About Me

A little about my journey . . . and the rest of my life experience “training”

I am an intuitive Yoga teacher, spiritual teacher and healer, former personal trainer and high school teacher, with a broad spectrum of experience. I have been involved in the fitness and wellness industry since 2003 as a fitness competitor, personal trainer, Yoga teacher, fitness director, rehabilitation therapist, physiotherapy assistant and health clinic general manger in several different locations across southern and northern Ontario.  Additionally, I have experience in post-rehabilitation services, acquired and traumatic brain injuries, fitness for older adults, and exercise psychology.  To say the least, I have done a lot in a short period of time, but it was all part of finding my dharma (my purpose).

My path towards living a healthy lifestyle truly began during my final year of university in 2002 where I found myself feeling uncomfortable with my body, stressed, and frustrated.  And so, taking the mainstream approach, I began incorporating resistance and cardiovascular training into a daily workout routine between classes, 5 or 6 days a week at the campus gym.  This endeavour resulted in a transformation of my physical body from moderately muscular and out of shape to lean and toned.  I had also gleaned the ability to do an hour of cardio sprint and bike intervals without giving up.  This was my first taste of success driven by my strong will and determination, traits that served a purpose during that time in my life, but ones that I would later learn to surrender. 

From that point onwards I have been involved or working in the fitness and wellness industry.  I have observed my journey unfolding, taking me from one end of a very mainstream spectrum teaching high school English, History and Psychology for two years, through the middle as a personal trainer, fitness competitor, and too many 50+ hour weeks of management at fitness facilities, to the opposite end, the beginning of a very off the beaten path spectrum where I landed after becoming a certified Yoga teacher in June 2009.  Since then I have been living a compassionate, eco-conscious, non-toxic, vegetarian to vegan to raw foods lifestyle, and feel healthier in mind, body and spirit than I ever have.

Looking back, it is interesting that my first encounter with Yoga was in 2002 while I was preparing for my first fitness competition.  I bought two home Yoga videos and did power Yoga two mornings a week on my non-cardio days at the gym.  A very mainstream athlete approach indeed!  But there was something more, in the minutes and hours that followed these twice weekly practices.  I didn’t have a name for it then.  Seven years later, I applied to a YTT program with the intention to heal myself from the inside out, definitely a huge shift away from my former lifestyle.  My Yoga teacher taught me many valuable things during training, one of them being that, “it doesn’t matter what brings them to the mat, it’s that they come to the mat.”  When applied to my own journey, it doesn’t matter that I initially came to the mat to gain more flexibility so I could perform the splits in all three directions for my fitness routine!  I now understand it was all part of my Divine path.  I had no idea that in 7 years I would become a Yoga teacher, nor that I would experience such a transformation and shift in consciousness through that journey. 

Since 2008 I have worked with Yoga teachers, Spiritual Gurus, Shaman elders, great wisdom teachers and healers, studied and practiced a variety of holistic modalities and ancient teachings, from those found within the pages of the Bhagavad Gita and in Vedic Culture to working with the powerful healing properties of crystals, and have expanded and experienced healing on deep and profound levels. 

I have always been a teacher at heart; the difference is that now I teach from a place of truth, about a “subject” I am passionate about, something that has the power to transform lives from the inside out.  I now know that “teacher” was my mainstream name for “healer” because I wasn’t ready.  The time is NOW and I embrace my dharma with love, joy and excitement.  I look forward to what the Universe has in store for me in the years ahead, and I trust in the process.  Today, I continue to Be Here Now, in this moment sharing my passion and spreading awareness one breath at a time.  I continue to heal, grow and transform.  I invite you to experience holistic health and live better.  There IS something more within, just waiting for you to wake up to. 

Breathe. Live. Believe. Committed to eco-conscious living, on and off the mat, inside and out.