Sandhi IRVINE

Hi there! You may continue reading on and perhaps find out about me what you are looking for, or you may simply not read on any further at any time for whatever reason as I take no offence, nor do I expect anything of you.

A Teacher-student relationship has potential to move beyond the neurosis of your other relationships if you want; “…invite into yourself the atmosphere of sanity inspired by his or her example, and vowing to cut the roots of further ignorance and suffering” -Chogyam Trungpa Training the Mind and Cultivating Loving-Kindness

SPACE

Autobiography

You may come to learn through my presence that I’m pragmatic, practical, bookish, introverted, and prefer nature to people… but my yoga practice has bloomed within me a natural devotion in service for our yoga community & fellows.

I will rarely meet you outside of the yoga-context (as I’m firmly committed to reading, studying, communing with trees, etc.). I believe we are equal and worthy and enough simply because we exist already – that there is nothing that gives one life more value over another, that there strives to be no hierarchy in my humility… and I pour myself into our study & practice together with the ease and joy of belonging to each other already. This is not what the world has tried to teach me about how to be (it is what my personal yoga-practice has taught me about integrity), and I will ultimately challenge you to absolve any tension between these social systems within you too, for it is what has been a large limb in my personal liberation. So, now you know this is my paradigm quirk, and you do not have to spend any time wondering about what is strange about me and we may now just move on or get to work together, shall we? Fantastic!

I have to my name a cat, a mortgage, life partner & adult son, and over 30 years of intensive yoga study with over 20 years of that teaching yoga (2002). I approach teaching from the foundation of Iyengar Yoga as taught to me by my certifying teachers (Ingelise Nherlan, Jo-Ann Sutherland) and that of the greater IYAC community. After this, my teaching practice grew to include training with most other schools of traditional and modern yoga (most significant in CV). The Iyengar certification mark requires teachers to preserve the lineage by not mixing Iyengar teaching with other disciplines (a standpoint of which I support) so I needed to leave that system (2017) to learn, through perspective & contrast, more of what yoga means to me through what was accessible to me. As a caucasian middle-aged middle-class woman residing in North America, I’ve been conscientious of yoga’s history of appropriation by circumstances of others who present in bodies and socio-economic situations like myself, so I sought out to trace an authenticity between my lot and my undeniable deep reverence of yoga through making a commitment to lifelong learning of yogas vast heritage and history as a living and breathing Art and how I can serve my community within the context of it.

Ultimately, I retained my Yoga Alliance registration at the prestigious designation of E-500 RYT (E=experienced, 500=500hrs as opposed to the 200hrs everyone gets at the end of a weekend-blip with a Training Teacher), and as a YA-CEP (Continuing Education Provider) until 2026 when they restructured to only give out one form of designation (at the weekender-level). YA was only a registry anyway (not a Certifying body for yoga), so my belief in my more-extensive experience being recognized was rendered moot and I chose not to renew with them anymore. No worries, I still have plenty of Certifications. More relevant even than those papers is decades of intensely dedicated experience to yoga practice, teaching, & understanding. I truly feel the first 10-years of teaching should not be without supervision/apprenticeship (as I had @JNS in the Iyengar system), and that experienced teachers (after the first 20 years of Teaching) are a breed apart from those without. There is too much to comprehend about caring for & holding space for others, especially in an intentional space of wellness, that simply will not be conceived of by those without experience, as in most any profession. This is where modern yoga falls short; with Studio models and the community rewarding ignorance by rebranding it as “fitness” so capitalism can prevail. It is a relevant discussion worth having, and terms worth contemplating before choosing your Teacher; what the “yoga” you are wanting to invest into your very cells actually values (and gives). I’m interested in what develops as our greater yoga-community begins to question and value these important aspects of our practice.

I do still teach from an Iyengar foundation as I’ve known it to provide safe & compassionate practice and has a seemingly infinite resource base. Sri BKS Iyengar left an incredible legacy for our yoga community. However, my teaching practice includes multiple disciplines for the ability to reach & connect with a more resourced understanding of modern rhetoric so to literally move your practice towards a place in more alignment with yoga as I’ve come to understand it over more than 30 years of life & study. I am shameless of my resourcing, allowing life experience to be informative and then learning how to communicate that in an effective and unabashed way.

My teaching style has been (lovingly) described as “difficult on the ego…” for I will challenge any corrupt personal governance within us (both) in the compassionate trade of re-arranging it in alignment with Yoga (as I’ve come to understand it). This is an important point: the agreement we have in study together is with the pursuit of deeper alignment in the way of Yoga, not of myself except the inescapable fact I am the vehicle of delivery (and that I give to you the very best of my understanding). For me, liberation is the pen-ultimate idea in yoga practice, and I hold your trust seriously when you agree for me to be in the role of your teacher by attending an event/session/class.

In short (!) there is much that will come from our practice together that is personal/unscripted as I learn through my actual experience rather than rote memorization or entrenchment through repetition. I am in constant inquiry with how to embrace my personal practice and life with integrity, openness, and awe intact; it requires a lot of me to be in the world so I choose a disciplined simplicity. My teaching of yoga is for yogas sake, to pay homage to my teachers by maintaining as much clarity they have themselves departed to me, and that I believe there are strong boundaries for what is and isn’t yoga that I will follow & challenge with my humanity. Yoga is old, older than me, and older than my teachers, and older than my teachers teachers… and that accumulation of time adds up to much more than I can come to on my own or with only one or a handful of teachers.

I approach my personal and teaching practices of yoga and Soundscapes as a living, breathing Art… as an Artist.

We will practice together to share our knowledge together in real time, to live it through our bodies, and to bring us to a place that feels (eventually) more like home within ourselves and being in the world …and from there my hope for you is to discover so many things absolutely amazing and true and beautiful.

SPACE

Curriculum Vitae

1987-1992: formal study (violin) – Royal Conservatory of Music (Orchestra, duet, solo), formal study (percussion, winds) -Saskatoon Education Board, formal study (chorus -Private Schools Saskatchewan), informal study (piano)

1993: formal study (Saskatoon Public Library, Kundalini Yoga) – Emily Kaur, informal study (mandolin, viola, cello, voice, and in drum circle)

1999-2017: formal study in Iyengar Yoga (Jo-Ann Sutherland primary teacher, Miranda Jones, Gary Day, Marlene Mahwinney, Ann Kilbertus, Marie Andree Morin, Shirley Daventry-French, Leslie Hogya, Devki Desai, Father Joe Pereira, Eyal Shiffroni, and Ingelise Nherlan primary teacher) 

2002-2017: yoga teaching (University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon Public School Division, Saskatoon Divers Club, Varsity View Community Association, JNS Yoga Studio), JNS yoga – Administration (2009)

2004: Bachelor of Fine Arts (University of Saskatchewan – High honours, Distinguished Exhibition), BA (psychology; University of Saskatchewan – Honours)

2005-2015: Iyengar Yoga Certification (Jo-Ann Sutherland, Ingelise Nherlan certifying teachers)

2012: Masters of Library and Information Science (San Jose State)

2013-2019: Sound Therapy Certifications (Vedic Chanting & the Art of Vibration -Kavitha Chinnaiyan, Yoga of Sound -Sheila Bringi, The Path of the Heart -Krishna Das), formal study (Vedic Philosophy -Kiya Mindlin), CBT Certification (Masters; University of Athabasca), and informal study (The work -Byron Katie, Wayfinder Training -Martha Beck)

*2013-2020: most relevant hiking (Machu Picchu Inca Trail, Cirque Terre/Sentiero deli Dei, Mt. Whitney/Pacific Crest Trail, Grand Canyon rim-to-rim), and extensively in Hawaii/UTAH as well as my homeland Canada. After 2020 I reside as much as possible at the family-cabin at Emma Lake, SK (hiking a vast network of trails & waterways in the Northern Provincial Forest; Boreal Sheild & Boreal Plain eco-zones)

2017: (Yoga Alliance) Hot Yoga Certification -Dallas Kruzulenski, formal study (Bikram Yoga -Bikram Choudhury <-note: this is a BAD GUY & I didn’t know this when I took the training)

2017-2020: formal yoga study (Scaravelli Yoga -Diane Long, Yin Yoga -Bernie Clark, philosophy & meditation -Sally Kempton, Anatomy -Leslie Kamanoff, Restorative Yoga -Judith Hanson-Lasater, Iyengar Yoga – Ingelise Nherlan primary teacher), yoga teaching and sound baths (3ZU.YOGA – Director, University of Saskatchewan, Varsity View Community Association, Saskatoon Public School Division, Ground Yoga Studio), formal sound study (Grotta Sonora Gongs -Mike Tambura & Mitch Nur,  Vedic Philosophies -Hali Schwartz)

2020-present: formal study & teachers (Yoga & Anatomy -Judith Lasater, Lizzie Lasater, Mary Richards, Vedic Philosophy -Kiya Mindlin, Yoga -Tias and Surya Little, Mother Nature), yoga teaching and sound meditation (moonyoga -Founder)

SPACE

In 2013 I received formal diagnosis of CPTSD (Complex Post Traumatic Stress) and ASD (Autism Spectrum). My perception of people in the world had always seemed different, and I often struggled within social settings. The academic work I pursue in the fields of Psychology and Vedic Philosophy, alongside guidance for neurodivergents, have become a supportive foundation for leading my professional practice in the Arts. I shifted my life-focus; exploring the medium of sound as an Artist (2004) of interference & installation to dovetail with my teaching practice of yoga (2002), and simplify all other areas of my life back toward nature & peace.

*After my Masters study (Library and Information Studies 2012) I removed digital devices as much as possible from my daily function and began an intense hiking regime that allowed me to meet myself out in the wild! Trekking aided tenfold the medicine of befriending my unique ASD perspectives & creative expressions. By understanding myself as symbiotic nature I’ve been able to find the internal resource to advocate for myself at work and home, and began to rebuild a kinder self-image after decades of being misunderstood and misplaced. This medley of Art, Yoga, Psychology, Vedic Philosophy, and Rewilding-in-Nature are meeting my needs for cultivating healthy balance at this time.

I continue walking 12k 3x/week whenever possible for my physical body-care, and hold my personal yoga practice accountable for the deep spiritual needs I require to continue unfoldment in a recovery of Loving Awareness. Finding and alchemizing our unique internal medicine is a gift I share through my teaching-practice of Yoga & Meditations, and my Coaching, for those who seek it.

I love plants, animals, the air we breathe and the earth we abide. I love the cosmos and the Mystery. I’m deeply grateful for the privilege to pursue this work in our greater community of diversity, and am dedicated to offer beautiful occurrences to encounter and light us up.

“place yourself in the path of beauty” -Cheryl Strayed

In early 2020 I contracted severe COVID-19 resulting in a greatly reduced cardio-pulmonary (Afib) & upper respiratory capacity from scarring, as well as mental repercussions (i.e. “brain-fog”) that hindered, specifically, my language centres. I continue on the path of a successful recovery, though my commas will still stretch into ellipses under flare-ups of aphasia (aka the verbal “um”s & charming gaps in my cadence). I embrace the good fortune of my health!

view moonShala

2025 @OshunHouse‘s last Sound Journey: me in front of Diwali, her Majesty the 42″ Wind Gong. (an un-altered self-portrait)

Om shanti, shanti, shanti.