Yoga

My Yoga Path.

I was 11 years old when I heard about yoga for the first time. My history teacher, in the middle of the class, started talking about these classes she was attending and showed us a yoga pose she had learned. I found this awesome and tried to do the same when I got home. In my head it was perfect, but probably it was a disaster!
I never was the kind of athletic person. To be honest, I used to hate any kind of exercise or sports. At school, while my mates were having fun playing basketball or soccer, I was pretending I was sick to don't have to go to school on the "sports day".

My lack of interest in exercises while I was growing up resulted in a 16 years old girl with no flexibility at all, that couldn't touch the toes and with stiff muscles. I accept the fact that I just wasn't flexible and everything was fine. It was just on the day I started to feel a terrible pain on my leg that made me scream in suffering that I decided to go to the doctor. It was my sciatic nerve and the doc said I should exercise more. I said I didn't like exercises but that I had heard about yoga and that could be interesting and he said yoga would be perfect for me.

In the same period I was struggling with a nervous gastric problem, result of anxiety and difficulty dealing with my emotions. As I had heard that yoga it's also beneficial for stress and anxiety, I decided to give it a chance and as we say in Portuguese, "kill two rabbits with the same shot".

After I decided that I would start doing yoga, it took me a few years until I attend to my first class indeed. I had the same excuses as everybody: "I don't have time, I don't have money, There is any studio close to my house". But one day I went and guess what. I didn't like the class. It wasn't love at first sight, you know? The teacher was there showing these funky poses with animal names and it wasn't that bad, but it wasn't good enough for making me want go back.

But I didn't quit yoga at all, after 6 months I decided to try it again in another place. And then I felt in love for yoga. After the first class I was already feeling amazing and this feeling started to be stronger with each class. After a while I noticed I was no longer feeling the pain on my legs and I was feeling much calmer and stopped taking my medicines for stomach.  I started to attend as many classes as I could and started to read lots of articles about yoga. After a while I could see the changes were not only on my physical body, but also on my mind and on the way I looked to the world.

During this period I was working as a Interior Designer and besides i kind of enjoyed it, I still had an empty space inside me. This emptiness feeling was due to the fact I was not following my mission in this planet, but I didnt know this at that time. I didn't even know that a person "have a mission", I thought life was just life. But this is a more complex story, let's go back to my story.

One day I was in a kind of party where this guy was playing indian music. Besides of enjoying indian music, I was kind of bored because the song was a bit repetitive. I closed my eyes. In the moment I closed my eyes, I wasn't in that place anymore. All those people disappeared. I felt my body lifting and flowing inside a bubble towards the sky.  This was my first real experience with meditation. I was in another place and all I could hear was something telling me "you have to study yoga, you have to study yoga". I don't know for how long the band played, but I just came back to the "real world" when the show finished and people were clapping their hands.

After this message of my soul begging me to follow what would make me trully happy, I managed to start a yoga teacher training. After 1 week I started my course, things on my job started to don't work well and I quit. These were signs of the universe telling me I had choose the right way. 

I was very pleased with my choice and the more I studied, the more I loved yoga. A couple of months after I had graduated at the teacher training, the universe changed the course of my life and my husband and I moved to Australia to improve our English. When we arrived our English wasn't very good, but even though my yoga teachers encouraged me to start teaching anyway. I didn't have much experience teaching yoga and start doing it in a second language was one of the most challenging things I've ever done. I used to say a lot of wrong words and with bad pronunciation, but I felt so much love for what I was doing and I created such a intense connection with my students that in some way I managed to make my classes work. This was a period that I grew a lot as a teacher and as a person.

In a few months my lack of confidence in teaching in English disappeared and my classes started to become very popular, with students from all over the world. Not much longer afterwards I was offered a job to teach in one of the 10 best universities of Austrália and after more 3 months another proposal to teach in one of the biggest state high school on the Gold Coast. For me, this is the biggest prove that everything is possible when you're following the path you suppose to do in this planet. When you trully listen to your heart, it will tell you the right way. 

HOW MY CLASSES LOOKS LIKE:
My classes are not only physical focus, but also the subtle body and mind. I really want to bring you into the present moment and help you to connect with your inner self. The sequences are carefully designed to work with your energy, align your chakras and keep your mind quiet. I like to work with music and prepare each class according to the energy of each person, the seasons and the time of day. In some cases I also work with reiki and crystals during the class. The classes are available in Portuguese or English and I also do special classes for children, pregnant women, couples, elderly and mom and baby. My classes are for all levels and everyone is welcome!  You don't  need any previous experience. 


SOME OF THE BENEFITS OF YOGA:
- Helps you sleep better 
- Brings welfare state and calm 
- Improves blood circulation 
- Increase self-esteem 
- Increase flexibility and tone muscles
- Reduces stress and tension 
- Increases concentration and creativity 
- Stimulates the immune system 
- Help to feel happier 
- It brings peace of mind 
- Help to cope with changing times in life 
- Helps memory