Mystic Mag’s Miguel Amado talked with Deidre Norman, a Master Sattva Yoga teacher and Medical Intuitive based in the United States. Deidre worked in the corporate world and needed a change. Yoga and India were a big part in turning things around. Know more about Deidre’s story in the interview below.
Please present yourself to our audience. How did you discover your gift?
I started practicing Yoga around 15 years ago because of an injury I had, but started going more frequently to classes after working full time in a corporate job. I was sometimes working up to 70 hours a week and used to be constantly stressed. I was drinking and partying way too much and in general, just trying to keep up with everything.
I’d often leave the Yoga class and feel the sensation of connection with myself and not being stressed. I never felt that peace working or drinking, so this beautiful knowledge of how differently I could feel ignited my journey.
After watching an Oprah show on cleansing, I tried out the cleanse she was talking about. I cut out caffeine, dairy, meat, sugar, gluten and cut back on alcohol. I could not believe how good it felt! My normal diet included tons of meat, grilled cheese, pizza, pasta, caffeine and alcohol. The cleanse was transformative, I felt elevated and amazing and had an insight that I should do a Yoga teacher training.
That’s what I did: I began with a 200-hour Vinyasa training in San Francisco, which was also transformative. Initially, I had zero intention of teaching, but the day I graduated I was teaching at a studio! It is almost as if the Universe had another plan for me. I just kept getting offered teaching jobs.
Then, the journey moved into this beautiful thing of learning to deal with past trauma in my life: I ended up in a relationship with an extremely emotionally abusive man, and when I finally was able to free myself from the relationship, I felt like a shell of a human. It gave me the opportunity to take a deeper dive into my past traumas as so many surfaced within that relationship. I found this incredible school, the Academy of Medical Intuition, in Sausalito, and started studying Energy Medicine and Intuitive Science.
One of the biggest things I learned at that School was how important energy management was for me to stay healthy. I was energetically out of my physical body, mostly because of my past traumas. I learned how to be energetically filled with me and I start to heal.
Through that course, I started recognizing that I was able to give Intuitive Readings. A beautiful gift, that I had no clue was even a possibility.
I then found myself back in India and dove deep into the studies of Yoga. First I found Kundalini yoga and then found the Sattva Yoga teachings from the Himalayas. That’s where integrated Yoga practice started making more sense to me. Yoga was a lifestyle not just a physical practice.
How is the experience of leading retreats to India?
It is the most magical experience! The very first time I went to India, I got off the plane and it felt like home. It still feels that way, every time I arrive in India. You feel the spirituality in so much of India. I love sharing this experience with those that are interested.
It is a learning curve for me as well. I’ve been there so many times and I grew up living overseas, spending many years in Dubai and traveling, so traveling has never been something that has been a part of me. But I found, bringing people from the US and from other countries is a whole other experience. India is overwhelming at first to many people.
It is a very powerful place but very intense. On one hand, you just feel the energy, the spiritual experiences are amplified, and then you also get to maneuver around a lot of people, trash, cow dung and other stimuli while walking on the street. It is a shock to the system to many people.
Everyone seems to leave the experience transformed, in a beautiful way. You do not return from India unchanged. It is so beautiful.
How do you combine your knowledge in Yoga and the skills you learned in your Masters?
When I took Energy Medicine, my teacher used to say we are all spiritual beings. But the way she taught was a different spin on the exact same thing as the ancient Yoga teachings. The only difference is that we learned a little bit more about energy channels in the body. Often, I incorporate both Yoga and Energy Medicine approaches when teaching my courses.
You also offer coaching services. How does that work?
I current do coaching on an individual basis. Each coaching program begins with an initial meeting, usually up to two hours long, to understand the purpose of it and how we can best co-create the experience. We start this session with an intuitive reading, just to tune in and set the intentions.
The program might take one, two, three months or in some cases a year. Coaching is tailored to every individual. I’ve worked with people developing their career paths, health goals and people wanting to align more fully with their truth. We usually combine Yogic practices, Energy Medicine practices and other tools throughout the process.
Would you like to share a special message with us for these difficult times?
We all have this beautiful ability to be centered, pillars of strength and support for ourselves. When we can align with that truth and dive deep into that place, we are more able to be supportive for others without even knowing it.
Right now, it is easy to get caught up with all the fear, opinions, criticism coming at us from different directions, and picking a side to be on. Many times we forget to turn inwards, to that inner stability. We keep looking outside of ourselves for that. Yet, we all have stability within us, the ability to manage and clear our energy, to stay focused. I think one of the most important messages for our times is to follow our personal intuition. Stay in our center, stay on the center line.
