SWIHA Blog

Lauren Doyle walks through the door in a bright, royal blue dress, as cool and fresh as she is. I had the opportunity and honor to sit and talk about her experience of finding SWIHA after ten years of being immersed in the corporate world, which she says wasn’t a bad place, but she had the feeling she could do more with her life. I can also verify that Lauren is very funny— we laughed the entire interview— however, humor was another element that was missing from her life in this line of work. Down the road, doctors later diagnosed her with early onset arthritis and told her she wasn’t to do any strenuous exercise. After months of little standing, no cooking, and stuck in a bed, she realized she needed three things to be ‘full’.

“I need to be creative; I need mental nourishment, and physical activity.”

Lauren loved healing and working with tinctures and aromatherapy oils/options and she found herself asking one day,

“I love these earthly things. Why am I not doing that?”

 “I felt like my soul was dying.” [She laughs.] With her infectious smile and bright eyes, she continues, “Yes, I love being dramatic. But it was true: I called it ‘Soul-scouting' for the Soul that’s dying. [We both laugh] I was surrounded by people working the corporate ladder, and I just watched them live in fear and stress. That’s when I knew I could better serve my community. I was inspired to help people in this field, and the thing was, I knew I could help them.”

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A Story from our Great Graduate Deborah South-McEvoy

Deborah South-McEvoy happily admits that something bigger than herself brought her to Southwest Institute of Healing Arts (SWIHA). She had heard of the school and was intrigued by it, and she even said that she fought the urgings to enroll. After three years of thinking about it, she finally enrolled in the Yoga Teacher Training 200-hour program along with Yoga Nidra and Yoga Gong.

Yoga was not new to Deborah. She had been taking yoga classes off and on for the six years prior to starting her teaching training. During those six years, this Leo-Lioness started to yearn for more knowledge. “I was on fire with passion and know I needed to pass the information on to others through teaching.”

Since completing her training, Deborah has gone on to create Dare to Soar Yoga, LLC . She is passionate about bringing affordable yoga to the people of Casa Grande, as well as building a yoga community in the town she has resided since 1980. She now teaches beginner and intermediate yoga classes at Central Arizona College. She also facilitates a chair yoga class and a yoga nidra and gong class at the local Cancer Support Center in Casa Grande, AZ. It is the lack of yoga studios in Casa Grande that fueled her passion to go into business for herself. She rented a space at first and is now thrilled to be offering yoga at these two facilities. She still rents a space when she has opportunities to work with private clients. Her services include Beginner, Advanced, and Chair Yoga along with Gong Meditation and Yoga Nidra. Her teaching has a strong emphasis in alignment; breathing and meditation; and also integrating the physical, mental, energetic, and spiritual teachings of the tradition. Deborah believes that yoga enhances the balance between body, mind, and spirit, bringing health to the body and soul through movement, meditation, and the use of breath work as a way of relaxation and gazing inward.

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Aricha Pluid became aware of Southwest Institute of Healing Arts (SWIHA) when she was still living in Oregon, her home state, while searching for advanced training opportunities online. “I moved to Arizona with my husband in search of a new and different experience, but nearly half of my decision to sell just about everything and move to the desert was fueled by the promise of SWIHA, an oasis.“

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Yoga nidra, also known is ‘yogi sleep’, is an exciting concept blending yoga and meditation. My first exposure left me enlightened, more present than I’ve ever felt and wanting more! As I began my yoga nidra experience, I realized two things: Many people are confused about what it really is and it has the power to transform the life of anyone, regardless of experience with meditation and yoga.

Let Me Explain What Led Me to Yoga Nidra

After being diagnosed with PTSD from various military experiences and childhood traumas, I was blown away by how often medication was thrown at me. After some soul searching, I chose to replace medication with meditation, and to help others do the same. When I joined the team at Southwest Institute of Healing Arts (SWIHA), I was afforded the opportunity to take Yoga Nidra I with an amazing nationally recognized teacher named Kamini Desai, PhD.

To my surprise, yoga nidra is done from one position, Savasana, or lying down on your back. You’re able to use blankets, pillows, bolsters, eye pillows, chairs and other props to position yourself in a way that your body is completely neutral and relaxed. Just the act of lying there and being is relaxing in itself; when the instructor starts to lead you down into a certain brainwave state of sleep, where autonomic nervous system has a chance to rejuvenate, you really do fall into a deep yogi sleep. Human growth hormone, promoter of cell repair, is released in this Delta or deep sleep state. In our society today, stress, the inability to turn off the working brain, unhealthy eating habits, certain medications and other factors all play a role in reducing the amount of this deep sleep that allows us to tap into the expansive and unlimited beings that we all are.

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