MY STORY:

"My interest in our bodies and their ongoing health, happiness and longevity has found me more than I sought to study it. When I was 6, my father, George Borg-Olivier, taught me breath retention for underwater swimming. My father taught me how to swim a lap of an Olympic pool underwater before I could swim on the surface. My passion for controlling my breathing muscles while breathing as little as possible became something I have done my whole life.

When I was 8, a close family friend, Basil Brown (an Olympic athlete), taught me to move and massage my internal organs using my breathing muscles. I loved this and continued these practises, unaware I was doing Indian Yoga Kriyas and bandhas (internal locks). At 17, I met a Tibetan lama who, over one year, introduced me to the philosophy and practice of tantric yoga.

In 1980, when I was 20, I developed painful shin splints while fully embracing the aerobics and modern fitness movement. A girl doing aerobics with me showed me a yoga 'stretch' that immensely helped relieve my pain. So, after a few years of yoga training and completing an intensive Japanese teacher-training course, my teachers asked me to teach.

Over the years, I studied personally in India with Sri B.K.S Iyengar, Sri K. Pattabhi Jois, and Sri T.K.V Desikachar. In 1985, I met Natanaga Zhander (Shandor Remete) and studied intensively with him for about 15 years.

From 1978 to 1997, I completed three biology, molecular biology, and physiotherapy degrees at Sydney University. I felt the need to know more about humans if I were to take responsibility for the bodies of others. I also lectured and conducted extensive research at Sydney University during this period.

Since 2000, I've continued my physical training, first with Grandmaster William Chueng. Then, from 2007 till the present, I trained and co-taught with Master Zhen Hua Yang, whose family is the last of the lineage of the bodyguards of the Emporer of China.

In 2007, I developed and lectured in courses on the applied anatomy and physiology of India and China's traditional posture, movement, and breathing at RMIT University.

In 2022, I received a grant to continue researching traditional posture, movement, and breathing related to mental control for health, happiness, and longevity.

Since 1990, I have been sharing the knowledge I have gratefully received from my great teachers and from my research at conferences, workshops and intensive training worldwide."