Atmavidya

Yoga Alliance E-YRT 500 Registered Teacher; B.Ed. (NZ); M. Ed. Admin (NZ)

I breathe gratitude for this lifetime of holding hands with Mother Nature (my long time teacher) and for being steeped, through decades, in ancient practices of Hatha Yoga and Meditation given also by great teachers.  

Nature herself and Yoga are keys for appreciation and enjoyment of this life. They are keys to living from the goodness, beauty and authenticity of our being.

I came to yoga in my early 30s when the practices helped me find the way back to wellbeing, in the face of challenging circumstances.

Yoga gave strength and courage to meet my difficulties and a way forward with healthy life choices.

Over the years I have explored many spiritual and personal development pathways, aspiring for a way that includes everyone.

Yoga and Nature, for me, are that.

I delight in the yoga that can be practiced by every body, irrespective of the level of mobility or apparent capacity to practice.

I have been teaching yoga since the 1990s and affiliated with the Bihar School of Yoga.

I was gifted the name Atmavidya by Swami Niranjanananda Saraswati, to live into. Atma relates to the essence of being or ‘light of consciousness’ and Vidya is a wisdom to be understood, imbibed and expressed in life.

I have been able to give service and enrich my learning in Yoga and Meditation ashrams in New Zealand, Australia, Munger and Rikhia in India and continue where i am able, to contribute in my community of Ihutahi Southshore, Otautahi with regular classes, some retreats over the years.

Since 2017 I have contributed in various Yoga teacher training programmes including through Anahata Yoga Retreat, Golden Flow Yoga and in 2021 as a lead trainer in the Yoga Education Teacher Training Programme based at Kawai Purapura. I continue to welcome the opportunity to journey with and learn together with yoga teachers, deepening their capacity to give in our community.

I am ever listening and learning to be in harmony with the rhythms of Mother Nature. In the early 2000s my husband Pete and I formed relationship with land on the coast between Raglan and Kawhia, from which we were able to learn and grow together, a wonderful organic Permaculture paradise. In 2008, from the magnificence of the land, Parito Yoga Retreat was born, grew and continued until 2013 when I turned towards imbibing yogic lifestyle in the Bihar School of Yoga ashram in Munger, India before returning to New Zealand to direct The Vishuddhi Yoga Centre in Christchurch from 2014-2016. At the end of 2016 I assisted the establishment, direction and management of the Yoga For You Collective of teachers and in 2018 established Atmavidya Yoga and Meditation to embrace and express more fully, the concept of Atmavidya. I am delighted at this time to be able to support also the work of Uprising Yoga Studio in Woolston and The Hanuman Centre in North Brighton Otautahi, learning, teaching Yoga, Meditation and Kirtan practices there.

I have received training in Pregnancy Yoga and also Trauma Sensitive Yoga and am affiliated also with NZ Yoga Education in Prisons Trust, appreciating the opportunity to work with men at Odyssey House Trust in Christchurch, during 2014 and 2015, in their transition to life in the community, free from drug and alcohol addictions. I have supported staff at Odyssey with a meditation programme there in 2025 and enjoy contributing in the community Cherish in central Christchurch. I have also had some experience offering yoga and relaxation to inmates of Christchurch Women’s Prison.

I appreciate the opportunities for learning to listen to the deep yoga and awareness practices (touching the subtle nuances of movement), that have come over the last 10 years, through teachers of the Feldenkrais method including Nicky Woodward, Tiffany Sankary and Feldenkrais Access. These practices have illuminated understanding, embodiment and integration of life experienced through the practices of Yoga.

My previous professional life, for over 20 years, has been in teacher education in the School of Education at the University of Waikato and prior to that teaching in schools and educational institutions mainly in the North Island of New Zealand.

I am deeply grateful for practices which are a source of balance, strength and connection in my life and have been carried by great teachers from the ancient traditions of yoga including Swami Kailash Saraswati and Swami Niranjanananda Saraswati.

This full hearted appreciation extends in all directions from the magnificence of Ihutai Southshore, to the ever changing Ngā Kohatu Whakarakaraka o Tamatea Pōkai Whenua Porthills to the South; to Kā Tiritiri o te Moana Southern Alps to the South and West; to ngā Hapu o Te Mana Whenua, the local people of this land, Tūāhuriri and ngā Iwi Kāti Mamoe; Ngāi Tahu and Waitaha. I bow with this heart, to the ocean to the East and the estuary Ihutai to the West, and to this abundant expanse of land beneath our feet here, to the beings living here with us, all of whom provide daily abundant kai food and illuminate our breaths and interactions here.

For the freedom, happiness, and consciousness of all beings, I am delighted to gently support the discovery of the different ways that practices can be experienced, in order to liberate energy that may be locked up in tension, so that well-being of body, mind and spirit can be lived and enjoyed.

Kia tau te Rangimarie.

Aum, Shanti, Shanti, Shanti.

Aum, Peace, Peace, Peace.