Hello

My yoga Journey started when I was a lost, shy teenager. I experienced a huge loss at a very young age and had since been left not knowing what to do with my life.

 

Two of my four brothers told me of their amazing visit to Thailand, so I felt the call to travel. I worked hard and saved some money to go. I arrived in Thailand with no plan or structure, and yoga really did present itself to me. I sort of stumbled unknowingly into a yoga class and was instantly intrigued.

 

The teacher told me about a Vipasana meditation retreat just a little further north, and I ended up going there for 7 days of silence and meditation. It completely changed me. I had never experienced such generosity and it made me realise how much I really needed the help and guidance I received. I knew from then that my purpose was going to be to help people.

 

My path lead me to move to Vietnam to teach English. I heard of a yoga studio near me and bought a drop in class, not realising I was showing up to an advanced Ashtanga practice.

The teacher, Rahul, asked me if I'd ever practiced Ashtanga before, I shyly explained that I didn't know what that was. I heard tuts from the other class members but Rahul told me to see what I could do.

I accidentally fell in love. I had never enjoyed anything so much in my life. I had no idea what he was saying as he spoke largely in Sanskrit, but I was hooked. It was a feeling I'd never felt before.

I practiced almost every day for a year. Rahul took a liking to my determination and pushed me to my absolute limits. He would hold my hips in handstands and make me tap my feet to the ground until my arms literally couldn't hold my weight anymore and I'd collapse. And I LOVED it.

I learnt the Ashtanga primary series, and the opening and closing chants very quickly. When I started practicing at home I would spend 30 minutes in savasana feeling like I was floating. The magic of yoga was taking over my life and I couldn't believe more people didn't know about it. I knew I wanted to dedicate myself to sharing this practice.

I was so desperate to show my friends that I started teaching them the Ashtanga primary series in random rice fields hoping they would experience what I had. But, despite my enthusiasm, they didn't get it. I knew I needed to learn more to be able to share it even close to how Rahul had shared it with me. It became my mission to travel to India (where Rahul was from) and learn to teach properly.

So I did it. I travelled alone to India and did my first teacher training and it was the best experience of my life.

 

Many years later my next teacher training took me to Costa Rica, the home to some of the most biodiverse areas on the entire planet. Here my love for reconnecting ourselves to nature began. We are not separate from - but a part of nature. Yoga is Unity - we are all connected.

Over ten years on from that first yoga class, not only have I learnt a lot about yoga, but I have learnt so much about myself, others, our planet, and connection to all of those things. I love holding space for people, and I am so blessed and grateful everyday that I am now able to share my learnings with others. Yoga saved me, and I hope that there is at least one person out there who I am able to inspire half as much as Rahul inspired me. Forever curious, forever a student.