Ontario Together
Hello, my name is Sabrina and I am the creator of Sabrina’s Serenity Yoga. This is my journey on how yoga came into my life and helped me process the physical, mental, and emotional challenges that presented themselves to me since being a young adult to the present day. In 2002, at the tender age of sixteen my friend and I signed up for our first exposure to yoga through a community center program. We each bought a ten class pass including a yoga mat for $100 and were eager to learn new ways to help us stay physically and mentally fit. Yoga is a 5000 year old practice so by no means was this new but it was new to us. We practiced Hatha style yoga that focused on breathing techniques and physical postures to help enhance health, reduce stress and balance the mind and body. My favorite part of the class was the Shavasana (resting pose) at the end. Our bodies would lay heavy on our mats and the instructor would come mist our faces with a refreshing spritz that helped us tune in deeper to a serene sense of relaxation unlike anything I’d ever experienced before.
I was born and raised out west in the city of Calgary and was fortunate enough to grow up beside the beautiful Rocky Mountains. I was introduced to a love of snowboarding in my early 20’s and started signing up for studio yoga classes that complimented my young adult life. I was passionate about snowboarding and believe the mindfulness tools I learned in yoga is what guided me to cultivate an inner strength and emotional awareness that helped build my confidence. My stamina stayed strong through years of enjoying this fun and physical activity up until I sustained some injuries. After several snowboarding and motor vehicle accidents I felt left out as the pain affected my neck, shoulder, back and knee. When I wasn’t at the office working I spent most of my time at physio recovering from my injuries. I had surgery to repair my shoulder and found it mentally difficult to be taken away from the activities I loved. Thankfully, Yoga was my saving grace once again. It acted as a vessel of light to help me stay focused on the task at hand while finding peace and acceptance in my temporary situation.
In 2016, I began attending monthly guided meditations that were truly inspiring. They helped me let go of things that no longer served me and led me on a path towards personal growth, healing and transformation. It was that summer I decided to take a one week solo backpacking journey across Canada to visit family and friends. I traveled on planes, trains, automobiles, buses, gondolas, and boats from Calgary to Toronto, Quebec, and Vancouver. During my trip I met some incredible people that unknowingly helped change my life forever. A friend gave me a 90 minute sensory deprivation float tank experience that created a deep shift in me. It was then I decided to pursue a new career path in the field of health and wellness with special focus on pain management. I gave notice at my office job, sold off most of my things and moved to Ontario to get a fresh start and be an emotional support to my grandmother who recently lost her partner of 40+ years. Here, I reconnected with my yoga mat practice and registered for a 200 hour yoga teacher training in the fall of 2017.
After graduating my Hatha yoga teacher training, I reflected back on my first experience of Hatha yoga when I was a naive teenager who ate a meal right before class and learned the uncomfortable way why it was a bad idea to eat within 1 hour of class. Now here I was 15 years later more experienced and actively teaching Karma yoga classes in schools, retirement homes, and at a little coffee shop. My dream of helping people with pain management in the field of health and wellness was becoming a reality. At this point in my yoga journey I was enjoying teaching and learning from other yoga instructors at workshops and yoga retreats. In 2018, Vancouver Yoga Outreach opened an opportunity for me to learn more about trauma-informed yoga where classes are designed to teach individuals facing challenges with mental health, poverty, violence, and addiction to help them notice and feel the sensations in their body.
Tools I learned in Outreach yoga helped me immensely after suddenly losing my dad to a heart attack in the summer of 2020. I managed to get outdoors and spend lots of time in nature where I had time and space to sit with my feelings and let out cathartic cries. I was wrapped in a blanket of grief but took solace in knowing I was doing my best to process my feelings of sadness and was grateful for having such an amazing dad. I continued to teach dock yoga lessons at the cottage and was introduced to Ashtanga yoga through one of my class participants. On a referral recommendation I registered for a 300 hour online Ashtanga Yoga Teacher Training. The school was based in Goa, India and due to the time difference my studies consisted of a lot of late nights discussing yoga philosophy and early mornings practicing the 90 minute primary series of yoga postures. The Ashtanga yoga teacher training gave me a deeper understanding of yoga philosophy and moving meditation. In January of 2021 I graduated with my 500 hour yoga teaching certification.
The summer of 2021 I discovered a different kind of moving meditation in the form of riding motorcycles. My love for travel, connection, teaching yoga, and riding quickly led to new aspirations of becoming a traveling motorcycle riding virtual yoga instructor. It is my mission to inspire others to try new things and provide tools needed to help them develop their own personal practice. I am currently offering a 30 minute beginner chair class every Tuesday afternoon and a 50 minute gentle mat practice on Thursday evenings. My class times take into account the time zone difference from out east and west to better accommodate everyone. Classes are $11 each and tickets can be purchased up until 1 hour before the class starts through events.sereneyoga.ca. Reserve your ticket now to hold your spot in one of my upcoming virtual classes. Find out more information or book a private virtual class with me on my website at https://sereneyoga.ca.
Sabrina Schuetzle
Yoga Instructor
Website:
sereneyoga.ca
Email:
sabrina@sereneyoga.ca
Phone:
(437)-533-7227
