EARLY YEARS
Ana-Karyn Garcia was born in Cartagena, Colombia on July 18, 1958. At an early age her parents, school teachers, and social circles identified her as a non-conforming mind. Born to a catholic family, she was raised on military bases throughout South America. The best way to describe our teacher is as a lover of life: “I am so deeply enthusiastic with life that I cannot denounce it. I am here to enhance the feeling for it.”

SCHOOL AND UNIVERSITY
Soon after graduating from high school, Ana-Karyn enters the INCCA University in Bogotá to study psychology and human sciences under the communist approach. She continues her studies in the Catholic University in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil completing Art Therapy. Her fieldwork takes her to live in Belem do Para in the Amazon forest, where she is exposed to native healing and shamanism for two and half years. During this time, she creates a 200-page dictionary from Xingu to Spanish.

ANA-KARYN AS AN ARTIST
During her studies in psychology, Ana-Karyn initiates herself into the arts and she begins to produce and exhibit her artworks starting in 1980. Her writings and unique insight about human nature and art open the door for her to teach in the faculty of arts in the Cartagena Art School in 1982. Her articles begin to create a dynamic impact in various newspapers in Colombia and Canada.
Over the last 25 years, her artwork has been exhibited in both national and international galleries. Brazil, Spain, Korea, Japan, Colombia and Canada have all hosted her creative work. She has won numerous art awards, grants and has also received media highlights. She does public speaking engagements and workshops at diverse centres, schools and galleries, bringing together the self-spontaneous expressions as a healing method.

“Art is a facilitator, a bridge between technology and prayerfulness, it is an inner celebration of freedom; it is a medium to transform talking into an inner creative phenomenon. Art is not there to explain something or to make you understand, it is to bring forward a silence that creates a certain quality within your being."

Ana-Karyn has practiced the arts for the last 30 years. She is recognize nationally and internationally as a pioneer of using the arts as a transformative element in the human consciousness.

Learn more about her artwork, published books, and art teachings at www.anakaryn.ca

AS AN EMIGRANT IN CANADA
She arrived in Canada in 1981 where she studied English and taught Spanish. These experiences offered her insights into the dimension of human communication and psychology of language.

“We don’t know how powerful our words are, or how we can debilitate our core with meaningless talk. Words shape the resonance and manifestation of our being."

INTERFAITH AND PATHWORK PERIOD
Beginning in 1982 Ana-Karyn receives teachings from Sufi teacher Rev. Tazmin Hermila Fernanadez from Mexico and Neil Douglas Klotz of England, exposing her to Middle Eastern mystic traditions and different interfaith practices. She simultaneously completes ten years of studies with the guide Eva Pierrakos and the Pathworks of New York.

GESTALT AND HERBOLOGY TRAINING
The Synergy Center in Aylmer, Québec welcomed her in 1991 to complete a 2-year program in Gestalt Therapy. Ana-Karyn complements the Gestalt studies with herbology and homeopathy. The teacher Mercedes Tellez inspires her to deepen her knowledge in the green world. Her continuous retreats in nature and her interest in gardening begin to draw Ana-Karyn to meditation.

“Nature has all the wisdom. When our behavior, speech, and mind move away from her, our self-connection gets debilitated, we become sick and separate from our true nature."

HER VEDIC AND YOGA TRAINING
In 1996, Ana-Karyn graduated as a Kundalini Yoga Teacher (as taught by Yogi Bhajan). The exposure to the philosophy of the east gives her an inspiration to found in 1997 the Bioenergetics Institute where she teaches more than a 1,500 hours a year to individuals and groups around the world.

“My best studies are in the field of life: traveling through different countries and meeting teachers that challenge my falsities and neurosis. This is the best educational gift I have received. The education towards inner freedom is the true university. My vision for The Bioenergetics Institute is to teach students to awaken their inner knowledge and to apply it to their life."

She retreats in Rishikesh at the feet of the Himalayas. Recently she has completed the 3HO Self-Mastery Certification in Anandpur Sahib in India and continues training.

OTHER TEACHERS AND CLUB YOGA
Her yoga practice and the influences of Vedic teachers from India (namely Sri Sri Ravi Shankar of the Art of Living, Ammachi of Kerala, Swami Veda of the Himalayan Institute, Swami Vishwananda from the Island of Mauritious) grant her the blessings and the stamina to disperse theirs teachings not only in programs geared to adults, but also programs for children and families. In 2000, she founded Club Yoga (learn more about teacher training at www.clubyoga.ca).

“I see how social structure mutilates all our innate potentials with doctrines and dogmas. We don’t have a real inner freedom. As we grow older we become stiff, more serious, more neurotic, more removed from the joy of life. Really, society should be the playground where we grow our own uniqueness."

EVOLUTION
From 2002 until 2007, Ana-Karyn published a magazine called “Evolution: the path to higher thinking”. Its pages are dedicated to disperse the Vedic knowledge, inspire a natural lifestyle and support students in their self-understanding and growth.

FOUNDER OF THE CENTRE FOR THE LIVING ARTS
Her experience in the field of art gave her the inspiration and authority to establish the Centre for the Living Arts between 2005 until 2008. A space dedicated to educate, elevate and rehabilitate human consciousness through the arts and yoga courses.

All activities at the Centre were geared towards inviting all to explore their inner passions. Through a variety of multimedia courses and workshops, the centre built emotional intelligence and supplied people with simple techniques to make their everyday life a continuous activation of the self.

ANA-KARYN AS AN INTERNATIONAL TEACHER
Ana-Karyn is an author, an artist, a householder, a mother of two teenage boys and a teacher. She inspires students from different cultures and backgrounds to achieve balance in their life in an effortless way. The innocence and simplicity in her teachings make the transformation light and efficient. The dispersal of her teachings around the world took form of the Ana-Karyn Foundation between 2005 and 2007.

“My only philosophy is to bring people to the beauty of the present moment, to make them more united so the joy, the celebration, and the gratitude can emerge from the individual source as a natural expression of life.

I am qualified by what God is able to do through me, by the integrity, love and patience of my actions towards others, and by the quality of the teachings."