Angelica Moya
“My first experience with yoga was in my twenties, taking a few classes a week. I remember it brought my attention and interest in learning to calm the mind through pranayama breathing and asanas.
I traveled to New Zealand in 2015 with a working holiday visa, staying in Queenstown for one year as an early childhood teacher there. After that, I decided to explore a bigger city like Auckland.
In 2017 I discovered the Auckland Yoga Academy just walking by. I started doing Hatha classes with Ben and Ashtanga beginners with Hui. I remember hearing about the teacher training and having it in my mind for a long time before jumping into it. In 2020 I did the one-year teacher training for Ashtanga beginners. It was a challenge, but it was also amazingly revealing.
In my teenage days, I struggled with depression for many years, it was a feeling of being stuck in my own mind. During the Ashtanga teacher training, through assisting with meditation, pranayama, and Mysore classes my life started to change completely. In these practices, I found an opportunity to grow and observe life from a totally different perspective, than my previous younger self.
I learned and keep learning these days to be in the present moment and enjoy life with everything that comes with it, bitter and sweet. Most of all I’m learning Santosha, contentment, and gratitude every day.
In 2021 I did the Hatha teaching training at the Auckland Yoga Academy. I have a 13 year background in Montessori education. Compassionate and integrative education is one of my passions. I enormously enjoy encouraging each individual to feel accepted with their own differences and challenges. One of the things that I enjoy the most when teaching Ashtanga and Hatha to beginners is that I empathise with beginners students from a place I’m familiar with. Finding the practices of the eight limbs of yoga improves mental health and how we live life and contribute to the community.
Over the coming years, I wish to continue developing these practices, my understanding of yoga philosophy, and to bring more Pranayama and meditation into my practice. “
