We are pleased to introduce Anne Parsonage. She completed her initial yoga teacher training in Austria in 1993, under the guidance of enlightened master Heinz Grill of Germany. She also travelled back and forth regularly between India and Canada over a period of 20 years, living, studying and teaching yoga in both places. She is currently based in Toronto, Canada … offering an intimate yoga program out of a boutique studio setting downtown.
Anne’s story
Anne was born and raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Upon graduating from University of Manitoba in 1987 with a degree in Actuarial Mathematics, she moved to Toronto to work as an associate actuary. After a few years of working, she asked herself “Do I want to work in this profession for the rest of my life?”, and although she loved the subject of actuarial mathematics itself, the answer to the question was “No”. So she purchased a one-way plane ticket off the continent and, with no itinerary, embarked on a journey that lasted almost three years. Eight months into the trip, she landed in India. There Anne began a personal quest for the meaning of life. She participated in a Tibetan Buddhist meditation retreat at a monastery in Dharamsala in the Himalayas. Upon completion, she realized that there exists a reality beyond that which can be perceived through the senses and the mind, and so she continued searching in earnest. She asked herself the question “What is Yoga?”. She visited the town of Rishikesh in the Himalayan foothills, on the banks of the Ganges river. There she found knowledge and purpose in ashram life, and she spent the winter immersed in this community, exploring yoga teachings at various ashrams in the area. She also learned in less formal settings, such as devotional worship ceremonies held by a group of Bhakti yogis in a cave in the mountain jungle (Bhakti is the Sanskrit word for devotion). Anne also met other wise souls who came to the area because of its proximity to the holy Ganges River, a sacred pilgrimage destination for Indians. And she started to learn to speak Hindi.
After leaving Rishikesh that spring, she continued traveling for months, throughout parts of India, Nepal, and Thailand, practising yoga and Buddhist meditation, and acquiring certification in Thai massage. She finally landed up, in December 1992, at Shantivanam, a Christian ashram in South India, where she met an advanced spiritual aspirant from Switzerland named David. It was through the soul of David that she initially received the highest teachings of yoga … it was yoga taught out of the purity of the soul, via the Holy Spirit … it was “yoga from the heart”.
Since then, she has been traveling back and forth between her two homes, Canada and India, studying and teaching Yoga from the Heart Canada in both places. Since the late 90’s, the India location has been on the premises of the family home of Hindu priest V.S. Hegde near the holy pilgrimage town of Gokarna, Karnataka. There is a steady flow of traveling Westerners who participate in the 10 day courses Anne teaches on a flat rooftop surrounded by palm trees. There she is affectionately known as “Annie from Canada, the yoga teacher”. And in Canada, she is currently teaching out of a boutique studio setting in downtown Toronto.
Anne is a member of Yoga Alliance and YogaToronto.