SWIHA Blog

In the practice of yoga, it’s traditional to follow a lineage to allow for more integration of the vast yogic teaching. After three members of the Southwest Institute of Healing Arts’ leadership team traveled to India and birthplace of the Amrit Yoga Institute teachings, we are now aligning our curriculum with this lineage through incorporating I AM Yoga® in to our curriculum. This provides a valuable opportunity for you to learn an authentic expression of yoga which honors its spiritual intentions and provides a complete mind-body-spirit focus.

“I have always been an empath and someone that others sought for counsel. It was something that I pushed away for many years before attending SWIHA,” Michelle Buonincontri tells us.

As in many stories we hear from our graduates, Michelle describes her discovery of Southwest Institute of Healing Arts as “serendipitous”. She had moved from New York to Arizona and attended a Celebrate Your Life event on campus. “I immediately loved the curriculum and knew I had to do the Life Coaching program,” she says.

“I love being a Life Coach because I love helping people! Since I was a kid, people have always come up to me and just started pouring their hearts out,” Chavon Laurén of Unapologetically Me, tells us, “Over time, I accepted this as a gift and now I feel like I've come full circle.”

Before becoming a Life Coach, Chavon served in the military and worked a Personal Trainer. During training sessions, she came to realize that her clients wanted to talk about more than just exercise.

“I never stopped them because it was clear they needed to speak these thoughts out of their system as a form of stress relief, rather than try to move it out through physical fitness,” she explains, “I had an ‘ah-ha’ moment. I knew I needed to be more and do more, for my clients and myself.“

“Life Coaching for me was a bridge to another part of myself and my higher calling,” explains Holly Meyer, “I was already successful and driven in my ‘day job’ and really enjoyed my role in business.”

Holly describes herself as someone who has always been a person that others seem comfortable opening up to: “Quite honestly, having gifts of being an empath with mediumship abilities has been an instrumental part of my success and ability to connect with so many throughout my life.”

“Just before finding out about SWIHA, I was in a soul sucking job in Corporate America. I dreaded going to work,” recalls Mel Rhoden, describing a path that we often hear of those who choose to serve others in a new way, “Every day that I was there, the cubicle walls seemed to be getting taller and darker. That office was quickly becoming lifeless, and I needed to get out.”

Mel had already left Corporate America once to travel the world as a missionary and journalist. She had sworn never to go back, however, after living overseas and having to raise financial support for so long, she needed to create some stability.

“For me, it is absolute alignment. I am showing up in absolute alignment doing this work,” says Carmen Payne, who has been a practicing Life Coach since 2013, “It gives my soul so much joy to be serving others in this capacity and be a messenger.”

Carmen had spent twenty years working an IT job, and slowly found the stress of the job compounding until she had the overwhelming feeling that she needed to be doing something more in alignment with her passions. That’s when Carmen pulled out her resume and asked herself some hard questions, including the last time she felt excited and energized to come to work: “The role that literally lifted itself off the page at me was when I was training and coaching people.”

Brian Sheldon, of Brian Sheldon Wellness, is a Nature-Rooted Wellness Coach. “My goal is to help clients who are struggling with feeling lost or unsure of themselves,” he tells us, “We work together to find clarity and establish goals to live a more healthy, happy, and fulfilled life!”

“When I came down to Phoenix to visit SWIHA for the first time, I felt extremely lost and like I was on the edge of discovering something deep inside myself that I have always known and never been able to explain or unlock,” explains Brian. He describes how energy within SWIHA “just felt right”, and he signed up for the Mind-Body Wellness program immediately!

Amanda Dodd was drawn to Life Coaching when she began to feel pulled by a sense of “more”, which is an impressive call when you take in to account that she was already a holistic practitioner working with Reiki, The Emotion Code and The Body Code, as well as doing Mediumship while being a trauma-aware care giver to a special needs child.

As with many souls who are drawn to SWIHA, Brigette Cross found herself at a crossroads in her former field of work. During her time as an account, she describes the feeling that she had something more to contribute: “I was in search of my own spirituality. I wanted more knowledge to enhance my gift so I could share it with the world,” she recalls.

Brigette enrolled in the Mind Body Wellness Practitioner program where she developed her coaching practice, Be-Smiley. Her business’ tagline is: “Life is too precious to live unhappy!” which perfectly encapsulates the goal of Life Coaching.

We believe that everyone has a calling, a purpose, and a path that their soul longs to take. Many people spend their entire life waiting for the "right time" to embark on the journey that they've been longing to take. Here's the secret: You can begin at any time! In the words of Eckhart Tolle, spiritual teacher and best-selling author: "Realize deeply that the present moment is all you have. Make the NOW the primary focus of your life."