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 masters in creative writing at Johns Hopkins. And I was biking over 10 miles back and forth to work, rowing in the Potomac, and training to run my first 10K. And I’d purchased a house and was looking for a partner to build a life & family with.
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. And nothing worked. 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 burgeoned and 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. My yoga practice evolved far beyond a physical practice. Yoga helped me not only to befriend the body that betrayed me but helped me cope mentally and spiritually too.
I became addicted to the total magic that is 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 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 and how food is a ‘farmacy,’ and spices can be medicine. I experienced the value of routine and nature. And immersed myself in Ayurvedic treatments that helped me rest more deeply than I ever had.
Every morning, I woke inside the canopy of white curtains to the rhythmic sound of the waves. 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 shifted everything I valued in home design.
It only took 10 days to shift my entire life, wellbeing, and resilience.
I had to share yoga’s immense healing power with others and determined to become a yoga teacher. I’ve been a teacher ever since that trip in 2002 and owned and operated a yoga studio in Georgetown in Washington DC. And I’m proud to say that the International Association of Yoga Therapists certified me as a yoga therapist in 2017 and renewed that in 2020.
One definition of guru or yoga teacher is 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.
