A vibrant blue butterfly rests on green leaves.

About me

Welcome to my life

So, this is the page I officially introduce myself. I guess I could start this introduction with my qualifications, skills and experience, but I don't really want to start with formalities. I would like to, first, tell a little bit of my story before all that. I will try not to be long.
My name is Gabriela Reis De Bonis, I am originally from Brazil and have spent half of my life living in Australia.
When I was little I wanted to be many things, I just didn't know where these many things were going to take me.
My mother and I moved to Australia when I was 14 years old, and eleven months after that I went back to Brazil, without my mother, to go back home. I lived with my grandmother, my aunties, uncles and cousins in a big house in the biggest city if Latin America, Sao Paulo.
At 15, I then went back to school in Brazil which I was really happy about. I got involved in sports, which was cool because I never did as a child. When I was 9 years old my mother asked me if I wanted to do capoeira, and I said no. Capoeira is the traditional Brazilian martial arts, which is amazing, very cultural, lively, full of power and spirituality, good for the mind, body and soul, as it's a mixture of martial arts, intense bodily movements and prayers through music. Maybe I regretted that later in my life.
Back to sports, soon after getting really into I it, the wheel started to turn, and it started at quite a young age.

The Wheel

Well, when the wheel started to turn, and when I say wheel I mean, really. Despite the fact that I remember twisting my ankle a lot when I was a kid, at the age of 15 I encountered my first health issues. I remember I was going through a really challenging time and suddenly was given a heart murmur diagnostic. An innocent one, nothing serious. Heart murmurs are common in children and some adults, and do not cause major harm. Shortly after that "initiation" with a health condition, I also started getting knee pain, and later diagnosed with chondromalacia patella, a condition where the cartilage beneath the kneecap is unhealthy or damaged, which was very frustrating because I was only 15 years old and saw my body become, in a way, limited. I knew I didn't feel the same as others, I couldn't run no more like other 15 year olds. I was in pain.
At the age of 17, almost 18, I returned to Australia. I had spent three years without my mother in Brazil. And I can assure you, a LOT happened in those three years.
Upon my return to Australia, the wheel continued to turn, but not the good way, and when I had scored the dream job working at a wildlife park in Australia (I said I wanted to be many things, and I have always loved animals), a year or so into it I was challenged again by another health condition. This time, on my wrist. The condition: carpal tunnel syndrome, a condition caused by compression of the median nerve as it passes through the wrist, that may cause numbness, tingling, pain, and sometimes weakness in the hand and fingers. So there I was, again, facing another health issue at 19 years old. I then had to leave that job, only to find myself very sad and depressed about it all, and with very, very painful wrists and hands which caused great discomfort, making easy daily habits like brushing my hair or my teeth really, really hard and painful. I was in pain, again. But the good old Universe had it all figured out already.
Amongst the chaos of leaving what I thought was my dream job, and potentially losing perspective, a complete new perspective came my way, and I had my first ever Yoga class. Growing up with a catholic Grandmother is not like you really know what Yoga is, or energy. So there I was, having my first Yoga class.
I still remember the day I couldn't touch my toes, but Yoga touched my heart. Yoga also opened my heart to so many possibilities within myself, and life started feeling very different. I was different.

Turning and churning

After a blissful period with yoga and a whole new universe that I had discovered after some very traumatic experiences, I crashed a scooter onto a car on the road and injured the ligament on my right know pretty bad, and my left ankle. I was knocked out. Again. Never mind, by that time I was learning how to get up more resilient. After I recovered from the accident, I moved town and didn't work that summer. I moved to a surf town, got back into surfing and really dove into yoga. I was living the life.
Few years went by and I decided to go to Brazil and while I was there, get breast implants. Yes, you read that right, breast implants. I too was fooled by the illusion of this world, and the extremes we get, only to learn and realize. Of course I was happy at the beginning with my new acquisition, but time went by and I paid the price. Literally. But this price is one that money can't pay. Around 2023 I was lucky enough to get viral meningitis, an inflammation of the meninges—the protective membranes surrounding the brain and spinal cord—caused by a viral infection. Not fun. By then I was pretty wounded, but still standing, still smiling. By the time I had contracted this viral infection, I had already changed a lot internally. I was eating a little healthier, I had stopped using very poisonous deodorant, and had developed a strong sense of intuition thanks to all the Yoga and all the surfing.
In 2014 I finally decided on what I wanted to study, and I chose Naturopathy as my career. Two years went by and when I was halfway through becoming a naturopath, I had a realisation: I don't want to be a Naturopath. I don't want to be a therapist. So, right there and then, I changed my mind and did not complete the Naturopathy graduation. At the time I was also working with Aromatherapy, in one of Australia's leading Aromatherapy companies.
The years went by and I moved to what used to be my dream place to live: Byron Bay. Byron is a lot of people's dream place to live. By then I had already developed a deeper relationship with life, and the universe began unveiling its divine secrets to me. And it was in Byron Bay where I met someone very important on my path, who really helped me believe and realise the divine connection in everything, as there is no such thing as coincidence.

And it churns...

As the wheel keeps spinning, the world keeps going around and life is always in constant movement. The year was 2017, I started studying with teachers and healers from the Brazilian Amazon, their traditions, their culture, their prayers and beliefs. In 2018, I followed an intuition in which I had back in 2015, clear as day, and I bought myself a flight to India. That was it. The time had come where I was going to meet my destiny: teach Yoga. I never believed in myself enough at the time to be a Yoga Teacher, but I did believe in a feeling I had that was much bigger than myself. When I started Yoga I had always enjoyed the philosophical aspects of Yoga much more than the physical aspect alone. Only to find myself becoming really good at asanas, evolving my practice, overcoming difficulties, pain and health issues with resilience, strengthening my body and my mind to the point that I was actually becoming quite good at the whole thing. Only to meet with my teachers in Brazil and be initiated in a super ego trip, only to realise and understand the human ego and the human psyche through my own practice of Yoga. After returning to Australia in 2019, I scored a teaching position fairly quickly, but I only scored with because of the truth in my heart. There I was. I was teaching Yoga. And it was so nerve wrecking. Eventually I got over the fear and trusted more in myself, and started recognising the quality of my classes. I always wanted to lead people towards the highest truth.

First time in India. Varanasi with my teacher Guruji.

My first Yoga Teacher Training in Santogh Puri Ashram, India.

With my Yoga teacher, Ganga.

From India
to the Amazon

For the years of 2019, 2020, 2021 all was going well, except...well, we all know what the world was going through. But the teaching remained solid, and so did my work within my local community within the non for profit organisation we once had.
Ah, quick note on the 2019 year: I removed the chest acquisitions that I purchased a few years earlier. A massive shift in my consciouness happened, and I gladly removed the toxic plastic from inside of my body. Only then did I begin to feel good again. I was intoxicating my body slowly, day by way, to the point of getting sick because of breast implants. That was a big healing for me, and it got me even more in tune with my true self.
It was in 2022 that my heart then called me to go to the Amazon to meet my teachers in person. And off I went. Just like I adventured to India all on my own, off I went to the Amazon. But as I like to say: I am never really alone!
My first trip to the Amazon was unforgettable, as it surely is a magical, surreal place and an enchanted forest, where nature is so pure, and if you pay close attention, it's all alive and interconnect. It's possible not to notice the subtle signs of interconnectedness between worlds: the human world, the natural world and the spirit world.
In this first trip I spent two months, learning, praying, practicing and healing.
At the end of the year in 2022, I returned back to Australia, feeling good, full of love and light, only to come back and once again, have the wheel turn towards the side I had least expected. The feelings of sadness, depression and anxiety were so strong that in March 2023 I ended up in hospital with another heart condition, expect this time there was some damage. I was diagnosed with Myopericardtitis, which is a double heart inflammation, around the myocardium, the heart muscle, and the pericardium, the surrounding heart membrane. This dis-ease was caused by a virus, a normal flu virus,, but due to the fact that my immunity system was low because my emotional health was miserable, the virus managed to penetrate the heart membrane and cause real damage. And I mean, real. I ended up staying for eight nights in hospital, where I had experiences that were not from this world, however, reassuring that I was going to be well, and live to tell the story.

Yoga in the Amazon. Vila Céu do Mapia, Brazil.

The turning point

The heart disease in 2023 was the biggest turning point in my life: it was a wake up call. After I got so sick, I was confronted with reality and had to really reevaluate my entire life: Relationships, profession, career, and more. I felt lost, scared and depressed. I had devoted so many years of my life into learning, that it had felt like I left many things behind. It really shook me, it made me question everything, and everyone. It made me even question God. And I still remember the day I questioned God so hard that I was arguing with the Man. And when I realised I was arguing and yelling at God, next thing I know is I feel I am being hugged by this divine, loving every, and the feeling I get is quite clear:
"It's okay, my daughter, you may put all your frustrations and rage onto me, as I am the only one who can hold you now."

Giving thanks for for lfie and for the sun at the hospital gardens.

The churning point

A few months after this heart condition I took a trip back to India. I really needed to get out of the environment I was in as I was making me sick. So I decided to go back to India and study Yoga further. So, in August 2023 I went, five months after my heart episode. I made the terrible choice of not going back to my original teacher, in order to learn from a different teacher and differentiate my learning outcome. Bad choice. I went to a Yoga school that looked dreamy, paradise, but only to find myself hurt by one of their teachers after an adjustment during class. And there I was, again, injured, in India. The Holy place. I said to God then: "I must have stuck chewing gum on the cross." (Popular Brazilian saying when things are going really bad.)

Due to the intensity of the injury, I had to discontinue the course and find a physiotherapist in India to treat my knee as I had a trip booked to Bali in ten days. I was deeply frustrated, and by then really believing then that I must be a horrible person and my karma is so bad that all these bad time happen to me all the time. But of course I got to Bali and all my troubles and worries fled away in the blink of a second, because I was, once again, surrounded by the positive energy that Bali has, not to mention the sun, beautiful beaches, good food and nice local, simple, happy people, full of faith, wisdom and spirituality.

Sharing smiles through the villages of India.

Sunset at Uluwatu temple, Bali.

The point of no return

Upon returning to Australia, feeling half content and half discontent, for such is the duality of life, with the heavy feeling I went to India to get more qualified, instead, I came back with no qualification and with an injury. Only a few months after the heart episode.
The months went by and I was clearly undergoing a post traumatic disorder, still experiencing feeling of sadness and depression, quite frankly, trying to make sense of it all. How is it, that when need to apply the wisdom, it slips through my fingers as I almost grasp it. It's not easy to always look at the bright side of life. There comes a time we have to look at the opposite side too.
The months went by and the unease feelings continued: I didn't feel like I wanted to be where I was. So off I went, again. This time to my dream destination: Hawaii. When one lives a near death experience, the feeling of "what is my dream" is very big and loud.
Hawaii is the place I wanted to go since I was ten years old, and I did it. For myself.
I sold my car, saved a little money, and went to enjoy the ALOHA land.

The historic Waipiʻo Valley on the Big Island of Hawai'i.

Beautiful Tunnels Beach in the magnificent garden island of Kauai.

Final destination

When I left to go to this trip to Hawaii I didn't know where I was going to end up, how long it was going to be. I just knew one thing: I wasn't going back to the same place again.
From Hawaii, I went home to Brazil, visit friends in California, by divine grace made it back to Hawaii for another month only to find myself in another plane back to Brazil to say goodbye to a very important person in my life: my uncle. I had already lost many family members that I wasn't physically present, and this time, I wanted to say the last goodbye. And I did. My uncle passed away 30 minutes after I arrived. I'm forever grateful for trusting the guidance on this one.
Being back in Brazil to support my family meant a lot to me. And since I was in Brazil, I decided to take a quick three week trip to the forest to see my teachers again and celebrate the birhtday of one of our most important matriarch teachers and her miraculous 100th birthday.
What was supposed to be a three week trip, extended to become an eight month immersion in the Amazon forest, and that's when I received the healing I was needing so much, and also to true initiation to begin my story as a practitioner, facilitator and educator.

Slowly, one also arrives at the intended destination.

Rita Gregório de Melo

The bottom line is...

I don't like to call myself a therapist, or a coach, or a healer. In fact, it took me a long time to find a proper name that would suit my work, since I am another one of you, experiencing the same experiences, with the same feelings, except I got given a key, and this key is the one that opens the doors of the heart, allowing love and compassion to come in and work through even the hardened corners.
So if anything, I am here to guide and support you, as a facilitator, an educator, a practitioner and as friend. A true friend. Who cares. Because at times when I felt lost, the one thing that would lift my spirits up is to help others, to make others smile, to be kind and loving towards everyone, so we can start making the world a better place, one by one, assisting the ones who needs a hand to hold, or a friendly word of advice, when you feel like you have tried everything before and it didn't quite work. Maybe I might just be able to help you, then.
I always knew deep inside I wanted to help people. I just didn't know how yet, the formula wasn't ready, the time wasn't right, and I was being prepared. And now I am ready to serve the world with what I have learned and believe to be true.
And what is true, is indelible, can't be erased, can't be measured.
And this is health for me: can't be measured, it's simple, it's already known, we just have to be reminded.

Thakyou for reading.
I truly hope you enjoyed it.

Education

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10+

7+

Years Yoga Teaching
Background

Years in the Natural Health & Healing

IAMGABRIELA

Email

hello@iamgabriela.com

Gabriela Reis De Bonis