My Story
Adelene Cheong
Somatic Educator / Yoga Teacher
(E-RYT / YACEP / BWY Teacher / Adv R&R® Trainer / Certified iRest® Teacher / IDME / SME)
“A shared journey of realising presence and embodied wisdom — nurturing growth through awareness and self-inquiry.”
This aspiration expresses my commitment to teaching as a relational, inquiry-based practice.
It reflects the heart of my work — to create spaces where learning and transformation arise organically, honouring each person’s timing, lived experience, and inner potential.
This is the ground from which I teach, practise, and live.
From Pain to Presence
For many years, I believed the answer was to strive harder, until my body and mind could no longer keep up. Living with scoliosis, alongside insomnia and panic attacks, I eventually reached a point where I could no longer ignore what my body had been trying to tell me. Yoga entered my life not as exercise, but as a lifeline. It became a gentle path towards presence, healing, and meaning.
What first felt like falling apart gradually became a doorway into deeper practice, contemplation, and spiritual inquiry. Life has continued to bring heartache, broken trust, separation, and loss, yet these experiences have taught me that healing is not about erasing pain, but learning to meet it with awareness, compassion, and care. Through yoga, meditation, and years of practice, I have come to trust the quiet stillness that remains beneath life’s changing circumstances, a place that continues to nourish both my life and my teaching.
A Path of Healing and Awareness
I bring together lived experience and professional expertise in Restorative Yoga, yoga for scoliosis, meditation, and somatic education. Shaped by a lifetime of living with scoliosis and profound life transitions, my teaching bridges therapeutic practice with embodied inquiry, authenticity, compassion, and wisdom.
For me, yoga is not separate from life. It is a path of cultivating presence, self understanding, and equanimity. Rooted in mindfulness, meditation, and self inquiry, my approach is inquiry based rather than prescriptive, encouraging curiosity, reflection, and self agency. As a senior teacher trainer, I support students and teachers in developing a practice that is deeply embodied, personally meaningful, and sustainable.
Teaching Aspiration
The teaching I share is inspired by the wisdom of mentors such as Judith H. Lasater and Donna Farhi, and continually refined through the lessons of my own lived journey. The profound teachings of Richard Miller (iRest®) and Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen (Body-Mind Centering®) have significantly informed my approach to working with individuals on a holistic level, and have deepened my embodiment of Being-ness and awareness.
I have had the privilege of teaching and training internationally, guiding students and teachers to explore Restorative Yoga, meditation, and the therapeutic applications of yoga. At the heart of this work is the aspiration to call forth and facilitate growth through empowerment and self-inquiry — so that each person may realise their full potential, in their own time and at their own pace. When yoga is unveiled, it is no longer an idea but a lived truth — presence and freedom revealed through embodied wisdom.
Om Shanti 🙏🏼
Read interviews and publications on Adelene‘s journey and inspiration:
Teacher Trainer Interview with Yogacampus - May 2016
Living One's Yoga Beyond The Mat (by IpohEchc) - September 2017
Yoga Gave Me A Life Beyond My Diagnosis - October 2020 Podcast @Spotify and @ApplePodcast
My Journey with Scoliosis. My Journey to Yoga. My Journey Home. - June 2020
Two-part video where Adelene spoke about scoliosis as she was growing up, her experiences with pain, physical, emotional and mental challenges. How she came to yoga and her approach to practising and living with scoliosis, and since teach yoga as her passion and dharma.
