, we’re surrounded holly1by forest and beside a lake which every evening at dusk becomes a landing strip and party for hundreds of laughing, migrating geese. The recent news tells of killings all over the world, of horror and despair, accompanied by a myriad of hateful opinions and blame towards religion, race and borders. Today we’re trying to hold on to a passionate belief that there is much more love in this world than hate, to continue to cultivate the kindness and compassion that we know to be inherent within all of us.

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How did you and Angus meet?

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Angus and I met through a series of what seemed like bizarre, chance, same-place-at-the-same-time, happenings in South London, where we studied.:)

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Tell us about your yoga journey and tips on keeping up personal practice while traveling.

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My yoga journey begun with a simple determination to beat my family’s inflexibility holly4genes and to be able to touch my toes. This did not come easy, and for the first months I thought of yoga as an irritating discomfort that I tried to convince myself to avoid. But separate from the yoga, I had a lot of anxiety, which to me, seemed to be preventing me from leading the life I wanted to lead. As my yoga practice (very) gradually developed, between styles and teachers around London, my fingers got closer to my toes, but I also felt that my mind and body were more in tune, I was calmer and happier. Recognizing the difference in myself and witnessing how yoga was helping others, each on their individual and very different journeys, I decided to deepen my knowledge and to learn how to share it, completing a 200hr Teacher Training course at Arhanta Yoga Ashram in India.

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That was in January, and since then we’ve been back on the road in our home-on-holly5wheels. Keeping up a personal practice while traveling has sometimes seemed hard, surrounded by uneven, muddy ground, only enough space in the van for a few seated postures… And sometimes easy, in homes, yurts, forest huts, fields, at river-sides, fire-sides and sea-sides. But the most important lesson I’ve learnt, is that rather than to feel disheartened at not finding space to do a sun salutation without hitting a wall or slipping face-first into a clay-pit, is to instead remind myself that to practice asana is to practice just a part of yoga; When yoga is recognized as a lifestyle, every moment becomes an opportunity for practicing.

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How do you practice sustainable living while on the road?

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We spend most of our time on work-exchange projects around Europe, exchanging our help for food and living space, and having wonderfully rich, fulfilling experiences in holly6different cultures, communities, natural building and self-sufficient living. We’re trying to discover ways of living that aren’t dominated by money and capitalism, where value is put upon gift and exchange to deepen inter-personal connection and equality. We create objects from recycled materials and waste plastic from the beach, which we sell online a pay-what-you-can-afford basis, and we forage as much food as we can from the wild, and supermarket bins!

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Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

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Using the inspiration and skills we’ve gained from our journeys, we hope to build a home and to create a space, from natural and recycled materials: a space for sharing what we have learned, for yoga, for creativity, for living surrounded by nature, and hopefully for many other things we don’t yet know! We would like to put emphasis on providing for those with learning difficulties or disabilities and/or past trauma. After working at art workshops for individuals with learning difficulties and disabilities, we feel very strongly about the empowering benefits of creativity, and want to combine this with the quiet yet tremendous healing potential of yoga as a lifestyle.

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What inspires you most?

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Helping people! Maybe that sounds twee, but if we’re learning anything, it is that nothing feels more rewarding, fills us with more joy, and gives us a more determined sense of purpose, than helping someone or something. And that kindness is contagious.

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hollyyoga
My name is Holly. I am a yoga teacher and an artist, living and travelling in a home-on-wheels with my boyfriend Angus and our dog Jella! After graduating with Art degrees in 2013, we moved out of our flat in London and traded the flat keys for a set of van keys, which we converted into our new home. We try to live simply, to explore, experience and to gain a greater connection with communities and the natural world. Choosing experiential chaos over steady 9-5s, living, learning and loving in a home-on-wheels. 

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