Hello + welcome!
My name is Sandra Leigh.
Join me in Vancouver, B.C.
FALL 2026
wellness + yoga

:: BLOG UPDATE :: OFF THE MAT :: 2026

Since 2021, I’ve been keeping busy with Business Media flexible learning courses through the Radio Arts + Entertainment program at BCIT. As a more mature student, this has been both fun and challenging, but mostly, it’s kept me busy and out of trouble. 😉

In June 2026, I graduated from the BCIT Music Business School! 🎓✨🎶

I’m pleased to be reaching more people through music, radio, recording arts + new instructional video production, coming soon, so please click the subscribe buttons + stay tuned. Thanks so much for visiting!

You’re invited to listen to my music project here >>> @givepeaceachant mantra music <<<

Email me sandraleigh108 @ gmail . com for more info. or to set up a free 30 min. zoom consultation.

:: BLOGGING ABOUT :: I’m sharing some of my own story of why yoga + wellness practices became so important and even cornerstone in my own health recovery program + how I took my learned experiences forward ::

I grew up in Calgary when TV programming included a CTV exercise program called ‘Kareen’s Yoga’, hosted by ever-fabulous Kareen Zebroff. I remember following along in the living room with my mom, and us both wearing one piece nylon bodysuits paired with thick, itchy leotards, just like the ones, D and E, seen below.

We also had the Ed Allen Show, and we went to Jazzercise. I followed the 20 Minute Workout like it was a religious experience, which it kind of was, if I’m being honest. I became a Spa Lady – and if that doesn’t make you laugh, I’m not sure what would.

It’s true, I grew up in a challenging environment. Maybe that’s why I took to physical expressions like exercising and especially dancing when I was a teen. I was drawn to acting + theatre and the drama club in high school. I did well at both Music and Art and we would practice with our ‘band’ in my friend, Ruthie’s basement in N.W. Calgary. We had the very best times!

Sadly, as a teen, I also had an unexpected health crisis when I developed an inflammatory connective tissue condition and for a long time I definitely could NOT exercise at all – because I was really, very ill. I spent most of my 18th year, in and out of Foothills Hospital. I had emergency surgery thrice, and was pumped full of medicines that eventually worked, thankfully, or at least they seemed to. In the 80’s the doctors had so few answers regarding the cause or outcomes of the condition, so after that rough patch, I just got on with living and enjoying life, although, health wise, I would never be quite the same.

I moved from Alberta and was working in Vancouver for almost a year, but by summer, more health complications returned. By now, I was in my early 20’s, living on my own downtown. I only tell this story because as a young woman, I went through mostly all of this alone, in Vancouver. Looking back, I know I was living on the edge, but it wasn’t until I survived a near death experience in Edmonton, (of all places!) – I came back stronger and hopefully, wiser, definitely deeper at 24 yrs. old when, against the odds, I turned my life around and got into recovery for my health condition and for family healing. I was all in, enjoying a healthy life style. I got into cycling, running and I returned to the gym. I registered for a yoga class, not expecting any kind of life changing experience. Instead, I met an exceptional yoga teacher, Lilian Bianchi who was pivotal in introducing me to Hatha yoga. As a beginner, it was her gentle guidance that helped guide me and many others to better health.

Originally from Brazil, Lilian had been practicing yoga and meditation since she was 14. When I attended her classes, I couldn’t explain it but I felt calm, perhaps for the first time ever. Her voice was so melodic and nurturing, her accent, truly enchanting. Her 2 hr. classes left us floating home. Then, after 6 years together, Lilian suggested I consider becoming a teacher and she could mentor me. Looking back now, I can only say, I was so blessed. Thank you, Lilian.

By now, I had found work serving tables in the West End restaurants. Yoga helped me with my own work exhaustion, sore feet and all. It was a different time. I worked in busy enough places that it was possible to pick up shifts, work like crazy, save your tips and go travel.

I financed my dream and followee Lilian’s advice. I was 29 yrs. old when I visited Yasodhara Ashram, near Kootenay Bay, BC, where I participated in a 10 day workshop – ‘The Hidden Language of Hatha Yoga’ as taught by Swami Sivananda Radha, the original pioneer of the ‘Divine Light Invocation.‘

I ended up returning to the ashram and then staying on for a year. In 1997, I completed the YDC -yoga development certification course, and a Hatha Yoga Teacher’s Certificate. I had a great experience, although I haven’t returned there since then.

I returned to Vancouver, mostly to my old job, waiting on tables in various West End restaurants. I saved my tips and bought my first harmonium for practicing chants at home. I also took up hand drumming.

My first job teaching yoga was at the YMCA. My big dream was to go to India.

Meanwhile, I started subbing for Lilian, who then introduced me to her dear friend and teacher, Vancouver’s local legend teacher trainer Sandra Sammartino who guided me to complete her modular teacher certificate course at her Kairos Studio in White Rock, BC.

Sandra’s approached yoga as therapy. She was also the original pioneer and heart behind BC’s ‘Yoga Outreach’ programs.

After some time, Sandra offered us Yoga Outreach placements to help us get hands on, in person experience bringing yoga to people with less access or mobility. My first placement was bed yoga with a home bound trauma survivor, a women who due to no fault of her own, ended up with debilitating health issues. Yoga Outreach supported me to make an assessment with her for a series of in person visits that set her up with a modified bed yoga practice.

Yoga Outreach supported a program that I would help teach for adult women at a drug and alcohol treatment facility in South Vancouver. The yoga was mostly helping most of the women, who were survivors of some kind of generational trauma or domestic abuse. I stayed at that placement for about a year.

Then, I also took a placement at an after school program called “The Avengers”, where I taught movement, yoga postures and breath work for children and youth with special needs.

Another Yoga Outreach placement was men’s yoga for young offenders at the Willingdon Youth Corrections Centre in Burnaby. Looking back, I’m sure these incarcerated young men were bottling up the effects of unprocessed childhood trauma, too. They seemed to respond well to yoga exercies and deep relaxation. These were the same lads who were not responding to the often violent punishment being issued to them in the correction centre.

My final placement was for a women’s yoga program at St. Paul’s Eating Disorder Clinic through Yoga Outreach, although we didn’t call it “trauma-informed” it was less body conscious. Instead, I developed an energy based practice to help the patients restore and navigate movements with their frail bodies. Mostly, we got by through breath alone. Many patients were so thin they could barely close their eyes. I remember the struggle to take even tiny little sips of breath. I believe they responded well and it seemed to be a positive experience, if only for these young women to try a new activity. Sadly, the St. Paul’s ED clinic program funding was cut and the ED yoga + wellness program was discontinued in the 00’s.

In 1999, I met a yoga group from the UK and I became interested in their unique, energy based style of yoga, called Dru Yoga. I completed a 3 year Dru Yoga Teacher Training course. I was also fortunate to travel and take further trainings in the UK, studying in North Wales, London, Scotland, The Netherlands, and India. I later earned a Dru Sound Healing & Mantra Certificate and a Dru Meditation Teacher’s certificate. More recently, I was certified as a Dru Breath Coach. Dru Yoga is popular in the UK, Europe, Australia and parts of India, and specializes in sound and mantra. Dru Yoga is incorporated into all of my classes. It’s an energy based yoga, and most every body can do it.

In 2001, after an entire summer in North Wales, UK, I took a job at Banyen Books, a local independent “metaphysical” bookstore where I eventually became a part-time floor manager. It was an excellent job and I loved working there.

In the early 2000’s, yoga (as an industry) began to really expand, too. In the bookstore we’d get a new yoga book, yoga video, or DVD arriving on a near daily basis. The section for yoga books eventually outgrew itself, from one small shelf of the classics, to into an entire room, dedicated to both traditional and western influenced yoga media. Banyen then moved locations to even bigger, permanent premises. We saw the yoga section expand, yet again. I worked part-time at the bookstore and then, I’d teach a few weekly yoga classes.

I watched the yoga industry (books, studios, and all) continued to grow. We saw the bookshelves buckle under full capacity for so many years.
Now in 2026, yoga is still flourishing but it’s a hard task to find funding for outreach wellness programming, even though we know the most vulnerable populations have had mostly positive outcomes with yoga + wellness programs in the past.

Thanks for reading along, so far.

I’ve also had a life long passion for music and singing. You might be familiar with the music from our community class but did you know that I produced that music myself? You can listen to more here.

That’s Part 2 of my story, coming soon.

We’re grateful to live and work on the unceded, ancestral territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil Waututh Nations.