By the age of seven I felt naturally drawn towards poetry and often spoke to myself in poetic language while walking or cycling through the French   countryside.  Inspired by Nature or by my own emotions I would create simple rhymes and repeat them on my way to school like little mantras.

Around the age of fifteen a friend lent me a book on Yoga, some of the asanas looked intriguing but it was reading about the philosophy that created a greater impact on my mind.  I embraced its concepts quite easily because it was reflecting what I always felt and experienced on a personal level.   At that time I never imagined that I would become a yoga teacher, I just wanted to be an artist and a traveller, my gypsy soul always drawn to foreign lands.   One year later the mother of a very good friend of mine studied to become a yoga teacher, she was always very inspirational to me, and perhaps subconsciously it opened an opportunity at the back of my mind?    

Yoga is a path that is often inside you even before you acknowledge it, and it can manifest more strongly at any stage of your life.  In my case I felt I could not escape my destiny and followed it almost blindly.  Shortly after arriving in London at the age of 18 I saw myself enrolling to yoga classes and a few years later for a Yoga teacher training course!  I had to do it, I could not even explain to anyone why, especially as my lifestyle at the time was nothing but yogic!! Over a period of 4 years I trained with Velta Snikere-Wilson and qualified with the British Wheel of Yoga.  My knowledge of Yoga, Ayurveda & Tantra was later enhanced by the teaching of Robert Svoboda, whose lectures I have attended for almost 10 years, and more recently by Swami Shivanand Jee of Varanasi for gaining knowledge of certain hindu practices.   Ever since it's been a long journey, a fascinating path that allowed me to grow and yet there were moments when it became a difficult challenge as Yoga seemed to clash with some of my other aspirations.   The more I taught and practiced this discipline the more I realised that the benefits will manifest in your life when it is ripe for you, and the sincerity in your heart is more important than the results.  The spiritual path is a very slow process, it can take thousands of years to become an enlightened being, and to project the image of being already "pure and realised" is only a vain approach to satisfy one's ego.   What really matters is the work you put into it, your faith and dedication.   This duty is expressed by in the Bhagavad Gita (one of the fundamental book of Yoga): "... Faith so certain shall never be shaken by heaviest sorrow. To achieve this certainty is to know the real meaning of Yoga.   It is the breaking of contact with pain. You must practise this yoga resolutely, without loosing heart". (Chapter VI. Mentor edition).

Yoga has been as closed to my life as my own breath, it has shaped my destiny time and again, for a single seed can bear many fruits, and the more I study and practice the more I realise the infinite dimension of the subject. It made me journey through the fields of Ayurveda, Jyotish and Tantra, all these different subjects linked by the same philosophy - from the One (the state of ShivaShakti) there is the inexorable desire to become many, the creative force manifesting the Universe in all shapes and forms until it gets re-absorbed into the great void, dissolving back into the state of Brahma, the unlimited infinite consciousness.  There are many paths, all valid and fascinating.   In the West, Hatha Yoga is the most well-known and accessible, and like for many other people it was the start of my journey, it has since taken me to the path of Tantra where every moment of life becomes a sadhana (personal practice).   It is no longer the difficulty to set time aside for my practice, it is the exhilarating challenge to use every aspect of my everyday life as an opportunity to practice and to dedicate what I have learned to my own deities and the people I care for and love.