About

This is me – Ayla Wilde

It’s pretty hard to summarise a life in a few paragraphs and photos. It’s ever changing excitement that crosses your path with soulful strangers, wondering which wrong turn’s were the right ones to get you exactly where you need to be.

But I’ll try my best not to waffle so you get a overview on how A Wilde Life came into fruition….

The name is pretty straight forward I guess – Ayla Wilde – A Wilde – A Wilde Life, because yoga isn’t just what I teach, it’s how I show up in the world. Wilde Retreats aren’t about getting on all fours howling like a wolf and being thrown into the wilderness and taught how to survive (just you know, in case you thought it did). They’re about connecting with the wild – with nature – and relearning how that connection is such a vital part of us. Of finding us when screens, social media and skyrises attempt to bury it. Every retreat will connect you with the wild, in some way.

As for me – I’m 31, I’ve been practicing yoga since I was 15 & teaching it since I was 21. My journey to yoga came through my incredible, wise mama, who is the best.

Not unlike a lot of other people out there, yoga got me through some pretty challenging times in my life – probably some of the toughest I’ll ever go through; with severe anxiety, a sudden death in my family & an inability to do a whole lot on my own. I was co-dependent and a LOT of things scared the shit out of me (even going to work) but especially, being on my own. I developed a thing called “health anxiety” from a young age that concreted itself after the sudden loss of my Dad at age 18.

Yoga, my family, my friends, an incredible partner at the time, and the people I met through volunteering once a year at the most beautiful centre in North Wales with the @druyogauk community, helped me to overcome it.

Through tools like mantra, pranayama (breath work), one on one mentoring and yoga, I now have a beautiful little toolkit to help me stay grounded, driven & focused – and to be able to work with & overcome anxiety any time it tries to creep back in. Which, I’m proud to say, is fairly well never.

At the start of my yoga teacher training I was a girl who couldn’t catch a flight on her own because of the crushing anxiety I would experience. At the end of my 3 year course, I solo travelled to America and Canada before moving to the UK for 8 months with a couple friends I had met. Yoga literally changed my life.

I went on to study vinyasa and yin, taught hot yoga for a while, sought out the strength and the sweat, and have now landed back exactly where it all began – with slowness and an understanding that asana (poses) are just preparation for dhyanam (meditation) and the peace that brings.

From 2013 I’d return yearly and study with my teachers in Wales, and then when covid happened (sorry to bring it up) I stopped going back. I let a lot of my dinacharya (morning practice) slip, I drank, I partied, I had a flipping good time, I travelled (a lot), I moved (a lot) until I found a beautiful place in Aus to live surrounded by an incredible community. I fell in love (a couple of times), I left my online marketing and sales roll to put roots down and stop travelling, I bought a house, I guess I did all the things you’re “supposed” to do – and yet… after 5 years of not seeing my teachers and furthering my spiritual practice, I booked a flight and 1 week later I was in India with them all.

It felt like coming home.

You know what was missing? Being a part of something bigger. A drive to know that I can make a real difference in the world, if it’s what I really want. We all can. So in 2025 I returned back to Wales, I got another job online in marketing and sales, and I’m now putting things in place to spend 3 months of the year in the UK learning from them again.

My mission statement? Cliche, I know, but it’s true:

I want to make a difference in the world. And I believe I can.

I want to give to others, what yoga gave to me. Tools to lead a happy, healthy, grounded, driven, fulfilling life.

One class, one post, one retreat, at a time.🌻🧘🏽‍♀️