Hi everyone! First of all, thanks for stopping by. I'll be using this as a place to write down my musings and inspiration as well as tips that I have for all things yoga, meditation, tantra, reiki, healing, traveling, food, health, wellness and more!
Just to tell you a bit about myself, I'm from southern California, and I currently live in Lisbon, Portugal. I lived in Los Angeles for nearly 10 years and my family lives in LA, so I kind of live there part time, which I love. I'm typically a super private person, so having a blog is an interesting step for me :)
I started practicing yoga nearly a decade ago in LA. I became a more dedicated yogi when I went to a studio in Venice Beach called the Yoga Collective. From the first class, I just really fell in love. I grew up being a competitive gymnast, and practicing yoga spoke to me so much because it was so much more than a physical practice. I feel like I've read that statement so much, and maybe many of you have too... but for those who haven't practiced, you must try to really understand how it is more than a physical practice! When is the last time you focused on your breath for an hour? While simultaneously breaking a sweat, moving your body, tuning into the philosophy of staying present and THEN you get to rest at the end? Needless to say, I was hooked. And after many years of practice, I decided I wanted to become a yoga teacher and understand more about the philosophy, so I booked a yoga teacher training in Rishikesh, India - the birthplace of yoga.
My yoga teacher training was transformative. It was the first time I actually felt my mind, body and soul connect, and whew... I tapped into my higher consciousness in a way I didn't understand was actually possible. I learned traditional Hatha yoga from some seriously talented teachers who guided me to understand the true nature of what yoga is - the union of mind, body and soul.
Each day, we also learned a different type of meditation. It was when I dove into my meditation practice that I was able to begin connecting the dots of my very asana-focused (asana = yoga postures) practice in LA, the complexity of my mind and my inner light which is the energy of the universe. I released so much baggage from the past, learned about various healing therapies, met life-long friends, and the list goes on!
I could write for hours explaining in great detail of all the things I went through when I was there... but to sum it up, I woke up. My life changed, I changed, my practice changed, nothing was ever the same again, and I was finally ready and open to embrace life in a more authentic way than I ever had before.
Since then, I've spent even more time in India and have traveled the globe learning about yoga, reiki, tantra, Buddhist meditation, ayurveda, cooking, herbalism, and how to love my life and be open to the present moment. I started teaching yoga, practicing reiki and moved to Portugal which has been another transformative journey, and I'm constantly being reminded to surrender to it all. Taking it one step at a time.
Throughout my experience, I noticed an overarching theme - our lives are a beautiful dance of the intermingling of both light and dark energy. It's essential to embrace the light and dark, in your personal life and in the world. We have this incredible capacity to connect to our inner light or divine energy. When we do this, we create space for darkness to exist, and can even shine brightness on those places too. I will write a post on this another time, but for now this is how I came up with the idea of "The Art of Living a Luminous Life."
I hope you'll enjoy what I have to share with you wonderful people - here's to our journey together! Let's embrace it with the one true currency of the universe: love ♡
much love,
Erin