Carolyn Anne Budgell

Carolyn Anne Budgell is a meditation and mindfulness teacher, breathwork facilitator, retreat leader and coach. She supports individuals, teachers and organizations through practices that build resilience, presence and nervous system awareness, weaving together mindfulness, breathwork, meditation and embodied practice to help people meet stress and reconnect with themselves in practical ways.

Her path began in yoga. She left home at sixteen and eventually landed in Whistler, British Columbia, where she immersed herself in yoga alongside snowboarding, skateboarding and trail running. After nearly a decade of practice she took her first 200-hour teacher training in 2008. During those years she also completed a co-op Bachelor of Arts at Simon Fraser University and worked for Environment Canada and the BC Wildlife Federation. Her studies also include Environmental and Resource Management, and she spent years in the non-profit sector.

Meditation found her almost by accident, on a yoga retreat with Clara Roberts-Oss. She found it uncomfortable, sensed wisdom in that discomfort, and committed to a personal practice. Since then she has studied with teachers from Buddhist, Vipassana and Zen traditions, including Tara Brach, Adyashanti and Reggie Ray. Her yoga studies include Ana Forrest, Schuyler Grant, Shiva Rea and Judith Hanson Lasater. Her ongoing study includes trauma-informed approaches and end-of-life support, and she is mentored by Georgina Eden. She describes her understanding of this work as shaped by lived experience too, including motherhood and grief.

Since 2009 she has led teacher trainings, retreats, workshops and corporate wellbeing experiences across Canada and internationally, and has shared her work through communities and organizations including Insight Timer, Wanderlust Festivals, lululemon, Love Your Brain and Mala Collective. She also teaches Spa Yoga, a slow blend of hatha, restorative yoga, breathwork and meditation that aims to settle the nervous system and release tension.

At the heart of her teaching is the belief that life itself is the practice, not how many hours you can sit on a cushion. She leads from a grounded, human place, with depth and lightness, and believes it is never too late to breathe more deeply, learn something new or begin again.