My Story
The mind-body connection has always fascinated me, and this intrigue has led me on an interesting journey that commenced when I first experienced yoga at 17, with the beautiful 62-year old Seeta. My participation in this class commenced a lifelong journey where Seeta became my teacher, mentor, and friend for the next 32 years. My first class with Seeta changed my life as I was given a glimpse of what it was like to switch off my mind and totally relax my body. I remember feeling profound peace and recall thinking how I too, wanted to learn more and impart this same gift to others. This led me to explore and practice yoga and meditation for many years, and I was extremely thankful to have found a means of exploring and supporting my mental and physical wellbeing. With Seeta’s encouragement and introduction, I commenced studying yoga with Swami Sarasvati, who became my teacher and mentor for 20 years. This ongoing study has and continues to allow me to meet and continue to learn from many other wonderful teachers. Further supporting my study of yoga, I have studied modalities such as Mental Health Aware Yoga, Trauma informed, Cert in Clinical Ayurveda, Bowen Therapy, Kinagetics, (muscle testing), Massage, Flower Essence, Reiki and Access Consciousness. I co-facilitate yearly yoga retreats and for the past few years co-facilitate sacred Women's Circles.
At age 28 I was deep in my Bowen studies and working as a Physiotherapy Assistant in a Rehabilitation Hospital, caring for patients incorporating and modifying yoga, massage, and Bowen. This was an incredible experience. However, during this time, I became very unwell and was diagnosed with an autoimmune disorder. In the early stages of this diagnosis I nearly gave up on my dream of teaching yoga, though through my husband's encouragement, support, and love, which also involved building me a small studio in our backyard, my journey of teaching yoga truly began. Through my own health challenges and my desire to provide yoga that is accessible to everyone, especially people with health challenges has been a motivating factor.
I continued to study and commenced a deep, personal exploration of myself... Who am I? and How I relate to the world around me? This exploration is a lifelong ongoing practice, and has been my greatest teacher, learning and sharing my knowledge with others.
Today our world is so outwardly focussed, usually on achieving and obtaining, consumed with how we present ourselves to the world. This becomes exhausting and disconnects us, we lose the connection to the little voice of knowing within us, that is ever-present; gently guiding us. The use of mindfulness, yoga, meditation, deep relaxation, sound, mantra, breathwork and Bowen Therapy are the tools I use to support myself and feel committed to sharing with others.
Learning to be still and to tune into this inner wisdom, is a crucial practice for our health and wellbeing, yet is something we tend to avoid. The courage to sit with ourselves while in our constantly changing lives and the world can be a great challenge but, well worth exploring, as this inward experience offers to quieten the chattering mind and drop into the physical body to explore the more subtle layers of the self.
My intention is to support others to do this too while providing a safe and inclusive space that encourages each individual participant to develop and deepen their connection with themselves.
“Nothing so strong as gentleness, nothing so gentle as real strength”
- St Francis de Sales