Yoga Teachers Talking Yoga
Hello and welcome to the Yoga Teachers Talking Yoga podcast!
Our new second 6-part series of interviews is now out, where we again talk to yoga teachers both established and emerging.
We find out what got each of them into yoga, why they became teachers and got started, the styles of practice that interest them, who are their inspirations were and plans are for the future.
Yoga Teachers Talking Yoga
YTTY8: Muriel Devillierre - Shining Sea Yoga
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Welcome to the second series of Yoga Teachers Talking Teaching Yoga podcast!
Today my guest is Muriel Devillierre, founder of Shining Sea Yoga, bringing yoga for a cause and structured for kids, adults and families!
Muriel has a dancing background and combines her experience with discipline, alignment and playfulness to her classes.
Actually I met Muriel in 2021 during our year long diploma of yoga teaching course, that was offered by the now closed International Yoga Teachers Association or IYTA. Even then, Muriel was able to communicate her enjoyable yoga sequences with a certain lightness allowing an immediate connection from her students.
To date, her teaching has largely been with small groups, but is steadily growing offering intimate outdoor classes with a focus on making her yoga invigorate the soul. She also will start bringing Yoga to kids at after school care!
Note: References in the discussion to the IYTA relate to the International Yoga Teachers Association, a forerunner of yoga in Australia. For 57 years, they taught and supported yoga teachers across Australia. Sadly, the IYTA ceased its operations in 2022.
You can find more about Muriel’s new venture: at
If you’d like to express an interest in being a guest in our next series, we can be contacted on: infoytty@gmail.com
Further related content and bonus material will be posted on our Facebook page: Yoga Teachers Talking Yoga Podcast
Discussed links to the other threads in the yoga tapestry:
Hello, and welcome to the Yoga Teachers Talking Yoga podcast. Today, my guest is Muriel Devilliers, founder of Shining Sea Yoga, bringing yoga for a cause instructured for kids, adults, and families. Muriel has a dancing background and combines her experience with discipline, alignment, and playfulness to her classes. Actually, I met Muriel in 2021 during our year-long diploma of yoga teaching. It was offered by the now closed International Yoga Teachers Association or IYTA. And we'll talk a little bit about them in this interview today. Good afternoon, Muriel.
SPEAKER_02Good afternoon, Paul. Bonjour.
SPEAKER_00Bonjour. So let's start at the start and ask Muril what got her into yoga.
SPEAKER_02What got me into yoga? So there are two things, two phases. The first one was unconscious. I was dancing since I was three years old with a teacher. Her name was Anne-Marie Lemaitre, and very funny because Lemaitre in French means the teacher. So Anne-Marie the teacher, and I sat with her till I was 20. And there was something that we did with her, not only ballet, but also what she called a bar au sol, so bar on the floor. And we had mats. So we were on mats, we were lying down, we were listening to beautiful classical music like La Daggio by Albinoni. And the only instruction we had is just to listen to the music and relax. After that, we would do some sitting postures, some standing postures with funny animal names. And then we would go back to the mat and uh do some uh breathing exercises, and I remembered that I was very surprised to learn that we can breathe differently. The alternate nostril uh breathing, so that was not when I was three, of course, but it was when I was 13 or 14 maybe.
SPEAKER_00And uh dance class, yes, and while you're being coached, yeah.
SPEAKER_02So I think she was uh, as someone told me, maybe uh yogini in disguise because she was very open-minded and everything. She never mentioned the words yoga, but years later, when I was in uh yoga class, I had the realization that what we did as children and we all loved that class, that it was yoga, and she was uh bringing us uh to uh dance, to uh retirement villages, to hospitals, to many things like that. We were like a little community, and um yeah, so it was for me looking back, it was yoga, but I didn't know about it. And the second time is when I was pregnant with my first daughter, I was uh 35. I was still dancing at that time, four or five times a week. And I realized being pregnant, I went to the dance class to tell my teacher that I was pregnant. He said, Okay, so be careful, don't jump, and just do like what you feel you can do. And I was there and I realized that actually all the things that we were doing were not feeling good to me, uh especially being pregnant for the baby. So at the end of the class, I said to him, he was like I knew him since eight years, I said, you know what? I think I will take a break from dancing and I will do yoga instead. Because I knew prenatal yoga. I had seen a little place, a little studio in my neighborhood offering prenatal classes, and I thought that's what I'm gonna do. And he said, I think it's a wise uh decision. And then I started prenatal yoga, and I really loved it. Then when the baby was born, we did uh yoga mums and bubs, and that was very funny too, and I learned so many techniques, massage, and everything was really good. And then I started again dancing, but also practicing uh Hata Yoga for myself, and I did that for my second pregnancy too. So now it's been 19 years uh that I practiced yoga as an adult. And uh what got me into that, yes, it was as an adult, it was that I wanted to be physically active, I wanted to do something that was good for my well-being and especially for the baby. I thought that it was a good thing that I could uh offer to both of us.
SPEAKER_00Had you ever heard of prenasal yoga?
SPEAKER_02No, never.
SPEAKER_00So you just saw it nearby, yes, and something within you said stop dancing and go and do that.
SPEAKER_02Yes, and also that little studio, I must say, because I saw it from the other side of the street, and it was at a corner, it was all pink, and it was Uma, U M-A, you know, that beautiful name, Uma. And then there were some greeneries, there was like a little cafe, so I went there and I saw prenatal yoga, and then I thought, oh, when I'm pregnant, I'll do that, and that's what I did. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00I think I remember you and I talking during the course. I'm just going back to the retreat. Did the retreat I was talking about you about listening to the voice within. I think we're talking about that. Um, and so that's an example of that, isn't it? Where you know there's something that needs to happen. Exactly. How does it happen? Yes. So go inside and listen to the voice.
SPEAKER_02Listen to the voice. And I must say, I'm I'm passionate for dance. So for me, it was really to say, no, I stop uh dance. It was really that the voice inside was strong. No, it's not good for you and the baby. Do something else.
SPEAKER_00Was there any connection in the movement to yoga postures that we were taught and that you practice?
SPEAKER_02Uh with dancing, yes, there are. There are there are lots of them. Uh like the goddess pose, like uh the warrior when you go, you know, the flow, that kind of things. Um even the tadasana, just tadasana, you know, being present, standing, and that is already away energy coming up. Exactly. You feel the energy coming up, and the presence, you know, the person is really there in the present moment. So yeah.
SPEAKER_00Immersed in that has to be so now, doesn't it? You're you're in the now you're complete. If your mind wanders, something goes wrong, or something goes on the wrong end.
SPEAKER_02You're listening to the music, you're counting the music, and then you know the choreography, and uh then you're playing also because emotions and everything, so you have to be very present.
SPEAKER_00It's amazing um the way you come to yoga, it's almost been flipped under the mat to you.
SPEAKER_02I know, I know. That's what now that's how I feel, and I have to tell you a very funny story is that I was a lawyer back in France, and uh at some point I was uh yeah at my desk thinking, what am I doing here? Uh it's not what I want to do. And uh I asked if I could do like um it's called Bilan de Competence, which is like uh somebody um asserting your skills so that you can change jobs. And that lady who did uh for me, who was my coach, she asked me if you had a magic wand, what would you be? And my first answer was a music conductor. I don't know why. And then the second wand was yoga teacher, and then she asked me, Do you do yoga? So you do yoga? I said no, but it was just like this, you know. At that time I was dancing, I had not done uh yoga as an adult and didn't know anything about yoga, but I said yoga teacher, why?
SPEAKER_00Wow, why, yeah, yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER_02She was very surprised, a bit taken aback. Okay, you want to be a yoga teacher, but you don't do yoga. But yeah, that was my answer.
SPEAKER_00And what what was understood or known about yoga in those days in that location? Was it a bit of hippies, you know, exactly?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that was I think that was what was behind a bit uh, you know, hoo-hoo, and uh yeah.
SPEAKER_00This notion of uh the everyday yogi that we've now come to be more aware of and more comfortable and accepting in the way we can live our lives day to day, yeah. Um and and bringing the limbs of yoga, the yamas and yamas, particularly, um, before you even get on a mat. Yes. You're doing yoga.
SPEAKER_02Yes, exactly. I like I like to remind myself uh of that. There was a time not long ago where I was very sick and I didn't practice uh asanas, prayanama, and meditation like I'm used to. And I was a bit like, oh, I'm not practicing. But then I said to myself, well, I'm practicing actually because I'm being kind with other people, I'm being kind with myself, I'm not stealing from anybody, and you know, all the yamas and yamas. I thought, actually, I'm practicing yoga.
SPEAKER_00And often I've looked part of practice.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, unfortunately, um, my teacher died last year, and I never got to see her again. Uh, I'm in contact with her son, and uh but yeah, so she was very, very important for me. She was like a second mother, and uh and what she gave us, now it was such a gift, such a gift.
SPEAKER_00She started you on your way. Yeah, and then when someone asked you, what do you want to be? Yoga teacher came out of your mouth. Yeah, and then here you are. The posters we got taught, the vinyasa and the flow, and the sequences. Muriel does beautiful sequences, I have to say. I remember remember those little uh little five-minute offerings, the closing, the openings, and then the little practices. I always thought you had quite creative um add-ons and little bits and things. Maybe they came from dads, maybe threw that a bit in.
SPEAKER_02Thank you so much. Yeah, yeah, I know it was it was really good to do it. Yeah, I'm still dancing. You're still dancing. Yes, I just have changed. I'm not doing modern, I'm doing a bit of uh theatrical jazz, and otherwise, I'm doing like uh Zumba, salsa, Bollywood. I danced Bollywood last week with the the people from the Asha Association, and uh and I had so much fun, it was so beautiful.
SPEAKER_00So the modern Indian Bollywood, or as well, maybe the more what's the word, uh traditional traditional.
SPEAKER_02I think it was more traditional, and because uh yes, the people are older, uh it's mainly uh older people, and uh and yeah, I loved it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, um and you're not the first of my guests to sit here who's had IYTA training or taught with ITO IYTA that was taught.
SPEAKER_02I remember calling them before going to the information uh session and asking them if they do uh physical adjustments, and they said no, and I was so relieved and as new that it was the uh teacher training that I wanted to do.
SPEAKER_00Just explain physical adjustments. What did you mean by that?
SPEAKER_02So you have you know, when if you uh have a student in a posture and you want uh to make it more safe, for example, you have different uh way ways that you can do it. You can say it verbally to the people, just go a little bit further or something like that, then uh you can show it on your body, so demonstrate demonstrate, and the third one is physical adjustments where you touch a person, and I had very bad experiences with physical adjustments uh that left me injured. So for me, it was very, very important that no physical adjustments, and that's how I teach too. I don't touch um people's body, and I think since COVID, nevertheless, not many teachers do that anymore.
SPEAKER_00Uh yeah, COVID changed a lot of things, yeah. And perhaps that's part that's one of them, yeah. It does come down to personal choice, exactly.
SPEAKER_02Personal choice, yeah.
SPEAKER_00But the way Muriel teaches, she doesn't do that. No, you don't do that, yeah.
SPEAKER_02I don't do that. Um demonstrate a lot and I I give verbal cues, but um I don't touch you. You never know what the person has experienced in her life, and uh even a light touch, you know, for somebody who has had trauma or abuse or things like that, that can be enough to trigger. So I'm very uh very cautious with that.
SPEAKER_00So you you've had some issues, you had your time with illness and sickness, and it was mental health.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I was very sick, I had to take lots of medication, uh which effects were to sedate me heavily, and uh now I'm stable, I'm good, uh, I've reduced the medication and everything.
SPEAKER_00Coming through that the yoga was something you were able to you went straight back to it, but was it something that helped you get through?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, definitely. Uh the thing is that I was asked to teach again by a friend, and I thought uh I can only do it if I have my personal practice up, and then I started to go back on the mat, and then I started to teach again.
SPEAKER_00So, what do you find most rewarding about teaching?
SPEAKER_02I think just I love the connection with people, and what I really love is when you see them after the practice in Shavasana, and you see them really relaxing, and you've seen them when they arrived, you know, maybe a bit rushed, a little bit like that, and then when they are in Shavasana, they seem to be so relaxed and uh happy, and I like I like to see that. I hope they feel better after the class uh than when they came. Sure they do. Yes, so um that's the the most rewarding thing, I think.
SPEAKER_00You see the transformation, yeah, and you know you've had something to do with that.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I mean the yoga that we that we are teaching, what we have been learning and what we are passing on, you know, I really believe it for me it had had so many benefits on so many levels in my life that uh I wanted to share it with other people and see if they can benefit from it too, because I'm certainly more happy, feeling better. Um you know the challenges of life, the ups and downs. I'm better equipped, I think, to uh how is that to resilient people building resilience to cope, exactly? That's what I was looking for. Thank you to cope with the ups and downs and uh clearer mind uh mind. Um when the mind is clear, creativity flows, and I love that because it's exactly what happened to me. I'm so much more creative now, or maybe I was creative before, but I couldn't express it. It was blocked, it was blocked, and I think now it really flows, and I'm amazed at that too. So the changes, uh I mean, 20 years of yoga plus all the years I've done as a child without knowing it, and I'm thinking yes, it really has a wonderful effect.
SPEAKER_00Connecting with people got you through it too, because as you said, uh your friend came back and said, I'd like you to teach. So your connections, yeah, the connections didn't desert you, they didn't leave you, they came back when you were ready.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I'm very grateful to that friend. I mean, yeah, she she was really the the starter of going back. Probably I had that insight that I wanted to go back teaching. I had that, but I didn't know exactly how, when, and with her it was just simple. We did it outdoor, so easy. I love the outdoor, and I know lots of people tell me, Oh, I don't like it because there are ants coming or mosquitoes or things like that. But um depending on the time. Yes, depending on the time. But my own practice, I do it in the morning outdoor in the garden. If the weather is not good enough, then I'd be inside. But I really prefer outdoor. Why? Because the air is so much better than inside, the the cool air, the pure air, and uh I love the connection with the nature. So when you say uh raise your arms up to the sky, it's actually the sky. You are doing, and you see the sky, you see the clouds, you see the sun. When you're going down to the earth, your feet are really uh they're on the mat. Sometimes I don't use a mat, sometimes, depending. Uh, but you're really connected uh to the earth. The earth is there, and um, and I don't know, I've always loved that.
SPEAKER_00So preparing for this session today, you mentioned playfulness a couple of times, yeah. And so that's an aspect you like to bring to your classes. Yes, and if you're doing kids' yoga, that's a big part of it. That's a big part of it.
SPEAKER_02Yes, yes. You can weave uh all the yoga poses uh within uh travel that you're doing, and because of the names, you know, the animals and everything, it's very um evocative and the imagination. Uh in my classes, I always invite people to visualize things uh or to imagine things and uh lots of people like it. I think adults tend to be to take sometimes things too seriously, and my dance teacher, one of my dance teachers, Mikael, was always saying we are doing serious things, but we don't take ourselves too serious. You can play around and everything and it's fine, and that's also in life. You can try something, maybe it won't work, but you have tried and you have learned something. So for me it's a bit the same, yeah.
SPEAKER_00And continuing to practice it, you'll rewire your brain to be able to do it, and and you get a lot more from it when you take on something difficult, don't you?
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00In your practice and your experience in yoga, who inspired Muriel?
SPEAKER_02I think when I first started yoga, it was only physical and I didn't know about the philosophy except yeah that it was coming from India, but I didn't know nothing. And uh I did a course uh called Deepen Your Experience, and it was uh one-year uh studies about uh the philosophy and uh the lineages and all this kind of stuff. And uh I think I'm thankful for uh Krishna Macharia to have been, they call him I think the father of modern yoga, to have passed on to students that came to the West and that uh yes allowed us to know about yoga here. And who is that?
SPEAKER_00Sorry?
SPEAKER_02Krishna Machary Macharia? Yeah, yeah. Yes, we I don't know if I pronounce it well. It sounded pretty good, but it was very interesting because during my studies we spoke of Krishna Macharia, of course Patanjali and the Yoga Sutras, and uh we spoke about uh Patavi Joyce and uh um Yangar. Um and I discovered that actually Indra Devi was also a student of Krishna Macharya, and she was studying at the same time with the two others, except that nowadays do Know many people who know about Indra Devi?
SPEAKER_01No.
SPEAKER_02No. But do you know many people knowing about Patabi Joyce and Ayanga? Yes. So that was my first uh thing, you know, these men, okay, with their lineage, we know Ashtanga yoga, we know Ayanga Yoga. Indra Devi did also Hata Yoga apparently, but it's not so well known. And then I realized that um I tend to be very interested in what women uh contributed to yoga. So at the moment I'm reading uh her biography. Somebody also told me about Mira Alfasa, um, the founder of uh Oroville in India, and she was French, so that's how it came because the person knew I was doing yoga was French and they told me about Mira Alphasa, and then I discovered that she founded that uh Oroville, that uh town for the universal town for the unity of humanity. So I was very interested in that too. And then one of the teachers that uh inspired me uh is Donna Fari. When I arrived here uh at the beginning, I went to the Stanton Library and I borrowed some books on what I liked in English to perfect my English to, and one of these books was one by Donna Fari, uh bringing uh yoga into life or something like that. And I read it and it really um appealed to me. And also when I I watched some of her videos, and yes, there was one uh about uh pain um in the sacroiliac joint uh area, and for me it was really really painful, and I discovered that actually many practitioners have that issue at some point. And what she gave us, she gave uh some advice uh in the video that was so helpful for me. So uh I know that she's in New Zealand, I have never been to New Zealand. I would love to go to New Zealand and meet her and do some uh some yoga with her, and uh through her, I discovered um other uh female practitioners like um Angela Farmer, and uh interestingly, she was the one who invented the um yoga mat. Oh really? Yeah, so Angela Farmer and uh invented the yoga mat. Yes, the the one that we know, yeah, like you know the the spongy thing. Okay, so that was her um in the 60s apparently, and uh um I read also about uh other female teachers uh that were first um Ayanga teachers, which means they had been with uh because Ayanger and they had done teaching and they had then left uh the Ayanga teaching to do something else that resonated better with them. And I think that's what I'm looking uh up to is that I have done, I mean, I have done mainly Hata Yoga, but I did five years of Ashtanga yoga, I did um maybe 18 months of Ayanga yoga, so and I'm back teaching uh Hata Yoga, that's the the yoga that um that appeals, that resonates the most with uh with my heart. But I'm very yes, very curious about um this uh women. And there's a movie, the documentary called The Yoga Woman I told you about. I saw it uh five years ago and I really really loved it. And um yeah, I think it's very inspirational, and um yeah, so something I'm reading again a lot, and mainly about these women that have done uh something else also with their yoga.
SPEAKER_00Such a strength of this whole format is I I I've never I've not asked that question and not learned something.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, exactly. That's what I love. You always learn something.
SPEAKER_00I just learned lots from you just then, and I'm going to go and look it all up too.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, because it's very interesting, it's just everybody we we all are different and we're all looking for different things, and then when we come together, oh I have seen that. Oh yeah, okay, and then and then another person, and that and that, and then you create uh beautiful uh collective um knowledge.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, we should we should come back and have a separate conversation on talking about that impact because it doesn't get a lot of air time. Yeah, collect all these stories in a sense what this is all about, this session today, this ongoing project of mine.
SPEAKER_02That's why when you told me about your project and everything, I thought, wow, yes straight away. Straight away I said yes, and I think it's such a beautiful project. I love it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so we've got that uh curiosity in common, we've got that interest in yoga and people's stories.
SPEAKER_02Yes, exactly.
SPEAKER_00So I think it's uh very you've got your um got your school in place, you've got the after school coming up with the kids. What else is happening with Muriel coming in the near future?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, so I have another project, it's a personal project, it's called Encounters and Stories, and it's a project that I have since uh four years. Uh it's about the people I have met uh in the last 10 years that I live in Sydney, in Australia, and uh sharing stories uh because as we said, I think that when you share stories, um it's very helpful. It can bring uh joy, it can bring help, it can do some, it's it benefits everybody, I think. And so I invite the people that I have met uh to share a story with me and the world. So I'm collecting the stories, and then I make sure that they will be visible. So we'll do a book, and I hope the book will be published. We'll see. It's uh gonna be a podcast and uh YouTube videos, mini mini sequences, so and stories, and I'm very excited by that. I've started to collect some of the stories, and I'm just like so amazed at what uh at all this uh knowledge that we all have and that we can share together, help uh each other, and uh yeah, so it's everything comes back to people. So people, connection, connection, story, sharing, making the world a bit better, you know, to share.
SPEAKER_00And so you've got a website.
SPEAKER_02So the website is um is in place, but uh we have to do some fake things that when people um tap uh shining sea yoga, they come directly to the to the site, and my daughter she helped me so much. Uh so yes, we we do that, and um yeah, I guess I have an Instagram that's people, yeah. It's my first name dot uh devilier my last name, so Facebook the same.
SPEAKER_00Facebook, uh it's worth finding and worth getting involved with in terms of a couple of things. So there's yoga classes, maybe they've got kids that like to do some yoga um after school, and then also these other projects you've got in mind.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Muriel, it's been an absolute pleasure to talk to you this morning.
SPEAKER_02Thank you so much, buddy. What's so good?
SPEAKER_00So much for being a guest on my Yoga Teachers Talking Yoga podcast.
SPEAKER_02Uh thank you. Thank you, thank you.
SPEAKER_00We hope you enjoyed hearing about Muriel's yoga journey from modern dance to modern yogi and wish her all the very best with Shining Sea Yoga and her other projects. Our next interview will be with midwife and yoga teacher B Chan, bringing the value of yoga and karmas to pregnant women. We look forward to seeing you then. Muriel touched on some of her mental health issues during today's chat, and here's a little bit more on that and how yoga helped her overcome those issues.
SPEAKER_02My yoga again, my energy, my vitality, everything went uh up again. So very interesting.
SPEAKER_00Back to where it was, better than that.
SPEAKER_02Even yeah, certainly back to where it was, but maybe even better because when you have been, you know, in such a dark place where I was, you just um apprehend life uh another way too, and you're more grateful for so many things and for yoga too. So, and actually, I have uh in my mind to offer one day uh yoga um to the mental health uh cares because we used to have some people coming to sing, we used to have people coming to uh paint and be active and everything, and uh we used to do uh walks also when we were old, and I think yoga has definitely a place there in the hospital, and um yeah, it's something that I have in my mind, and um I might uh ask one day if it's possible. Who knows? Absolutely, yeah.