Sharing Aloha, one smile at a time, continues to be my primary mission with Kahana Hula, Yoga & Wellness. Aloha, is a word popularly used as a greeting, representing unconditional love and kindness. This is the Hawaiian way of expressing affection, kinship, and connection with all others; while in ancient Hindu yoga texts, the Yamas and Niyamas provide instructions for right living within one's Self, and with all living beings.
Hula and yoga are more than physical movement practices that originated in Hawai'i and India. They both perpetuate thousand year old wisdoms and philolsophies of living in harmony with nature. I teach that, when practiced with awareness and intention (mindfulness), the body, mind and spirit become unified, with the power to transcend limiting thoughts and behaviors that keep us from reaching the highest potential of true health, happiness, and well-being.
I was blessed with humble beginnings, raised with Hawaiian culture, dancing hula, ballet, and modern dance as a young child. Growing up on the mainland, in Los Angeles, California, the fitness capital of the world, I was influenced by top fitness professionals and became a fitness trainer and yoga practitioner at the age of sixteen. I never dreamed that all of the training and experience acquired in my early years would uniquely converge later in life.
In 2006, I started Kahana Hula, LLC, Connecticut's first Polynesian Dance and Luau Entertainment. Company. In spite of my health issues with chronic pain and fatigue of fibromyalgia and arthritis, I am able to continue my passion for sharing the Spirit of Aloha, either through solo hula performances or by teaching yoga. Kahana Hula, Yoga, and Wellness, is not a means for me to be in the limelight while perfoming for an audience, or being the leader of a yoga class, but much more about providing an uplifting and enlightening experience that will inspire others to recognize and pursue their own personal potential for true health, peace, and joy in their lives.
I am beyond thankful to all of my hula and yoga teachers who captivate me with the beauty of their knowledge, wisdom, talent, and ability to deliver instruction with skillful finesse. I am also grateful to all of my colleagues, students and past audiences, who also serve as my teachers, because it is through each one of you, that I have grown to become the dancer and teacher that I am today.
Together, we can make the world a better place, sharing Aloha, one smile at a time.
Aloha and Namaste,
Teri "Tiare Kahana" Bourget
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