
Then in 2004 living in Britain and in hospital in excruciating pain, I again discovered the deep peace that can be experienced in the stillness of meditation. I continued my practice after leaving hospital, using it to relieve the angst of a life with Multiple Sclerosis; transforming emotional and physical pain and dysfunction into peace. Although it was still difficult to independently maintain a personal practice.
However, an MS exacerbation in 2006 left me in an electric wheelchair, exhausted and again unable to maintain my practice. I was unable to attend classes and felt isolated, like I had lost my best friend.
At the beginning of 2007 I attended a Dru Meditation weekend and again in excruciating pain, I felt the healing deep peace of meditation. I knew that if I could learn how to live in that place, I could accept and manage the traumas of MS and the rest of my life; and then I could teach the same skill to other people in crisis.
I decided to enrol in the Dru Yoga Teacher Training (DYTT), being promised I could effectively take part in the course by visualising the physical postures. In May 2007 I began the DYTT and rediscovered the peace of Dru practice.
I went home and visualised, meditated and relaxed to experience that peace in my everyday life. The structure of being in a course with a list of practices and homework, supported my home practice in a way I had not experienced in my previous attempts to develop a personal practice.
Within twelve months of visualising, meditating and relaxing, I had returned my wheelchair and was teaching in the local high school. During this time I had begun to shed layers of emotional trauma and rediscover my body and energy system in a way, I had previously not thought possible.
I felt it was now time to systematically approach my meditation practice with the same depth as I had my yoga practice, and enrolled in the Dru Meditation Teacher Training (DMTT). I began DMTT in May 2008. Again the structure of the course supported my daily meditation practice and gave me a direction to directly explore the layers of my being.
By the end of 2010, I had completed both the DYTT and the DMTT, and developed a deep and complete understanding of my kosha system and a full toolbox for managing the flow of energy through my system, and a language to express my understanding.
The structure of the course has supported me to continue my personal practice and I now teach Dru yoga and meditation to a wide range of students around Australia, specialising in students experiencing chronic illness, depression, disability and PTSD. My story is chronicled in A Journey to Peace through Yoga, available at Dru Worldwide.