my story
My name is Simona, but my friends call me Shimi. I am originally from Prague, Czech Republic, and now live in the beautiful city of Dubai, UAE. I have a passion for sport and exercise. I started to ski right after I learned how to walk, and spend lots of time in the mountains. I completed a ski instructor course when I was sixteen years old and was teaching small children how to ski every time I had a school holiday. That’s probably where my passion for teaching started.
My primary focus at that time was on tennis, which I played from the age of six until the age of fifteen, seven days a week and competed at tournaments all summer. I came to a point where I had to make a decision to either only play tennis or continue with my education and focus on other activities as well. At the age of seventeen, I got my tennis coaching certificate and focused on finishing high school in Prague. Even though both of my parents were passionate tennis players and skiers, their favorite sport was golf, which I didn’t understand at the time. They encouraged me to play as a teenager which I hated, but I am more than grateful for it today. Golf is such a wonderful and challenging game which brings together friends and business people from different environments and all different ages.
After graduating from high school, I moved to Dubai and studied English and did modeling. For the first time, I had that wonderful feeling of being independent. After a year or so, I finally realized what I wanted to study and was accepted at the Middlesex University where I studied psychology and marketing. I graduated in June, 2018, and cannot wait to use all of my knowledge and experience to help and inspire people.
“While studying psychology, I realized what is important to me and how stress, anxiety and mental illness play a significant role in people’s lives. So, sometime in 2015, I started to practice yoga on a daily basis and simply fell in love with the practice and lifestyle.”
I finished my 200 RYT Yoga Teacher Training in 2017, led by a very exceptional and inspirational woman, Erica Blitz, who will always be my role model and mentor. I learned so much in one-month’s time and got little closer to what I want to do in my life. I believe that the most important thing in life is to have a balance and find what’s best for you, because you are the only one who knows your body. I'm fascinated with how I can integrate my psychology degree into my yoga classes. Life is full of ups and downs, and we can't control certain situations in life, but we can control our bodies and make sure stress and overthinking don't make us unhealthy and dominate our thoughts.
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Want to catch me on the mat in Dubai? Click the button below to see when I’m teaching.