I'm going to share a little history of how I got to be the proud owner of Mindful Balance Retreats.... it all started with my fun loving parents. They were young when we started our family, but they worked hard and played even harder and my sister and I got to benefit from it all. My love for travel, adventure, and nature started early, I was surrounded by beauty growing up in Colorado and I was a very fortunate child to have both loving parents together and willing to take their kids anywhere. Whether we were camping in our home state or snorkeling in Belize, our family adventures were the best, they still are!

In high school, I planned the infamous "Senior Trip" and got to go for free since I got enough people to sign up. In college, I worked for the company as a tour leader for the summer down in Cancun, both crazy but educational experiences. In college I chose to study what I loved and earned a Bachelor of Science in Recreation Management and Tourism from Arizona State University. I did my internship in San Diego, I was ready to live by the sea. I was an intern for a yacht charter company as a cruise director. Shortly thereafter, I began to travel, first I did a 3 month trip solo to the South Pacific. Next up was Central America, where I fell in love with Costa Rica and ended up staying for over 3 months. Then my sister and I went to Europe for five weeks and explored London, France, Spain, Switzerland, Italy and Greece. South America was a trip of a lifetime with a climb up to Machu Picchu and cruise down the Amazon River to spend time in a nature jungle lodge. I spent about a month in both Thailand and Indonesia where I learned about the culture, foods, massage and of course myself.

At the beginning of all these journeys I found yoga when I was 23 years old. It was before it was popular and I had no idea what it was, someone I worked with had talked me into going to this class she thought I'd like. It was in the back of martial arts studio in a partitioned space, with a space heater and the Dave Matthews CD playing. Weird but cool I'll give it a try and I walked out of the class feeling better than I ever had. Something happened...physically and mentally, It was a natural high and I knew I was hooked.

I love to travel, I love to plan travel, and I love yoga. So naturally I dreamt of leading a yoga retreat and so I planned it and it happened. Well not that easily but I did it over and over again, all of which provided many lessons. I didn't make any money at first as there was quite a learning curve, even with all my experience and training, it took doing it a few times to really get it. Now that I've got it down, I lead amazing yoga retreats and I want to help other yoga instructors that have these same dreams. I'd like to give them this opportunity to teach in exotic locations, make money and to avoid having to go through the years of learning that it takes to make these retreats profitable and stress-free.

Not all who wander are lost