Natalie Buchi, E-RYT 500
Natalie Buchi is the ownder and founder of Mindful and Embodied. She began practicing Yoga in 2001 and experienced life changing effects that saved her life almost instantly. She became aware that she could use Yoga to examine resistances and heal wounds that had been limiting her physically and emotionally for years by bringing deliberate choice and focused attention to her Yoga practice. After a few years of practice she was overwhelmed by the need to gain more knowledge and share it with others. As a legal assistant at a very reputable company, making this decision to change her path in life was incredibly frightening. She transitioned over time and since 2005 has dedicated her life to studying, teaching and practicing Yoga.
She first studied Ashtanga Yoga and received her 200 hour certificate a couple of months later. Eager to learn more, she went on to study with D'ana Baptiste of Centered City Yoga in Salt Lake City, Utah. She completed 500 additional hours of training in 6 months, where she was also introduced to the healing approach taught by Ana Forest of Forest Yoga. Still eager to continue her education, she became interested in Anusara Yoga and the skillful techniques of John Friend's approach to the practice. Over the next 18 months, she participated in all 3 levels of the Anusara Immersions which were offered by Adam Ballinger, followed by his teacher training. Throughout all of her different teacher trainings, which earned her the highest level of certification with the Yoga Alliance, Natalie studied Kundalini Yoga as taught by Yogi Bajhan from several Senior teachers and received individual counseling from Gurucharan Singh Kahlsa, director of the Kundalini Research Institute. Natalie is now one of the directors of the Yoga Teacher Training program at the University of Utah, which has both a 200 hour and 500 hour program recognized by The Yoga Alliance.
In addition to her Yoga practice, Natalie has since gone on to study Kalarippayat, an Indian martial art. She spent 2 months immersing herself in the practice at the Kerala Kalari Gramam in Kannur, India, and plans to return later this year to further this next stage of her development of mind/body/spirit. She will be teaching an introductory course to Kalari at the University of Utah starting Fall Semester 2010.
Natalie's belief about these ancient practices is that not only are they a wonderful way to keep the mind and body in good working order but they also create space to consider life more comprehensively, more expansively. Being a highly intuitive person and with the use of several different modalities of healing and Yogic traditions, she is able to create a practice that is uniquely transformative. She gives her students the opportunity to access a part of themselves that is bigger, stronger, and more intelligent than they ever imagined and holds space for students to move towards becoming increasingly confident in themselves and in their future.
“Enlightenment or awakening is not the creation of a new state of affairs but the recognition of
what already is”.
~ Alan Watts
