Over two decades ago, I was working hard in my dream job as an attorney at PBS Headquarters. There, I advised producers on their funding arrangements and enforced rules to protect the non-commercial nature of public television. I gave speeches on the regulations to aspiring filmmakers in LA and NYC. I borrowed screening tapes and binged the fabulous programming long before binge-watching was a thing. I loved, loved, loved my work and my colleagues.
Meanwhile, at night, I studied for a master’s in creative writing at Johns Hopkins. I was biking over 10 miles back and forth to work, rowing in the Potomac, and training to run my first 10K. I’d purchased a house and sought a partner to build a life and family.
Life was humming along, just like I expected it to. I had ambitious plans.
But then, something broke inside my body. I became very ill and spent over two years seeing doctors and sampling a variety of drug cocktails, scrambling to get my vitality back to no avail.
I had never felt so lost, exhausted, and burned out. Nothing worked, and I couldn’t recover.
Then, I took a trip to COMO Parrot Cay that changed everything – my habits, diet, mindset, skills and priorities, and most of all… my ability to hope.
That trip absolutely saved my life.
With yoga twice a day on a breezy pavilion, my personal yoga practice of eight years exploded like confetti. I did my first headstand, forearm balance, and back bend! It was amazing.
I discovered all these other pieces in yoga I didn’t know existed. As I learned about all eight limbs of yoga, my yoga practice evolved far beyond a physical practice. Yoga helped me not only befriend the body that betrayed me but also cope mentally and spiritually.
I became addicted to the magic of meditation. Long before science established why meditation works, I experienced the power of meditation and mindfulness. Learning how to sit gave me a sense of agency over my body and emotions that I hadn’t had in a very long time, and I’ve been a daily meditator ever since.
I learned a new way to eat, how food is a ‘farmacy,’ and how spices can be medicine. I also experienced how our meals can nourish or poison us.
I came to appreciate the value of routine and nature, and the natural wonders of Turks & Caicos were deeply healing.
I also immersed myself in myriad Ayurvedic treatments, which helped me rest more deeply than I ever had. My therapists lathered me in hot oil and spicy scrubs, and I took special steams and baths.
Ayurveda is the sister to yoga and the most ancient medicine in the world. Even though I’d been practicing yoga for eight years, I didn’t know much about it back then. With roots tracing back over 5,000 years to India’s Vedic civilization, this ancient medicine cultivates a balance among mind, body, and spirit. It emphasizes very personalized treatments to achieve well-being. Ayurveda offers herbal remedies, dietary guidelines, yoga, meditation, and massage to restore harmony and promote longevity.
While at COMO Parrot Cay, I woke every morning to the rhythmic sound of the waves inside the canopy of white curtains. I grew to love my daily green juices, and I’ve been making ginger tea at home ever since. My favorite vice switched permanently from milk chocolate to dark.
Even the peaceful zen of the hotel room’s interior shifted everything I valued in home design.
It only took ten days to shift my entire life, well-being, and resilience. The enduring wisdom of Ayurveda cured me. In retrospect, looking back over two decades, I now believe what happened and all I learned during those ten days saved my life.
I had to share yoga’s immense healing power with others, so I determined to become a yoga teacher. I’ve been a teacher since that critical 2002 trip, and for a decade, I owned and operated a yoga studio in Georgetown, Washington, DC. I’m proud that the International Association of Yoga Therapists certified me as a yoga therapist in 2017 and renewed that certification in 2020.
One definition of a guru or yoga teacher is a darkness dispeller. I love that translation because yoga dispelled so much darkness for me.
And so does travel. Now, I live to design trips that will transform you, too. It’s my greatest passion.
I’m so happy you’re here.
