My name is Allegra. I grew up in New York City and Litchfield, Connecticut. From a young age, I was exposed to meditation, yoga and spiritual practices. I come from a family of meditators and meditation teachers, including my grandmother who was one of the first western followers of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, starting his first American meditation school on the family farm in Connecticut in the 1970s.

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I have over twenty years' experience with Yoga, wellness and healing. My journey began as a student in boarding school, when Yoga and Pilates classes were crucial to my well-being in an otherwise stressful environment.

 

There was a bit of paradox in my upbringing because although I had been exposed to a gentler way of living -- meditation, Montessori communities, Nature time,  health food --  I was also raised in a strongly competitive, alpha New York environment of overachievers, Uptight cocktail parties where grownups asked each other "What do you do?" and for teens, the slightly milder "What are you up to this summer?" -- code for "Where are you interning or working to advance yourself?" I was not a natural fit in this world in many ways, but did appreciate the quality of the education.

 

When I was 19 years old and a student at Middlebury College, I delved further into spiritual practices when I had a visit with Mata Amritanandamayi Devi, known as Amma. At age 20 I took initiation and received a mantra from Amma. That same year I also received mantra instruction in Gururaj's lineage from my aunt Roopa Morosani.

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After graduating from Middlebury College with a degree in the History of Art in 2008, I entered the working world during the crash and found myself working in advertising. I spent 4 years in marketing during the beginning of the recession, a time in which the marketing industry was facing stark cuts after a decade of bling and corporate bloat. I survived viscous rounds of layoffs and managed to climb from Assistant Account Executive to Account Executive to Brand Strategist, with clients like Target, Wrigley, Samsung, IKEA, McDonald's, State Farm and Johnson & Johnson, all within a few years.

 

This took its toll on my physical and emotional body, including weight gain from the sedentary lifestyle, late nights out, wine for dinner, and non-optimal diet. In four years I took only a handful of vacation days. The one saving grace during this period is that I deepened my study of Iyengar Yoga. I also found myself guiding impromptu meditation sessions, at the request of my colleagues, in our corporate boardroom above Times Square.

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I used to wake up in the middle of the night with anxiety attacks about hating my lifestyle, and wondering what life would be like if I would "just" go be a yoga teacher living an organic lifestyle in nature. I even had unsolicited "readings" from the heads of the ad agency I worked for: executive creative director Jason Peterson who told me I should be a yoga teacher, and CEO Steve Stoute who told me I should be an astrologer, because of my voice and vibe.

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I wanted a different life... but how? I was living in Hell's Kitchen and spending my days in Time's Square. But fate had a different idea in store for me... a series of events in the summer of 2011 had me in corporate New York in May and backpacking in India in November, with stints in the South Bronx and Madrid in between.
 

My trip to India what was supposed to be a few months of tourism and Yoga, and ended up turning into a new life for me. I spent two months backpacking solo around South India, armed with a very outdated Lonely Planet and a sense of adventure, before meeting my partner Jason on Kudle Beach in Gokarna, Karnataka. For the next 5 years, I spent most of my time in India and Asia.

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Through Jason I met my Dharma teacher Da Dennis Trisker. From 2012 until Dennis's death in 2017, I spent a lot of time with Dennis both as a student and as a friend. Dennis was a mystic and a mind investigator and a meditation teacher who was a bit Zen Buddhist and a bit Krishnamurti. He taught a sitting practice akin to Zen sitting which he called "choiceless awareness," borrowing a term from Krishnamurti. He was an enlightened being and also a very ordinary person. I learned a lot from him when he was officially teaching meditation (Dennis had encyclopedic knowledge of all things religious and esoteric) but also living with him, chatting for hours about old loves and our families and the Indian village gossip and the plot of paperback novels. What Dennis imparted, and transmitted, through all of this was a sense of Being.

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In my time in India I was also lucky to receive initiation into Kriya Yoga from His Holiness Swami Shankarananda Giri, in a private initiation ceremony. I also received guidance and mentorship from Basu Aryavrat, founder of Kriya Dharma.

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I also spent time studying the Advaita Vedanta and attended Satsangs with Mooji in Portugal and India. I no longer consider myself a follower of Mooji's or any other neo-Advaita teacher, (the scene got a bit worshippy, and then there was all this) but still honor my immersion into the 'seeking scene'.

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One of the most rewarding facets of my time in India was setting up a Reiki School with my partner Jason, a Reiki Master Teacher. This was mostly from a rooftop teaching space in Dharamsala. For 3 seasons we ran courses in Reiki with many successful level 1 and 2 students and also a handful of level 3 and Master students. We have ceased to teach Reiki for now, and are working on how to bring it back to life via an online course. I now enjoy Reiki as a self-healing tool.  ADD HH DALAI LAMA MOMENT AND PIC

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In 2017 I became a mother, and navigated healing from an emergency Cesarion Section. Motherhood has opened up doors of love and patience in me, and connected me with my own brave strong Mamma Bear voice. I have delved into the study of holistic remedies in order to treat my son's small ailments. I have learned massively about myself and had a mirror to show me my own Inner Child wounds. And most importantly, motherhood has been a continuous practice of Metta (loving kindness) and Mindfulness.

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In recent years I have been practicing Qi Gong and exploring Chinese Medicine. I find the flowing movements invite me to practice, in an organic impromptu way throughout my day. I especially enjoy the Taoist practices of Inner Smile and of course Laughter Practice and am happily deepening my study and practice of these techniques in my own life. In 2022 I had the honor of meeting Master Mantak Chia at his resort Tao Garden, in Thailand. His blessing and presence were much appreciated and I look forward to further study in his lineage.

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Since 2020 I have been sharing teachings on Laughter Yoga online as part of my own practice to bring myself out of a lockdown-induced depression. I am grateful to be in a different space mentally than I was during the strict British lockdown, away from family and close friends. I credit Laughter with helping me reignite my soul's spark and find my inner joy.

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It's a blessing to be able to share these life-changing practices with others. Please send me a message or book a session if you would like to know more.

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