Who I am
From Canada to South Korea to India,
Germany, Tunisia – and back to India, A Journey
But wait, how did I arrive here when I was once over there?
Hello!
I’m Heather Morton, a Canadian-born educator, entrepreneur, researcher, mother, writer, former model and the founder of The Yoga Way.
My personal and professional life has pivoted many times—from theatre and modelling, to leaving my home country and stepping into lineage-based practices rooted in Indian knowledge and culture, to living and working in South Korea, North Africa, and Germany.
For 30 years, I’ve been teaching yoga and meditation, and have made 27 extended trips to India. I’ve sought out teachers, maintained a steady self–practice, and immersed myself in the Ashtanga Vinyasa and Hatha–Raja traditions. I’ve done this while in a partnership, as a single woman, and as a wife and mother. Both meditation and yoga are beacons of light – they are here for you, too.
My life’s philosophy
Life is a series of pivots. We go through them with or without choice, but there’s usually a common thread. Pain can leave you with no other option but to go through. Read about my pivots (click to go to that section).
While yoga and meditation have been at the core of my life’s work and practice, it wasn’t always this way. I once had no connection to teaching, holistic education, or spirituality.
So, if you’ve ever felt that yoga or meditation isn’t for you, I get it.
But if you’ve craved for a deeper sense of meaning behind life’s superficialities and are looking for ways to move through difficult challenges, this could be the way forward.
Off-Center: How being bent shaped my life
The key aspects that forced my first pivot:
• Growing up with idiopathic scoliosis & feeling out of place in my body.
• Achieving a National-level beauty pageant titleholder of Canada.
• Hiding body image issues & an eating disorder in my 20s.
• Waiting on tables & slugging beers between auditions.
• Healing from broken bones—a major turning point
• Chasing modelling & acting gigs and feeling misaligned.
Pivot 1: South Korea: Losing the stage to find myself
I grew up loving the theatre. Naturally gifted on stage, I landed lead roles in high school productions, won speech and drama awards, and studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City. After what looked like successful steps into the modelling and acting world, I believed this was my chosen path.
But even with talent and recognition, that dream was met with estrangement and many challenges. Letting my dream go was painful, but a turning point.
“You must be willing to let one dream die so another can live.”
~ Heather Morton
I left Canada and moved to South Korea to live and work as an English teacher, despite having no formal training. I began teaching yoga (also without training) and soon had several students in my classes. Over the next two years, I travelled extensively in Korea, visited many neighbouring Asian countries, and returned to Hawaii twice.
Pivot 2 – Canada: The Yoga Way is born
When I eventually returned to Canada, I began seeking teachers and formal training. I went from teacher training program to training program, not to run a studio or become a teacher, but out of a hunger for personal growth. I lived at the Sivananda ashrams (link to lineage page section) in the US and Canada for several months. This marked the beginning of my true yoga journey, which continues today.
Mother India calls, Embracing the path
In 1999, I made my first trip to India. It felt essential to learn yoga within its own cultural and historical context. I lived at one of the Sivananda Yoga ashrams in South India. For several weeks, I slept on a wooden bed, ate with my hands, and meditated by the lake at 5 a.m. This was my first deep immersion in pranayama—long hours spent working with energy. It has created more release in my body and the effects were showing in taking up Natarajasana (the dancer pose as shown here).
Feeling the impact of these practices first-hand inspired me to create and develop Yoga programs drawn from the roots of Vedic tradition and lineage.
Mostly out of desperation to get out of limited thinking, I kept on travelling solo in India seeking knowledge, experience and insight.
“Desperate times call for radical actions.”
~ Heather Morton
Returning to India, grounded in Yoga
In 2000, I returned to India and had many life-changing experiences with Masters, Gurus, Swamis, Sadhus, priests, teachers, and many others. I stayed for three months and studied directly under Pattabhi Jois, practiced extensive backbends, learned the Sutras and continued to travel from the south to the north, including the Taj Mahal, Varanasi and more.
I’ve been returning to India for the last 30 years. I’ve had the real blessing of extending my travels on many yatras (pilgrimages) to sacred places all over India: trekking in the Himalayas and Rajasthan, taking overnight trains, eating from street vendors, sleeping in cottages, riding camels in the desert, and staying on a houseboat on the backwaters of Kerala.
It wasn’t about sightseeing; it was about building confidence and resilience as a woman travelling solo in India.
Pivot 3 – Europe: motherhood, travel & life
Today, I guide and mentor clients worldwide through an accessible, lineage-grounded yoga and breathwork practice. Learn how a steady practice can help you.
A breakthrough
As I worked through anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, and body image issues—and began supporting others as they moved from darkness into compassion—I developed structured programs that created real, lasting change.
“You don’t find yourself; you build yourself every day.”
The Pranayama Restore Course is a one-stop online immersion with everything you need to start from the ground up. It builds inner strength and focus—the kind you might have thought wasn’t possible because of age, lack of discipline, or anything else that’s held you back. This program guides you step by step.
Self-education, practice, academia and learning
I believe life is a continual process of learning:
- A Master of Education (M.Ed.), with a thesis on Yoga in school.
- A Bachelor of Education (B.Ed.), trained as a drama teacher.
- A Honors, Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theatre Performance (B.F.A.)
- Member of the Ontario College of Teachers since 2001
“Where your focus goes, your energy flows.”
Off the Mat
I created and produced:
- One of the first instructional DVDs (link to shop) focused on Yogic backbends
for a general and advanced practice, showcasing a series of postures.
- Meditation & Breathing CDs,
- Back-bending manuals, and
- A Yoga Teacher Training Handbook.
As a published author, I have written extensively on the benefits of Yoga and meditation for children. Moreover, yoga as a subject in the a child’s holistic education. M work is a two-year ethnographic research projects exploring how yoga and meditation are a way to support learning environments for emotional and mental wellness in South India.
Yoga teacher education, certificates & on-going study
My formal training and on-going study includes:
-
Prana Vashya Pranayama Course (2025)
- Mantra Yoga & Yoga Philosophy (2023 to present)
- Vedic Astrology & Nakshatra Certificate (2022 to present)
- Mudras & Philosophy with Shri BNS Iyengar (2022)
- Prana Vashya Conditioning series (2021 to present)
- Prana Vashya Yoga Primary Series (2019)
- Pranayama Intensives, month-long trainings (2015–2019)
- The Science of Ayurveda, Mysuru (2014)
- Sadhaka Grama Ashrama, Rishikesh, silent retreats (2009)
- Hatha-Yoga certificate, primary & secondary series (2003, 2005)
- Sivananda Yoga, TTC, ATTC, Sadhana Intensive (1997, 1999)
These certifications and yogic studies support—but do not replace—the deeper, living relationship with my teachers and lineage that continues today.
Off the Mat
I created and produced:
- One of the first instructional DVDs (link to shop) focused on Yogic backbends
for a general and advanced practice, showcasing a series of postures.
- Meditation & Breathing CDs,
- Back-bending manuals, and
- A Yoga Teacher Training Handbook.
My Philanthropy & Life
When in India, I work with children to help improve their quality of education, a commitment I have held since 2004.
It’s often said that the real work of life is that which is done for charity. It opens the heart, clears the mind and is about gratitude. I definitely feel this is the case. There are so many ways to help and be helpful. I began teaching English at a school called Pragathi Vidya Kendra. Pragathi, a private (non-for-profit) school in Mysore, South India in 2004. It gives me great joy to continue to call them my friends and visit them regularly.
Yoga in School, Pragathi Vidya Kendra, India
In Sanskrit, “Pragathi” means progress, “Vidya” means knowledge, and “Kendra” means school. Founded in 1993 as a non-profit primary and secondary school, Pragathi Vidya Kendra is a home and educational haven for many children from deprived backgrounds who would otherwise lack access to such schooling.
The school’s hallmark is its holistic education program, from Pre-K through the Xth Standard (Grade 10 in North America). The curriculum emphasizes not only academics, but also the mental, emotional, and spiritual development of each child.
Yoga is a cornerstone of the curriculum and is taught as a mandatory subject. All students from the Ist through the Xth Standard attend weekly yoga, meditation, and chanting classes. I’ve had the pleasure of integrating English-speaking practice into their lessons and attending school events that showcase its wonderful work.
Travel Deep, Be free
Travelling solo—especially as a woman—is one of the most profound ways to learn, explore the world, and truly get to know yourself. It opens you up to the many different ways to live and to experience a deep sense of inner freedom.
I’ve spent extended periods living and working in Southeast Asia, Europe, and North Africa. As an avid member and guest speaker of the JourneyWoman Club (link), I regularly write and share stories from my travels as they unfold.
Yoga and meditation have been the invisible thread weaving my life together—binding family, old and new friends, clients around the world, travel, study, practice, making life transitions, motherhood, and the daily work that is a continuous journey of self-realization.
