My journey towards embodiment
I was pretty much a disembodied being for so much of my youth. Yes I was playing sports, played in a band, dancing and doing things normal humans do. But I wasn't like, IN my body. Then towards my late twenties, I was working at a desk job for 8 straight years, walking with a slight limp, a really aching lower back, and just never felt OK in my body. It didn't help that I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with my life career wise as well.
At 29 years old, I. landed myself in a 6-day silent retreat, in Bali to find some answers. And there, I learnt a style of meditation my teacher called "Health Meditation". Where, for 5 days straight, 9 sessions per day of 45min -1hr blocks, we were led to feel our body part by part. It was a bit boring and repetitive. But I left the retreat with so much clarity in the mind, and awareness of the body.
And then, I went to a yoga class. And it all clicked.
I fell in love with this moving meditative practice. The awareness and aliveness in my physical body that I had cultivated during the retreat were treated to movement at last. The opening and closing and expanding and contraction of my body of the moving meditation felt like a full, complete practice. I found myself gasping for more information and experience and it just grew from there.
I got certified as a yoga teacher in 2010 in Rishikesh India and for the last 12 years have been teaching yoga as well as raising 2 children, moving countries from the UK, to Singapore, to Bali, back to Singapore and now has settled in Warburton, Victoria, Australia where I call home.
My practice has evolved through life as a young mother, and learning to manage and cope with life’s demands.
I’ve attended numerous trainings, retreats and workshops throughout the years to grow and enhance my passion for the practice. However what remains true was that the practice was a means for me to come back ‘home’. To the body, breath, to the present. And that always provided a soothing, nourishing space whenever things got crazy. And life is crazy. Not just on outside, but in the inside very much as well.
Today, I teach a style of Yoga I like to call Intuitive Flow. A blend of movement that is a combination of flowy vinyasa, heart-opening and uplifting Anusara with tantric roots, but also with a much softer, invitational, intuitive, inquiry-based embodied movement practice that is meant to guide one back ‘home’. The yoga I teach is really just helping students learn simple methods to listen more closely to our own needs, embrace our imperfections, in order to heal, nurture and even empower ourselves so we can find a bit of peace in this crazy times we live in.
I am a Yoga Alliance Registered teacher, with 12 years of teaching experience in Singapore, UK & Australia and over 500hrs of yoga training that includes Dynamic yoga, Anusara, Embodied Flow and recently a 200hr course on the Alchemy of the Embodied Feminine Wisdom. I am also a certified pre-natal and post-natal yoga teacher, as well as a kids yoga teacher. I have also 180hrs of meditation retreat time with Bali Usada that has deepened my yoga practice profoundly.
In my spare time, I love watercolour painting and is obsessed with painting botanicals. I’m fascinated by human evolution, culture & history, spirituality, and enjoy appreciating comedy, film, and other creative outlets that turns pain into works of beauty. I also loves long walks with my dog and family in the woods. And can't resist a great asian eatery.
So thank you for reading through all that! I hope you will come on this journey of yoga together with me.
My certifications at a glance:
2009 - Bali Usada Health Meditation Tapa Brata 1 - 180hrs
2010 - Foundational 200hr YTT in Rishikesh, India with Tribe Yoga International,
2011 - Anusara Immersion 1 and 2 - 100hrs with Jonas Westring at Shantaya Yoga, Chiangmai
2014 - Prental, postnatal & kids yoga - 50hrs teacher training with Santosha Yoga, Bali.
2019 - Advanced Teacher Training - 50hrs in Pranayama, Meditation & Mantra with Creature Yoga, Byron Bay.
2019 - Embodied Flow Immersion - 30hrs with Tara Judelle, Melbourne
2019 - 2021 - Alchemy of Embodied Feminine Wisdom YTT - 200hrs, Melbourne with Lisa Ball and the Embodied Nomad