Samantha Cameron is a dedicated yoga instructor and spiritual guide with a passion for opening the transformative doors of yoga in her students’ lives. Her teaching philosophy centers on courage, mindfulness, and embracing individual needs. Samantha’s classes blend strong Vinyasa practices with anatomical alignment and a mindful approach to body limitations and gifts. She weaves together various elements, including asana, pranayama, mudra, mantra, and poetry, to create a holistic yoga experience. Samantha’s expertise extends to astrology, providing soul-centered consultations that offer insights into the past, present, and future. Her commitment to fostering a supportive and creative community shines through her work as she helps students connect with their true selves. MysticMag finds out more.
Your approach to yoga appears to blend physical practice with deeper spiritual and philosophical exploration. Can you elaborate on how you guide your students in navigating this balance between the physical and spiritual aspects of yoga?
This is such a great question as I feel understanding how to blend, and integrate physical/emotional/spiritual & mental energies is our most powerful way forward- whether it’s Yoga or life. In order to integrate and use layers successfully, one must first understand intention.
My overall NAVIGATION is often like this: A – What is the objective or focus? Why? B – what creates my strategy? What do I include? leave out? Why? Who is this for? What do they need? How can I help?
My beginnings were days of dance and swimming. I am of the fluid persuasion, which includes feeling life from a watery Moon in Cancer in the 12th house, as well as swimming underwater ballets with Dolphins. (at Sea World) This fluidity strongly influences my physical movement, and intention.
Due to being from California, land of early metaphysics, and new healing modalities, I view life from a very Meta-point of view, where so much lies below the surface, and energy-consciousness is the only vocabulary.
Due to being raised in a crazy family of frustrated artists, with many control issues ~freedom from the crazy was a primary intention that pushed me to leave home early to work in Spain, and attend the University of Madrid. Part of my fluidity is an ability to hear languages and speak them, with little embarrassment for my execrable grammar. These are disparate and un-coordinated layers, but as you know, early experiences are the roots of our nature. Here, the soul-forms ~born of the dominant driving forces within.
One of the gifts from those early lost struggles is that I now teach workshops in Spain and France, and I have international Yoga teachers from around the world in my Shakti Yoga Dance virtual teacher trainings.
This journey has been a rushing river of odd, difficult, unique, and wonderful experiences -all of which have formed life, my Practice, AND my intentions in how and what I teach. Of course it is the pain and difficulties that create the most useful, helpful, and heart-centered practices.
As the founder of Daily Breath Yoga School, you offer advanced studies and training in yoga. Could you share some insights into the unique curriculum and teaching methodology you’ve developed for your students?
When constructing a dance or Yoga class, I take my first intention from the Cosmos. As a professional Astrologer, I study the energies of the day, and I’m aware of the on-going overview of Astrological energies affecting everyone to some degree. My intention is to offer greater energetic awareness, or consciousness to my (non-Astrological)students. The awareness helps them to understand what they can do to balance extremes, and how they can best use their energies, rather than feeling at the mercy of them. Learning to understand our unique power and its best uses is an unspoken, but underlying theme of my teaching.
Example-~At this time we have 6 planets retrograde- meaning inward and backward in review, and we have 5 planets in earth, helping with grounding and stabilizing the body. We need to access this stabilization to better use our will through the massive chaos, shifts, and confusion that is prevalent. From this intention, I choose a mudra, a pranayama, perhaps a chakra to link the body to the mind. This creates a tiny ritual for everyone, but it also gives them an opportunity to form their own intentions for the class. (Before Covid and Zoom, I had music and mantra.) The short class ritual for everyone often includes a poem or prayer, creating a very inclusive, and spiritual beginning to the class work.
Throughout class, I often ask students to check in with their bodies, to listen, even dialogue with a body part that may need attention. I also want them to move creatively- hence I use innovative linking every chance I get.
I constantly work with EI- emotional intelligence, which makes ‘listening to body language, feelings, and overall body wisdom essential for a richer life. This is especially true for the younger ones. I teach the girls at Wellesley College, and we all know what a sad and difficult time Covid has been for the young’uns. Their emotional bodies need more care and loving attention, and joy than ever.
A year ago, I began calling my wide-spectrum ‘technique’ ~”THE WISDOM BODY.” And now I’m in the process of writing a book, tentatively titled-“Dialogues of the Wisdom Body.”
Your work extends beyond yoga, encompassing astrology and dance, among other disciplines. How do these diverse practices intersect and contribute to your overall approach to well-being and self-discovery?
My approach to well-being and self-discovery is through daily practices of ALL my training disciples. Dance keeps not only my body fluid and strong – but it’s emotionally supportive and deeply creative as I have spent many years as a choreographer. I envision more interesting configurations all the time- be it a flower arrangement, moving from one yoga pose to another through innovative linking, or deciding how to be emotionally present for a friend.
My work is to be present and available to the moment to discover intention, to ask what needs healing? Astrology’s biggest gift to me personally, is to see my world objectively. As referred to above, the needs of my Moon are to spend quiet time alone, be emotionally aware, and safe. Unfortunately, it also means I take everything far too personally, which does not serve. Through ‘Astrological years of growth’ I’ve changed my lunar needs a great deal.
I also had a remarkable teacher who believed in me as an Astrologer.
The third big component is Metaphysics. Of course Astrology, Yoga, yes-even dance integrate within as a metaphysical power source.
A good read is “Power Vs Force” by David Hawkins. Understanding the difference and using one’s power in passionate, powerful ways is no easy task but if you metaphysically understand the intention of your action, then you see the ‘right use of will’…which is no small matter. And again, it brings one front and center into being consciously present all the time….The hardest work we ever do.
Shakti Yoga Dances, an original collaboration of yoga and dance, seem to be a unique aspect of your teaching. Could you tell us more about this creative fusion and how it enhances the yoga experience for your students?
I find that Yoga and dance work together seamlessly in supporting and enhancing one another’s gifts. Shakti Yoga Dances is a multi-layered, magical fusion of all I have learned and know. They are creative choreographies to wonderful music that feed the emotional body through poetry, and song. They support the mental body through knowledge of the energies embodied in the Shakti Goddesses. (Sally Kempton’s “Awakening Shakti” is required reading).
Each dance has a mudra and a mantra that sets its energetic intention. Working with the chakras and bandhas is primary. I danced Graham modern dance for many years and still use its primary contraction/release techniques, which helps students dive below and understand how to access and use bandhas. (Learning the difference between muscular action and envisioning inner power.) The dance discipline of repeating a dance until your body knows it and the mind can release it- is a Big jolt of emotional satisfaction ~ Once again creating wisdom body layers.
What life experience would you say had the most impact on your life?
Meeting my husband and having the courage to commit to someone kind, creative and supportive. I always went for bad blue-eyed cowboys who had no interest in commitment….as it turns out- neither did I., as I was terrified of being controlled. When I met Allan, late in life, I realized how much I had grown and changed in order to commit and allow myself to be deeply held and loved by another. It is truly miraculous for me to be married to an extraordinary human being.
If you would like to find out more about Samantha Cameron, visit https://dailybreathjournal.com/
