This week someone told me how tired I look. They were right. My face shows exactly what my body feels. I have been messaging, calling, sitting in meetings, trying to arrange meetings and writing letters and complaints asking for help, and underneath all of it sits the stress of not knowing anything. Then I went into a forest for two days. And I came out singing.
What happened at Caxton Works in Canning Town
Evacuations at Caxton Works, also known as Royal Gateway, in Canning Town, East London, E16, began on 22 October. They reached our part of the site on 30 October, and Luv Yourself Space had to close. According to news reports, engineers found a crack in a concrete slab that supports the towers, residents were warned of an imminent risk to life, and five blocks have now been emptied. Newham Council has served dangerous structure notices. You can read the Construction Enquirer report here and the Architects' Journal report here. Hundreds of households cannot go home and nobody can tell them when they will. I stand with every one of them.
The businesses inside Caxton Works
Businesses inside the building were forced to close too. Rise Climbing, Garnet Fitness Pilates, Myma Sushi, Tongues & Tails, The Record Label, Golden Sparks Nursery and Luv Yourself Space with further 4 units. Small business founders who put our blood, our investments, everything we had into what we built. I have been messaging everyone on behalf of all of the businesses, because someone had to bring us together. And I will carry on fighting for it.
I don't know if we reopen tomorrow or never
I don't. Everything we use to run the studio is still inside and we cannot get to it. We are still asking for answers. This was not my decision. I am trusting what is happening and what the universe is bringing. That does not mean I am calm. I have cried about this. I held it in for a while and now I am shouting about it on every corner, because silence helps nobody. My focus has always been the same, with Luv Yourself Space and with anyone I work with: community. Bringing people together matters most when the ground goes.
Two days in a forest
Friday and Saturday this week I stepped back. I spent both days in a forest and I feel incredible. Today I was singing. I was smiling. I was making jokes. Because I am still alive. I am still here. Giving to yourself in a stressful situation is not selfish. It is how you stay able to carry it. A body in survival mode shows it in the face, in the sleep, in the breath, and other people notice before you do. I work with the nervous system every day, so I know this from the inside: a body under constant stress cannot think clearly, cannot decide well and cannot hold anyone else. Nature is the strongest grounding tool there is. Feet on the earth, trees, cold air, space. It is free, it is always open and it does not need a plan. I wrote more about that in how to ground after breathwork and Kundalini Activation. You do not need a crisis to step back. What would an hour away look like for you this week?
How 2026 has been, honestly
2026 has been bloody hard. This year I made one of the biggest decisions of my life and became a sole swimmer. I felt more pain than I ever have and more alive than I ever have. I took PRISM® into a laboratory in Warsaw and to an international conference in Washington, where it was awarded Best Paper. And in the middle of all of that, the studio I built was closed by an evacuation. Nobody warns you that pride and grief can sit in the same week. They can. I am learning to let both be true instead of choosing one.
What we are doing now
We are not waiting.
Free for anyone evacuated from Caxton Works
Every Monday I offer breathwork online and every Friday I offer PRISM® Kundalini Activation online. For anyone evacuated from Caxton Works they are completely free. For everyone else I have reduced the price, so you can support us at a cost that does not hurt. Some of our yoga classes are moving online and some will take place close to where we are. We are working on securing a venue right now. We will also gather in person for a social, because this community needs to see each other's faces. If you were evacuated, message me and I will send you the details. If you were not, book a session here, share this post, and use #StandWithCaxtonWorks so more people hear the real names: Caxton Works, Royal Gateway, Canning Town.
Please sign the petition to support 855 residents and small businesses, which have been affected by the evacuation.
I don't know if we reopen tomorrow or never. I do know I am still here, and so is this community.
With luv, Natalia x
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Life is difficult.- M. Scott Peck, The Road Less Travelled