I’m Ranna, a dedicated holistic facilitator, passionate about helping you embody your most authentic self. My journey began a decade ago, after a long period of grasping, striving, and searching for a sense of wholeness in all the wrong places. It became clear that the conditioned behaviours and beliefs I had adopted were no longer serving me and, in fact, often left me feeling even more disconnected than the illusion of keeping me safe. Around and around I spiralled, so much energy, passion and purpose, yet no direct line to pour it which often left me feeling bereft of purpose and meaning in this world. Below is an insight in my path that is still unfolding, one that has been with it’s ups and downs, a dance I have become to enjoy not just endure. 

This journey has taught me to embrace the ups and downs, to ride each ephemeral wave with damn grace but god knows, it shall not last – no matter how permanent it feels. I have been saved  (and continue to do so) by cultivating and developing the skills, resources, and tools to overcome my shadows, piece by piece in the arms of community, connection and my closest ones, seen and unseen. 

 

Here is a little insight into my story, one that is still very much unfolding moment to moment, I am so glad to be here with you and look forward to see how our stories will intertwine, for a season, a reason or a lifetime. 

  

It began in my childhood, I yearned for ways to express myself beyond the use of words or the mind, I was always dancing, creating, making up scenes, stories, tales, acting and more. I was loud and I loved taking up space and having all eyes on me. At some point, shame, judgement and insecurity became to creep in and take over my sense of radiance and childlike wonder, I felt it safer to start adopting masks and new roles that felt more acceptable, to run the risk of being what I felt to be kicked out of my tribe. This is a rite of passage we all encounter, some of us more engrained than others. For me, this feeling of incompleteness, unworthiness and shame feels lifetimes old and I decided at the age of 22, it stops with me. I wasn’t sure how, when or through what means but something deep within me demanded to be brought to life in this lifetime and surpass all the limitations that were holding me back. 

 

 In 2015, I embarked on my first yoga teacher training in India, delving deeply into Ashtanga and Vinyasa Yoga. It was hot, loud, uncomfortable and extremely far away from life as I knew it. As I settled into my bedroom, monkeys swinging from the rafters and my alarm set for 5am, I had no idea what I was in for. While this challenging month was profoundly transformative, it also had an adverse effect on my relationship with my body as I tried to force it into shapes it simply did not fit. I spent my practices looking at other bodies around me, how slender and flexible they were, why my body was so ‘wrong’ and this was why I first invested in my practice and dedicate my time, because inherently, I felt I needed fixing. This internal reality mirrored my outer world, where I was trying to change, adapt, and please others rather than being my authentic self.

The disconnection and obsession with comparison caused me to lose my identity, my direction, and my understanding of my purpose. I drank, took drugs, partied and live in Vietnam for the next few years, “discovering” myself, when in reality I was running from myself. Although, I was numbing a lot to get by, I also made time to start teaching, attending yoga retreats, teach and host acrobatic yoga workshops that fostered community and so much more.  I became very interested in studying yoga philosophy, spiritual texts, meditations and scriptures but was very far from integrating them into my daily life. Finally, I returned home to reconnect with my roots and integrate these experiences into my life, it happened to be 2020 and the beginning of the pandemic. This was when the real work began and as we all know, it was of great separation from not only each other but also ourselves. I decided to escape and hit the road for Spain to complete my first Camino walk, the Fisterra Route which led me to walking to a meditation centre of Classical Tantra called Tantrika Institute in Portugal.

 

First as a volunteer, I met Christopher Hareesh Wallis and studied, worked and participated for two years fully immersing myself in the in-depth teachings of Non-Dual Shiva Tantra, not the kind of Neo Tantra that exclusively focuses on sex magic and energetic sensuality but the kind that delves into the totality and truth of Life, of Oneness – an ancient lineage from India that teaches one how to experience embodied liberation, to guide us lay people, not estranged monks, how to truly want our lives, as they are and become intimate with reality. After years spent trying to renounce so much about myself and my body, to be a perfect yogi, it was a breath of fresh air to stumble across a community that foster a spiritual way of living that doesn’t denigrate any part of existence and embraces every part of the human experience. 

 

I remember on my first evening, I sat around the table with wonderful diverse people from all walks of life, a woman next to me had such clear and compassionate eyes, I couldn’t help but reveal one of my most pressing problems with the teachings, “What if you’re just a jerk? How can you be accepted, even welcomed or included in this all inclusive path?” To which she replied, somewhere along the lines, “there were no mistakes when we were created”, “everyone is welcome because behind all the masks, layers, anger we are all one consciousness and our birthright is to love and be loved”. I was sceptical, and rightly so, it’s always good to question and no just take on teachings in blind faith. To directly experience them, we must and that it what I set out to do. 

In 2022, I completed a six month immersion which allowed me to embody the teachings in a grounded and integrative manner. I started exploring what it truly meant to be alive, seeking not just knowledge about awakening and liberation but wisdom—specifically, body wisdom but something about this course still felt only understood by my mind and not in the fibres of my being.

During this time of grasping to understand on a deeper level, my path crossed with Satu Tuomela, the founder of the Authentic Flow Tribe, a school of somatics, embodiment and embodied liberation. Through her graceful and resilliant guidance, I learned tools and techniques to witness the movements within the cosmos of my body, tapping into its innate wisdom and releasing old paradigms and beliefs with a power greater than the thinking mind. I empowered myself by acquiring skills to truly feel, hold, and release the complexity of what I was carrying and begin to delve deep into the layers of my emotional energetic body which was carrying years of accumulated wounds and undigested experiences. 

This endeavour allowed me to thaw, soften, and open myself to myself compassionately and with understanding, as I shed the old and allowed space for new experiences to come in and a way of living I never thought possible. Everything shifted as I changed my relationship with myself from the inside out. This, as you can imagine, is not a tale of how my story ended there and now I am fully complete and whole and everyday is a walk in the park, no – this journey never will end and I am so grateful for that, for each time a trigger comes, a layer of resistance arises or a turbulent cloudy day passes, I trust in the capacity and wisdom of my body, I trust that the law of nature is always supporting my growth and evolution. 

 

This year 2024, I was led to do my first Vipasana, a 10 day silent meditation course, which I can not recommend enough to anyone who feels called to avail of this non profit organisation teaching ancient meditation techniques. It is non religious, non sectarian and non dogmatic, open and available to all. Since my first in India, I have also served as course manger on my second and sat a third to kick start my new relocation to Berlin, Germany. 

This meditation technique teaches you to observe the nature of reality, through the body, to allow for all the old gunk residing in the subconscious mind to arise and dissolve. It has taught me not only to have compassion but to realise the law of nature, that everything is always in a flow and in a flux. 

“This too shall pass” 

A teaching that I regularly remind myself of when I am grappling with life instead of surrendering to it’s intelligent flow. 

 

This year, I decided to enroll with The Embody Lab, an US based somatic school and complete a Mind-Body Coaching Program. This is providing me with a container to bring together all of my lived experiences, revelations, wisdom and trainings into a cohesive practice that I look forward to sharing with the world in whatever way is called for.

 This work is a heart led creative expression of all that resides within me, with a deep reverence to all of those who came before me, gratitude to all of my teachers, the lineages I have explored, my family, my loved ones and each of you who have supported me along the way and allow me to do this work and continue following my path – So much love and respect to you and your heart. 

We walk together and I am so glad to be with you, on this path. To where ever I see you next, online or in person, I look forward to connecting. 

Much love, 

Ranna Al Sayyed 

xx