The Ripple of A Million Stories

A Soul-Led Love Story

There was a time when I barely recognised the woman in the mirror.

Years of giving, chasing, and unmentionable trauma had left me building a life that looked fine from the outside, yet never felt safe on the inside.

Difficult life moments had happened — ones I couldn’t possibly have controlled, yet still I carried these memories, slowly being pulled down by them into the murky waters of despair, knowing that if I held on to them any longer, I would drown, and yet, I couldn’t let them go — just in case I could somehow one day go back and change them all.

My nervous system was shattered and it no longer felt mine. 

Rest felt impossible, and love felt terrifying.

Living with uncontrolled PMDD and PTSD, I moved through the world hijacked and always on edge, trying to “fix” what I thought was broken, I wore a mask of competence so polished that no one could see how tender, messy, and undone I truly was.

Until one day, out of the blue, I met a man who saw behind the polished mask — someone who reminded me of the woman I had been before all the hurt; the woman who laughed easily and explored freely.

I began strength training, flowing through pilates and yoga and slowly found myself again, I studied hard and gained my personal trainer qualifications (to better understand my body and the philosophy of yoga and pilates) and I began to find the confidence to feel love again, but at the same time realised how out of love I was with the corporate grind.

My partner felt the same, so we made the decision to walk away from corporate life altogether!

We packed our lives into a 1966 VW split-screen camper and headed for Cornwall with no grand plan (not even a place to stay) — just a split screen camper and an agreed devotion to living a soul-led life.

We learned to live under the stars instead of schedules, we cooked and washed dishes and clothes with a wood fired stove for water and a couple of buckets, and woke to the soft lull of the ocean.

In the stillness, I rested a lot. Old memories appeared so I wept a lot. I came back to my body, only to find that, every so often, I would disappear again, but continued to keep moving forwards.

I began to study emotional regulation, I broke down a little more, and then one day, it finally all began to click, things began coming together and finally I began to soften.

I stopped measuring my worth by how exhausted I sometimes became. I stopped beating myself up for how difficult some days felt in my head — especially the days when just putting on my socks felt an overwhelming task.

Unknowingly, this was the start of my healing journey!

Over the days, weeks and months to come, exhaustion from holding myself in burn-out came and went, and as time passed I began to softened further, I began to realise that I had been trying to fix something that was never broken, I had just become a little lost in my story.

I stopped judging myself by the chatter in my head and began to instead find compassion for what it was trying to tell me, it's message being that all along all, all I was longing for, was to simply feel loved, cherished and connected.

I laid down the heavy baggage that I had been carrying from my past, and life began to feel lighter. 

Finally, I began to emerge from those dark, murky waters.

The stronger I became, the more I wondered how many others were living with struggle.

How many other women were out there, secretly burning out whilst looking from the outside that they were holding it all together?

So I decided to find out!

 I took a leap of faith and founded A State of Mind Studio

A modern-day sanctuary that offers what I had been searching for: a place where body fitness and confidence meets nervous system care, a space where I could use all my personal knowledge, understanding, compassion and qualifications to support others.

A space for women to feel truly loved, cherished and confident in who they really are...

Moving forwards, I now reside in a tiny home by the sea. I travel the world with the man I love — sometimes in Mariana (our beloved camper, where this love story began), and sometimes to the most beautiful hotels, ships, or lakeside cottages, where I feel an abundance of gratitude for the story I can now share.

We spend days working from beaches — an entrepreneurial journey that feels like a dream come true.

I teach Pilates, yoga, body confidence, and emotional regulation to as many as possible, with a dream to support 1 Million women to find confidence in their body and their story.

I whisper love letters to nervous systems and offer tools for emotional and physical confidence along the way. 

I walk the wellness pathways that I teach, and in doing so, I am blessed to meet the most incredible women!

Women in their rawest state, one's a little unsure of whom they are anymore, ones that are overcome with overwhelm, one's that are starting a whole new story and one's that are finally ready to feel good about themselves again.

No matter who I meet, I always tell them the same truth, you don’t need to feel strong to begin again and you don't need to have all the gear or even any idea to start your new chapter, all you need is a desire to feel good about yourself, your body and your story.

If you are here and ready to begin your next chapter, please know this...

All you need is to simply begin — one breath, one heartbeat, one footstep at a time — with a promise from myself that you will never be alone!

Together lets create a ripple of wellness that travels across oceans.

Gina Louise
Founder of A State of Mind Studio 🩵