My Yoga Journey

Although I started practising yoga asana since 2004, it was only in 2013 by coincidence that I learnt about Sivananda Yoga while living in Israel. Soon after relocating back to Singapore, I tracked down the Sivananda Yoga Affliated Centre in Singapore (now closed) and went for a trial class.

At that time I was going through a stressful period of relocation, a long relationship break-up and concurrently I was recovering from breast cancer. The gruelling treatment of surgery, chemotherapy and radiation depleted my vital energy, changed my body structure and artificially induced menopause for close to 18 months. I was mildly depressed, my body was weak and I was at a very low point in my life.

After attending my first Sivananda Yoga class, I felt so at ease and peaceful that I decided to keep continuing practising three to four times a week. Gradually over a period of three months, I felt my body healing to a wholeness, and my mind experienced increased long moments of deep peace.

In 2015, I travelled to India to dive deeper into the yoga teachings, and learnt directly from Swami Govindananda, Mani Raman and Swami Nivedananda of Sivananda Yoga Vidya Peetham. Although becoming a teacher was not my goal of taking the teacher's training course, after being certified, I realised that the best way to be a student is for me to carry on sharing what I have learnt.

Since then, I have been fortunate to teach what I learnt in Singapore and India. In 2020, after a 6-months stay in India, I was lucky to return to Singapore just before the pandemic lock down, and like most yoga teachers, began to experiment teaching yoga asana online.

Looking back, I strongly believe the practice of yoga gave me back my confidence post-cancer and applying the principles of yoga in my daily life helped me deal with the stress of modern life.

To me, yoga is a lifelong journey to go within ourselves, back to our true nature of bliss and peace. Even as I am teaching, my biggest teachers are always the students. I am grateful for the chance to learn, grow, refine and evolve. Currently I am deepening my yoga studies in Yoga Therapy with Dr. Ganesh Mohan from Svastha Yoga, as part of my interest in providing yoga practice from a more therapeutic perspective.

It's a privilege to share this ancient wisdom and I hope you will be inspired to deepen your practice, on and off the mat.

May you be well and happy!

Retreat to Nature