Yoga life journey

a little background

YOGA TEACHING JOURNEY

My teaching journey started during my time as a karma yogi at Anahata Yoga Retreat (a place I like to refer to as Aotearoa/New Zealand's dedicated yoga ashram). Anahata Yoga Retreat is located on the crystal mountain, 670 metres above Takaka, on the edge of Abel Tasman National Park, in beautiful Mohua/Golden Bay.
 
I completed two yoga teacher training's while in Mohua/Golden Bay -  a 200-hr RYT training with Avene Kelly of Golden Flow Yoga which included Hatha, Yin, and Ashtanga yoga.

I also completed a 120-hour teacher training in Yoga Nidra, Breathing Methods and Restorative Yoga - an amazing programme developed by Swami Karma Karuna, Director of Anahata. 

Kundalini yoga is another favourite yoga practice. The powerful breathwork and moving meditations - Kriya's - work closely with the more subtle energetic fields of our bodies, creating energetic vitality through the practices that combine breath, mudra and mantra. 

ANAHATA YOGA RETREAT

My extended stay at Anahata embedded various other yoga practices into my daily life experience. Bhakti (devotional) yoga, focuses on mantras; Karma yoga (action without expectation) were daily practices. Kirtan and Havan ceremonies, weekly events, had a significant impact on my life in yoga also. 

This 8-month experience took me outside of the 'normal' fast-paced, city life culture.
Returning to the city environment, the relentless noise was overwhelming, and the busyness of daily city life was unexpectedly intense, highlighting the impact that our lifestyles have on our bodies, minds and spirit.

This time at Anahata affirmed that living close to and connecting daily with nature is essential to our human well-being.

YOGA LIFE JOURNEY

If you want to know more about my background, please read on. 

I have been playing around with yoga since about the age of six, inspired by my mother's yoga book 'Yoga for Health', a classic 1970s yoga guide. Leaving school and home at 16, I have been diving in and out of a regular yoga practice as the rollercoaster of my life has unfolded.

Yoga asana practice has assisted me with surviving some challenging life circumstances. Embracing the challenges and finding ways to safely navigate again in the world has been a journey. Being dedicated to a more consistent yoga practice for the past 20 years I have been step-changing my lifestyle to enable a dedication to yoga and the simple life. The consistency of daily yoga practices also helped reduce the impact of stress from my previous career/hustle lifestyle.

I have been fortunate to have had outstanding, amazing teachers in my years of being a yoga student; a lot of that time in Queenstown and Nelson, both places I consider home. 

I love attending classes and being led by other teachers. Attending other yoga classes, workshops and retreats is important, and the more diversity in teachings I can receive the better for all aspects of my life both as a teacher and a yoga student. 
I love Restorative Yoga and Kundalini Yoga. 

I am also a Reiki practitioner. I dedicate myself to a daily vipassana meditation practice. I completed a Post Graduate Dip in Business in 2019, researching yoga and its impact on mental wellness.

Understanding the complexities of our busy lifestyles helps me bring the wisdom
of lived experience into classes and workshops - helping to keep the yoga practices simple and transformative. 

My ongoing journey, and my desire, is to enable all free beings to find inner calm and a reconnection to nature. Yoga practices realign us to our natural state of being, enhance our vitality, and keep our life force/prana recalibrated ensuring we feel good; physically, mentally and emotionally; mindfully nourishing our soul.

Yoga offers us the ability to access a very real sense of contentment and calm. 

I have recently been hosting Serenity Sessions - Yoga Journeys, in Wellington. These are currently focused on Yoga Nidra Journeys - because Yoga Nidra is the most powerful way to release, restore and alchemise tensions (including past events, impressions and samskaras). Deeply restorative on so many levels and if practiced daily, yoga nidra creates significant positive changes.