my story: a journey to love, sun, & yoga
“How did a girl from Wisconsin end up teaching yoga on an
island?!” This is the question I get
asked almost on a daily basis…so I´m going to share my story of how I ended up
here.
My journey of yoga began when I was fourteen. My mom had been taking classes for a while,
and since I had been a gymnast since age 3, she thought I would enjoy yoga and
brought to me my first yoga class. I fell
in love right away and have been practicing ever since. I
loved all the stretching and bending and putting myself into weird shapes and I
caught on right away because of my gymnastics background. My journey through yoga has evolved over
the past 16 years from the “sport”of yoga, to a well rounded practice
physically, mentally, and spirtually.
Fast foward to age 19… retired from gymnastics, and taking a
break from college (a forced break from my parents since I had been going to
school in Santa Barbara, CA, and by going to school I mean going to the beach
everyday), I started working at Bath & Body Works as a part time sales
associate in my small hometown in Wisconsin.
I loved it since day one, and decided I wanted to make a career out of
it. Nine years later I ended up managing
the store at Mall of America in Minnesota. I was working towards becoming a district
manager and had dreams of eventually becoming the CEO. I loved my career, but I was starting to get
burnt out. The only thing that kept me
sane was my yoga practice. On stressful
days, I would often imagine quitting
my job and becoming a yoga teacher
somewhere tropical. Making this a
reality seemed impossible. Recently
promoted and stressed out, I decided to treat my mom to a vacation. She picked Costa Rica. Both of us had never been before, so why
not? Little did I know this was going to
be the vacation that changed my life…
We wanted to take an adventure so we had no plans of where
to stay or what to do. We just showed up
in Costa Rica and took it from there.
Trusting our taxi driver, Celso, we ended up in La Fortuna, near the
Arenal Volcano, and stayed at a boutique
eco lodge in the rainforest. I not only
fell in love with Costa Rica, but I also fell in love with the hotel manager, Fernando.
my mom and me with a red-eyed frog in the rainforest |
my favorite man, Fernando, and my favorite drink: fresh coconut water! |
Arenal Volcano |
I felt at home there and didn´t want to leave. When my friend picked my up at the airport
and asked how my vacation was, I responded “I found the guy I want to marry, I´m going to move to Costa Rica and become a yoga teacher.” We both laughed because it sounded absolutely
crazy. Seven months later (after thousands of hours and Skype and another trip to Costa Rica), that´s
exactly what I did. I decided to quit my
job, sell everything, and follow my heart towards love, sun and yoga.
I moved to Costa Rica to be with Fernando and immediately
took my yoga teacher training at Anamaya Resort in Montezuma. I received my 200 hour yoga teacher training
certification and also a 30 hour certification in Thai Yoga Massage.
having yogi fun at the pool |
meditation |
downward dog pyramid |
My practice completely changed. I learned so much about the anatomy of the
body, proper alignmet, pranayama, meditation, and the 8 limbs of yoga as
described in The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. I discovered how to really live a
lifestyle based on yoga philosophy. I
had always understood the concept of living in the moment and being present,
but during this training I had actually experienced it more than I ever had before. I found an even deeper sense of inner peace
within myself.
During this time, I was offered a yoga teacher job at Paya
Bay Resort in Roatan, Honduras. I had never even heard of Roatan before, I only knew that my teacher, Paula
Tursi, had led yoga retreats there and
said it was absolutely beautiful. The
idea of moving to another country after I had just moved to Costa Rica two months
earlier seemed crazy, but something in my gut just told me to go for it. It seemed silly to turn down the opportunity
of teaching yoga on a caribbean island.
I talked with Fernando, and he agreed to quit a job that he loved to support me in following my dreams. We packed up
our entire life into 4 suitcases plus our cat, Ashton, and moved to Roatan four
days later!
at the airport in San Jose, Costa Rica, headed to Roatan, with our clothes, our cat, and of course, a yoga mat! |
The experience of living at Paya Bay and teaching yoga was
incredible. We met amazing people, got
to do unlimited amounts of snorkeling, kayaking, stand up paddle boarding, and started taking kite
surfing lessons. Roatan is amazing!
teaching a sunset yoga class |
kayaking around Pigeon Cay...a tiny little island with the most beautiful water i´ve ever seen |
snorkeling pictures are always hilarious.... |
stand up paddle board yoga: warrior I |
stand up paddle board yoga: camel pose |
I just had a six
month contract with Paya Bay and even though we loved it, six months was the
perfect amount of time. It´s located on
the east side of the island which is really remote…Paya Bay is pretty much the
only thing there and is an hour and a half away from the west side where all
the action is. Fernando and I were about
to move to Belize or back to Costa Rica, but then we both had great job
opportunities, so we decided to stay!
Over this past year, working with Tranquilseas, we developed a new yoga center on the island, Roatan Yoga. I'm really proud of what Roatan Yoga has grown into and now am ready to take the next adventure in my life of being self employed! Love Sun Yoga, a personalized yoga experience for anyone, anywhere, has now been created. My
vision is to create a beautiful and safe environment where everyone feels welcome to try or
practice yoga. Yoga is something that
literally everyone can do. The most
common thing I hear from a terrified beginner is “I´m not flexible enough to do
yoga.” You become flexible by practicing yoga! There is no good or bad. There is no expectation of being able to
cross your feet behind your head or do a headstand. Yoga is about the inward journey, listening
to your body, connecting with your breath, silencing the mind. At the end of the day, all of us just want to
be loved and to find happiness. Yoga is
the path to finding those things…at least I can say that in my own
experience. Yoga has taught me to fully accept
and love myself as is, to love others unconditionally, and to find a constant
state of peace and happiness no matter what happens, good or bad.
I get asked all the time if I ever plan on moving back to the US, how long I plan on living in Roatan, etc….and the answer is, I really have no idea. One of the biggest things I´ve learned this year is that when we let go we create space for new and better things to enter our lives. When I had let go of all the material things I had worked for (a high paying job, a car, a nice apartment), when I had let go of feeling the pressure of the supposed to´s in life (get married, buy a house, have a baby…) and opened myself up for what the universe had to offer me, is when I started to really live my life more vibrantly. The only thing I know for sure is that I have made a promise to myself to continue living my life following my heart… and my heart chooses love, sun, and yoga. Namaste. |