My name is Ilaria Gandossi, and I come from a small town near Bergamo, but ever since I was a child, I have searched for connection with people of the world. I smile when I think about myself as a kid embracing adventure as a girl scout, where I was introduced to the daily good deed; and as a teenager, when I offered my service in a nursing home and at

San Vittore prison in Milan, singing during Sunday mass.

​

The world is my oyster

I imagined unknown roads, mysterious languages, and encounters capable of changing my life. When I turned nineteen, I decided to set off.

London was incredible, I dived right in. It was the time of Oasis, an electric energy buzzing through the streets and university classrooms. I started studying Chinese, a language that led me to live in Beijing, under China’s endless sky. After Beijing, came a master’s in human rights, and then my time as a student was over: it was time to act.

I returned to Italy to a medical centre. Here, I used languages as bridges to help those on the margins gain access to the healthcare they had been denied. But soon, travelling came calling again.When the echo of the twin towers was still resonating, I went to Damascus, where I worked with the International Organisation for Migration, contributing to training efforts for Iraq’s first parliamentary election. It seemed that history was unfolding in front of my eyes. I then continued with the UN for the first parliamentary election in Afghanistan. The country welcomed me with golden dust and silence. My years in Afghanistan were full of colours and encounters. Ishmael, the handyman and caretaker, taught me how to fly kites. Swahila dreamed of an education for her daughters.. I felt at home.

​

The Inner Mission

I was living what I had always wanted: to monitor human rights in Afghanistan with the UN. Yet, a more important call came, the first pregnancy. The shift disoriented me, but like all transitions, it brought me an unexpected opportunity: to stop and start looking for answers inside.

I started studying and practising yoga—the breath, conscious movement, listening to the body and the breath: journeys without a ticket. With my second daughter’s arrival, awareness and discovery kept growing inside me. As I was teaching yoga, I realised that during each lesson I was, in truth, learning from the ‘students’ because they were showing the way, what they needed in the moment; they were teachers like me.

I realised that travelling to far away places was not the answer to my questions, but the answers were here, already accessible; that the journey was inward, and my mission was to discover how to access my inner peace.

 

Facilitating Experiences

I have never felt like a teacher or an instructor, but rather like a facilitator of experiences. When I discovered trauma-sensitive yoga, I recognised the beauty of an approach that does not impose, but invites; that offers possibilities, rather than instructions; that leaves space for choices, including not participating. I felt inspired and realised that my contribution could be to open doors, and not to show the way.

 

A European Grant

I wrote a project for a European cooperation partnership—adult education in the refugee field— with my colleagues Glenda and Camilla. We won. I started designing support methods for professionals working with refugees. A door opened.

​

RememberClarity: The Journey Continues

With the project, a question sparked in me: ‘How can well-being be accessible to anyone, in an instant, right now?’ The answer in my mind and heart is 

RememberClarity.