In Ayurveda and spiritual yoga practice, individuals seek to invite and maintain balance of the self, mind and body through the three gunas.
Celine has recently moved home to New Zealand after many years travelling backwards and forwards to the US, first arriving in New York at the tender age of 19 on a scholarship to study acting. “After I left New York I came back through Los Angeles and met with some agents there,” she explains, “before arriving home in New Zealand and working on Shortland Street for three months. I was doing okay but I knew I had to get back to the States, so I jumped on a plane and based myself there for the next 10 years.”
She worked on a lot of commercials and indie films, but after a few years she realised that “acting was no longer fulfilling my soul.” She had long been a student of yoga and Pilates, but knew that she wanted to take that further and began training. “Knowing I wanted to help others find the inner peace I have found, I became certified in the practices I found most valuable to my own personal restoration,” she says in a statement on the Sattva Soul website. These include qualifications as a reiki energy healer, yoga teacher, LaGree Fitness Master trainer and Stott Pilates instructor, and she soon found herself working with famous names like Alessandra Ambrosio, Kate Hudson, Calvin Harris, Eva Longoria and more.
After teaching big-name clients for a few years and spending time on private jets as they flew her around the country to help them stretch, breathe and move, she realised that she was fitting in with her clients’ lives rather than ultimately fulfilling her own, so returned to Los Angeles. “I started acting again and landed a couple of good gigs,” she says, “but I soon realised that the fire had died. I still saw private pilates and yoga clients and realised their lives were really lacking balance, so I started researching even more different tools like acupuncture that I could use to help people in my work.”
While completing her yoga teacher training in Bali, the vision for Sattva Soul was born. This November will see her host her very first, full-length retreat in the island nation, which will take place at an incredible location on Echo Beach. “When I was in Bali I saw retreats that offered yoga every day, meditation, surfing... and we will offer all that plus a lot of internal work,” says Celine. “With Sattva Soul Retreats I want women to leave with an overall sense of wellbeing, equipped with the resources to use day to day for long-lasting happiness.”
She laments the amount of money many women spend going toa destination location and doing yoga every day, only to come home and return to ground zero within a week. “We will do intention setting, sound bowl healing, chakra meditation. We want to give people the tools to maintain their spiritual we llness once they are back in the so-called ‘real world’.”
When we speak she is about to present a one-day wellness ‘taster’ at Ponsonby Central’s Sapphire Room for those keen to know more, with other short events in the planning. It’s a chance for her to describe the Sattva Soul modus operandi, and hopefully demystify things like sound bowl healing and mindfulness for those that may have never experienced them before. “I want to help spread the word that it’s okay to wear brand new Lululemon but still sage yourself,” she says with a laugh, emphasising that luxury and self care can sit alongside more spiritual practices.
As well as still working as the wellness columnist for LA Yoga Magazine and Santa Barbara Life and Style Magazine, she is teaching privately in Auckland and at select locations like Rise Hot Yoga
& Pilates in Parnell. Full of energy and clearly in love with what she is creating, Celine wants to see as many people as possible jumping on the wellness train, and even offers a payment plan for those who want to join her on retreat to help lighten the load. She is also offering an early bird discount for Ponsonby News readers who may want to travel to Bali with her, who will receive a 10% discount if they book before 30 June.
“I want people to come and heal themselves, to transform and relax,” says the passionate brunette with a smile, “it’s about time we started celebrating each other. Let’s get a dialogue going.” (HELENE RAVLICH)