More than twenty years ago, I worked hard for my dream job as a lawyer at PBS headquarters. There I advised producers on funding arrangements and enforcing rules to protect the non-commercial nature of public television. I gave talks about regulations to aspiring filmmakers in Los Angeles and New York. Long before binge-watching became a thing, I borrowed tapes and binge-watched great shows. I love, love, love my job and my colleagues.
Meanwhile, in the evenings, I was working on my MFA in creative writing at Johns Hopkins University. I biked more than 10 miles back and forth to work, paddled the Potomac River, and trained to run my first 10K. I bought a house and looked for a partner to build a life and family with.
Life is going the way I want it to, and everything is smooth sailing. I have ambitious plans.
But then, something inside me broke. I became seriously ill and spent more than two years going to doctors and trying various drug cocktails in an effort to regain my energy, but to no avail.
I have never felt so lost, exhausted and burnt out. Nothing worked and I couldn’t recover.
Then, I went to COMO Parrot Cay and it changed everything – my habits, diet, mindset, skills and priorities, and most importantly… my desired abilities.
That trip definitely saved my life.
Doing yoga twice a day in a breezy gazebo, eight years of my personal yoga practice exploded like confetti. I did my first headstand, forearm balances, and backbends! marvelous.
I discovered all these other parts of yoga that I didn’t know existed. As I learned about all eight limbs of yoga, my yoga practice expanded far beyond physical practice. Yoga not only helped me befriend my body that was betraying me, but also helped me cope mentally and spiritually.
I became obsessed with the magic of meditation. I experienced the power of meditation and mindfulness long before science determined why meditation works. Learning how to sit gave me a sense of agency over my body and emotions that I hadn’t had in a long time, and I’ve been a daily meditator ever since.
I learned a new way of eating, how food “farm”, And how spices became medicine. I also experienced how our food can nourish or poison us.
I came to appreciate the value of everyday life and nature, and the natural wonders of Turks and Caicos were deeply healing.
I also immersed myself in countless Ayurvedic treatments, which helped me feel better rested than ever before. My therapist applied hot oils and spicy scrubs to my body, and I also received special steam baths and baths.
Ayurveda is the sister of yoga and the oldest medicine in the world. Even though I had been practicing yoga for eight years, I didn’t know much about it at the time. This ancient medicine, with roots dating back over 5,000 years to the Vedic civilization of India, promotes balance between mind, body and spirit. It emphasizes very individualized treatment to achieve wellness. Ayurveda offers herbal remedies, dietary guidelines, yoga, meditation and massage to restore harmony and promote longevity.
While at COMO Parrot Cay, I woke up every morning to the rhythmic sound of the waves inside the white curtained canopy. I grew to love my daily green juice and have been making ginger tea at home ever since. My favorite vice permanently changed from milk chocolate to dark chocolate.
Even the peaceful zen of a hotel room interior changed everything I value in home design.
It only took ten days to change my entire life, happiness and resilience. The enduring wisdom of Ayurveda healed me. Looking back, looking back over twenty years, I now believe that what happened in those ten days and everything I learned saved my life.
I had to share the immense healing power of yoga with others, so I decided to become a yoga teacher. I have been a teacher since that fateful trip in 2002, and for ten years I owned and operated a yoga studio in Georgetown, Washington, DC. I am proud that the International Association of Yoga Therapists certified me as a Yoga Therapist in 2017 and renewed that certification in 2020.
One of the definitions of guru or yoga teacher is Dark Dispeller. I love this translation because yoga dispels a lot of darkness for me.
The same goes for traveling. Now, I work on designing trips that change you. This is my greatest passion.
I’m glad you’re here.
