Above anything else I am the proud mother of 2 healthy, children. Together with my husband we live in a tranquil seaside town in the south of Portugal. Living here means enjoying a warm climate where we can live and play outside all year round. As a family we love spending time in or near the ocean or in nature. The pace of living here is much slower than the city pace that we were used to before we came here.
I grew up in Germany and at the age 8 we moved to the Netherlands. Family circumstances did not allow me to be a child for very long so at an early age I learned the importance of accepting of what IS. “Everything I have experienced so far has made me the person I am today” used to be my Mantra (or maybe coping mechanism). Either way it used to give me peace without having to dwell in the past or worry too much about the future.
As a young adult I had great ambition and big financial goals. I lived in Amsterdam where I had a succesfull corporate career in first headhunting and later payments. After about 7 years of being in a corporate role, ‘the work hard play harder lifestyle’ took its tole on my health. I was burnt out and both mentally and physically exhaused. This was the first moment where Yoga and Ayurveda became a real lifeline and I saw a path to heal myself.
Years later, after the birth of our daughter I unknowingly slipped back into a path of self destruction. Instead of treating my post partum self witht the love and care I needed I rushed into a life that I thought was ‘normal and expected’. I hosted endless guests and visitors, I went on a rawfood diet, I had a hard exercise routine, and I went back to the office …. You guessed it, 6 months after the birth of my daughter my post partum depression was fact. An Ayurvedic health coach and a healing Yoga programme with my amazing teachers brought me back to the mat, back to my health and eventually back to my hearth (my true self).
The pregnancy and homebirth of our second child was truly blissful. Ayurveda and Yoga taught me how to truly take care of myself during this time and post partum. The times of bliss were far gone when our boy was only 3 months old and we found ourself in the back of an ambulance being rushed to the hospital. I’ll spare you the medical terminology but his lungs were so congested that he had to be on a ventilator. Countless emergency trips to the hospital, 2 hospital admissions, and almost 5 devastating months later he was finally declared ‘healthy’.
Like every parent ALL you want for your children is to be happy and healthy. I am determened to do everything in my power to make sure this will never happen again. Today, I am both a lifelong Yoga & Ayurveda student and teacher. I am currently studying to become an Ayurvedic Health professional for Children. It is my humble desire to share my knowledge with you and your children to find your path to healing and the prevention of disease.