Inspirations

Freedom

As I watched the seagulls, I thought, “that’s the road to take; find the absolute rhythm and follow it with absolute trust”- Niko Kazantzakis

 
 

Your Teacher

“You have to grow from the inside out. None can teach you, none can make you spiritual. There is no other teacher but your own soul.”
Swami Vivekananda

Be Yourself

“As a physician, I’ve found that in the course of treating illness, it often comes down to the core issue of being oneself. We do not have to do anything to be ourselves; all we have to do is stop trying to be someone else. The secret is, don’t discover yourself, don’t transform yourself and [...]

COMMITMENT

“Put your head underwater and keep it there for a while.
You’ll soon realize that you’re 100% committed to breathing.
Notice that you don’t make excuses not to breathe. Notice that you don’t worry about motivating yourself to breathe. Notice that you don’t need to justify your desire to breathe.
You just breathe.
Commitment is action.
No excuses. No [...]

Dream

Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself. And no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dream.-Paulo Coelho

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Story

Throughout my 20s, I was never one to devote much time to stress relief. A pharmacist, I often found myself working seven days a week while myself and my husband raised our 2 girls . Things started to get unbearably intense, though, when close family members were diagnosed with serious illnesses. At breaking point, one day I snuck home from work and exercised to a 15-minute yoga video in my living room. Immediately after hitting rewind, I went out and signed up for yoga-teacher training.

“Life seemed to be crashing down all around us – I needed space to breathe. Yoga’s benefits were so powerful. I thought, ‘I have to share this with people. If people knew how powerful this was, everyone would be doing it.”

2426lores

That was over 12 years ago. She and her husband went on to found Semperviva Yoga, which is preparing to open its fifth studio.

Today the decision seems to have been the right one. Georgia Straight readers voted Semperviva the city’s top yoga studio in the Best of Vancouver Yoga Studios 3 years in a row, and we’ve just been voted Vancouver’s Number 1 Yoga Studio for 2010!

I never dreamed her experience with that amateur yoga video would transform my life so profoundly. I had wanted to get out of pharmacy and something more health-related than “peddling drugs”. After opening a health-food store, I realized that in many cases, people were taking supplements for the same reasons they were popping pharmaceuticals. They  were looking for something outside of themselves to make them feel better.

My classes are designed to changes how you manage difficult situations. You learn techniques in class that seep into your life and keep you calmer and more focused.

The breath work involved in yoga completely regenerates you. Your worries melt away, or at the very least don’t seem insurmountable anymore.

“What I love the most about yoga is that it’s all about you. There are no cellphones, no technology. For an hour and a half, you have that peace, that quiet, where you can be alone with your thoughts or you can let go of your thoughts.”