YOGA IS A SILENT TEACHER
that helps us find a safe place within ourselves, a place like a sanctuary, which nobody can take away from us. We just need to know how to get there and yoga can allow us to find our way in. Once we know the way, we can always come back to it.
I began practising yoga when I was very anxious in my life and I slowly learned that there is a safe space within me. In a silent experiential way, yoga has told me how to get there. My enthusiasm and love of teaching yoga comes out of my gratitude, of being deeply thankful, for yoga. It has been a lifesaver for me.
IT IS GOOD TO HAVE SOME DISCIPLINE WITH YOGA
so that we build a path. It is like creating a clearing first really hard to find our way, to that place within. We might not even realise that this place exists. We don’t know where we are going, and then we make that clearing, that passage a little wider, and slowly it becomes more like a track, and then gradually a path.
We begin to strengthen that path within ourselves, through discipline, and once we know how to get to that safe place within, to the sanctuary, our sanctuary, we can always return.
I LOVE TO SHARE YOGA
with other people because I feel that yoga changed my life, saved my life and increased the quality of my life endlessly. Out of that love and gratitude, I feel honoured to share with other people the tools I have learned from the vast repertoire of life skills that yoga provides us with. Subtle and yet powerful tools and practices that work for me, which I have been practicing with my students over the years.
Some of which have also suffered from anxiety, like me, and others who have experienced highly stressful situations, looking to find respite, and others who simply want to stay fit, healthy, flexible and quieten their minds.
Part of my path as a yoga teacher is sharing techniques and practices that have helped me and others deal with anxiety, calming our nervous system, bringing us into relaxation. Creating peace of mind and tapping into our inner resources.
Practices that help strengthen the body, build resilience for the nervous system and allowing our mind to find peace. Calmly settle within. From my personal experience of living with anxiety, I know the importance of finding inner balance on all levels of my being and how challenging that can be.
YOGA BECOMES OUR ONGOING SUPPORT
the more we put into our yoga practice, the more it cares for us. It is strengthening that part in us. It is as if we are sitting in a safe room, a safe space within ourselves.
moving inwards – finding peace
BACKGROUND
I have been practicing yoga for over 35 years. My journey of exploring moving with my body started when I was 14 years old in a little dance studio in the backstreets of Berlin, Germany, in the late 1970s, where I began to take tap dancing classes.
In my late teens I continued “working” with my body when I went to DIE ETAGE (acrobatics and dance school) in Berlin, focussing on tap-dance, acrobatics and tightrope walking. My search naturally developed into exploring the deeper aspect of the body-mind-spirit relationship, bringing me to yoga.
STUDIES
– in the late 1980’s I started taking Yoga classes with Shanti Gowans learning Shanti Yoga, Melbourne, Australia
– then Iyengar Yoga with Frank Jesse and Murray Lazenby, Melbourne, Australia
– after practising yoga for many years I undertook three years of yogic study and teacher training in the Satyananda Yoga tradition at the Rocklyn Ashram, Victoria and at the Mangrove Mountain Ashram Yoga Academy in NSW, Australia
– completed Teacher Training Level 1 in 2007 and Level 2 in 2012
– completed the 200 hour Yin Yoga & Anatomy training with Yin Therapy taught by Markus Giessen and Karen Sang, (students of Paul Grilley and Sarah Powers)
– undertook a 50 hours Yin Yoga training with Mindful Yoga Academy
– Mindfulness training with Dr Craig Hassad, author of “Mindfulness for Life”
– various intensives with Donna Farhi, the widely published yoga teacher
– I am a registered level 2 teacher with Yoga Australia
BELIEFS
One of the most important aspects about yoga is that we actually have to do it if we want it to support us. Yoga is an experiential practice. Developing a routine with our yoga practice in our lives is very important. I have an established daily yoga practice and believe yoga is a way of life; applying yogic principles, making conscious decisions with integrity, creating a peaceful environment within and around oneself. To the classes I teach I bring my experience, passion and commitment to yoga. I have been running yoga courses in Melbourne, Malmsbury, Kyneton, Chewton and Castlemaine since early 2000 and am now also offering live courses online. I have taught private yoga courses; classes in the Youth Justice System; meditation classes at the State Library of Victoria, individually tailored one-to-one sessions and I create personalised practice-plans for home practices for people who are ready to delve deeper into their own yoga enquiry.
DANCING
Having started dancing and moving with my body in my early teenage years I am happy to say, that in my private time I still love dancing. I have taken up the practice of 5Rhythms, which is a movement meditation practice devised by Gabrielle Roth that draws from indigenous and world traditions using elements of shamanistic, mystical, ecstatic and eastern philosophies. It is described as a soul journey drawing from Gestalt therapy, transpersonal psychology and the human potential movement. Fundamental to the practice is the idea that everything is energy, moving the body, releasing the heart, freeing the mind, so that one can connect to the essence of the soul, the source of inspiration. I have undertaken workshops with Jonathan Horan (NY), Tammy Burstein (NY) and Kate Sheela (LA), (Waves, Heartbeat, Trance, Cycles, Mirrors).
