About
It all started when…
As a child I was deemed ‘sensitive’. I recall wanting to be an artist and writer when I grew up, but those occupations were not within the acceptable social constructs of a successful career. I remember a school meeting with my mom when my early grade school counselor diagnosed me with childhood depression. As I continued, I found the deeper the subject matter, the more interested I was to learn it. The darkest corners of the brain, what makes people tick, and the effects of social conditioning during pivotal developmental stages of life were subjects that lit me up leading into my adulthood.
I am formally educated with a B.S. in Neuroscience and carry out my day job as a Quality Assurance Scientist. It is this same childhood curiosity and analytical mindset that enabled me to become completely enveloped in all things spiritual. To this day, I still consider eastern philosophy, yoga and it’s sister disciplines to be a life-long, compassionate pursuit of learning one's Self for personal and spiritual growth.
In 2010, I stumbled into a Bikram yoga studio while visiting my sister during a training trip for work. Little did I realize that the seeds of the Ghosh hatha yoga lineage would forever change my development during this incarnation.
After I took that first class, I had been bitten by what most Western yogis would affectionately call ‘the yoga bug’. It wasn’t the physical prowess I was impressed with, rather, it was the near stoppage of mental chatter that had haunted my active mind since childhood.
I had very briefly, directly experienced Patanjali’s ‘Yogas citta vritti nirodhah’ during that very first savasana to an extent that I intuitively knew I needed to continue the practice by any means possible. Shortly after, I became fully immersed in the practice. I had come to the realization of how monumental this practice became to relieve stress, anxiety, and cyclical episodes of depression.
About 4 years later, I decided to pursue my first 200 hour training with Barbara Altshuler-Pacheco at Summit Climbing, Yoga & Fitness in Dallas, TX. At the time, my intention was to deepen my knowledge and give back to the community in some way.
After another 2 years of teaching public classes, I further trained in the Sivananda lineage, completing an additional 300 hour training with Scott Murphy, Evelyn Antwerp, Thom Allen, and Erin Brandao through Namah Shivaya International School of Yoga in Dallas, TX. Shortly after, I joined the Summit Climbing Yoga and Fitness Yoga Teacher Training Program as a faculty trainer.
Since then, I have trained in the lineage of Ashtanga (Krishnamacharya and Pattabhi Jois) and Vinyasa Krama (Shrivatsa Ramaswami) with international yoga teacher Ricky Tran.
After a shift to study non-dual philosophies, I further trained in Kundalini Yoga, completing a 220 hour Level One Instructor training by the Kundalini Research Institute (KRI) and the International Kundalini Yoga Teachers Association (IKYTA) in Austin, TX with Mehtab, Guru Karam, and Siri Bahadur.
The more I learn, the more I realize that I am, and always will be a student. Honoring this mindset, I believe yoga is for every BODY no matter their constitution, race, gender, ethnicity, socio-economic background or any other identifying factors that may limit accessibility to the practice.
I am passionate about sharing yoga, meditation, and other spiritual disciplines through a scientific lens to inspire others to find a balanced mind, body, and life both on and off the mat.
Kindest Regards,
Tina Ward