Thank you for visiting The Physical Evolution. My name is Katherine Stott (everyone calls me Kat, and you can too) and I’m a certified and insured breathwork facilitator living in Falmouth, Cornwall, in the UK. I hail from sunny South Africa and moved here with my family in 2021 in the middle of the pandemic.
It was during this time that I found breathwork.
After becoming certified in conscious connected breathwork with Integrative Breath, I carved out my place in the Cornwall wellbeing and healing space.
I now offer group breathwork sessions online as well as in person in Penryn. I also offer corporate breathwork workshops, and private breathwork sessions online and in person at The Wellness Hut.
I have been running The Physical Evolution for moms and women all over the world since 1997. This was a significant year in my life as it was the year my dad died, but it was also the year I learned to follow my heart towards the health and wellbeing industry.
My Experience In The Health And Wellbeing Space
- 1997 – Exercise Science Teacher Qualification
- 1997 – Group Fitness And Personal Teacher Training Qualification
- 2000 – Shiatsu Foundational Qualification
- 2003 – Shiatsu Practitioner Qualification
- 2004 – Pilates Matwork Teacher Qualification
- 2007 – Ashtanga Yoga Teacher Qualification
- 2022 – Conscious Connected Breathwork Facilitator Qualification
- 2023 – Meditation And Pranayama Qualification… incoming
My Journey To Health, Fitness, And Wellness
My journey has always helped other people, and it has no end. It all started in 1997, the year I turned 20, the year that my father died. I had thrown myself into smoking weed and numbing my emotions with various other substances. I knew that I needed more from myself and from my life and my life-long dream had always been to open a health and wellness retreat. So I started with aerobics and did my aerobics instructor and group fitness training, as well as exercise science with Renee Schram, who ran The Institute Of Fitness Professionals (now called Fitpro).
I found my passion.
I fell in love. Movement to music, knowing which part of my body was responding to which exercise. It was so me! I started my business by driving around Bryanston, offering fitness training to clients in the comfort of their homes. It wasn’t long before I realised that this was not sustainable, so I started teaching at gyms and school halls with the intention of building up my experience so that I could teach on yachts or cruise-liners while travelling around the world.
I got side-tracked…
I went to London to springboard my travels and got stuck in the vacuum of London’s lifestyle, clubs, and pubs. I became immersed in a very dark world that I didn’t have the self-esteem or confidence to say no to. I never got on a cruise ship and taught a sum-total of one class while I was there. As if to answer to my soul’s call and lift me out of this self-destructive cycle, after two years there, I fell pregnant with Amber at age 23. This was the beginning of my favourite adventure… motherhood.
I came back to South Africa and Amber-Skye was born in 2001.
I became a mom.
Her biological dad stayed in London, things never worked out with him, but that didn’t matter. It was me and my mermaid, my little light… she saved me from a downward spiral into darkness and revealed to me the dreams I’d always had, but had somehow forgotten.
Fast forward a bit, I got married, bought a house, and ventured further into this niche I loved so much by studying Pilates matwork. The Physical Evolution was born. I opened my own studio in Buccleuch and started offering my repertoire of skills to small groups of people.
I already had training in the fitness aspect but wanted to dive deeper into health, wellness, and the study of energy, so I studied to become a Shiatsu practitioner. It was while doing this training that I fell pregnant with Cameron. I had to learn how to balance mom life with work very quickly.
Cameron, baby number two, my little knight in shining armour, came along in 2003.
Having two babies under the age of two years is not a walk in the park, moms in-the-know will know! Hahaha… but these two blessings got on so well, and Amber was such a natural little mommy, so we all managed to get by.
Fitness classes were booming! I had the most amazing clients who would come religiously for Pilates, aerobics, personal training, and friendship. The soul connections that were forged in that studio were something so special. The number of times we lifted each other up, cried on each other’s shoulders, shared pain, shared happiness, and laughed until we CRIED, were uncountable! They are some of the best memories of my life and I will always love and cherish those special women who were a part of it all. These women helped me get through my divorce… things never worked out between me and Cameron’s dad, but we are still friends to this day.
I found yoga and yoga found me.
I had dabbled in yoga classes since the beginning, loving the way that it brought me down to earth and grounded me. I used books to teach me as well as the odd class here and there. I always wanted to add it to my offering but didn’t know where to study it. Bear in mind, there was no Facebook then, no Instagram and Google hadn’t yet figured out how to categorise websites and information on the web. But years before I had found Kerry Weavind, who was teaching yoga at the Lonehill Virgin Active, when she had yet to open her yoga studio in Fourways.
I decided that it was time to do my yoga teacher training, but I just needed to save up the bucks for it. It was during this time in my life, when I least expected it, that I would meet my future husband.
I met my dream guy.
It was Heritage Day long weekend in 2007. I had been wakeboarding all day with two of my favourite homies, and we were at a concert at Tempos (local bands Pestroy and 16 Stitch), drinking tequila. He happened to be staring at my butt and my friend noticed and gave him hell for it. That is how it all started… by the end of the night we were exchanging numbers.
This was ten years after I started my journey in 1997, also going into my 30th year of life.
Fast forward a few more years and we were married, but in between, I did my Ashtanga Yoga Teacher’s Training. 200YTT with Kerry Weavind at Indie Yoga. It was life-changing. Three months of complete immersion into yoga and the yogic way of life. Honestly one of the best experiences of my life.
I became a vegetarian.
My yoga teacher training also marks the time in my life that I stopped eating meat, never to look back again. I had given it up before, but never for longer than about six months at a time. For our yoga teacher training, we had to give up alcohol, meat, sugar, salt, preservatives, and anything that wasn’t sattvic.
When teaching yoga classes as part of our training, I could actually smell the putrid, rotting scent of animal flesh in people’s sweat. It was the most bizarre experience and such an awakening for me.
I said goodbye to my studio.
Our lives were changing at a rapid rate and it became very clear that I would have to say goodbye to my studio. I had started working full-time as an SEO copywriter and was teaching classes in the evenings and on weekends. I missed my family. I missed my time on my yoga mat. I missed looking out for my own wellbeing. We also bought a house in Fourways, so it was time to leave that era of my life behind. It broke my heart to say goodbye to all those beautiful women, but it happened so naturally. One by one they left as I started closing up shop. I am still friends with a lot of them, and I know I will cross paths with others one day.
I started this website.
Although I was following another dream, opening my own content writing business, I missed sharing my health, fitness, and wellness tips with the world. I missed engaging with beautiful women on a topic that I am so thoroughly passionate about. So in 2009, I started this website and found a different way to share with moms and women around me. It’s been up and down since then… some years I only posted four posts! But it’s been a part of my journey nonetheless.
I became a mom… again!
I had thought my baby-making days were over, but my husband wanted children of his own. Me, being the baby-lover that I am was only too keen to bring another life into this world. Amber and Cameron were also overjoyed at the thought of a baby sibling.
Finn was born in 2011. Quite a stretch after Amber and Cameron, but definitely not an afterthought. Needless to say, he is spoiled by us all and loves being the baby of the family.
After he was born I started thinking differently about the content that I shared, and focused more on how being a mother doesn’t necessarily mean that you need to only be devoted to your children for the rest of your life. There is so much that comes from loving yourself and focusing on healing and celebrating your inner goddess. Everything I started to offer became focused on living and loving yourself as a woman, a mother, a businesswoman, and everything in between.
Focusing on that mom-life.
Being a mom can also mean that you are confident, you radiate health and that you’re full of energy and vitality. I knew what I wanted to deliver to the world through this website, but it took me some time to actually get on with it. Having Finn, running my business, travelling with my family, and figuring out how to continue to offer health, fitness, and wellbeing solutions continued through blog posts and social media.
Then I started offering online fitness classes during the pandemic in 2020 in the form of yoga, Pilates, and HIIT classes. I continued teaching well into 2021 and throughout our move overseas. We decided to leave the sunny shores of South Africa to seek better opportunities for our kids.
It was during this time that I discovered breathwork to help me cope with the panic attacks that kicked in during our move. At the end of 2021, I dropped all my classes for health reasons and focused on healing myself using breathwork and mindfulness practices.
Why am I doing this?
I have always loved helping others learn more about how to live in alignment with themselves and be the best version of themselves. I want to help people find their self-love and use it to live their best lives. I have found it time and time again, in the darkest recesses of my life, and it has always been revealed to me through fitness, through maintaining a healthy way of life, through adventure, positive experiences, and now through breathwork too.
If I can help one person do this for themselves, then I am happy.
