“Yoga quite literally saved my life. I began my journey at SWIHA after a serious struggle with depression.” Yoga is widely known for its profound impact on physical health, mental well-being, and overall quality of life. By integrating the body, mind, and spirit through breathwork, physical postures, and meditation, yoga offers a holistic approach to personal transformation. This transformative power of yoga emerges in the physical realm and extends deeply into the mental and emotional landscapes of those who practice it regularly. Stefani Skilton, a SWIHA Yoga Teacher Training graduate, saw this transformation in her own life as well, this is her story.
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Topics:
Great Graduate,
Yoga Teacher Training,
YTT,
spirit of yoga,
Registered Yoga Teacher
Before becoming the life coach and King of Cueing Yogi that Will Zecco is today, he had an impressive and established career being a hairstylist for over 40 years! Having this background allowed Will to have ample amounts of experience working in the industry of “people”. Listening to people talk about their lives, their problems, their dreams, and their goals. Hairstylists don’t just do hair, they are therapists! All things aside, Will Zecco’s journey eventually led him to the Southwest Institute of Healing Arts and the Southwest Institute of Natural Aesthetics. Having many roles at both schools, today, Will Zecco is the Director of Student Success for SWIHA’s Yoga Teacher Training programs.
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Topics:
Life Coaching,
Yoga Teacher Training,
Life Coaching Program,
yoga teacher training 600 hour program,
national life coaching month
In 2014, I experienced a year of heartache that was followed by the devastating loss of my brother in 2015. I was in desperate need of support and turned to yoga as a source of healing. I had been attending yoga classes and began working with a mentor who introduced me to yoga therapy. During my darkest moments, I was searching for a connection to something greater than myself and embarked on my own Hero's Journey. My mentor was teaching Transformational Yoga Coaching at SWIHA and an instructor at her studio recommended that I sign up. Learning that I had signed up for Transformational Yoga Coaching (TYC), my mentor suggested that I take my 200hr Yoga Teacher Training to support me during this difficult time. In January 2016, I took the leap and enrolled, which marked the beginning of my healing journey.
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Topics:
yoga therapy,
holistic entrepreneur,
Great Graduate,
Amrit Desai,
yoga therapist,
Holistic Healing,
mind body spirit,
Yoga Teacher Training,
Amrit Institute,
I AM Yoga,
Amrit Yoga,
International Association of Yoga Therapy
Amanda Dodd, a SWIHA graduate and “lifer”, is well-versed in the programs that are offered here. Amanda is a proud graduate of the Mind Body Wellness Practitioner diploma with a focus in Spiritual Studies, a graduate of the Integrative Healing Arts Practitioner Diploma with a focus in Advanced Hypnotherapy, and lastly a graduate of the 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training program. Along with this education, Amanda Dodd is a dedicated Holistic Practitioner to her clients and has a passion and life purpose for helping others live with their heart, and not play small in this life. Today, Amanda Dodd shares her impactful ways of how she lives with purpose, and what can happen if you don’t.
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Topics:
Southwest Institute of Healing Arts,
Great Graduate,
SWIHA,
entrepreneur,
Past Life Regressions,
Yoga Teacher Training,
Arizona,
Tempe,
mind body wellness pracitioner,
IHAP,
Intuitive Healing Arts Practitioner,
Advanced Clinical Hypnotherapy,
National Be on Purpose Month 2023,
NATH
“There is no greater gift you can give or receive than to honor your calling. It’s why you were born. And how you become most truly alive.” - Oprah Winfrey
The way that I have learned, and continue to practice, living on purpose is by doing what is in alignment with my core values and beliefs. This has always come from a passionate place within myself and trusting that space. It’s a true place of awareness deep within. You may think that you have to find your purpose, but from my experience, your path finds you when you start focusing inward and trusting the process. My challenges, fears, hardships, and un-comfort zones have all been a huge part of discovering and developing my purpose.
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Topics:
wellness,
Self-care,
Yoga Teacher Training,
entrepreneurship,
National Be on Purpose Month 2023
In 2018, Holly Cavanaugh sat down with SWIHA Admissions and shared her vision of becoming a yoga teacher and a coffee roaster. Holly asserts, “In August 2018 I set out from Michigan to Arizona on a leap of faith that this would be the next step toward making my dreams a reality. I have been looking forward to continuing to grow my business ever since”. Long before finishing her 600-hr yoga program, and joining the Online Team as an Academic Advisor, Holly had an entrepreneurial spirit and was willing to work hard to make her vision a reality. “Has it been easy? No. I have had an image of what I wanted to create within my life and I have had to release control in order to stay open to the opportunities in front of me” states Holly.
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Topics:
holistic entrepreneur,
SWIHA,
Yoga Teacher Training,
Arizona,
yoga teacher training 600 hour program,
YTT,
spirit of yoga,
Tempe,
Arizona Yoga Studio,
Coffee,
Private Practice,
Academic Advisor,
Online Advisor
The corporate 9 to 5 job is not for everyone. It certainly wasn’t for SWIHA Great Graduate Nikki Cordell. Nikki recalls her life before SWIHA by using words such as “busy” and “hectic” as well as recalling the feeling of constantly longing for something else. Nikki Cordell wanted a way out of her corporate job…and she found one. Nikki was introduced to Southwest Institute of Healing Arts, and the rest was history! “I wanted to follow a dream, doing something that I love. A dream I always had was to own a yoga studio. Yoga has been a hobby of mine for many years, that one place I would allow space to take time for myself” asserts Nikki. She found that even though her days were still long and full, as she went to the evening program right after work, she came home feeling different. Nikki came home feeling refreshed, and always enjoyed her time in class, constantly looking forward to her next class, which was quite the opposite feeling of dreading her next day at her corporate job.
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Topics:
Southwest Institute of Healing Arts,
Great Graduate,
SWIHA,
Meditation,
Yoga Teacher Training,
yoga nidra,
Chair Yoga,
yoga,
Arizona,
spirit of yoga,
Tempe,
yoga teacher,
Yoga Retreat
“I cannot do all the good that the world needs. However, the world needs all the good that I can do.” - Jana Stanfield
Lourdes Silva, Southwest Institute of Healing Arts Great Graduate, realized that her life’s purpose was to serve others with her gifts and graces. To spread the healing arts of Reiki, Sound Healing, Yoga, and more to those who speak Spanish and use Sign Language. Lourdes states, “I realized that the purpose of my life is to give love and be in service reaching all that community that needed the most because I truly believe yoga is for everyone regardless of age, weight, beliefs, or race! We are Onésimo.” One day, during a Polarity class that Lourdes was taking, she had the realization that each experience that she had in her life leading up to that moment was preparing her for her soul purpose. Her soul purpose is to “become a healer, to be on the yoga path, share my acknowledgment, and with empathy - be an instrument of service!”
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Topics:
Sound Healing,
Southwest Institute of Healing Arts,
Life Coaching,
Toe Reading,
Great Graduate,
SWIHA,
Advanced Yoga Training,
Reiki,
Yoga Teacher Training,
yoga nidra,
Arizona,
Tempe,
Holistic Healer,
Sign Language,
Spanish Speaking,
Service
As youngsters, we are often asked, “What do you want to BE when you grow up?” The question being asked is really what do you want to DO for a living?
For Will Zecco, he knew in middle school he wanted to BE a hairstylist. And yet his dad wouldn’t hear of it! He wanted Will to do “college”. So Will attended a community college and became a Fashion Designer, doing costume design for a local theatre group. He was good at what he was doing, including singing and dancing in the local productions, yet he still had a dream of being something else.
A hometown newspaper did an article featuring Will with the headline “Local Boy Becomes Designer.” A state Senator sent Will a letter congratulating him and offering that if there was ever anything he could do for him, to let him know. As Will often says, “We only get what you’re brave enough to ask for!” Will boldly asked the Senator about a grant and got a full ride to go to Cosmetology school.
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Topics:
SWINA,
Southwest Institute of Healing Arts,
Aesthetician,
SWIHA,
yoga,
200 Hour Yoga Training,
Yoga Teacher Training,
Southwest Institute of Natural Aesthetics,
YTT,
spirit of yoga,
Yogi,
Safe Space,
Holding Space,
Trauma-Aware,
Hairdresser,
Makeup Artist,
Esthetician School,
SOY
“Before SWIHA I was an active duty military member serving in the air force. Once I became a veteran, I knew I wanted to seek deeper healing for myself and the communities I am a part of. I also wanted to facilitate and curate spaces that allowed for that healing to occur. Being a trauma-informed and intuitively lead yoga instructor/ guide allow me to do just that in every space I’ve grown into.”
Great Graduate, Khariah Clark, of SWIHA’s 200 hr Yoga Teacher Training program as well as the Intuitive Guide program, has blossomed into her new life since attending Southwest Institute of Healing Arts. Like many other students who enroll at SWIHA, Khariah was at a point in her life where she had to stop and reflect on what she wanted to do next with her life. Khariah had just dropped out of a very rigorous law program and felt defeated, not really knowing what to do next. Clark explains, “...not knowing my next move, I went into my backyard to do some yoga, I looked up to see a rainbow in the sky, it was awesome.” And one step aligning after another, Khariah found herself studying yoga and intuitive guidance at SWIHA.
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Topics:
Southwest Institute of Healing Arts,
SWIHA,
entrepreneur,
healing,
Yoga Teacher Training,
yoga,
Arizona,
business,
Tempe,
intuitve guide,
Yogi,
Yoga studio,
yoga classes,
intuitive guidance,
Energy,
Sharon Rose,
Aura,
James Patrick,
Higher Learning,
Higher Education
