First and foremost, I am a passionate lover of life and an avid practitioner of yoga and meditation.
As a Certified Yoga Teacher for over twenty years with a Master of Arts in Education, my goal is to share my unique experiences and inspire as many people as possible to maintain personal health and wellness using techniques that are scientifically proven to be effective.
In this article, I will tell the story of how I got started with yoga, built a thatched-roof hut in the jungle, taught yoga to people from all over the world and created the life of my dreams.
At the end of this article, I will invite you to consider how to live your life fully: What are you passionate about? What is your unique life’s mission?
Over a decade ago, I left behind the security and comfort of my full-time career in the US, where I was born and raised, and permanently moved to Central America to start a new life, emboldened by the determination to realise my dreams.
In the US, I started studying yoga in my early twenties because I wanted to learn how to help people stay healthy and fit while keeping myself in optimal condition.
I practised yoga and meditation with a passion, became a Certified Yoga Teacher and Licensed Massage Therapist and operated my own yoga studio in the Boston area, where I taught hundreds of yoga classes and built a successful private practice of therapeutic massage, as can be seen from my client testimonials.
I have earned a Master of Arts in Education with a minor in Counseling Psychology from New Mexico State University.
I also hold a Bachelor of Arts with a major in Spanish and Multidisciplinary Studies and a minor in Health Care Administration from Stonehill College in Massachusetts.
Bilingual in English and Spanish, I established a career as a specialised consultant and therapist for children and adults in a variety of settings in 5 countries for the past twenty years.
Currently, I teach bilingual yoga classes to young adults at a renowned research university in Mexico to help them manage stress and improve their academic performance.
While living and working in the US, I became deeply dissatisfied with the traditional model of classroom teaching.
I envisioned an innovative approach that involved outdoor, experiential education on an organic farm.
I wrote and published my first two books that became bestsellers in experimental methods in education.
I moved from Massachusetts to New Mexico, California, and finally, to Arizona, where I worked full time, growing increasingly displeased by my conventional life in middle-class America, even though I had achieved what my family considered to be a success.
One night I had a vivid dream in which my guru (master yoga teacher) appeared and told me that it was time for me to leave my home country: “The same thing happened to me,” he reassured me.
In the dream, I extended my hand in slow motion, reaching out to a panorama of tropical plants, flowers, and coconut trees.
When I woke up, I remembered the details of the dream as if it had actually happened in real life, and in that moment I was determined to make it a reality.
In order to live the life of my dreams, I just knew I had to move to a foreign country and change my life completely.
Within a few days, I resigned from my teaching job, booked a plane ticket to Belize (a tiny country south of Mexico where I had never been to before), donated most of my belongings to a local charity and packed my bags.
While in line at the airport, I earnestly prayed and received a message, “You will almost die down there. But you will survive. I am with you.…”.
While this may seem crazy to my readers, perhaps it is worth mentioning that I seem to be endowed with a gift of clairvoyance.
As a Licensed Massage Therapist with over twenty years of experience, I provide unique bodywork sessions in which I help my clients discover their unique life’s mission because I want to help people live the life of their dreams.
Forewarned by the alarming message that my life would be endangered, I forged ahead nonetheless.
I got on the plane and flew to Central America, bolstered by my dream to live in the tropics on a parcel of fertile land in a rural area.
I wanted to build a small-scale permaculture farm and develop a vocational education centre for the benefit of my local community, and I was determined.
I arrived in a small agricultural and fishing town in Southern Belize, Central America, surrounded by Mayan villages and ancient cultural ruins.
I immediately focused on establishing community liaisons and making friends with local people who were living the way I wanted to live: off-grid with minimal resource consumption on land where I could build my own house and grow my own food.
I discovered the importance of resourcefulness in order to survive as a single woman in Central America.
While I wrote and published a series of books, I worked in many different communities as a massage therapist, yoga instructor and English teacher. I lived for periods of time with host families in Mexico, Guatemala and Belize.
This proved to be an extremely challenging opportunity to grow and learn while immersing myself in the various cultural traditions of Central America.
Looking back, I realize how much courage and persistence it took for me at the time to continue seeking and finding opportunities, and now I can honestly say that my dream came true because I believed in myself: I found a fertile acre of land (surrounded by flowers and coconut trees), built my own thatched-roof hut in the tropical jungle, and cultivated my land to grow organic food year-round.
Here is what I built:
Years later, I am proud to have stayed true to my own heart, despite countless moments in which I just wanted to give up. Living in a foreign country can often be stressful.
I practised yoga and meditation every day to manage my own stress, and even under the most difficult conditions imaginable, yoga helped me stay strong, healthy and focused.
Here I am teaching a yoga class at my retreat
I persisted, driven by the vision to help other women in Central America achieve their dreams and goals.
Today, I own and operate The Farm School, a vocational, experiential training centre that promotes health and wellness within my local community.
My mission is to help local women stay healthy and become more self-sufficient by learning practical skills like massage therapy, yoga and meditation.
While I teach ongoing bilingual classes (in Spanish and English) for locals, I offer wellness retreats for visitors who wish to support and participate in the activities at The Farm School.
My retreats feature the Parama Yoga Method, a unique system of yoga postures, breathing exercises and meditation based on ancient techniques.
As a Licensed Massage Therapist (License #MT-15237 – Krista Williams), I have practised and studied therapeutic bodywork modalities under the guidance of master teachers for over twenty years.
I have completed thousands of hours of formal training in a variety of therapeutic modalities, including Swedish Massage, Deep Tissue, Sports Massage, Reflexology, Craniosacral Therapy, Pre- and Postnatal Massage, Hot Stone Massage, and Chair Massage.
In my professional practice, I offer a unique blend of techniques, tailored to the individual needs of my clients.
I love to regularly reflect and write about my experiences, particularly focusing on themes related to international travel, sustainable tourism, homesteading, health (yoga, meditation and massage therapy) and spirituality.
After countless adventures and nearly dying at the hands of those who would wish to do me harm, I have survived many dangers, overcome personal challenges, and learned what it means to be a warrior dedicated to a mission that can only come from touching the flames of burning passion within my heart, enlivened and inspired every day to keep blazing the trail so that others can join me on the adventure of a lifetime.
My life
For me, it all started with believing that I could make my dream come true.
As we collectively experience the drastic changes now upon us, we can all feel it and know it deep inside: Now is the time to live fully and love passionately.
Now I have some questions for you. Please respond in the comment section below:
- Do you want to live your life fully?
- What is the life of your dreams? What does it look like, feel like, and who is there with you?
- Do you believe your life dream can come true?
- What action can you take today to make your dream a reality?
