YOGA LIVING CENTER

Lynette - Teacher

 Yoga crept into Lynette’s life at the beginning of 2003.  Her practice started when she decided to immediately start the teacher training program at Yoga Kingdom Sanctuary in Pasadena, CA.  The graceful, fluid, physical movements of Hatha yoga, breathing and strengthening fit like a glove.  She feels the experience brought together her previous years of intense interest in spiritual ideas and whole-living into a tangible form.  It provided a real tool to use to help deal with the everyday stresses and adventures of being a mother, a wife and a human, as well as to make progress forward.  The practice also allowed her to explore the darker territories of the mind and emotions. She has found that invariably, yoga can lead us to more and more tools and ways to conduct our lives, and it is for us to choose the methods which help us to see our light.  The opportunity to bring yoga into the lives of others has been both a challenge and a blessing, and it is an honor for her to continue her career in the field of service to them.

 Lynette has now taught over 3 years of Mommy and Me, often with her son Nathaniel in tow; mixed level Hatha; and heart-centered yoga classes to continuation high school students in the San Fernando Valley.  She often uses tools she personally connects with such as tuning forks, singing bowls and vocal toning, chakra visualization, meditation, and plenty of breathing.  She continues her spiritual education in the presence of the Ammas, Masters, and teachers who travel through Los Angeles. LIFE has proven to be the most important teacher of all: Who/what else provides everything we need to notice, work through, and flow through? 

 Lynette believes we each have our own paths to lead us on our journey, and they may or may not intersect with those closest to us, but  may we find comfort in it, all together, for the benefit of every one of us!

 

Susan – Teacher/Student of Life and Energy Healer

     I realize status quo equals spiritual death and the challenges in my life were opportunities for me to dance the dance of life.  Here is my story: I remember the moment when my soul yearned for freedom.  I was driving home from work, right after graduating from C.S.U.N. with a B.A. in Accounting in 1993, close to tears, hitting the steering wheel of my car thinking, “When was I going to finally have the strength to be who I was?”  All my life I felt like I was jumping through these hoops to show everyone how okay I was, but I never felt this validation from myself.  Little did I know that this was my soul crying out to wake me up from this world of illusion. This pivotal moment in my life got the ball rolling and it hit a climatic point during the 1994 Northridge earthquake.  All my demons came busting loose and I didn’t know what hit me.  Dealing with the pain of self- hatred and loathing, I fell into a depression.  Thoughts of suicide played into my mind but then divine intervention came and a voice in my mind said to not give up.  I endured, not really understanding at the time what I was feeling, just blaming others for the pain.  Work sustained me and therapy was no help. 

     Looking for a healing balm, I began going to the Yoga Kingdom Sanctuary in 2001, 5 months after having my first child, Katelyn.  It cleared all the energetic cobwebs and I began a regular practice.  A few months later, I began the Teacher Training Program at the Yoga Kingdom Sanctuary and was certified in June 2002.  I began teaching from June 2002 to June 2005, creating a “Heart Opener” Hatha yoga class and teaching prenatal yoga while pregnant with my second child.  In 2003, I had reached my one year yoga anniversary and I felt that I needed to learn another healing modality.  I ventured into Reiki Tummo, which is hands-on-healing (channeling energy through the crown chakra as well as using my kundalini energy) and decided to pursue it for personal healing.  I was certified in Level I and II and 3a (Master) in March 2003 and December 2003 by the Padmacahaya Foundation.  It was at these workshops that I realized my gift for energy work and so I began incorporating reiki into my yoga classes as well as aromatherapy and music therapy.  It was through my prenatal yoga classes that I realized my gift for healing with my voice as well.  Looking to expand and develop my energy work, I began to experiment with kundalini yoga in 2005 and began offering a Hatha and Kundalini class together to work on the physical as well as the energetic bodies.  In the later half of 2004, I started attending the meditation classes offered at the Yoga Kingdom Sanctuary and have to the present kept up my own as well as joining The Yoga Living Center for group meditations.  I then took a workshop in September 2005 with John Beaulieu on using tuning forks, which is sound healing to balance a person’s energy centers.

      To further my personal spiritual growth, in November 2004, I became a Self-Realization Fellowship Kriya initiate.  The cycle became complete when I was initiated by Ammachi in 2006. She then led me to the Vedic Healing Institute to become a Vedic Practitioner and learn Sanskrit Mantras with Professor Sasi Velupillai and Reiki Master Alexandra Juliani in 2006. 

     Through Ammachi, I realize that self-love was what needed to be healed within myself and she represents for me the divine mother in myself that wants to forgive and love myself unconditionally.  This has been a very painful process and has not fully been healed but I am a work in progress.  Currently, my journey has taken me to the feminine power of self-forgiveness, compassion, patience and acceptance which is the reason for this biography--to support and empower men and women to their feminine selves, so that both aspect of the self can be in balance.  Once the internal balance is reached, we can teach and affect others through example and bring peace and harmony to humanity. 

 Om namah shivaya