About
Amrei Marden & Bikram Yoga Sapphire Coast
A former Australian yoga champion, Amrei has been practicing Bikram yoga since 2001 and has taught thousands of classes and many Posture Refinement Q&A seminars across Europe, America, Asia as well as Australia. She is considered an authority in the Bikram Yoga world. Since 2009, she has coached and judged students competing both in Australia and internationally.
Amrei is Technical Director for the AYSF (Australasian Yoga Sports Federation), President of the TSAA, and former judge for the IYSF (International Yoga Sports Federation). Her passion for and knowledge of Bikram yoga is astounding and she has a unique ability to inspire others, from the complete beginner to the experienced student. Amrei believes that everyone can experience the healing benefits of Bikram Yoga, and specialises in injury recovery and pain management.
“Practicing and learning more about Bikram yoga with Amrei was awesome as always. I’ve been coming to Amrei’s Q&A seminars and retreats for 3 years now and I always learn more, get inspired and challenged!"
- Lyn Witheridge
All teachers at Bikram Yoga Sapphire Coast are certified Bikram Yoga teachers. Bikram’s Teacher Training is an intense, comprehensive program of over 500 hours, covering the asanas (postures) of Bikram’s Beginning Yoga Class, anatomy, therapeutic applications, and health benefits of yoga.
Teachers learn directly from Bikram Choudhury, founder of Bikram Yoga, which is a rare and extremely valuable aspect of the training and every Bikram teacher has to re-certify at least every three years. With Bikram Yoga, you can rest assured that you are receiving a consistent, quality yoga experience every time.
At the end of 2001 I decided to move to Vienna (Austria) to see if I could further develop my dance career in this artistic city.
My best friend and I rented a tiny 10 square meter room that was semi – attached to someone’s flat. In the middle of December – while the owners were away for ski holidays – our heater broke. Outside was minus 20 degrees celsius and I couldn’t get warm even under three jumpers. On the way to my daily warm up stop at Starbucks I walked past a Bikram studio… it felt like a gift from heaven... yoga in a HOT room! (Even though previously I had walked past this same Bikram studio with my nose up in the air, thinking what an absurd idea to use artificial heat to warm up your muscles rather than just working hard…Russian ballet dancers dance without heat in the middle of winter after all…;-)
Anyway... I was back the next day with yoga clothes, water and towel and hooked after the first class, not only because of the heat but because Bikram Yoga was the first thing that I found that could give me the same workout and satisfaction, physical cleansing and mental clarity in 90 minutes that prior to that only a whole day of dancing could give me.
In fact it could give me so much more: that yoga buzz after class; the feeling of really working 100 percent of my body every single class: the calming of the mind...
I knew instantly that my reason for being in Vienna was not to dance but to find Bikram Yoga!
I was about to go to Teacher Training in 2001 but then received the offer of another scholarship for the most renowned dance program in Australia, at the Victorian College of the Arts and decided to take that opportunity first. While finishing my Bachelor of Dance at the Victorian College of the Arts, I fell pregnant with my first daughter and thought that was the end of my dream of becoming a Bikram yoga teacher completely.
However my then husband supported me to go. And so I attended Teacher Training in April 2006 in Los Angeles with little 8 months old baby girl Aninha in tow.
As soon as I returned to Australia, June 2006, I started teaching full time for Tessa Silluzio, the owner of the Bikram Yoga Richmond and Prahran studios in Melbourne. During my time with Tessa I taught the majority of the private classes, mentored other teachers and managed the studios whenever Tessa was away.
Since moving to the Sapphire Coast in 2011 I have taught all over Australia, Europe and Asia getting to know lots of wonderful yoga communities, teachers and students…but nothing excites me as much as sharing what I love with my home community now :-)
How many people are lucky enough to make a living of what they love in a place they love living??? I feel truly blessed !
I have witnessed this yoga’s amazing healing capacities not only in fellow teachers and hundreds of students, but on my own body, recovering from a bad back injury from a badly injected epidural for the emergency c-section during Aninha’s birth. I went from being in constant pain and being unable to even relax my head backwards without tears of pain in half moon, to doing full wheel within 6 months of practising Bikram yoga correctly.
Thanks to teaching full time and practicing Rajashree’s pregnancy series, pregnancy and birth were a totally different – wonderful- experience with my second daughter, Neeyah and 8 years later my son Noah. I feel that bringing Bikram Yoga to the Sapphire Coast is my way of giving back to my community here and showing gratitude for all that my life has become with and through Bikram Yoga. Bikram yoga has not only given me the best job I could ever wish for, it has quite simply saved my life during a very dark time and healed my body from chronic pain and injuries.
I believe practising and teaching Bikram yoga helps me become a better version of myself inside and out…maybe I will see you at the studio soon to share the magic of Bikram Yoga with you.
If you show up with an open mind, patience and most of all some kindness for yourself, you will be able to heal just about anything... any questions?
Just come to class or give me a call on 0416092225.
Have Questions? Amrei will answer you personally:
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