RACHAEL

As a passionate health and fitness professional with over 20 years’ experience across a range of disciplines, my work focuses on several key areas of challenge spanning both physical and mental health.

My aim in founding Lighten Up Fitness in 2006 was to create elevated self-care practices and experiences that uplift and enliven the body and mind. These draw on my many years of experience as a yoga teacher, personal trainer and mindfulness meditation facilitator.

I spent long periods travelling through Nepal and India. From my experiences there, I developed a firm belief in the mutual benefit of bridging the disciplines of yoga and mindfulness disciplines on one side with science - informed clinical practices on the other.

I have taken these practices into corporate environments working for Pinnacle Health Group within Westpac and St George banks and [independently] across the government sector.

I have conducted mindfulness, team building, personal training, yoga and meditation and outdoor adventure education with Illawarra Health, Calvary Hospital, mental health units, NFP community services and private sector providers.

I apply this experience on the premise that effective communication, physical challenges and story sharing lie at the heart of any mutually beneficial relationship, individual or organisational.

The key? Learning to value the present. To live wishing we could change the past or fixating on the future can strip the here-and-now of its joys. We can build on health and wellness by being more present in every daily activity. Eating, moving and living in the now allows us to be accountable and enjoy every small achievement in life.