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During my teenage years I was searching quite extensively in regards to spirituality and
also religion and through that I found yoga and I think what attracted me to look further
into the actual practice of yoga is the fact that it's experiential.
You have to go through a process to understand.
My parents, they raised me quite well telling me, okay, live like this and this and this,
do these things.
But when I started to practice yoga there was a sense of connection on the inside where
I really wanted to be a good person, where I felt motivated to transform myself or move
myself higher up.
And the moment I came on my mat I felt like I was home, I really felt like this is a
space where I can really be me and really connect to this internal part of myself.
I felt at home within myself, I felt at home with even the things I was struggling with
and that was huge for me in the beginning when I started the practice and one reason
why I continue to do this practice.
So in the Shtanga Yoga practice we learn many, many asanas.
We go through this process of being taught and we guide ourselves through a sequence
of postures and it looks to be on the outside very physical or to be representative of something
very external but underlying through all of that what's really moving us within these
asanas is the breath, is the focal point, our sense of concentration and through the
asanas through the act of performing the asanas we're internally aligned.
I feel like personally this is what really moves the action of the asanas.
This is what breathes life into the asanas.
It's like a form of expressing this internal aspect of ourselves to the outside or also
just using the asana to feel on the inside and it's a marriage of both.
The transformative process really comes through with feeling this connection so the change
really came from within.
I think that was what was huge for me instead of these rules I was trying to follow on the
outside to feel like I wanted to fit in, to want to fit in, to want to attain validation
or even approval from my parents.
When I started to practice yoga it really came from the inside.
There was a connection from the inside where there was a motivation to be better, to be
more aware, to live on a higher level, to connect with people more authentically because
I was connecting on the inside.
Because I was aware of what was happening inside of me there was more motivation to
lead my life externally connecting on a higher level.
That internal connection is really what transforms us because we start to feel the importance
of just shedding the layers that kind of just hold us back or cover up who we really are.
I fell from a height of 40 feet while rock climbing and for two years I was in bed.
In one way it was very traumatic and in another way it was very introspective it gave me the
direction for my life because I guess when one of the most important things that you
love the most which was movement for me is taken away from you, you become even more
passionate you feel like this is what you want more than anything in the world.
I started reading up a lot on yoga I realized that there is more to this body there is this
mind-body connection there is this connection to God.
I felt like it was all these things that took me in the direction of yoga and eventually
gave me back my power, gave me back my power to move, to express you know I feel like I
am extremely grateful because for the accident and also for finding yoga because of it.
I have a lot of passion for movement I guess it comes from the fact that it's not something
I take for granted and it is the yoga practice that to me really really really helps me to
be able to move every day and which is why it is my prayer it's how I express devotion
to God it's how I express devotion to myself it's how I feel alive it's given me wings
I can dance I can walk I can run it's thanks to my daily yoga practice because the days
that I don't do it I mean the days that I can't really walk that well it's the practice
that just keeps it all going for me.
For me dance is freedom I don't like to move too much from my mind when I dance yoga is
is my grounding and I feel dance is my freedom and that's why I feel like the two of them
complement each other for me.
I think for me relationships whether it's relationships with my partner or relationships
with my family or relationship with my friends I think yoga really helps me with this.
The physical aspect is of course is challenging but I find the connections with people and
relationships are like I feel like my yoga practice is giving me training for that which
is the real yoga for me.
It's a more richer more fuller experience because you can watch your own self and you
can watch how you're relating to other people and sometimes maybe in the past if there was
any you know miscommunications with people you could blame it on somebody else but I
think when you start practicing yoga or asana you become so much more awake doesn't mean
you become enlightened but you can see your own self the other person becomes a mirror
for you to see stuff in your own self and that's where I feel the daily practice comes
in because you become so much more present to watching all the patterns of your own mind.
When I first started with yoga it was really an individual process I was feeling that I
needed to heal myself in some way or understand myself through my body.
And this was a practice that was really just about being on my mat by myself of course I
went to classes and had a teacher but the practice was very individual and as I have
moved along in my yoga journey it's become more about connecting with other people I
think lots of us know that the word yoga means union or it comes from the same route
as to yoke which is another way of uniting.
I mean it's still an individual practice you practice on your own you do not practice with
other people but to interact with other people helps a lot to develop your own yoga practice.
My teacher at Sakpor Rinpoche taught me a lot about how opening the heart is possible
in your individual practice and that really helped me with our relationship and on the
other hand on the other side Lis helped me a lot with my practice of opening the heart
as well so I think it was an influence that worked on both sides so my practice had influence
on our relationship and our relationship had a big influence on my physical practice, my
spiritual practice, my meditation practice.
My meditation practice for example did not exist and it was something that I really have
struggled with and it's so helpful to have somebody who has a meditation practice and
gets up in the morning and does that and then I can just be in that space with him and kind
of feed off of his strengths and there's a way that we practice together in terms of
being in a relationship with another yogi and this for me is really a wonderful experience
it allows us both I think to really commit in a way that's much deeper than one might
do on their own so that's a nice way to create a meeting point where we can all kind of grow
even though we are individuals with different perspectives and different ways of living.
I left Brazil very young I was about 17 years old to work as a model in Europe and coming
from working in the industry that is constantly being judged that it may be too thin or too
wide or too thick or too skinny or too big within the years I just felt like I didn't
know who I was that's how I discovered the practice of Ashtanga Yoga.
I started practicing yoga because I was feeling completely off balance it felt very familiar
it felt like going back home.
I dove in quite deep I was practicing every day and going to India every year to study
and then within the years I started assisting then slowly I started teaching.
I feel like to practice yoga you should not exclude yourself from the society it helps
us to live with more a mindful mindset be more present.
This practice is going to give you more clarity clarity of who you are and how you can relate
better with the others how you can relate better with nature how you can relate better
with your work.
So regardless if you are a doctor, a teacher, an engineer or a model what matters are your
limitations.
In this life where you work, your job is just a role that we play and if it's done with
law of respect that's what matters.
I used to have to wake up at ten to five pretty much four times a week I was the elite swimmer
for about ten years I'd always been very strong but I had zero flexibility I hated stretching
I hated cooling down I hated anything that required any sort of muscle to lengthen because
it was so painful.
This whole new yoga journey was something that was completely outside of my comfort
zone but it inspired me because I didn't think I was very good at it so I wanted to push myself
outside of my comfort zone and try something completely different.
So I started my yoga journey last year in February I was still studying at university
in the UK and I was so stressed so my best friend said well why don't you try yoga and
I was like no that's not for me and then he was like well if you don't like it you never
have to do it again you just go to a class and try it so I said okay I'll go I'll go
just to keep you quiet and so I went to the class I had no idea even what a downward dog
was but I loved the practice I loved the class but I also loved doing it by myself in the
comfort of my own room at university at that point I couldn't even touch my toes.
It was something that I could dive into and distract myself from all the worries and stress
anything that was negative in my life the yoga started to bring all the light to any
negative areas so I started to see everything shift in my life from something that was so
negative to something that I could be proud of so when I was an athlete I was always told
what I had to do I had to do things a certain way it was you have to swim this much you
have to do it this often and you have to do this this and this and when you get on your
mat you have this freedom when I started practicing yoga it was like this whole new world that
opened for me and it was refreshing I could get on my mat I could practice whatever I
wanted whatever I felt like I needed to give my body on that day it was more nurturing
to my body and I felt just completely refreshed and energised for the rest of the day and
that's really what inspires me is not not looking in a class and saying oh well they're
doing downward dog better than me maybe they're better at yoga than me because your practice
is about you so when I'm on my mat it's just about me it's not about how how good something
looks or how flexible I am it's about how I feel when I'm in each pose and how empowered
I feel in each pose and for me that's that's what makes me want to wake up and get on my
mat every morning is because I'm better than I was 18 months ago I'm better than I was
yesterday when I first started practicing yoga I probably didn't even realize it was
a practice I just went to a class like it's just signed up and turned up in a class and
I had no idea that would be a practice that would change my life I've been going through
a period of my life where I was just not really finding happiness and I was a little bit off
track what I can look back now and I can see was depression and so I joined this class
and I still remember when I came into the room everybody's standing at the front of
their yoga mats and I had this really kind of sweaty smelly rental yoga mat and I stood
up at the front of my mat and the teacher called everyone to what he said was Samasthiti
and then he made this really loud ohm sound and it really brought everyone into unity
and I remember my mind stopping and me feeling overwhelmed with this pure vibration far more
than just about the body there was something in my soul that answered yes
after I'd been practicing ashtanga yoga for just a few months I read Sri K. Patabi Joyce's
book called yoga mala I had a dream about him and he appeared as the salvific figure
that reached out to where I was in a point of darkness and he picked me up and he put
me in a place of peace and I woke up from the dream the words I have to go to India
were on my lips and I woke up and I just knew that over the last 16 years I've devoted myself
to practicing ashtanga yoga in the traditional manner and I turn to this practice as the
foundation of my daily discipline one of the defining things that distinguishes yoga
as a spiritual practice is the idea that the asanas themselves are not ends but that their
vehicles for a deeper knowing of yourself and ultimately a deeper knowing of God once
you access that place within yourself where you are infinite where you are free once you
see yourself through the eyes of spirit you know exactly who you are the way that the
asanas work is that by approaching points of difficulty within yourself you recognize
who you are when you're tested it's like we don't know whether or not we're truly
peaceful people until we can experience ourselves at that moment of difficulty so we have deep
back bend we have challenging handstands difficult leg behind the head poses so that we can know
who we are when we meet difficulties so that we can understand what it means to be strong
on a spiritual level
you hear God's voice inside of yourself speaking to you through your breath through your practice
through the sense of surrender in your heart this is the essence of the journey of yoga
because once you experience that spark of who you are at your deepest level you're a better
person you have more patience more tolerance for yourself and ultimately for your whole
world
as soon as you realize that what makes you worthy is not any sense of achievement that
the only thing that makes you worthy is the purity of your soul it sets you free so yoga
really is a path of freedom a path to knowing God and to setting yourself free in the beautiful
acts of surrender that is faith and grace every day of your practice when you practice
yoga your world changes one breath at a time when you practice yoga your heart softens
so that you understand that the spiritual essence of who you are can never be shaken
no matter what happens the faith and grace that is the essence of surrender guides you
through every moment of your life
it all began at the age of seven playing in my garden I stopped to watch the sky and
I wondered who am I what is this existence where am I I was burned in a wonderful family
but when I was 13 years old my father got sick and died few years later since then the
most important thing for me was to find the answer to those questions
a few years later at the age of 20 I decided to go to Canary Island to discover myself
for seven years I absorbed myself totally meditating and chanting the mantra and living
in Ashrams in temple in Spain in Italy and in India
for me meditation is to sit and chant mantra and try to absorb my mind in the sound and
let the sound enter in my heart and be focused if we think about meditation we think to gain
something but in reality we lose something we lose fear we lose darkness anger most of
all ignorance and then we can see and we can meet ourselves as we are and we can see everything
as it is and when we do the meditation all together is powerful.
The
most important thing I found in life is when you have a strong desire in your heart to
fulfill so then the universe conspires for you guiding you showing you the way.
I'm a part time yoga student and a full time professional hula hoop performer hula hooping
is genuinely absolutely my favorite thing in the world to do as well as when I'm hula
hooping or doing yoga I think they're probably the only two things in the world that I can
do that make me absolutely not think about anything else whatsoever in that moment.
When I hula hoop I approach my practice with the same dedication that I would in yoga but
the purposes are very different with hula hoops I think about how a move looks you know how
I can I get my body into the perfect shape with the right angles so it has the most impact
on whoever will be watching me I'm trying to create a beautiful picture with a sequence
of movements and I intend to take the audience on a journey.
So when I practice yoga it's nothing like that I'm not doing it for anyone my creative
mind is turned all the way down and I just follow the steps and the breaths that I need
to take in order to to stack the bones and the muscles on top of each other and to line
everything up so that every single part of me gets attention and not just the parts that
look good and I think that to me that's the ultimate relaxation you know there is no pressure
to look good the only way that I should get my leg up this high is if I if I can do that
any exact alignment that I'm being prescribed it goes it almost goes in completely against
what I want to do as an artist.
when I practice yoga I simply have no choice to leave my ego at the top of
the door because if I take it with me I'm not doing yoga you know if if all I'd want
to do is look pretty in certain positions while I'm in the classroom I'd be wasting
my time.
This practice has transformed my life.
My personal journey with Kundalini yoga has been a powerful one a powerful one very difficult
at times but absolutely worth every single minute of the of the pranayama of the huffing
and the puffing and really moving beyond one's limitations.
My journey began at a point in my life when I was I wasn't very happy and I thought there's
more to life and I wanted to know how I could move beyond a place of being a victim to a
place of feeling empowered a place of not having my mind take over.
So I was in a place of needing great healing and this is exactly what Kundalini yoga has
given me it's really it's given me some powerful tools to heal myself to heal my body not just
my physical body my nervous system but my mind.
When you practice Kundalini yoga you your mind feels clearer your heart feels more open you
have more energy you have more vitality you radiate who doesn't want more energy who doesn't
want more clarity in their life who doesn't want to let go of the past we all want these
things so we do need yoga everybody needs yoga in their life.
Kundalini yoga is such a powerful technique because the asanas and the breath work are
working on such a deep level from from inside from your inner core this has such a purifying
and cleansing effect so obviously the work the work happens from inside and then everything
else on the outside changes a lot of people that practice Kundalini yoga are often people
often say to them wow you know you look so good you're what are you doing you know you're
radiating you're glowing and we all know how infectious it is when you know when we feel
happy we want to just spread that happiness to everyone that's around us so this for me
is is this is what Kundalini is about beyond beyond the arsana you know beyond the actual
beyond the actual practice beyond you know the breathing and the pranayama and the chanting
the after effects the energy that's flowing through you this is the magic.
It's really like coming back home to oneself you you you remember who you truly are.
The inner process while I'm practicing is the deepest and most innermost inner process
intimate experience I've ever had I've never had such an intimate experience with another
person I've never had and into this kind of experience with any other thing outside
of myself it's the deepest kind of listening that's what I'm doing essentially it's not
just a physical experience it really is like making love to life to nature to all the aspects
of life it's so precious and so beautiful which is why I'm so passionate about teaching
because if I could help anybody to find this kind of connection to their self they can
experience the love of their life and the love of life so the love of the universe through
themselves in their physical embodiment and that is the most precious gift ever.
When I'm practicing I feel like I'm I'm guided by something else I feel like there's a language
that is being spoken all the time that is the language of the universe and then it can
be divided into different aspects of nature and each one you can listen to on its own
and you can listen to the combination of all of them and so it's depending on where I am
in the world the conversation of the surrounding nature is always different and I'm always
moved in a different way.
I've practiced so many different types and now my practice is definitely influenced by
all of them one of the things that I love the most about where I am at right now is
that I can see how much faster I can drop the the self-critical voice that may in the
past have stopped me doing from wanting to try something new or would have made it harder
for me to want to try something new because I was would be a more afraid of messing up
let's say.
So my practice changed in this way actually from from moving in a sequence that perhaps
I had learned or practiced for many years that was regimented in one way or another
that in a way that I had been told that you're supposed to move from this post to this post
to this post to this post so I was calculating what do I do next what should I do next in
my mind and it then changed to a spontaneous movement that would come before the thought
and the sequence unfolds now and often I don't even know what I did on one side and if we
can trust for a moment and just just even trust enough to to say okay well maybe I
will mess up maybe I won't know what to do on the other side but let's just see and
who cares if I who cares if I don't know what I did on the other side then we start to become
a little bit more pliable and we start to give back the trust to ourselves because one
of the reasons why we always calculate every moment is because we're afraid of messing
up but if we can give up this fear of making a mistake then we give the trust back to ourselves
and then we can really let ourselves unfold.
And sun in the sky oh you know I want to feel you know a breeze dripping on by oh you know
how I feel it's a new dawn oh it's a new day yes it's a new life for me and I'm feeling
good oh I'm feeling so good
fishing the sea yes you know how I feel and rivers running free oh you know how I feel
you know how I feel it's a new dawn yes it's a new day it's a new life for me
and I'm feeling good yeah and I'm feeling so good and everything will be okay maybe
