QT Yoga

Kristin de Haan

My journey into yoga first began as a child when I learnt to meditate. At the age of 10, my Mum took me off to get my first mantra. I would sit for 10 minutes every evening trying like crazy to keep my attention focused on the mantra…I have continued this practice, increasing the time as I’ve gotten older & learning different meditation techniques.  To this day, I maintain a daily meditation practice, beginning each morning with at least twenty minutes of sitting & trying (yes, still!) to maintain a single point of focus.

In my final year of high school I went to my first  yoga class. I was feeling very stressed & had an inkling that yoga could help me. It was truly “love at first class” and the follow-on effect has been a dedicated daily self practice (sadhana), that I have kept up ever since. This practice has truly been the constant in my life, sustaining me through both good times & bad.

My other great passion is being in the outdoors, feeling connected to nature through hiking in a forest, sitting on a rock or swimming at the beach.  As such, I spent 3 years studying Eco Tourism at University & have subsequently spent many years working as a guide in Australia & New Zealand.  It was during a season working at Falls Lodge on the Routeburn Track, a good ten years since my first yoga class, that I was practicing and studying yoga with more passion & fervor than ever before,  I had the realisation that this practice was so GOOD for me on so many levels, so deeply nourishing & I wanted to know more!! & I wanted to share this feeling, this state of being with others…

It was then that I decided to embark upon the (lifelong!) journey of becoming a yoga teacher. In 2007 I went to study with John Ogilvie and other very talented teachers at Byron Yoga Centre. I have subsequently gained both my Level 1 250hr & Level 2 350hr Certificates in Yoga Teaching and have recently completed 120hrs of  Yoga Therapy Teacher Training. I constantly seek out training opportunities; having recently trained under Master Teachers such as Donna Farhi, Desiree Rumbaugh and Lance Schuler. I have completed a Yoga Nidra teacher training with Swami Shanti Murti and have gained my Reiki 2 Certificate, both of which are invaluable tools enriching both my life and yoga classes. Most recently I have extended myself by attending a 10-Day Vipassana (silent meditation retreat) north of Auckland & have laughed my way through a Laughter Yoga Leader Training.

I am now living my dream. I live in this magnificently beautiful part of the world, inspired daily by these surroundings & being privileged enough to share with others the art that most inspires me, YOGA. My aim is to share the teachings of yoga with as many people in this wonderful community as possible, so that they too can experience the greater sense of peace, joy, health and vitality that yoga brings to mind, body & spirit.

Yoga infuses my life with meaning. It teaches me to be quiet & trust, even if I don’t know all of the answers, even if I don’t have a clue where I’m heading. It makes my body feel light, fit & healthy; leading to greater physical ease. It clears my mind. It connects me to a higher source, reason, purpose. It teaches me patience, surrender, humility, acceptance. It teaches me to love more fully. It teaches me to listen more carefully. It teaches me to breathe more deeply. I am fully committed to this path I have chosen to walk, of peeling back the layers a little more each day & embracing wherever it is that it leads me. My promise is to continue to learn & grow each day as a teacher, and as an individual.

Om Shanti,
Kristin