I teach you the language of your body so you can live FULLY from your soul and finally feel connected to yourSelf.
Ayurveda came into my life similar to many others on this path – through my own personal healing journey.
As a teenager, I suffered from constant injuries from training as a pre-professional ballet dancer. In summer of 2011, one of my most debilitating injuries, left me unable to walk independently for almost 4 months. Throughout my recovery, I found Yoga during PT. Yoga served as a saving grace that not only helped me heal but supported me greatly with re-integrating back into my body. After so much time away from movement, Yoga provided a steady level of athleticism that didn’t threaten my healing progress.
I was hooked, obsessed even! It was not long before my loved ones caught on and I was branded as ‘The Hippie” in the family. My Madrina, Mami’s best friend from Childhood, ended up sending me a book from her recent travels in India and its safe to say, this book absolutely changed my life. This book was the very match that struck and lit this path of mine. I think as you naturally step deeper on the Yogic path, finding Ayurveda is unavoidable. Ayurveda and Yoga are sister sciences meant to be practiced alongside one another and together they not only enhances our individual human experience & potential, but supports a harmonious relationship with oneself and all of creation. What a gift.
A about a decade ago, my deep love for Yoga took me to Rishikesh, India, where
I decided to do a 200hr Ayurvedic Yoga Teacher Training.
At the Ashram that I lived at in India, Ayurveda was apart of every and all aspects of my daily life. It gave structure my days and provided me guidance that genuinely stemmed from within. This time studying in India planted the seeds of my love for Ayurveda so deeply into my heart, that even after nearly a decade later, I feel lights the way for me to move forward continue growing in my Dharma. it is apart of my core.
In addition to a full Yoga curriculum in my Teacher Training, I learned the foundations of Ayurvedic Medicine and was trained in traditional Ayurvedic Body Therapies used in Panchakarma. Not only learning about Panchakarma but getting to experience my own Panchakarma process allowed me time to journey inward and prompted me to begin addressing some of my root imbalances.
“We can only connect the dots of life when looking back.”
When reflecting on the last 10 years of my life, its clear to me my dance training came to teach me about the depth of connectivity one can cultivate within their physical vessel through movement, and my injuries came to teach me about my ability to heal while inviting me to come back to my center. Ayurvedic Cleansing cleared my subtle and physical channels. This led me to direct connectivity with the part of my being that held the key to my wellbeing - My Soul. This is my absolute favorite part about these sciences. Ayurveda & Yoga are rooted in rekindling this collective remembrance of our true nature as spirit.
Upon returning back home to U.S. I was full of inspiration as a freshly certified teacher, and began teaching full-time. During my first year as a teacher, I kept coming across the lack of Ayurvedic incorporation in the Yoga studios and spaces I was teaching at. I saw clearly how much more recognized the physical side of Yoga was and how Yoga’s sister science, Ayurveda, was often forgotten about. This is a core inspiration in all my offerings and work today. I am devoted to bridging the gap between these two sister sciences in the communities I have access to.
I now have been teaching various styles of Yoga since 2015 in the city of Chicago but it was at Hamsa Ayurveda & Yoga Center, where I blossomed tremendously. While teaching yoga at Hamsa, I began my formal education in Ayurvedic Medicine with the California College of Ayurveda, and soon became a Panchakarma Apprentice at Hamsa Ayurveda. Throughout this time, I have completed my Health Counselor and Advanced Clinical Level of Study within Ayurveda and continuing to become an Ayurvedic Doctor within the next 4 years.
Getting to utilize my foundational Panchakarma Training from Ayuskama Ayurvedic Institute in Rishikesh, India, I stepped directly into clinical practice under the guidance of my Master Teacher & Ayurvedic Practitioner, Monica Yearwood, Founder of Chicago’s Hamsa Ayurveda. Since 2017, I have served as the lead PK Technician at Hamsa Ayurveda, training new on-boarding therapists and supporting PK Retreats.
I have gotten the privilege to be apart of the first graduating class of the first NAMA approved Panchakarma Technician Program with Kerala Ayurveda Academy USA.
As a YACEP, I provide Ayurvedic education for YogaLoft Studio’s Chicago & Oak Park 200hr Yoga Teacher Trainings as well as Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Heat Yoga Studio’s 200hr YTTs.
At the beginning of 2019, I retreated to the jungles of Costa Rica to become certified as Womban Wellness Collective Prenatal Yoga Instructor and Facilitator. I now offer Pre/Post-Natal Yoga & Ayurvedic therapies to expecting mothers and utilize Clinical Ayurveda with Rasayana Panchakarma Therapies to support and help new mothers heal.
In 2020 I was certified as a Full Spectrum Doula by Birthing Advocacy Doula with an emphasis on Reproductive Justice and Social Inequalities. I offer support and guidance in fertility & pre-natal care through an Ayurvedic lens along with Pregnancy release (Miscarriage, Abortion, Postpartum) support through Ayurvedic Rituals, Practices and Therapies to nourish the entire individual.
I feel India ignited a fire in me that drives me to share what I’ve gained thus far in this life by connecting with my own inner healer. It’s been such a blessing finding my passion and mission for being of spiritual service to humanity, early on in my life.
As a menstruating human, as a Neuro-Divergent individual, as the daughter of an ambitious single mom who’s battled cancer several times, as a marginalized member of society, and as the black sheep of my family, I am constantly drawing inspiration from my own lived experiences to create the offerings I do.
Photography by Shianne Colone Blundo
The adversity I have faced throughout my life as a Nuero-Divergent HSP, provides me great compassion & personal understanding for the full spectrum human life and all its facets. Through various illnesses, injuries, and receiving traditional treatments for diagnosed disorders, I know all too well how unsatisfactory & dysfunctional our Allopathic Healthcare model is here in the West. I feel strongly about our capacity to live in harmony with the earth and believe many of our answers for humanity rest in true community care. As a fellow human, it is truly an honor to be a conduit for such sacred knowledge such as Ayurveda + Yoga. I am constantly affirmed by the universe it is my Dharmic duty to contribute to the collective by utilizing my life experiences and acquired knowledge to guide and hold space for individuals to awaken the healer within. It is an honor to serve you.