SWIHA Blog

“There is no greater time than now to experience the full power of your potential. Make this the day you take the first step in the beautiful journey of bringing your dreams to life.” - Dr. Steve Maraboli

For Lindsay Morgan, a great graduate from the Integrative Healing Arts Practitioner program, her journey at SWIHA allowed her to realize her full potential, which unlocked her ability and willpower to do more than she had previously thought possible. Lindsay expresses, “The hardest part is showing up, but when you do it will all be worth it. You are more capable than you know and trust whatever happens is meant to be”.

Around the year of 2010 and Kamini Desai, Education Director and Core Curriculum Developer for the Amrit Yoga Institute, was living in Phoenix and doing a lot of traveling, speaking and teaching about yoga and yoga nidra. A friend of hers mentioned that there was a school called the Southwest Institute of Healing Arts (SWIHA), and that she thought she should connect with them. Kamini sent a message to KC Miller, Owner, Founder and Chief Spiritual Officer. The Universe brought them together when the timing was right about a year later.

What a year we had last year! I am convinced I may not have made it had it not been for yoga. I started 2020 in Yoga Nidra training and fell in love with the sleep based meditation practice. As someone that has always struggled with shutting my brain down and trying to get all of the thoughts racing through my head to stop, the practice of Yoga Nidra was able to take my meditation practice to the next level.

How do you meditate when you have a busy mind? The average person has 60,000-80,000 thoughts per day; that’s 2.500-3.300 thoughts per hour. That’s a lot of thoughts to try to bring into stillness.

This was my challenge. I’d always wanted to meditate, but trying to stop my brain thoughts while on the mat were near impossible. That is, until I found Yoga Nidra. I’ll never forget my first time receiving a Yoga Nidra session, day one of Yoga Nidra level one training. I had no idea what I was getting myself into when I signed up for this course.

At Southwest Institute of Healing Arts, we actively encourage our students to work through their fears and hesitations around entrepreneurship. Harsha Bipin, a Mind-Body Wellness Practitioner graduate, is a brilliant example of what can happen when you take a leap of faith in yourself!

“My previous life was of a software engineer,” Harsha explains, “it had a lot to do with me and the needs of my immediate family.”

“I joined SWIHA while I was on a maternity break, hoping to just do the Holistic Nutrition program to learn more about eating right. I had faced a huge positive shift in my life by changing my eating habits, and I knew there was more to learn.”

Before her time at SWIHA, Kimberly Balzan found her life at a standstill. She was going through the motions but not moving forward, fearful of life and what change may bring.

“I felt like I had no direction,” she describes, “I just happened to be at a friends Melissa Corter who was leading this meditation called Yoga Nidra. I honestly had never heard of it and didn't know what we were going to do. Well, when it was over I sat up and thought ‘That was the coolest thing I have ever experienced’. When I got in my car, I said to myself out loud: ‘I am going to learn this and teach it!’ I knew at that moment something incredible had happened.”

There is a story told of a guru who was approached by many people wanting to know the secrets of manifestation. He closed his eyes, and so did those saying they were seeking wisdom. The yogi took a deep breath, as did those waiting. After what seemed to be a long time, the wise man opened his eyes and said, “If you want pears, plant pear seeds!” With that, he descended the mountain, leaving some to understand, while many only mumbled in their confusion.

The first Friday in September, over 300 people gathered to listen to Yogi Amrit Desai, one of the few remaining living yoga masters who originally brought over the authentic teachings of yoga in the early 1960’s. Nine years before his arrival, the seeds were planted!

“Everything that happens in life has a lesson. Sometimes you have to look harder to find it, but it is there,” affirms Jenny Sirwet.

Jenny is a graduate of the 800-Hour Yoga Teacher Training program, has studied Polarity, Life Coaching and Aromatherapy, and serves future SWIHA community members in the Admissions department with her warm and welcoming presence. Though Jenny is now what we lovingly call a ‘SWIHA-Lifer’, she admits that she didn’t quite jump in to her journey feet-first: “I was allergic to the word ‘trauma’ when I first started as a student at SWIHA,” discloses Jenny, “That word was a trigger for me. It was a reminder of the ‘victim mentality’, which I try to avoid.”

Five years ago, Jenny suffered a serious back injury which launched her into a journey of healing and a mindset of growth. After a year and a half of  physical therapy, she had lumbar spine surgery in August of 2016 followed by six more months of remedial exercises.

Regina Bentley is a student in SWIHA’s Mind-Body Wellness Practitioner diploma program who’s using her story as a big vision for her future as a holistic entrepreneur.

A few years ago, Regina was bullied out of what was, at the time, her dream job.

“My physical, mental, and financial health were shattered,” she says, “The resulting anxiety and depression were almost unbearable.  There were so many times I wished I had someone to help me make sense of what happened and point me in the direction of recovery from the trauma. The post-traumatic stress disorder made it impossible for me to continue working in the same field.  So, I spent months doing research and informational interviews to figure out what to do for my next career.”

Our bodies are filled with electrical and chemical impulses that keep our brain and body in constant communication. Most of the time, we actively decipher the information and can quickly interpret it. A common example of this is when we accidentally touch a hot surface, our body moves itself away without a conscious thought to do so.