For me yoga is life, life is yoga.
” Words fail to convey the total value of yoga. It has to be experienced.”
BKS Iyengar
Since childhood, I have loved physical activity, from gymnastics as a very young child to diving, sailing, rafting, and more. I kept trying different physical activities that soon ended up being replaced by the next one. In my thirties, with curiosity, I attempted a yoga class, and surprise … 23 years later I still love it.
In the beginning, was just another physical activity but I soon realised it was much more than that, it was healing me, and it was keeping my life balanced! It was giving me the energy to cope with my challenging job during the day and still enjoy endless shows and theatres during the night and guess what, I did not quit it after the first year as with previous activities.
One day I was challenged by my teacher and forever friend Inês to replace her classes and to do yoga training in Europe, I did Astanga Yoga and Vinyoga, one was too intense, the other too slow, until one day Inês suggested: why don’t we do an Iyengar Teacher Training (TT) in Amsterdam? I had heard there is a great teacher there, and because I already liked Iyengar yoga, (thanks to dear Claudia Val del Pratt ) and I love to travel, I said “YES let’s go”, not knowing at that moment that this was a turning point in my life. Keeping my full-time job in Portugal, teaching in my studio in the evenings, and traveling monthly to Amsterdam for the yoga TT was hard work, nevertheless, I would do it all again without thinking twice. I am deeply grateful to my teachers Cle Souren, Charles Hond, and Annemieke Post who guided me during 4 intense years, I became a Certified Iyengar Yoga Teacher, but this was just the beginning!
Between Porto and Amsterdam, with yoga so deeply installed in me and with my soulmate in Amsterdam, there was no reason to keep in Porto my long-time profession as an Electrotechnical Engineer, so I followed my heart; quit my job, moved to Amsterdam, and embraced the opportunity to teach full time and share my passion with others. It took me 2 years to rest my body and mind from the corporate world and refill it with Love and Peace, again it was just another beginning!
Since Clé passed away I continued my studies with Delilah King. I had the most creative and amazing classes in the institute. With Patxi Lizard in Porto, I had an intense seven years where I learned a lot about the therapeutic application of Iyengar yoga, with Jordi Martin I had mind-blowing training about yoga and the immune system. Every few years I travel to Pune, India to stay one or two months to learn at the RIMYI (Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Institute) there I developed my self-practice, another beginning!
I am currently following a 3-year training with Billy Konrad and Tobias Lotan in Portugal and hope to have years of study ahead. I feel this is another beginning!
Fortunately, yoga is an endless learning process, for me, yoga is life and life is yoga, and this keeps me happily alive. My life became lighter and brighter over the years, I can’t keep it to myself I just want to share it.
I am grateful to all the students who trust me and with whom I can share my experiences, I am grateful to my family and friends that always supported me, to my father when I said “I will go to live in Amsterdam” just answered, “you should already be there”, to my friend Claudia Oliveira who hosted me in her home during 4 years of TT in Amsterdam and to my soul mate who supports me unconditionally and asks daily: ” how were your classes? ”
“Yoga showed me that it is never too late to start what we love, and to have new beginnings, because only then we are Living ”
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Iyengar Certification
