Tamara Sepetauc - Level 2

I first came to Yoga in the late 1990s, soon after my father passed away. At the time, as I began to attend weekly classes and build a practice for myself, I didn’t really understand that Yoga was a way of life. That it was a way of living and being, with one’s self and within community.

It seems funny now to remember that I thought I was just going to do a few years of a Yoga teaching mentorship, and then move back up the coast and resume my life. It took me many years to realise that I had in fact established a strong practice and that this practice was defining and transformative.

Others could see when I had just finished a practice – in my demeanour, my energy, my eyes, and in a similar way, in those early years, I began to see and understand the profound change that my practice offered. Yoga through my late 20s and 30s was very physical. I understood much of what I experienced in the rest of my life through my body.

As I approached childbirth, the profound learning I had experienced came to me with new understanding. The breathing, the mental strength and awareness held my hand. My 40s were characterised by questioning, demanding answers from the Yoga system I grew up in.

Now, in my 50s, this same Yoga practice has been so instrumental in rebuilding me. Physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually and with the community who folded around me in my time of need.

I never dreamed I would face a cancer diagnosis, and that facing it would mean, for me, an absolute stripping away of who I was. I feel so unbelievably fortunate to have found Yoga. I feel immeasurably fortunate to be here and to be able to share some of what I have learned with others.

I love teaching, I always have.

My interest today lies firmly in bringing Oncology Yoga to anyone who has faced a cancer diagnosis, spending time with my family and walking with our dog in the bush.