Inspiring Grace Yoga - Annaliese Bishop

Annaliese was born and raised in clean, green New Zealand. Chasing her long-held dream of moving to Australia, she landed a sexy IT job and had three weeks to sell her possessions and move to Melbourne in 2010. Several months later, she attended a Stephen Covey "Seven Habits of Highly Effective People" course and consequently decided it was time to live an authentic life.  

In early 2011, Annaliese set out on a course to change the world- one body and one mind at a time.  She had already started with herself, so it was time to help others. She transferred her NZ fitness qualifications to Australia, quit IT and became a Personal Trainer. After a shoulder injury in mid-2011 and subsequent reconstruction surgery in 2012 derailed her Personal Training career, her physiotherapist told her to "go smash yoga" to regain her flexibility and range of motion. 

Annaliese had dabbled with yoga on and off for a decade, so she was familiar with the "floating on a puffy cloud" feeling after a good class. But this time, yoga was different. 125 classes and a lot of sweat and tears later, she did her first shoulder stand and was encouraged by her own amazing teachers to become a yoga teacher herself - so she did.

Annaliese is a high-functioning Aspie, so if you are on the spectrum and thinking of trying yoga, just do it. It really does help - seriously. Contact her directly for more information or with any questions or concerns you may have. 

As a "born-again yogi", Annaliese loves Iyengar, Purna, Vinyasa Flow, Yin and Restorative styles of yoga. She regularly attends workshops and classes with leading Australian and International teachers, has attended yoga, silence and meditation retreats in Australia and Malaysia; loves yoga festivals and disco yoga classes, can get her toes off the ground in crow pose and has finally tried Kombucha (but wouldn't drink it again).