ABOUT LAKSHMI RISING

FOLLOWING MY OWN PATH

My Journey into Yoga and Self-Discovery

Lakshmi Rising Yoga & Wellness was born in 2014—the culmination of years of exploration, devotion, and trust in the process.

My name is Liz Lindh, founder and director of Lakshmi Rising. I grew up in Newport, Rhode Island, a small island in southern New England. While my upbringing was rooted in a conventional middle-class American environment, I never quite felt at home within those structures.

From an early age, I questioned what I was taught—by family, school, and culture. I felt drawn to explore life in a more self-directed way, guided by curiosity rather than conformity.

That search eventually led me to yoga.

Yoga philosophy offered a framework that resonated deeply—one that supported inquiry, self-awareness, and a more expansive way of understanding life. It didn’t ask me to fit in; it invited me to look within.

What began as a personal path of inquiry has since evolved into a lifetime of study, teaching, and the creation of Lakshmi Rising.

WHERE IT ALL BEGAN

My Introduction to Yoga and the Healing Arts

I found my way to my first yoga class through a bulletin board at a small food co-op north of Seattle. Once a week, I traveled to a studio tucked deep in the woods on the land of SunRay Kelley, a celebrated natural builder. His wife Judy taught the classes.

The space itself was unforgettable, a cob structure made of earth, sand, and straw, with curved walls, skylights, and a warm wooden floor. It felt alive.

From the very beginning, I knew I wanted to become a yoga teacher.

I also understood something essential: place matters. Environment shapes experience. This insight has stayed with me and continues to inform every Lakshmi Rising training and retreat.

Around this same time, I began exploring other healing modalities—meditation, Gabrielle Roth’s 5Rhythms, qi gong, acupuncture, herbal medicine, Ayurveda, and energy work. This was the mid-1990s, long before these practices became mainstream.

Each modality expanded my understanding of the body, the mind, and the subtle layers of experience. Together, they shaped the foundation of what would eventually become Lakshmi Rising: an immersive approach to yoga education rooted in holistic living, personal transformation, and conscious community

A PATH OF STUDY AND DEVOTION

Yoga Teacher Training , Traditional Medicine, and India

My studies deepened through both formal training and lived experience.

In 2000, I completed my first 200-hour yoga teacher training at the Omega Institute with Don and Amba Stapleton. From there, I began teaching, assisting in trainings, and continuing my studies.

In 2006, I earned my Master’s degree in Traditional Chinese Medicine from the East West College of Natural Medicine—expanding my understanding of the body, health, and holistic care.

Soon after, I traveled to India—a pilgrimage that profoundly reshaped my relationship to yoga.

I hiked Arunachala, received Ayurvedic treatments in Kerala, volunteered as an English teacher, and studied at the Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram under T.K.V. Desikachar.

Through this experience, I came to understand that yoga is not simply a physical practice or a modern wellness trend. It is a living tradition with depth, history, and cultural context—one that calls for respect, study, and thoughtful integration.

FROM STUDENT TO TEACHER

Developing The Immersive Training Model

For years, I worked as an Acupuncture Physician, offering integrative medicine while teaching yoga, Pilates, and meditation.

Eventually, I was invited to lead a 200-hour yoga teacher training at a local studio. Over the course of three years, I developed and taught a 10-month program.

Through this experience, I began to recognize the limitations of weekend-based trainings. Transformation requires immersion—time, space, continuity, and the opportunity to live the practice in daily life.

This realization became the foundation for the immersive training model we offer today.

A LIFE AND PARTNERSHIP IN COSTA RICA

Building a Retreat Center, Family, and Shared Vision

In 2013, I co-hosted my first international yoga retreat in Costa Rica. It was there that I met my husband and partner, Naganath.

He had built a retreat center deep in the jungle on the Nicoya Peninsula, a place of extraordinary beauty and intention. We lived and worked there together for the next decade.

During that time, our daughter Gia was born in 2015 and raised in the jungle, her early years shaped by nature, community, and the rhythms of the land. We made a conscious choice to live outside of what is considered a “normal” life, so she could grow up with a deep sense of connection, freedom, and presence.

Alongside raising our family, I developed and led Lakshmi Rising’s first immersive yoga teacher trainings, while Naga created Gaia Gourmet, our now-renowned plant-based cuisine and culinary course.

Together, we built an experience that integrates practice, place, nourishment, and community, an approach that continues to shape the way Lakshmi Rising is lived and experienced today.

EXPANDING THE VISION

Bringing Yoga Teacher Trainings to Europe

In 2017, we began offering yoga teacher trainings in Europe, including Portugal and Italy.

These landscapes introduced a new dimension to our work—rich in cultural history, shaped by seasonal rhythms, and carrying a sense of timelessness that deepens the experience of practice.

Teaching in Europe allowed me to further bridge classical yogic traditions with diverse cultural environments, creating a more layered and expansive experience for our students, one that continues to evolve with each training.

A SHIFT IN RHYTHM

Family Life, Transition, and Reorientation

As our daughter grew, we began to feel a natural shift.

The same intuition that had guided us to create a life immersed in nature now guided us toward something different. We had made a conscious choice to raise her outside of a conventional path, surrounded by the jungle, community, and the rhythms of the natural world. And in time, we began to recognize when it was equally important for her to step into a new phase of life.

We chose to transition from the jungle into a more structured environment so she could integrate with other children and engage more fully with the wider world.

This shift brought us into a different rhythm, one that required balancing family life, education, and the responsibilities of running an international yoga school.

It was not a departure from our values, but an evolution of them.

We learned how to hold both—structure and freedom, responsibility and creativity, community and independence.

And through that process, we began to ask a deeper question:

How can we create a life that supports both our family and our work in a way that feels aligned, sustainable, and whole?

A NEW CHAPTER

Living and Teaching in Portugal

In 2025, we relocated to the Algarve region of Portugal.

This move marks the next evolution of both our family life and Lakshmi Rising. Here, we have found a balance between nature, culture, and community that supports both personal and professional growth.

From this base, we continue to offer immersive yoga teacher trainings and retreats throughout Portugal and Italy, holding the same commitment to depth, connection, and lived experience that has shaped Lakshmi Rising from the beginning.

Today, Lakshmi Rising has evolved into more than a certification program. It is a space for learning, growth, and integration—where yoga, plant-based cuisine, community, and travel come together as a way of living, not just something you practice, but something you embody.

AN INVITATION TO YOUR OWN PATH

Yoga Teacher Training as a Path of Transformation

I share this story not as a blueprint, but as an invitation.

An invitation to listen more deeply.
To question what you’ve been taught.
To trust the part of you that knows when it’s time to begin, and when it’s time to evolve.

There have been many moments in my life where I chose a path that didn’t look “normal.”
And just as importantly, there have been moments when I chose to change, when I felt the call to grow into something new.

This is the practice.

To live with awareness.
To make choices that are aligned.
And to remain open to the natural evolution of who you are becoming.

Whether you join us as a student, practitioner, teacher, or simply as a curious and open human being, you are welcome here.

If something within you is calling for deeper alignment—for a more embodied, meaningful way of living—this path is available to you.

There is another way to live.

A life shaped by intention rather than conditioning.
By awareness rather than expectation.
By presence rather than performance.

Trust what you feel.
Take the next step.

And allow your life to unfold consciously, fully, and on your own terms.

A PERSONAL INVITATION

Connect With Me

If you’ve read this far, something in you is likely resonating.

You don’t need to have it all figured out.

If you feel curious, uncertain, or simply drawn to learn more, I invite you to reach out. Whether you’re considering a yoga teacher training, exploring a transition in your life, or just want to connect, I’m here.

This work is personal to me, and I value genuine connection.

This is a space to ask questions, gain clarity, and explore whether this path feels aligned for you.

You’re welcome to schedule a time to speak, or simply send a message and begin the conversation.