Hi, I’m Carolyn…
I discovered yoga in 1999 as a ski bum in Whistler and went on to complete a BA in Environmental + Resource Management, working for Environment Canada and In the non-profit sector raising funds for green initiatives. After completing dozens of trainings and intensives around the world, I’m now primarily a meditation and mindfulness guide and coach (and lifelong student!).
As an RYT 200 and YACEP, I’ve been educating others through yoga + meditation trainings, retreats & corporate events worldwide for over 15 years. I’ve had the privilege of sharing mindfulness and yoga tools through various platforms: Insight Timer, Wanderlust Festivals, lululemon, Love Your Brain, Mala Collective and many more.
Most recently, my personal studies have taken me into the worlds of Breathwork, Yin, Traumatic Brain Injury and End-of-Life Support. Thanks to my guides Ana Forrest, Georgina Eden, Michelle St Pierre, Tara Brach, Schuyler Grant and Clara Roberts-Oss, I lead from an inviting, relatable, and lighthearted place. I will forever passionately encourage others to remember that it’s never too late to breathe deeply, to grow, and to change.
With me, you’ll discover tools for the nervous system and mind through mindfulness + meditation, breathing techniques and restorative spa yoga.
HOW IT ALL BEGAN
It was meditation that hooked me into the path of transformation, in the best way.
I accidentally meditated for the first time on a yoga retreat with Clara Roberts-Oss (I thought I had signed up for giggling through backbends). The meditative component was incredibly challenging and emotionally painful but I knew there was wisdom in that pain and that I needed more, in order to grow.
Around the same time I started teaching yoga, I also dove into my personal meditation practice. Since then, I have gratefully studied with teachers from the Buddhist Vipassana Movement and Zen, notably Tara Brach, Adyashanti and Reggie Ray (among many other yoga mentors).
Teaching meditation takes me from yurts on Bowen Island to corporate settings and anywhere there is a desire to learn!
After sharing with thousands of people over many years, I see that “Life is the practice” - not how many hours a day you can sit quietly alone on a cushion. But every aspect of life is a practice and there is no need to show up perfectly.
Showing up and living a mindful life is what matters. Anything can be meditative if this is your intention.
MY YOGA STORY
I was such a strong willed young woman. I left home at 16 and ventured even farther away at 18 years old - to Whistler BC, where I completely dove into yoga. This was 1999. I was snowboarding, skateboarding and trail running and something about yoga felt so right - maybe it seemed complementary to my athletic endeavours or maybe it’s that the cool moms that I nannied for were doing it!?. Whistler was my escape from a bad drug scene in Vancouver and discovering yoga would eventually save me in more ways than I could have imagined. Of course, all good things tend to take time.
After 10 years of practicing yoga, I finally got the nerve to take my teacher training and during that time I: completed a co-op BA at SFU in Environmental Resource Management, worked for Environment Canada and BC Wildlife Federation, started therapy, and slowly began some deep introspective work into my resentments and addictive patterns.
Since taking my first 200 hour YTT in 2008 I have studied yoga with: Ana Forest, Schuyler Grant, Clara Roberts-Oss, Shiva Rea, Judith Hanson Lasater and many other inspiring instructors. I have contributed to many wellness publications, filmed videos for leading brands, presented at international conventions & yoga festivals, facilitated dozens of teacher trainings and led meditation & yoga retreats all over the world.
LIFE’S TEACHINGS
Change is always occurring.
As mindful humans, we can breathe, honour emotions, give ourselves what is needed in the moment, and let life continue to happen.
Life is the practice.
What this lifelong practice has taught me, is that it’s all perfectly part of the process: to have a unique path, to have periods of disconnection, to come back again, to take time and to keep learning everyday.
TODAY
I have surrendered to the slower, to the quieter
- by not only transitioning to mostly sharing meditation tools but also in the way I share yoga poses. I don’t teach yoga often anymore, but when I do, my classes are “Spa Yoga” practices.
Think mellow, meditative, nervous system reset, long hip openers, no effort. A Spa Yoga class is built upon the pillars of slowness, permission to adapt poses, heartfelt themes, quiet.