About Deva
Welcome Om...!
The Young Yogini
My first adventures in yoga began as a little girl, with Mom, Dorothy...back when yoga was considered weird. "Watch me!" Mom would exclaim and in Full Lotus, scoot deftly across the carpet teetering on the stubs of her knees! I was entranced! Kareen Zebroff was further household yoga-tainment, as she giggled from the TV every morning. Creating animal-inspired shapes, chillin out and just b-r-e-a-t-h-i-n-g, I was hooked for life! (Thank the Goddess, as it turns out...)
Streams and Traditions
Other streams of fitness training eventually carried me off...aerobics, running, weight training, mountain-biking, climbing, downhill skiing... yet augmented with some yoga practice. Eventually, of necessity, I returned fully to the heart of yoga and meditation, having no choice but to heal the maladies of stress and injuries incurred by high impact sports!
While my path has embraced the philosophies and wisdoms of yoga, it has also immersed in a myriad of spiritual, metaphysical and healing traditions... including over forty different master teachers, mentors, and facilitators, each providing a crucial evolutionary key, as if by a magical hand, often in my exact time of need.
The Great Tumble
And need them, i did...teetering at the precipice of a Type A vortex...down the rabbit hole i tumbled. For a top modelling agency, I began to win auditions and cattle calls...Mooooo...Gomukhasana (Cow Pose) was there. Leaping upon the hamster treadmill, I then dashed at breakneck speed in marketing/advertising/promotions/production in Media: magazine, radio, TV, newspaper...handling accounts such as the NHL's Calgary Flames, General Motors, Calgary Stampede, and many more.
Eventually, in the frenzy, Hamster Pose was forgotten and i was flailing in survival mode, withering from chronic stress. The end came with an impressive tumble from the top of the ladder....SPLAAT! Years of wholistic healing later, in a new career as High School teacher...yoga returned out of sheer necessity. Bonus! The Drama students loved it too!
The Greatest Guru of All
It has been said that experience is the greatest guru: experiencing the healing powers of yoga has confirmed this! Yoga's benefits brought me painstakingly back through an arduous healing journey. Body, mind, emotions, and spirit had been ravaged with adrenal/nervous system collapse, plus a plethora of sports injuries...you could say i had a total breakdown...which truly became a breakthrough!
Over this extended term, Yoga for Healing became central! With such impressive results, it seemed crucial to share with others. Studying with Joseph Lepage was like meeting the Patch Adams of Yoga. Humor! Play! Brilliance! With one of the world's foremost teachers of Yoga Therapy, i explored a myriad of techniques for ultimate yogic healing. "The deepest states of relaxation are where the greatest change comes," this Master would remind us. Right he was...Yoga Nidra quite possibly saved my emotional life.
I learned of the Samskaras (emotional scars) imprinted through early-life trauma, becoming like concrete blocks chained to our Being, subconsciously severing connection to Source Energy. We ALL have them lurking beneath the surface of awareness, in the unseen bottom of our holographic iceberg. I observed, experienced, revelled, released. The process continues to this moment. A herstory of trauma must be forgiven and forgotten for maximum radiance to shine.
The Spiral Dances Outward
As the healing foundations became established, i spiralled freely within the circle of learning...exploring with the master teachers honored in Guru-Links and many more besides. Throughout the journey, I've been blessed with my beloved Devi Ma (Divine Mom) encouraging me on every breath of the way. She now cheers from beyond the veil...but her chant is more persistent than ever..! Yo-ga, yo-ga, yo-ga!
As yogasana and healing yoga became integral, the next evolution has become dance and movement therapy. Yet another guiding hand plunged me into world dance traditions, ultimately as ecstatic trance and shamanic movement. A myriad of teachers appeared as tour guides...I've danced, celebrated, purged, re-connected. From Bellydance, Hula, African, Trance Dance, Bollywood and more, boundless realms of Light and ecstacy have opened through expressive movement. The world's tribal cultures were really on to something...i am en-trance-d!!! This great discovery is the birth of The Cosmic Dance, the fusion of yoga and movement. Yogasana can deliver us to the doorway of the sacred portal...The Cosmic Dance ushers us through it!
The Beings of Light
The greatest of my teacher-guides came at the height of my healing crisis in 1996, while recovering from chronic fatigue and a tsunami of maladies, all at cross purpose to one another. Honestly, the future appeared bleak. There was little more to be done...so came the medical edict. Thoroughly exhausted, i lay collapsed in a hospital room corner. With not one drop of energy left....
All alone, i slipped out of my body as easily as into water...and was headed freely toward The Light. "Oh no you don't!" the Beings of Light intervened, enfolding me with a blinding radiance, bathing me in warm reassuring Love. Telepathically they incanted...it's not yet your time!
Stubborn and resolutely headstrong...two big reasons for the mess in the first place, I refused. "I'm REALLY exhausted and outta here!"
"But you have certain work to do...it's why you came!" they beamed gracefully. Nah...Unconsoled...Relief loomed ahead...
Then...the veil parted, like theatre drapes upon the stage of The Future, and there was revealed a magnificent scene! It was Golden. It was SO very, very grand. Finally, the tough nut that I Am, I was convinced...how could i not be?
"Weeeell....if you put it THAT way! I guess...I'll stay...for THIS!"
Then: WHAM! With an extrordinary weight i slammed back into my limp body, draped lifeless upon the hospital gurney! Realizing WHERE I'd been, where WE are headed (to such an astounding future) i burst into tears...blabbering non-stop for three entire days. They were tears of relief and tears of joy!
By all means, from then on, the long journey back to wholeness was the toughest one I've ever surmounted. Throughout, yoga practice brought me emotional fortitude, inner power, balance, and a forgiving peace when i SO dearly needed it. Truly, i know i would not be here today without it.
I feel infinitely blessed to share the gift of yoga with All who are ready for The Supreme Experience. It feels to be such a worthy Life's pastime...to that i offer my whole-hearted, humble promise...
In Infinite Love, All-Ways,
Deva