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july 2017yogajournal.com.auPhil Goodwin reflects on an incredible adventure as BodyMindLife
celebrates the philosophies of yoga and a milestone birthday.
candles
FIFTEEN
Walking into the studios of
Sydney’s BodyMindLife, you’d
be forgiven for assuming that
it was the creation of another
businessman turned yogi. But
the studio’s down-to-earth
founder, Phil Goodwin, doesn’t
fit a typical corporate description,
despite being a former banker.
Phil is a perfect example of a yogi
living their dharma, transforming
the lives of city yogis for more
than 15 years through his
passionate work in the creation
and evolution of BML.AYJ What did your journey from banker to
yogi look like?
PHIL Type A banking to Type A yoga –
Bikram! The catalyst for an exit from the
banking world came when I was 27 and my
father passed away. For the first time I
understood that I was not invincible and
the concept of mortality caused me to begin
vocalising the big questions in life. Who amI, what is this all about, why am I here?
Within two years banking was done, and
within four years BodyMindLife (then a
Bikram studio) was born.
From banking to yoga, life at one level
was not a big jump when looking back,
as my work environment had always been
highly pressurised and intense. Leaping
into a practice like Bikram, which is also
intense, worked really well for me and it
was like fighting stress with intensity,
which I have since realised does not really
work. What I actually needed was more
Yin-style practices. However, if I had
started my practice with Yin, I probably
would not have continued.
A pre-eminent thought for me was that
I considered myself a non-yoga person and
therefore a pretty tough nut to crack.
As I moved through my practice and
increased my knowledge, I really
understood that if this practice could
change me, it could change anyone. That
thought has become part of BodyMindLife:
literally, yoga can support everyone. One of
the philosophies at BodyMindLife is to
“meet people where they are at”. For me
(and for a lot of people) that was the entry
point into yoga.
For transformation to occur the desireto change must be greater than any
resistances that arise. For me, there was a
yearning to teach but also a great fear to
start. But, by 2004, the desire to teach had
become greater than the fear, so with some
healthy encouragement from my teachers, I
journeyed to LA and did the gruelling
Bikram Yoga certificate and then quickly
followed with Baron Baptiste’s training, as
BodyMindLife evolved from a Bikram to a
dynamic Vinyasa studio.AYJ How has this journey influenced your own
personal philosophies and the evolution of
BML?
PHIL Banking was fulfilling on a number of
levels, but not every level. Running a yoga
enterprise, teaching yoga, interacting with
students and discovering myself has been
extremely fulfilling. It’s the knowledge that
we are contributing in a positive way to the
lives of people who come through our doors
that really motivates me. We did not
embark upon the journey of yoga to make a
fortune; we have been blessed with making
it a success but we are doing this to make a
difference. As a team of teachers, we are all
on our individual roads of discovery, but
we are on this journey together and
BodyMindLife is the platform where weMAN
Om