By Sarah Millman
Meet Juliet! Juliet just graduated from the Mindful Life Practice’s 200 Hour Yoga Teacher Training in Bali in the summer of 2024.
In addition to learning all about yoga and celebrating her 2-year soberversary with the MLPC during her time in Indonesia, Juliet’s passion for learning was also ignited when she was exposed to such practices as hypnotherapy and sound healing during her time in Bali. As Juliet has been an educator for the past 25 years, there is no doubt that she will continue to learn more about yoga and these healing practices -in addition to considering how she can bring what she has learned into her work in education!
I decided to interview Juliet in order to learn a little bit more about journey with sobriety, healing, yoga and the MLPC!
Tell us a little bit about yourself!
At home, just south of Houston, Texas, my husband and I live in a small suburban neighborhood near the water. Our lives are busy with work. I am a school teacher and am close to retirement.
We have all girls. I have a 27-year-old daughter who lives just ten minutes from me and is also a teacher, and she has a two-year-old girl: my first grandbaby. I also have two stepdaughters from a previous marriage. They are 25 and 23, and they are living busy lives on their own. My husband also has two daughters. One is 21, and she is finishing college in Atlanta, and the other is 16 and living with her mom in a small town near Chicago. So, we are essentially empty nesters.
Whenever I’m not at work or at the yoga studio, I am usually fiddling in my garden or lounging by the pool with my adoring cat and my ancient dog who are both content to follow me wherever I wander.
We love to host parties and since my husband and I met on Halloween, we really have fun dressing up in costumes for most any occasion.
Is there anything that you would like to share about your sobriety and/or your experiences with the MLPC before completing the YTT?
When I was walking through a park at a summer teacher conference in 2023, I noticed a sign that read: “No Alcohol Beyond This Point” and in that moment, it occurred to me: “Holy cow… I’ve been sober for exactly one year today!”
It stopped me in my tracks. It was a sign: a sign that I will never go back.
I will never go back to the toxic life that I had accepted in my past: a life of constantly telling my family “I will only drink on the weekends” and then opening another bottle on a Tuesday night.
I will never go back to promising, “I won’t drink too much this time” and then finding myself knee walking while drunk at 2:30 in the afternoon... followed by more drinking that night... followed by waking up the next day mortified that I couldn’t remember the horrific embarrassment that I had caused my family and friends the night before.
I will never go back to the way that I felt every time I looked in the mirror. I hated myself: my skin looked so unhealthy, and my body was bloated from binge drinking daily.
I will never go back to feeling like I didn’t have anything else to soothe my pain besides grabbing another bottle, and feeling sick and exhausted EVERY SINGLE DAY.
In that moment I realized, ‘No Alcohol Beyond This Point’, means NONE. Ever. Again. Because just one was never enough. I was DONE.
So as I celebrated my first sober anniversary alone in San Antonio, Texas, I vowed to myself to continue my sobriety forever and permanently commit to the healthy change in my life that I had started one year before. I felt an internal shift in that moment, and I’ve never looked back.
A friend of a friend
Back home in Houston, days after seeing my sign in the park, I was excitedly sharing about my year of sobriety with a teacher friend as we floated in my backyard pool. I was giddy, as I shared about my renewed love of yoga: a practice that I had embraced over the past few months.
My friend Connie chimed in, “You should really connect with my friend, Alex!” Connie told me all about this woman with whom she used to teach overseas, and how she leads sober yoga retreats across the globe. I was immediately enthralled.
As I explored Alex’s website, “The Mindful Life Practice,” and saw her exciting retreats around the world, I found myself daydreaming about the possibility of attending. However, I started to find all kinds of excuses as to why I couldn’t.
After some time, I noticed that there was a 200 Hour Yoga Teacher Certification program with Alex that was happening in Bali during the following summer… the perfect time for a teacher like me. But, a month away from my husband was unthinkable. I mean, how could I, a lowly teacher from the suburbs of Houston, possibly consider going across the planet to become a yoga teacher?
Despite my excuses, I excitedly showed my husband Alex’s website that night and recounted all of her amazing adventures, and we both swooned at the thought of me getting my yoga certification in Bali. “Oh wow, that would be so cool! But too bad it lasts for an entire month. That’s too long to be away.” My husband quickly pointed out that the price of the certification and the stay in Bali was reasonable, which made the idea seem even more plausible. But… I didn’t dare to dream of such a luxury just for me!
A passion for yoga
I’ve always had a lingering love for yoga. I can’t remember the first time that I was introduced to the idea, but I do recall attending my first yoga class as a young adult, and I remember how much I enjoyed the way that my body felt, as well as the peace that came along with the process.
During the first 22 years of my teaching career, I taught Theatre and would often begin my classes with a yoga warm-up or a meditation. However, that was the extent of my yoga practice.
After reaching the first anniversary of my sobriety, I decided I was ready to find a yoga studio to attend regularly. I tried several local studios, but none of them seemed to fit until I walked into “Rasa School of Ayurveda.” I immediately felt at home and quickly discovered that there was much more to yoga than movement and postures. I learned so much, and I participated in classes on yoga philosophy as well as asana (postures) and meditation.
I loved meditation so much that I decided to complete a course to become certified in Advanced Meditation. At the same time, I explored options on how to gain my yoga teacher certification: a personal goal that I was excited to fulfill. I couldn’t quite decide on which program to complete, as my studio had a variety of different Masters path programs. However, Alex‘s Bali retreat, and The Mindful Life Practice kept calling to me.
A transformative decision
Then one night in September, just a few months after my ‘sign in the park,’ my husband and I were
attending a community event at my yoga studio. We were chatting away with several young yoga instructors, and one of them lamented to her colleague, “Gosh, it would’ve been so amazing if we could have gotten our certifications in someplace special like Bali.” My husband and I immediately locked eyes. “Did you tell them?” he whispered to me. But I had never shared Alex’s information with anyone.
“You’re going!” my husband announced to me on the ride home that night. “This opportunity in Bali with Alex is special, and you deserve this.” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, and tears were streaming down my face, as I realized that my dream was about to become a reality.
And one year later, I found myself celebrating my second soberversary in Bali with Alex and a group of the most beautiful souls I’ve ever known: a group of women from around the world who came together with the same purpose, and who understood firsthand the joys of being sober. This selfless gift of love from my husband has been the most transformative experience of my life, and it has forever changed me for the better.
What was your experience like during the MLPC 200 Hour Yoga Teacher Training in Bali? What did you learn from the experience?
My time during the Mindful Life Practice’s 200 Hour Yoga Teacher Training was beautiful, transformative, healing, and magical! I will treasure this unique experience for the rest of my life. Alex is such a delightful force who shares her gifts with love. She is an absolute joy to be around.
During the YTT, we started each day with a sunrise meditation, and I found myself so excited that I would wake up extra early, eager to greet the day. I loved our meditation sessions, and I felt like each one opened up new experiences for me. After breakfast, we would do a 90-minute yoga class, and the sessions varied throughout the 3-week program, as we had three assistant teachers and guest instructors. Every teacher brought something new and exciting to share. I found the more I learned, the more I realized I didn’t know. But that just made me even more ravenous to learn everything! I really connected with a class that was taught by a local yoga instructor who had been trained by Alex, Ali Diwaji. The class moved at a slower pace, which felt so soothing to my body. I also felt like the easy flow and the meditative nature of the movement made the class seem more accessible. As Ali taught, he mentioned that he often invites people to do yoga with him around his pool, and he has everyone bring a dish to share brunch afterwards. I lit up at this idea, and I can’t wait to do the same at my own home, back in Houston.
We also had a hypnotherapist, Khaled Bayad, come to the YTT. As soon as the hypnotherapy meditation session ended, I excitedly burst out, “I have to learn how to do this!”
Our assistant teachers, who were three former YTT students, were so inspiring, and I absolutely loved the variety of instruction and everything that each of them brought to the table. When we were introduced to chair yoga, by one of the teaching assistants, I knew exactly how I could use it in the future, as my father is in a retirement home, and he and many of the people that he lives with are extremely physically limited.
Learning about the body: from bones, to muscles, to our nervous system was also fascinating. The variety of teaching styles made our classes fun and interesting!
Honestly, my time during the Bali YTT was the best educational experience that I’ve ever had and, as a teacher of 25 years, education means a lot to me. Throughout the program, I kept thinking, “Oh wow! I’ve got to bring these ideas back for my students.”
Additionally, I loved taking a deeper dive into all of the other aspects of yoga from breathwork to philosophy to all of the other topics that we covered. I started to notice pretty early on that there was a profound shift within our YTT group as we connected the yoga philosophy with our own lives. We were all so intentional, focused, thoughtful and mindful. We began to appreciate each other and ourselves on a deeper level, which fostered a better connection and energy in the group than I think any of us ever expected.
The bond that was shared between all of the women became stronger and more powerful. It’s hard to put into words the energy that was created between all of us, but it was magical. Likewise, I felt a shift in myself that was profound. Very quickly, I noticed that I was becoming stronger and more independent, and all of the stress of my daily life simply disappeared. I found myself daydreaming about big plans for my future and creating realistic and achievable plans of action. I journaled daily, which is not a usual habit for me. As we would often end a class with a brief journal prompt, I started to notice how much I got out of the experience and just added it to my morning routine.
Learning beyond the classroom
However, the learning did not end for me in our little compound. On our days off, I would
make my way out of our small village and into the bustling city of Ubud. I was amazed to learn that the word “Ubud” means “medicine,” and since ancient times, all of Indonesia would send their people to Ubud to be healed. There are generations of healers in the city, and the opportunity to learn is endless.
I saw Pappa first, an acupressure healer who worked absolute magic on me, and he insisted that my husband visit him when he came to join me for a week after my training ended. I also visited a Balinese yoga studio with some of the other girls in our group, and I had the most fascinating experience learning meditation and asana practice in a beautiful hand-built yoga shala. I saw a Balinese Astrologist and visited the Pyramids of Chi. I was honored to visit multiple water temples, where locals led us through Balinese rituals in fresh spring waters.
But my favorite local teacher led a Sound Healing at Lumeria. The husband, a Shaman Java, and his wife, a healer from Japan, worked as a team and created a gorgeous environment that illuminated our senses and created a safe space for us to meditate, as we lay on our mats being moved by the powerful sounds that they created. And again, I felt compelled to learn this art form and find a way to incorporate it into my own practice.
Do you have any new and exciting plans now that you have your Yoga Teacher certification?
Moving forward with all that I have learned, I have so many plans. I want to use my YTT certification and participate in more trainings.
First, I am excited to implement my training at my Dad’s retirement community by teaching
gentle chair yoga. I am also planning on extending an open invite to my friends to come to Sunrise Yoga around the pool at my house. I will just ask them each to bring a breakfast dish to share, and we’ll have a non-alcoholic brunch together after our practice. I also have several small weekend retreats in the works, where I will be working with 2-3 ladies at a time.
However, I’m most excited about implementing my training in the classroom. As a veteran teacher of 25 years and a teaching mentor for the last 20 years, I see a wonderful opportunity to implement this learning in the educational environment.
I am excited to marry my passion for teaching and yoga on a grander scale, and I’m currently signed up to teach “Mindfulness in the Classroom,” at a conference this Fall where I will teach teachers and administrators how to implement yoga philosophy in the classroom. My plan is to continue to spread this mindful philosophy of teaching to school districts and conferences nationwide and hopefully lead me to expand my career in a meaningful way that can help and heal others.
Do you have any advice for anyone who is sober-curious or new to sobriety?
I was someone who was living fully in denial of my addiction. I was using alcohol to avoid dealing with my pain from a life of trauma and abuse, and I was blissfully unaware of how bad my addiction had become.
For me, the initial turning point was getting healthy and choosing to give up alcohol in order to regain my health. It wasn’t until I realized that I had stayed sober for a year that I was able to reflect on and own my previous addiction.
So if you’re reading this and thinking “Yeah, but I don’t have a drinking problem...“ Okay, I see you, that’s cool. But WHAT IF you just decided to give a sober curious lifestyle a try and just see how it feels in your body? Just take it one day at a time, and allow your body to have a break from alcohol and ‘get healthy.’ You may find that your sober self is someone you like a lot better, and very likely, you’ll find that your body feels better.
What would you say to someone who is considering participating in a Yoga Teacher Training program, but isn’t completely sure if it is right for him/her?
If you have ever entertained the thought of pursuing a yoga teacher certification, whether to teach at a local studio or simply for the pleasure of learning more for your personal benefit, I say GO FOR IT! I spent my whole life thinking I didn’t deserve this, or I wasn’t good enough for that, but what I gained from this experience is something that no one can ever take away from me.
I am eternally grateful to Alex, and I am forever changed by this exquisite moment in my life. Everything from the classes, to the Balinese culture, to the gorgeous immersion into nature and all of the magical experiences that Bali had to offer made this by far one of the most transformative experiences of my life.
Everyone deserves to have an experience like this in their lives. Everyone deserves to nourish and celebrate themselves: body, mind, and spirit. They deserve to discover the very essence of who they are and celebrate that essence while surrounded by other women who desire to do the same.
Yoga is so much more than what we do on the mat. Yoga is a powerful way to live, and I, for one, am grateful for all that it offers.
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