“My work is at the intersection of East/West. From a deep love of studying the body and its workings and the nuances of the human condition, I have discovered my passion for Yin Yoga, Chi Ne Tsang, and Taoist tonic herbs. They overlap, in that they are all influenced by ancient Yogic and Taoist principles and practices, and they share commonality in that they foster in those exposed to them a deeper sense of their own power and purpose and, with time, radiant health and wellbeing. Now, having babies and being in my mother-season of life, I have deepened my appreciation with the spiritual power of the female body.”

Tahnee is interested in the language of the body and the exploration of its stories. She aligns with the ancient wisdom of the Yogic and Taoist traditions to help her students transcend the limitations of the mind and experience freedom by connecting to their own inner teacher. Curiosity, an open mind and a sense of adventure is what Tahnee brings to the Yoga conversation (with a slight obsession for the subtler realms of experience).

Tahnee stumbled upon Yoga young, at 15, through her high school in Far North Queensland (shout out to Tully High!), and dabbled in many styles through her late teens and early 20's. The discovery of Yin Yoga in her mid 20’s changed everything. Tahnee founded the studio Yoga for All in Newcastle, NSW, in 2013 (Yoga for All is now closed).

While she is fortunate to have studied with many amazing teachers from many traditions, Tahnee is most grateful to her primary teachers Paul and Suzee Grilley and Tiffany Cruickshank for teaching her how to see and read the body, to Sarah Powers for forging the path into stillness and to Master Mantak Chia for teaching her aspects of the Taoist healing tradition and the Taoist healing massage Chi Nei Tsang. More recently, Tahnee has been studying with Jane Hardwick-Collings and gives great thanks for her teachings on shamanic womancraft in the lineage of Jeannine Pavarti Baker.

Tahnee also shares her passion for herbs via her work for SuperFeast and was formerly the co-host of the SuperFeast podcast with her husband, Mason Taylor. She is the host and creator of the Body of Wisdom podcast.

Tahnee is also currently studying with or is a past student of practitioners and teachers Catherine Clinton (quantum biology), Daniel Keown (Chinese medicine), Damo Mitchell and Roni Elund (Taoist practice), Mimi Kuo Deemer (Qigong), Jeffrey Yuen (Taoist medicine), Lorie Eve Dechar (Taoist medicine), Kimberly Ann Johnson (female nervous system), Melissa Sell (GNM), Qiddist Ashe (GNM/healing) and Adelaide Meadow (women’s movement and birth physiology). She is an eternal student! :)

I have spent most of my life studying what brings us back to ourselves.

For a long time, I explored this primarily through the body. Yoga. Meditation. Energetics. Bodywork. Herbs. The practices and traditions that taught me to become quiet enough to notice what was actually happening underneath all the noise. I believe deeply in practice. But these days my dojo has gotten bigger. I want to know what it means to inhabit ourselves not only on the mat, or in meditation, but in the places where life actually happens.

In s3x and relationship.

In birth and motherhood.

In our relationship with nature and whatever we call the sacred.

In creativity, work, and money.

In the moments where we are certain, and the ones where we have absolutely no fucking idea. Because I don’t think the point of spiritual practice is to become very good at spiritual practice.

I think it is to become more available to life.

The body has always been my way in.

We live in a culture that has become extraordinarily good at thinking about the body. Tracking it. Diagnosing it. Optimising it. Improving it. Regulating it. Women especially are always trying to dominate their bodies.We know more about ourselves scientifically than perhaps any generation before us and yet I am not convinced we necessarily know ourselves any better.

There are other kinds of intelligence.

Sensation. Instinct. Desire. Intuition. Rhythm. Relationship. Women know this stuff innately. These things we know because we are living them rather than because someone has explained them to us. But we’ve lost touch with this inner wisdom, most of us.

I don’t think the body is an infallible oracle. I don’t think every feeling is truth. But I do think we have dramatically underestimated the intelligence available to us when we learn how to actually inhabit ourselves. And for women in particular, I think this really matters.

And then there is the sacred.

I have studied spiritual traditions for decades. I love them. I owe much of what I understand about practice to them. And I have questions.

Many of the maps we have inherited were made by men, through male bodies, in cultures and contexts very different to our own. I don’t think that makes them irrelevant. I just don’t think they are the only maps we are allowed to make.

I want a spirituality capacious enough for the female body. For blood and sex and birth and menopause. For ambition. For rage and pleasure. For friendship and marriage and motherhood. For the school run and the never-ending lunchboxes and snack plates. For lying under a tree in a rare quiet moment.

I don’t think the sacred is somewhere else.

No one owns God.

Life is the practice. I subscribe to the Zen philosophy - before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. The practicalities of life ARE the sacred.

Interviews

Loco Love , Angea , Byron Magazine , Yoga for All , The Grace Tales , Return to Wisdom podcast, Road to Wisdom podcast, Changing Seasons podcast, Ode to Joy podcast, Modern Mother podcast, Positive Birth Australia podcast, Kat’s Podcast

Wellbeing magazine (Nov 2021)