I’m inspired to teach because of the impact these practices have made in my life. Meditation, yoga, and Ayurveda have brought more peace to me than I’ve ever experienced using other methods for stress relief, weight loss, etc. Once I reached “the calm amidst the chaos,” as one of our teachers would say, I knew deep down inside that if a practice could impact my life so much, this ancient knowledge needed to be shared with as many people as possible so that we can be the change we want to see in our homes, communities, and humanity.
I also want to really live the wisdom of this knowledge within myself and feel that by teaching others, I accomplish this. Primordial Sound Meditation has allowed me to tap into the quiet stillness that is within each of us but that I never believed I could reach until I learned how to meditate. Yoga – specifically the path of raja yoga that is the foundation of the Seven Spiritual Laws of Yoga – has provided my body, mind, and soul the union that it has craved since childhood. And Perfect Health (Ayurveda) has given me the tools to truly know my body and what it needs from every aspect: sight, smell, sound, taste, and touch.
Where do you teach?
I teach throughout the Hawaiian Islands but mainly on Oahu where I live. I also teach in California and Arizona and am scheduled to offer seminars coming up in Colorado and Mexico. I have teamed up with some amazing instructors from the Chopra Center and outside the Chopra Center to create Primordial Sound Meditation & Yoga Retreats in Na Balam on Isla de Las Mujeres, Mexico, this December 3–10, 2010, and in Sunset Beach, North Shore, Hawaii, this March 3–6, 2011. Please contact me for more details about these retreats or teaching in your area as I love to travel sharing my dharma.
More about Charlotte:
I’ve been practicing yoga off and on since I was a teenager but my passion for it really began in 2007 after I had all I could take of a flourishing, busy, chaotic professional career and decided to treat myself to a birthday retreat at the Chopra Center for Wellbeing. It was this week that changed my life forever and brought my awareness back to the innate wanting and needing of our mind, body, and spirit connection. After the retreat I went on to become certified to teach the Seven Spiritual Laws of Yoga, Primordial Sound Meditation, andPerfect Health. I packed up my corporate career to follow my dreams of starting my own business to share my dharma, and I’ve been expanding my knowledge base ever since by receiving my Level II and III yoga certifications from the Shambhava School of Yoga and my Reiki Master certification. I am currently pursuing advanced teachings in tantra, goddess work, aharata, and various other modalities of healing.
What was your favorite event? Seduction of Silence in Sedona, Arizona. I’m very connected to Sedona and getting to experience that divine landscape through a Chopra Center event added to the serenity, making it even more magical.
I connected with so many interesting and lovely people, and doing SoS for a second time in silence raised my meditation practice and insights into myself to a whole new level.
How do you connect with others in your community?
I participate in everything I can, whether it’s artistic, spiritual, or business events. I love kirtans, energetic dancing, business development, and celebration ceremonies such as solstices, equinoxes, and full moons. I’m constantly learning about various spiritual practices and how to better integrate these into my teachings so I may help my students to the best of my abilities. I volunteer as often as I can and participate in consciousness-based organizations looking to positively impact the world we live in.
Meditation has enriched my life on every level – mentally, physically, spiritually, and emotionally. I love watching people experience the same kind of personal transformation through meditation that I have. It’s wild that something so subtle, so simple . . . is so truly powerful. I am inspired by seeing the transformations my students experience once they have learned to meditate and begin their daily practice. I've seen those who are struggling to discover their life path get the insights they need to live a life of meaning and purpose after meditating for only a short time. I’ve seen those in chronic pain become pain-free. Insomniacs get a good night’s sleep even after the first day of meditation instruction!
Where do you teach?
The meditation studio where I teach is in Sedona, Arizona, where I have lived for ten years. The Chopra Center has been offering programs here over the past few years. Perhaps it’s because the energy in this mystical place leads people on a journey inward. Visitors and residents alike naturally develop a deeper connection with nature and the creator just by being here.
I have developed some powerful self-discovery, meditation, and creativity retreats and I teach several types of meditation classes in Sedona, in the Scottsdale area, and in various cities in California and Texas. I’ll go wherever I am invited!
More About Sarah:
Most of my life has been about developing my spirituality. While my friends were busy getting married and having babies, I chose a different path: I was off exploring the world and a variety of religious and spiritual practices. I first learned to meditate in a Zen Center in Boston in the mid ’80s and took a nine-month trip bicycling through the heart of Turkey, exploring the silk route from Pakistan to China, and venturing into the Golden Triangle in Asia.
In 1989, I was working in Washington, D.C., and happened to read a review about a new book which introduced a mind/body healing practice called Ayurveda. The book was called Perfect Health, and it was written by a doctor I had never heard of – Deepak Chopra, M.D. I was intrigued by how this practice included meditation, herbs, massage, yoga, aromatherapy, living in tune with nature’s daily and seasonal rhythms, and purification therapies – among other approaches. I bought the book. Within six months, I was not only a volunteer at the Lancaster Center in Massachusetts where Deepak Chopra practiced, I was a resident there and deeply immersed in the ayurvedic daily routine and meditation lifestyle.
I continued to work with Deepak Chopra for eight years and moved out to California to help develop the various incarnations of the Chopra Center. I eventually become the education director and one of the first Primordial Sound Meditation instructors. While there, I was also fortunate to work with personal growth expert Debbie Ford, who taught me and many others about the Shadow Effect.
After eight years at the Chopra Center, I traveled to India to explore the roots of Ayurveda and meditation. For six months I lived in an ashram in Kerala. I traveled to the north of India to meet the Dalai Lama and spent some time teaching English to Tibetan Buddhist nuns. When I returned to the states, I decided to make the Zen Buddhist Training Center my home for two years. I loved the meditation community lifestyle.
When I decided to join the working world again, I moved to Mount Shasta, California, where I assisted Seat of the Soul author Gary Zukav and learned about authentic power and spiritual partnership. I was then hired as the director of the School for the Work, founded by Byron Katie and offering a ten-day deep immersion into self-inquiry practices.
In 2001, I moved to Sedona, Arizona ,where I founded the Sedona Meditation Training Company. I have been so fortunate to work with so many luminaries, and the transformational practices I learned from them, in addition to my deep meditation experiences, are the basis of the programs we offer today.
It’s my mission to demystify the practice of meditation and make it accessible to anyone. The Sedona Meditation Training Company offers a variety of meditation classes, retreats, and private consultations. In addition to the Primordial Sound Meditation program and Perfect Health classes and consultations, there are group meditations, and self-discovery and creativity retreats held in Scottsdale and Sedona and throughout Arizona.
When you come to Sedona, please contact me and come to a group meditation. I’d love to meditate with you!
How many Chopra Center events have you attended?
Too numerous to count! Since the early ’90s, I have attended Seduction of Spirit, Perfect Health, SynchroDestiny, and Journey into Healing many times. I have been through the development of many of these events and experienced them in their early forms, so I feel intimately connected to many of the programs and the content.
What was your favorite event?
Seduction of Spirit is always my favorite event because of the focus of meditation. We just had one here in Sedona in August. I missed having David Simon there though. He was on my mind for most of the week.
I am an advocate of meditation and know it is the key vehicle to living a life of fulfillment. It all comes down to being more aware – and becoming more aware of awareness itself. The only sure way that I know to expand my awareness and become more aware of the interconnection of life is through the practice of meditation. When we turn our attention inward, relieve stress, and enhance the soul connection, then changes naturally happen in our external environment.
How do you connect with others in your community?
I offer monthly Meditation Salons, discussions, and group meditations in Sedona and Phoenix. Many of my students have created their own networks of meditators and get together and meditate. Some of my students are on the Chopra Center Teachers’ Path so we're together at those events.
I also write a monthly newsletter that helps to connect people through local gatherings. I love to be with people who are on a spiritual journey and many of my students are like my extended family.
