meet olivia
Some people don’t just walk into a room — they soften it.
Olivia is one of those souls.
Olivia is a certified yoga teacher and mindfulness trainer, as well as a coach in integrative nutrition and health. She guides retreats for companies and groups, is a weekly trainer at Satori – The Brick and gives weekly lessons at the Botanic Health Spa (Antwerp). She also offers individual mindfulness sessions within the group practice "Puur Zuid".
She founded Rise of Slow: a space born from the belief that slowing down is not stepping back from life, but stepping closer to what’s true.
FINDING HER DADA - THE WAY BACK HOME
Olivia has always felt life deeply — the energy in a room, the emotions behind someone’s eyes, the stories left unspoken. As a child, she absorbed the beauty of life intensely, but also its weight.
Her curiosity about people and their inner worlds led her to study journalism. She loved listening, observing, understanding what lives beneath the surface. Yet along the way — especially during her years in the modeling industry — she slowly lost touch with herself, becoming what others expected while drifting away from what felt true.
That experience shaped her mission.
Today, Olivia is devoted to creating spaces where people can return home to themselves — to their bodies, their breath, their own inner voice. Seeing someone soften, breathe deeper, and land back into themselves still gives her goosebumps.
This is her DADA.
And it’s exactly why she created Rise of Slow.
Growing up on Tortola, a small Caribbean island, Olivia felt held by nature — ocean air, open skies, space to simply be. Life moved gently, at the speed of feeling.
Later, Antwerp brought a very different rhythm: faster, louder, more focused on doing and achieving.
Living between these two worlds shaped her deeply. Her system learned to adapt, to translate who she was in different places — and to carry both softness and structure within her.
That contrast still lives in her work today, and it’s exactly what moves her.
Rise of Slow — presence in motion and rest
What lights Olivia up most is witnessing people return to themselves.
She describes it as a softening — breath deepening, faces relaxing, something quietly landing back into place. Moments that remind her we don’t need to become more.
We just need to come home.
Rise of Slow was born from that knowing. A space where no one has to perform. Where sensitivity is honoured. Where the inner world is allowed to matter.
For Olivia, presence is simple and honest. Sometimes it lives in movement — dancing barefoot, letting the body speak. Other times, in stillness — a hand on the heart, a few deep breaths, softening into what’s there.
Both need space.
And often, presence starts small: doing one thing at a time. Listening when she listens. Eating when she eats. Being where she is.
When the soul needs a gentle wipe
As souldust is also the theme of our current collection, Olivia shared this quiet wisdom with us:
For her, souldust doesn’t arrive loudly — it settles quietly.
It builds when days blur, when yes comes from habit instead of truth, when life turns into something to get through rather than something to feel.
She notices it in shallow breaths. In moving too fast. In ignoring her own limits.
And then comes the pause — a breath, a cup of tea, movement, music.
Clearing souldust isn’t about becoming more.
It’s about remembering.
Like wiping a foggy mirror and finally seeing yourself again.
Through loss, love stays
Walking alongside her mother through a long illness shaped Olivia in ways words can barely hold.
As her mother slowly lost her voice and her ability to move, she never lost her warmth. Her love. Her quiet presence. Even without words, she filled the room.
In those moments — when nothing could be fixed — mindfulness became the courage to stay. To sit beside someone you love. To let silence speak. To let love be felt.
After her recent passing, grief and gratitude began living side by side. Tenderness and strength. Missing deeply, while still feeling connected.
Her mother’s love continues — in the way Olivia breathes, the gentleness she leads with, the way she keeps finding her way back to herself.
Presence is how she honours her. Love is how she stays connected. And softness is how she keeps going.
