SWIHA Blog

Before her time at SWIHA, Kimberly Balzan found her life at a standstill. She was going through the motions but not moving forward, fearful of life and what change may bring.

“I felt like I had no direction,” she describes, “I just happened to be at a friends Melissa Corter who was leading this meditation called Yoga Nidra. I honestly had never heard of it and didn't know what we were going to do. Well, when it was over I sat up and thought ‘That was the coolest thing I have ever experienced’. When I got in my car, I said to myself out loud: ‘I am going to learn this and teach it!’ I knew at that moment something incredible had happened.”

“It is our Soul’s divine journey into a still point, a quality that is filled with a richness of rhythm and harmony,” is how Jennifer Emperador, a SWIHA admissions coach and holistic practitioner, defines the practice of sound healing.

Jennifer has graduated from SWIHA’s Hypnotherapy, Life Coaching, Yoga and Yoga Nidra programs--just to name a few!--though, the modality she most has a passion for is sound healing.

“What’s there not to love?! I was introduced to sound healing back in 2010 and hooked ever since!“ says Jennifer, “All of my instruments emanate energy and I named them based on the energy they hold. For me, they are ‘alive’ and have developed a status of their own.”

Crystal Valentina Price knows that personal growth is a lifelong game—and, often, that game involves some pain. “They say that all suffering has a noble purpose,” she explains, “and it wasn’t until I was completely exhausted of being the victim of my own story that I truly stepped up into owning my story and creating my own reality.”

For Crystal, this process of letting go intersected with a new aspect of her identity: parenthood.  “When I became a mother, I felt like I had lost a sense of who I was and was really yearning to rediscover my sense of Self,” she reflects. Through her yoga practice and yoga teacher training, she was able to do just that: “I have realized through this practice that all we have to do is show up! Energetically holding space for ourselves and others has the power to heal!”

You know the drill. It’s 8:00 AM and already 96°F, the sun is beating down mercilessly through your window, and you can’t remember a time before you woke up feeling like a pajama-clad puddle of perspiration…

Ah, yes, summer is here! And with it comes the best of times—dreamy sunsets, the smell of fresh-cut lawns, road trips to memorable locales—and the worst of times—like heat waves so abysmal they can make even the most enthusiastic Coppertone babies flee from the sight of the sun.

If you’re facing oppressive heat this summer, you may be tempted to lock yourself inside, crank the ceiling fan, and post up on your sofa with Netflix as your sole companion. Not so fast…  While summer IS the ultimate time for relaxation, try not to forget that a world exists outside your living room— a world just as scorched, sweltering, and sticky as you!

For Nicole Fonovich, life was looking increasingly bleak. Born with two autoimmune diseases, a softball-sized fatty benign tumor between her shoulder blades, and a degenerative disc ailment, Nicole was struggling to tread the gray waters of her faltering health. Not only were her maladies causing her immense physical strife—including two surgeries on her lower back, another two surgeries to deal with the tumor, and a spinal fusion—they were also creating immense personal and emotional loss in the form of two miscarriages.

As a child, Jennifer Sanders was endlessly seeking a place where she belonged in this world. She grew up witnessing the difficult paths of her parents, who were both addicted to drugs and looking for answers of their own, leaving Jennifer to navigate this process of self-discovery by herself. Jennifer reflects on this sometimes painful process, stating, “I often struggled with my own self worth, identity, value, and, later in life, drug addiction. I always knew deep down inside that I had something significant to offer the world and a purpose greater than anyone thought I was capable of. I would find myself with the outcasts of society, ministering the truth of God and the infinite universe. Yet, still I was incomplete, and the wounds of my childhood were still raw 30 years later.”

SWIHA graduate Shashirekha Banavar, affectionately called “Shashi” by friends and family, is described by those who know and love her as sophisticated, sassy, shy at first, sensitive, and super committed to whole food cuisine. Shashi lives in India, where for the past 30 years she has served as a lawyer and a consumer activist, written a book entitled Shashi’s Recipes – Authentic South Indian Vegetarian Dishes, and received the President’s Guide Award for top performing Girl Guides (similar to the Girl Scouts in the United States) from the President of India. Shashi is a superstar by many standards, although she will blush hearing it said!

As one of the first students to graduate from the online 750-hour Holistic Nutrition Wellness Practitioner diplomas, Shashi actually flew to Tempe, Arizona, to attend the September 2017 Gifts and Graces event, where she was recognized as being a one of SWIHA’s Great Graduates!  She easily gets the award for traveling the furthest to attend graduation on campus!

Nereyda Varias was a passionate seeker of wellness who wanted to share her gifts with the world and expand her knowledge. Before enrolling in the Integrative Healing Arts Practitioner program, she dreamt of learning the skills, scripture, and wisdom utilized by great sages, mystics, and scholars. She felt that she was meant for greater things and that helping others was her path. Nereyda knew she would be part of something bigger that would help to aid the world. “I knew deep within I was a part of a movement to aid our world and all of its brilliant divine human and non-human beings upon it— to be a catalyst of transcendence and evolution,” she shares.

For some people, the traditional college route is not the road to success. Amanda Petro is one of those very people.

After spending a year at Arizona State University, Amanda wound up feeling completely unfulfilled; she was beginning to lose interest in her path of study and was increasingly aware that she was not resonating with her classmates. In her search for more like-minded friends, she ended up connecting with two soul sisters here in Tempe, Arizona, who were soon graduating from the Yoga Teacher Training Program at Spirit of Yoga. “It was there at their YTT graduation ceremony that I realized I wanted to be apart of this incredible and seemingly magical school. I started off staying at ASU while I began my 200 YTT. Mid-way through, I quickly realized I couldn’t handle the workload of both. ASU was taking me away from diving deeper into my SWIHA education, so I decided to go full time at SWIHA and leave Arizona State University behind. It was the best decision of my life.”

After several years of emotional and physical struggle to complete her Bachelors from ASU in Design Studies, Natalie found herself sinking into a feeling many recent grads become mired in. She was uncertain of her path, worried that she had wasted mountains of money and years of her life on an unfulfilling career path, and couldn't see through the fog of fear that began to form around her. She knew on a visceral level that her soul longed to express itself creatively. However, no plan that she was able to forge in her mind painted a picture that she felt truly passionate to pursue. The only thing she knew for certain was that Corporate America would never be her home, and that she was determined to become her own boss. Sadly, like a self-fulfilling prophecy, Natalie wound up in a call center after graduation and could feel her happiness slipping away each day.

Later 2011, after a series of “rock bottom moments,” Natalie decided to turn her attention toward her health and wellness to try and recalibrate, by participating in a 30-day hot yoga challenge with friends. Though she had previously practiced informally, this was her first fully-immersive experience into the world of yoga.