Becoming a Yoga Teacher: The Journey That Brought Me Home to Myself

A Story of Turning 30, Leaving, Becoming, Healing, and Learning to Live My Yoga

Ten years ago, I stepped into my first yoga teacher training at Kripalu. I was turning 30, standing at the edge of a life I no longer recognized, and holding a quiet hope that something—anything—might lead me back to myself. What I didn’t know then was that this single decision would become the doorway to an entirely new life: one rooted in truth, embodiment, and the courage to choose myself.

Back then, I wasn’t looking to “become a yoga teacher.” I was trying to survive. I was trying to breathe again.

I was leaving an abusive marriage. I was letting go of expectations, stories, and identities that had shaped me for years. I was unlearning silence. I was reclaiming my voice. And somewhere inside all that unravelling, yoga became the thread that wove me back together.

Kripalu Was the First Place I Remember Feeling Safe in My Body

When I arrived at Kripalu, I was injured, not just emotionally, but physically. My body had been whispering to me for years, and I kept pushing through pain, overriding signals, ignoring my limits. I believed strength meant not stopping.

Kripalu taught me a very different truth.

It taught me that listening is a strength. Honouring your body is sacred. That slowing down takes more courage than pushing through.

Learning to move with care, rest when needed, and soften without shame became foundational to my healing. For the first time, I allowed my body, not my fear, not my guilt, to guide me.

Teaching Yoga Was Easy… Learning to Live My Yoga Was the Real Work

Teaching yoga came naturally. Living yoga was the lifelong curriculum.

Living yoga meant:

• Listening to my body instead of demanding from it

• Healing the parts of me that believed pain was normal

• Choosing rest without guilt

• Setting boundaries even when my voice shook

• Recognizing trauma responses disguised as “strength”

• Letting self-compassion replace self-criticism

The mat gave me tools. Life gave me the lessons.

Turning 30 Wasn’t the End—It Was the Beginning

People talk about turning 30 like something is closing. For me, everything opened.

I walked away from a life built on surviving and stepped into one built on truth. I found community. I rebuilt my relationship with my body. I later created Divine Aura Yoga School in November 2022. I trained teachers, held space, shared my heart, and devoted myself to this work.

Most importantly, I learned that yoga isn’t what happens in a class.

Yoga is how we live when no one is watching.

It is the breath you take before reacting. The moment you choose to stay instead of dissociating. The gentle honesty of saying, “My body needs something different today.” The quiet voice that says, “You deserve more.”

A Decade Later, I Still Believe This: Yoga Is a Path Toward Coming Home

Today, ten years later, I no longer teach from the wounds I escaped but from the wisdom they gave me. I teach from embodiment, integrity, compassion, and lived experience. I teach from the truth that healing is not linear, and becoming is lifelong.

My life looks nothing like it did at 29. And thank God for that.

Yoga didn’t just change my life, it returned me to it. It taught me to honour my body, trust my inner voice, and build a life rooted in authenticity and self-worth.

And now, through Divine Aura Yoga School, it is my honour to guide others on their own path of remembering, reclaiming, healing, and coming home to themselves, just as I once had to learn to come home to mine.