Stopfordians looking to make a big change in their life should “just go for it” – said a Hazel Grove woman who completely changed her career and traveled three continents before turning 30.
Alison Carter, now 31, trained and worked as a journalist after completing her studies, but now works as a yoga teacher.
Alison traveled the world on the way and also had to come to terms with the “sudden” loss of her father.
“I’ve always developed and grown,” Alison, who leads yoga and Pilates classes at Stockport and Poynton, tells the Manchester Evening News. “It wasn’t really a black and white process, it was a step-by-step sequence of events and decisions.”
After graduating from the University of Salford with a Masters degree in Journalism in 2012, Alison has edited a variety of specialist publications and freelanced for lifestyle magazines.
From there, she started working in copywriting and marketing before deciding to completely change course in late 2018.
While Alison says the road to this point was “gradual,” she identifies one event as a “tipping point” in her journey – her father’s death.
“I lost my father in 2016 and that was of course a great loss and very suddenly. It was pretty traumatic, ”she adds.
Alison now runs a successful yoga teaching business from her base in Hazel Grove
(Image: Alison Carter)
“He was still quite young when he was 60 and I was 26. That changed my life a lot. From this place I started my yoga practice. That was the turning point.
“Something difficult happened and that’s what I decided to do about it.”
Yoga has been of great help to Alison during this time after her loss – said it “really helped me in many ways”.
One of them gave her the confidence to radically change her life.
“I traveled from there for a couple of years,” says Alison.
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“I quit my job and traveled to three different continents for a year. It just changed my perspective.
“During my trip I decided to train as a yoga teacher. [so] In January 2020 I was on an island in Thailand and did a 30-day intensive yoga and Pilates teacher training. “From there I started my own company and returned to the UK.”
Now, through her company Returning To You Yoga, Alison offers individual and group yoga and pilates sessions both in person and online.
She also works with local children and does playful yoga. and also squeezes in a part-time job in accounting.
In addition to her busy schedule, she is preparing for her next big move – next year she will be moving to Japan to teach in public schools.
On the way she says: “I see it as an extension of my skills and as a beneficial collaboration with people in the community I am in – whether that is Manchester or Northern Japan.”
Her catalog of life experiences explains why Alison is a huge advocate for diving into something new.
Their sessions can also be tailored for children, with game-based yoga on the rise
(Image: Alison Carter)
“The most important thing I have learned is that everyone has a choice and the chance to change something,” she sums up.
“We are at the wheel of our own lives. If you never do anything, there is literally no reason why not.
“Just do it.
“It’s not easy to change something and at the moment everything is pretty uncertain, but I think the rewards are greater and the feeling of doing something in my life that is personal to me and can help people is really valuable. ”
