It wasn’t ever my intention to open a studio.
I love teaching, one of the (many) hats that I wear. Sala was born from my homesickness. After spending 10 years in the London boutique fitness scene, arriving in Auckland in 2018 was a culture shock. I didn’t feel as though there was a space that encompassed the things I valued from wellness; everything still felt very prescribed and contained. You are either this or that. But I’ve always thought the magic is in the liminal spaces. What happens when I do this and that? Instead of complaining, I decided to open something myself, a space that embodied movement as an expression of innate creativity, where diversity and showing up for yourself are celebrated. When I opened Sala’s doors, I didn’t just start a business; I created my life here.
Life is too short for boring workouts.
Sala values diversity to carry you through the changing seasons of your life. The movement practises I wanted at 20 differ from those I enjoyed during pregnancy, burn-out, depression, or postpartum. Instead of resisting change and forcing ourselves to maintain practices that no longer bring us joy, Sala has cultivated a space that invites you to lean into change.
Give yourself permission to be a beginner at something.
Try yoga, weight training, contrast therapy — try sound healing. We are in a constant state of evolution. I’ve stopped referring to Sala as a gym; if anything, it’s an anti-gym. I call it a creative community, which feels so right.
July will see our most ambitious expansion yet, as we launch CHROMA.
This is a 50-minute, high-intensity, interval training class combining treadmill and floor-based strength training. Sprints, hills, and endurance runs will make up your treadmill time, with the speed always in your control. Bodyweight and dumbbell work will keep things spicy on the floor. You’ll burn up to 1000 calories a class, all set within our immersive, purpose-built studio, featuring an Angus Muir bespoke light installation. The bespoke lighting of the chroma room is inspired by chromotherapy — also known as light therapy — this is the application of visible light, the colour spectrum, to aid in the purpose of tissue regeneration and healing.
I wasn’t a sporty child.
I wasn’t in any teams or clubs. So when I finally started working out to manage my university-induced anxiety, I found myself in those dark, endorphin-pumping workouts that smash your body. Being competitive by nature, they fed into what society had taught me. Work hard and get results. We weren’t being taught about our cortisol levels or orthorexia in 2008. It took me a long time to integrate this new tactile feedback of exercise and distil it to its most potent form, not competition but connection. (I wish I had Sala at 20!) Through time and patience, I’ve found an authentic and joyful relationship with movement, health, and wellness. I move my body in some way every day. I check in with myself first. What are my current energetic resources? Do I have a lot of energy, headspace, and capacity? Then I will push myself physically today with a HIIT pilates, or strength class. Am I overworked, overstimulated, sleep-deprived (hello, toddler mom life?) Rather than push through a cardio workout because I’m told it’s good for me, I’ll prioritise calming my parasympathetic nervous system with yin yoga or sound healing. I’m in an ongoing conversation with my wellness and movement practices. It’s symbiotic.
Everyone can benefit from moving their bodies daily.
We’re living increasingly sedentary lives, so just moving to maintain the hydration of our connective tissue is essential. Tissue fluidity is compromised when we don’t move enough or with enough variety and frequency. Dehydration can exacerbate chronic muscle and joint pain, slow the healing rate, and increase the chances of injury. Sometimes, we forget we should feel comfortable in our bodies. They shouldn’t constantly feel sore or restricted. I often consider the movements I do now to be for the body I want at 80. Rather than superficial, short-term goals like abs or tone, I think about sitting on a chair unaided at 80 or still enjoying walks with loved ones, playing with my grandchildren unrestricted. This is the body I’m working on now. Coming from the London fitness scene, I’ve done it all. Yoga to an underlying hum, fasting, raw food diets, workouts in the dark, and vibrating plates. Through all the fads and gimmicks, I realised it’s really far more simple then we realise. Find something that you enjoy and do that. A little often, is more powerful than doing something you dread. If you’re counting the timer until the class ends, well, life is just too short to do things you don’t enjoy. It was the desire to empower people like me, who were not naturally confident in their bodies, that beyond fads or gimmicks, there is this beautiful space of basking in the reverence of your body.
I struggle with juggling family and work life.
Owning a business can mean a lack of financial security, boundaries, routine, and work bleeds into every area of life. Joshua [my partner] and I are often on emails deep into the evening once Ophelia is in bed. The phone always seems to be ringing. We do our best. I try to implement firm boundaries with members who often don’t realise how time-consuming their need for bespoke solutions can be. We live in a world where we need permission to go offline, even for a moment. There was a time when you left the house, you were uncontactable until you got to a phone. Now, we’re expected to be at the immediate beck and call of the whole world. But the world won’t stop if you take a night off to be with your family. I think this is something we need to remember collectively. I would like to prioritise family more, personally. That’s something I need to work on.
Poetry and writing have always been the way that I process and digest my experiences.
As a child, I used to perform spoken word for my family in the lounge, so I suppose my upcoming book, Mother Made Me, is that same expressive energy carried through. I have thousands of notes, on paper, in notes, and on voice memos, summarising my days. My book is inspired by the liminal space between girlhood and motherhood; being mothered and mothering. It explores the way that we reinvent ourselves, as we move through the world: across continents and through time, inhabiting archetypes of womanhood that seem laid out for us, but don’t have to be.
This collection takes us on a journey:
Out of the cityscapes of our young adulthood, through scented gardens where foxgloves and hydrangeas bloom, past the magnolia trees and into the twilight, looking up to contemplate a wild moon. As we find our soulmates, as we give birth, as we care for our children, as we contemplate our place in the world and the storms that rage on beyond our borders. Each piece explores the symbiotic relationship between self and nature — and self as nature. We come full circle, to find ourselves already whole. This book marks the liminal space between growing into yourself as a woman, as a mother, and as all the labels we are given. It’s experiencing those labels and trying to find your authentic self underneath it all. I hope it will serve as a connective tether between other women exploring their changing inner landscape through all the iterations of Woman/Mother. Writing isn’t disciplined, but then, neither is movement. There may be ways of connecting with the integrity of your body, engaging this muscle, and feeling this stretch. Still, true freedom comes from letting go of rules and surrendering to the mystery of belonging. For me, that’s writing, that’s moving, that’s freedom.
