For a while, a few months back, it might have seemed obvious for anyone stepping into ‘Yoga Hub’ on Camden Place, Dublin, that Lauren Meyler in the reception was eating, sleeping and breathing yoga. But when the classes were done and the black bean burgers with quinoa tabbouleh had been served, she left in time for her graphic design class at 7pm.
At the time, while living in a shared house in Donnybrook, her main occupations would have been exactly those things: yoga, clean cooking, and graphic design – along with enjoying a rich craft beer from time to time.
A little earlier, when in college, Lauren was juggling three jobs at the same time as refurbishing and decorating her step dad’s Temple Bar apartment on the side, something she really enjoyed. “I take on a lot at one time, and then I drop it all,” Lauren says and giggles.
Her three years in UCD were not only busy; they were also not in line with Lauren’s own interests. Although English and drama were on the schedule due to a time pressured college choice, looking back at it now after some reconsideration – it should have been architecture instead. “I felt like if I didn’t do anything I was a bum”.
“There is like an expectation that you have to go to college and that you have to, you know, progress in a career, and that’s that,” Lauren says and adds that she thinks we’re starting to move away from that as a system and society, and that it’s slowly becoming a bit freer.
People often express how cool they think it is to have so many interests, but according to Lauren it’s not only positive: “At the same time, which one do you stick with?” She adds: “I don’t think society allows you to think that it’s okay to dabble your foot into each little one” (…) ”but I know that that’s the kind of person that I am, and that’s what I’m gonna do because that’s how I’m happy”.
Although Lauren spent her first 9 years in London, she later moved to Wexford – and then Meath – with her big family – and that’s the place she calls home, as well as the place she hopes to settle down in one day.
After living on her own in different places for about a decade, she recently moved back home to her mom, her step dad and her siblings in Meath. “It’s been like a roller coaster,” she says with a laugh.
Another big change of direction for Lauren was last year when she ended a long-term relationship with someone due to being in different stages in life, and also because of that person’s expectations of her, that she felt were too high – something that she continually tries to fight not to fall for: “I really have to understand that other people’s expectations of me shouldn’t matter, they shouldn’t affect me,” she says determinedly.
Lauren went to Botswana a couple of years ago during her gap year to teach English, but instead, she ended up working with animal conservation, something she found amazing and would love to go back to one day. She comes back to people’s expectations of her, an issue she’s been having a hard time dealing with throughout the years:
“You know, I probably wouldn’t be here, sitting here talking to you if I didn’t have that, because I would probably still be in Botswana”.
For the near future, Lauren has a big decision to make before the end of May: will she stay and work in Industry, the interior design store that she’s with now and who has offered her a management role, or will she go and do that month-long yoga course in Goa that she has wanted to do for so long?
If you ask Marie Varley, who is managing Industry, she would undoubtedly prefer if Lauren decided to push back her travel plans for some time: “Lauren is calm, and… smiley. She’s always in a good mood, even when she’s not in a good mood, she’ll get into a good mood”.
Lauren, who has described herself as ‘stupidly giving’, and whose biggest fear in life is to give into something that someone else, or society, wants her to do, puts it into her own words:
“I have a very, very short-term plan, and I’m gonna see where it goes from there,” she says mysteriously, and adds: “I don’t want to shut anything down before it’s happened” (…) “It’s almost like, going with the flow, really”.