Over the past two decades I have been incredibly fortunate to have been exposed to the teachings of many incredible yogis. My very first yoga teacher was Iyengar-trained Leonard Prendergast in 1999 who inspired my curiosity into the deeper dimensions of yoga and who ultimately encouraged my path to teaching. I am forever grateful to his many years of teachings and for providing me with the foundations in yoga that have enabled me to share my love of yoga with others.
My teacher training was undertaken from 2015 with Yoga Synergy under the direct guidance of internationally renown and respected yoga expert Simon Borg-Olivier. Simon has been teaching yoga around the world since 1982 and is one of the small number of existing yoga teachers to have trained with yoga gurus B.K.S Iyengar, K. Pattabhi Jois and TKV Desikachar. He is also a registered physiotherapist, research scientist and university lecturer. I have also been fortunate to learn from the wise Siddharthan John Weddepohl on the importance of yoga philosophy and self-knowledge to the practice of yoga. My first encounter with John was in Byron Bay in 2016 and I documented my lessons from him in my journal, later published in Australian Yoga Life Journal's March 2018 issue as a 5 page piece on transforming your yoga practice through self knowledge. In recent years I have had the absolute delight of dabbling in some Nada yoga short courses with the amazing Rachel Nokes of Ray of Light Yoga. This practice of the 'yoga of sound' has encouraged me to find my sacred voice and open my heart to divine mantra and kirtan experiences. Thank you Rachel for so generously sharing your love of Nada with me! |
Image of Simon Borg-Olivier by Alessandro Sigismondi
Tehla with John and his partner Rachel Zinman in 2018
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"They say that nothing is new under the sun. When it comes to the Self, as the seer of time, because the Self outlives and outshines everything, its teachings called Self-knowledge, Atma Vidya आत्मा विद्या have always been kept sacred. Revelling in and revealing our absolute true nature – as timeless as time itself, Atma Vidya आत्मा विद्या by removing our ignorance, defeats death, curing us of all our suffering". ~ John Weddepohl ~