Amy Murphy

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Amys life began in Bathurst New Brunswick where she discovered that the most efficient way to dismount the top bunk was to jump and that the living room was best-suited for cartwheels  Thankfully her parents enrolled her in rhythmic gymnastics  She dedicated countless hours of her childhood to happily refining her coordination and strengthening her character under the fluorescent lights of a gym   Her teenage years took her to Fredericton where rhythmic gymnastics was not available but her craving for movement failed to dull  This was the beginning of a career in short and long distance running and rugby   Her heightened body awareness made her wary that these new endeavours might shorten the muscles that she had so proudly conditioned  At as young as she took the initiative with a VHS yoga tape by Patricia Walden!  Couches aside the living room became a haven for recovery not just from physical work but from life as a teenager  At the time her need for running mostly for head shrinking! remained but yoga was a natural after-stretch   Fast forward to the year of Amy Murphy  She worked as a massage therapist in the stunning village of Lake Louise Alberta and saw it for what it truly was covering as much trail on foot as possible  When that wasnt enough she quit running cold turkey to bike!  On her quest for understanding places thoroughly she biked from Golden British Columbia to Vancouver alone much to the horror of her parents to understand herself thoroughly  From Vancouver she flew to San Francisco for a quick pit stop then landed on the Big Island of Hawaii the island of Big Island love   There she volunteered at Kalani Oceanside Retreat and biked care free under the canopy of mango trees  She prayed to the ocean and to Pele the Goddess of the islands and the volcanoes and she had her a$# handed to her in a small Ashtanga class in the marvellous Blue Moon Room!  After all she had put her body through the movements and ranges were challenging to say the least and sometimes not even doable- a very attractive feeling   Her volunteer work on the retreat was in the agriculture department translation: taming part of the wild and willing rainforest of the acre lot  While weeding and during the meditative patterns of lawn mowing she had many epiphanies  Each day began with Hawaiian chant and each day at pm when her sweaty tasks were complete she showered beneath the banana leaves and tip toed to the E-Max the largest of the screened in yoga studios this one faced the ocean   And it was at :pm that her heart changed; Jared native of Vancouver cooed practically sang the cues of each vinyasa flow class and dimmed the lights just right before the conch shell blew indicating supper time in the jungle   Jared knew the difference between teaching a class and sculpting an experience; Amy felt forever indebted to those hypnotic sequences that brought her the greatest moments of clarity   Three months later she said a bittersweet goodbye to the Big Island and has been trying to share and repay that experience ever since After many yoga sessions taught to her sisters in a living room full circle back to where it all started! it was time to seek formal training! After all of that travel and adventure a -hour yoga instructor certification gave Amy great purpose in her life home in Fredericton   Amy taught at a local studio Nirvana for over years and accumulated enough curiosity and confidence to start her own business  Today we see flashes of that journey embodied into the humble roots of YogaGrow!.