Relax. Rewire. Live Happier.
My journey with yoga started over 30 years ago. It spreads across many teachings and locations: from Montreal to London where I trained for in Ashtanga Vinyasa, to India where I did a 500-hour Teacher Training in Hatha and Iyengar yoga, at Aum Yoga School.
I struggled with anxiety and depression from an early age, as a result of childhood traumas. Lack of coping strategies to deal with acute stress, a poor lifestyle and unhealed traumas led me to experience a burnout in 2001.
Soon after, I started practising yoga and meditation regularly because it helped to stabilise my mood and boost my energy levels. While regaining my strength and motivation, I became involved with local mental health services, to help improve treatment and care. This led me to deliver training for NHS staff from 2004. I started working as a freelance advisor at the Maudsley hospital in 2005. Meanwhile, I taught at King’s College London for 2 years.
I then did a post-graduate qualification to become a lecturer (PGCHE) and taught at London South Bank University for 11 years, in the Faculty of Health & Social Care. I left higher education in 2016 to set up Yoga Enlights and kept training staff in public services.
I also taught at the London School of Business and Finance, the Institute of Psychiatry, University of East London, Goldsmith University... I was involved in research and curriculum development. I spoke at conferences where I stressed the importance of self-care and prevention: “We need to learn to take better care of ourselves”.
I have received a Business Innovation Award (GLEone London), a Millennium Award from UNLTD and a London Leaders Award from the London Sustainable Development Commission, for the impact of my work in wellbeing and holistic health.
For many years, I witnessed and challenged the limited knowledge and understanding in mainstream healthcare of the impact of traumas and Complex Post-Traumatic Stress.
Lack of mind-body interventions (MBI), like yoga, to help provide effective treatment -e.g. to tackle mood swings, weight and hormonal issues, the impact of stress or chronic illness- is overwhelming. Yet, scientific research shows yoga does help many to recover or cope with stressful environments.
I knew from experience that practising yoga, mediation and mindfulness helps to strengthen the natural connections between the mental, emotional and physical aspects of ourselves. Spirituality includes the ability to find meaning, build connections and a sense of purpose.
Lived experience enabled me to develop tools and practices for finding balance and increasing resilience. When people are in pain or under stress, trying to put back broken parts of the ‘self’ together can be helpful. Still, research and most policies show it is much better value for patients and services to prevent those parts from breaking in the first place.
“Yoga is a light which once lit will never dim. The better your practice, the brighter the flame.”
I found some talking therapies extremely useful, yet not always sufficient on my journey to recovery. Some traumas are known to leave lasting imprints in the body. This is why somatic practices like yoga are so essential to help address them.
When I went back to employment, I noticed the crucial lack of provision to support employees’ wellbeing. I witnessed and experienced a lot of stigma in the workplace. Mental health was often -and still is- frowned upon or misunderstood, including in healthcare services. People don’t really talk about it. It’s like the elephant in the room.
Professional expertise and lived experience combined have enabled me to create a creative method to heal the body, train the mind and rewire the brain. It’s informed by the latest research in modern science like epigenetics and neurobiology, while finding its roots and harnessing power in the ancient and sacred wisdom of yoga.