A LITTLE MORE ABOUT ME

Growing up in the up-and-coming city of Virginia Beach, I always had a very extreme personality. Lacking structure at home due to my parents divorcing when I was 7 years old, this untimely event left my father homeless and furthering his addictive spiral unable to provide for the family, and my mother to raise 4 children while working a full-time job. Being the youngest, I felt confused and angry, not knowing how to channel my emotions or having the discipline to calm them. I resorted to substance abuse at the pre-mature age of 9 years old. The momentum of this lifestyle led to a vicious cycle of hardcore, daily substance abuse from 12 to 16 years old. When I turned 16, my dad died from an overdose two weeks prior to my mom, who was working full-time as a fry cook, becoming unable to work due to meniscus tears in both her knees. My mom was left handicapped, and she remains so to this day. I felt cornered, looking at my life from a seat where my future bisected into two uncertain directions: keep partying and end up like my father, or fail to plan for my future and end up working at the pace of my mother until my own health issues brought me to a similar position.

With a full tank of fear and pain driving me, I wanted and needed to do everything I could to build a road of hope that would lead me in a new direction. I started working full-time waiting tables after school and pouring concrete with a construction company, saving every penny I could, exercising daily, and channeling my anger into weight lifting and staying socially active. This path of working harder, not smarter, continued until I took the opportunity with a direct selling company that introduced me to a crowd where self-development and meditation were seen as practical steps forward.

I sought and found mentors in a new environment that led me away from one addictive lifestyle to another. I got into the business of privately buying and selling vehicles using the wisdom entrepreneurship and self-development had provided. Aside from experimenting with many odd jobs, the vehicle business and restaurant work gained enough momentum for me to fund myself at 19 years old buying my first home and committing to a 9-5 career with an asset management company. I continued my 9 to 5 and worked weekends, waiting tables Saturdays and Sundays, taking one Sunday off every 2 weeks to manage my vehicles.

As you can imagine, my sense of being lost in life wasn't stifled by the weekly labor of hustling to no end. I was working to make money, investing it to make more, and felt I couldn't stop. The exchange from my addictive mentality, being channeled into the more socially acceptable label of a workaholic, led me to a sacred practice that satisfied where lifting weights and striking deals couldn't. Yoga.  It took a shoulder injury to get there. But I finally felt at peace and in a deep state of remembrance. I instantly fell in love, as I saw it applied to everything self-development was trying to teach but in an embodied way from the practice. This love carried over into nutrition, friendships, and fitness; that I learned all balanced each other the more I stayed consistent with my practice. 

I took a community college class that had us read from the Sutras and meditate consistently every day. Our homework was to attend Asana (physical yoga class). After the class and much self-study, I felt inspired to find a teacher that  answer all the questions I had and learn from to become an instructor of my own. Of course, I was still working non-stop, just not as maliciously as only having 2 days off a month. I couldn't find anyone that really could teach the holistic picture of yoga I was looking for. This led me to researching where yoga is said to be born. Rishikesh, India. The immediate pull to this vegetarian, utopian-looking city––where it is forbidden to sell meat, poultry, fish, or alcohol––seated at the foothills of the Himalayan mountains, manifested three months later in a 28-hour flight and 9-hour cab ride; whereupon I found myself deeply transformed taking my first steps in the holy land of Rishikesh. Here, everything changed. After 2 months spent in Rishikesh diving deep into myself and learning the true essence of a consistent yogic practice at Sattva. I found what I was always looking for. A sensation of balance, connection, and genuine internal success.

After returning home, I continued on the path of entrepreneurship in a way that balanced with the full-time intention of teaching this holistic style of yoga. I developed a program that provides people with these ancient teachings, in a packaged, relatable way, to anyone who desires a more full and balanced experience in life. Since 2016, I (now 28) have returned every year to India, continuing my education, taking journeys such as the highest pass, becoming a Jyotish (vedic astrologer), and receiving 1000’s of hours of RYT credits. I have created and sustained what a successful life looked like for myself. Currently, I am building "Satya" a retreat center based in Asheville North Carolina on 7 magical acres, while also scaling my real estate portfolio around short term rentals that provide passive income so I can invest fully into my client's needs.

I feel my version of what a successful life is, is a consequence of what a consistent practice of these ancient Vedic teachings will bring to you. Which is ultimately, the ability to keep your desires under your control, and to keep one's web of emotions into a fluid state of understanding, and mastery.

Hari Om