About
Namaste!
My name is Lipeng. I am an architect, a Yoga teacher, and a breast cancer survivor for over a decade. My journey through cancer was a turning point in my life as it led me to Yoga and meditation practice, and I have since made it a personal practice for my daily life.
As a Yoga teacher, my goal is to share the benefits of Yoga practice beyond the physical practice (it's really not just stretching!) and help others experience increased inner peace through their practice. If you are a breast cancer survivor like me and would like to start on a recovery journey through yoga, I'd love to hear from you!
My Yoga Journey
Although I started practising yoga asana since 2004, it was only in 2013 by coincidence that I learnt about Sivananda Yoga while living in Israel. Soon after relocating back to Singapore, I tracked down the Sivananda Yoga Affliated Centre in Singapore (now closed) and went for a trial class.
At that time I was going through a stressful period of relocation, a long relationship break-up and concurrently I was recovering from a treatment regime for breast cancer. My first Sivananda Yoga class had such a huge impact on me that I decided to stop practising other yoga styles. Gradually I felt my body healing to a wholeness and my mind experienced increased long moments of deep peace.
In 2015, I travelled to India to dive deeper into the yoga teachings, and learnt directly from Swami Govindananda, Mani Raman and Swami Nivedananda of Sivananda Yoga Vidya Peetham. Although becoming a teacher was not my goal of taking the teacher's training course, after being certified, I realised that the best way to be a student is for me to carry on sharing what I have learnt.
Since then, I have been fortunate to teach what I learnt in Singapore and India. In 2020, after a 6-months stay in India, I was lucky to return to Singapore just before the pandemic lock down, and like most yoga teachers, began to experiment teaching yoga asana online.
Looking back, I strongly believe the practice of yoga gave me back my confidence post-cancer and applying the principles of yoga in my daily life helped me deal with the stress of modern life.
To me, yoga is a lifelong journey to go within ourselves, back to our true nature of bliss and peace. Even as I am teaching, my biggest teachers are always the students. I am grateful for the chance to learn, grow, refine and evolve. Currently I am deepening my yoga studies in Yoga Therapy with Dr. Ganesh Mohan from Svastha Yoga, as part of my interest in providing yoga practice from a more therapeutic perspective.
It's a privilege to share this ancient wisdom and I hope you will be inspired to deepen your practice, on and off the mat.
May you be well and happy!
xx
Bio
- 300hr Yoga Therapy with Svastha Yoga in Krishnamacharya Tradition (in training)
- Sivananda Yoga Teacher Training with Sivananda Yoga Vidya Peetham (200hr)
- Yoga Sutra Intensive with Sivananda Yoga Vidya Peetham (200hr)
- The Four-fold path of Teaching with Christina Sell
- Masters of Architecture, National University of Singapore
What is Sivananda Yoga?
Sivananda Yoga asana practice, as taught by Swami Vishnudevananda, relies on a core sequence that includes a balanced set of 12 postures followed in a prescribed order, interspersed with periodic relaxation poses, such as Savasana (Corpse Pose).
Each asana either augments or counterbalances the preceding one. A Sivananda Yoga practice also includes pranayama and opening and closing relaxations. The practice’s intention is to cultivate a meditative mental state that evolves into higher awareness and eventually to experience the innate truth of being.
What you can expect from a regular Sivananda Yoga class:
- Emphasis on breath
- Emphasis on the state of mind and relaxation
- Relaxation between postures
- Focus on holding the postures
- Sanskrit and mantra chanting from the teacher
Read more about Sivananda Yoga here.The Sivananda Yoga Singapore centre was in service from 2007 to 2014, located at Bukit Pasoh. You can read more about the centre below:
