Valentine Leonard, Ph.D

Yoga: The Good Life

It all started with philosophy. First, wonder, and then in its wake all the questions, or rather THE question: What is a Good life? A True life? I did a Ph.D to think about it, a thesis on creativity in thought. Halfway through, I came up against the pitfall of classical thought, that is, the body. The living, desiring, joyful, sweating, ailing, healing, aging, moving, and emotional body. This is how yoga arrived, an unexpected but obvious answer because it is both embodied and transcendent to THE question: What is the True life?

If we speak of True Life, is it because there is a “false” life: a life devastated by the struggle for domination and money, by ready-made ideas, by desensitized bodies and hearts? True Life is colorful, surprising, profound; it sometimes breaks our hearts because it pulsates in a body that breathes, that runs out of breath, that dreams, desires, feels and experiences.

Yoga teaches us to refine our sensory system to be more aware,

and to strengthen our nervous system to be more awake.

Then we can embrace life, activate our talents and creativity, no longer be a stowaway in our own body, marvel at the small and big things, know that we are connected to all that is, nourish ourselves with this vital impulse that propels evolution and gives us the means to accompany the formidable paradigm shift currently underway, towards a world more fair, harmonious and beautiful.

A dedicated yoga and meditation practitioner for 25 years, it is when I discovered Kundalini yoga 15 years ago that I decided to move up a gear. I trained in the United States and Europe with masters faithful to the oldest traditions but free from any dogmatism (Ravi Singh, Kirantana Kaur Khalsa, Satyavrati Yogi). Thanks to their teaching, my passion, and 25 years of experience as a teacher from college to kindergarten, I lead yoga teacher training courses, group and private classes, and international yoga + creative writing retreats (France, Mexico, USA, Costa Rica, etc.). Creating a group dynamic that reassures and inspires, connects and liberates, has become my specialty.