— Sarah is a health and wellness enthusiast. Currently, she works in the field of organizational health, is a yoga teacher, a fitness instructor and is completing certifications in both reflexology and life coaching.
Her passion for holistic health was first recognized in her undergraduate degree in recreation management at Acadia University. Sarah became fascinated with the impact of physical activity on the body and how it helped her to manage stress loads--and so she became a fitness teacher. She was also introduced to yoga as a university student, but it wasn’t until several years later that her passion was developed. With a strong type A personality, she found her early introduction to gentle yoga to be too slow for a body that wanted to move and a mind that couldn’t be still.
Sarah went on to complete a graduate degree in business at Saint Mary’s University and continued to pursue a career in the health promotion field. In 2004 she was introduced to a style of yoga called “Ashtanga” and fell in love with it immediately. Initially, the physical aspect of this practice was the attraction. She fell in love with the fluid movement and power of Ashtanga yoga, and the way it made her body feel. Having taught aerobics since the late 1990s, she had developed a respect for the body and found Ashtanga resonated with her--bringing the mind, body and spirit together. A natural evolution was to complete her 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training so that she could share her yoga experience with others.
Since this time, yoga has become an everyday exploration for Sarah. Her yoga practice enhances her vitality, and provides energy and mental focus to fuel her days. It also serves as an opportunity to study the human body and its many interconnected layers. Sarah is most dedicated to the Ashtanga lineage, and has studied and attended training sessions and workshops with several senior teachers including Tim Miller, Shiva Rea, Sean Corne, Rod Stryker, Mark and Joanne Darby, David Swenson and David Williams.
Traveling to Greece to study with David Williams has dramatically influenced both her practice and her approach to teaching--focusing on breath and bandhas (energy locks in the body). His belief that yoga is an energy practice designed to increase one’s vitality and longevity gave new life to Sarah’s yoga, and she passes this belief on to her students.
Sarah travelled to India in January to study with Nancy Gilgoff, the first Western woman to study with Shri K. Pattabhi Jois, who is known as the grandfather of Ashtanga yoga. Nancy, like David, teaches a traditional practice emphasizing the breath. Sarah is looking forward to share this experience with others.
Sarah brings a therapeutic touch to the traditional yoga context, adapting to individual students’ needs while encouraging their connection to their breath and their bodies. Her classes synthesize everything she has learned over the years from her teachers, students, and other vocations including fitness and more recently reflexology. She strongly believes in the mind/body/spirit connection and loves to share her passion for the practice and inspire others to breathe and feel amazing daily.
