Hi I'm Laura and I am a self taught Hand Balancer from Canada!

Hey wonderful people! I am super stoked to dive into this but first I thought I better explain myself and my upside down ways, so here it goes...

It all started almost three years ago, I was 18, out of high school, gaining weight and starting to feel nervous about leaving my little neighbourhood that I had spent all 18 years of my life in. I guess you could say I was experiencing my first "mid-life crisis" at age 18. Silly sounding I know... but true.

The photo above was from my first day ever snowboarding on a real mountain, and as I said in my caption I was getting my ass kicked and trying to love every moment of it, lol. But in all seriousness, I'm pretty sure I cried that day because I felt so exhausted. It was on that trip that I realized holy shit I need to get active again.

So how did I do it?? How did I go from crushing Netflix and food all day to only crushing half as much Netflix and probably a similar amount of food, but feeling fan-freaking-tastic?! Well ladies and gents I found a hobby, one that motivated me enough to want to believe in myself. Because let's be honest, we all know how to be healthy and active, understanding health isn't the main issue. The reason why most people don't have the will to treat their bodies right is because getting healthy is not exciting. For most people and for my former self, getting healthy meant blood, sweat and tears. It Sucked, with a capItial S and I was starting to feel so discouraged I felt like giving up after I had hardly even tried. It was then out of nowhere I stumbled across a Yoga Instagram, @laurasykora.

That was it! I found my motivation! Suddenly I had this goal of wanting to be able to do a headstand. There was no rhyme or reason, I never took Gymnastic or Dance as a child. There was just something there when I visualized myself holding a headstand, I felt excited for myself for what felt like the first time ever. Every day I would practice in this exact spot in my parents living room (seen in the photo above). I can still hear the sound of my parents artwork shaking on the walls as i'd thud to the ground, fall after fall it took me two months to get my first headstand. I WAS HOOKED.

I was 18 years old, just moved out of my parents, about to start college and had my own one bedroom apartment in Down Town Toronto. My new found passion for being upside down swept me off my feet just in time. It's safe to say I was excited, but I had no idea what was just around the corner.

I was living in Toronto and was supposed to be diving into my studies, but instead, I was using all of my spare time to practice Headstands. I was feeling incredibly empowered and simultaneously shocked at how discouraged about myself I had been feeling only a few months before. It got me thinking about how many people probably go their whole lives without finding their excitement, you know, the thing that makes your soul scream with curiosity. I felt like the only thing I could do at the time was follow my passion and try to help anyone else do the same. so I started my Instagram account that is now called @theinversionaddict.

Now for me to have gotten from where I was when I first started to where I am now a very key thing had to happen. I had to meet my current boyfriend. I had been living in Toronto for just over two months when I first met @JeremyC, I was making big leaps forward with my Inversions (to be inverted is to be upside down). But I needed more, I needed a good influence and I needed just a bit more motivation. Que me and Jeremy swiping right, that's right, we met on Tinder. lol

Jeremy is Australian, and when we met he was one year into his two-year working holiday visa. We moved in together after knowing each other for only 4 weeks. I'm pretty sure my friends and family thought I was crazy, and I may have wondered too... but there was nothing to worry about.

Jeremy encouraged me to get into the weight room to help improve my strength for inversions. And I encouraged him to start training inversions with me. My life was changing for the better, I was excited about the challenges that were ahead. What I wasn't excited about anymore was College, in fact, I decided that once I finished my year that was it, no more school. it was time to spread my wings and see what I could make happen.

When you don't know what to do, TRAVEL! I grew up at a tiny lake in a tiny town. I swam a lot growing up but had never been swimming in the ocean. My time had come, I got an Australian Boyfriend.. and well, it seemed like a sign.

I think I may wrap up this intro here, to recap, nearly one year after going on the snowboard trip I was 35 lb's lighter, a whole lot stronger and had a plane ticket to Australia in one hand a boyfriend of six months in the other. It was magical, but the true magic was still yet to come.

There is a whole lot more to this story to catch you up to where I am sitting now. But I feel like this gives a good idea of the start of the most fundamental shift in my life. FREEDOM. STRENGTH. LOVE.

Thank you for reading, I am very excited to get involved in this community and can't wait to connect with you!

New posts daily!💡

Let's connect:

Steemit: @laurajane
Instagram: theinversionaddict
Youtube: Laura Jane