Margaret Konopacki was born in Toronto and grew up in Ottawa, Canada in a Polish family who had immigrated from Poland after participating in the Warsaw Uprising during the Second World War. She graduated from Carleton University and went on to seek her fulfillment in the entertainment industry in Toronto in the 80’s. Here is her story.

After two decades of working in the television industry as a top executive in the area of Entertainment Publicity & Marketing and as a Documentary Director, I realized that to continue my work in the competitive field of artistic expression, I would have to learn and practice eastern mysticism at the same time. Twenty years ago I became a devoted student of yoga.

The creation of original art (in film, painting, photography) and the practice of yoga/meditation kept me focused and balanced in my entertainment production career and in my personal life.

So for a good ten years I was content working too much as a marketer/publicist to the music and entertainment industry holding jobs like: Associate Marketing Director for CTV Television Network, Director of Public Relations for Alliance Entertainment, Publicist for a number of years for the Juno Music Awards, and the Canadian Country Music Awards, photographer and eventually director for many series on networks such as Bravo, CTV, CBC, Learning Television, Wisdom Network (US), and so on.  I was always a person on the set with a camera in one hand and a yoga mat stashed somewhere nearby.

When my son David was born my priorities changed and so did my balance.

My excursions to the Sivananda Yoga Center in the Bahamas became more and more frequent as the pressures of the industry and my role as a single mother finally exhausted me and forced me to finally stop. I was cracking up.  

In 1999 I made the decision to take a major break from my life in Toronto and to concentrate more on my personal healing by moving to Wickenburg, Arizona to assist two of my Canadian friends who had just started a recovery center for youth at risk called Gatehouse Academy (www.strugglingyoungadults.com)

To my amazement and surprise I had such a strong connection to these young adults that I decided to spend a year in the Sonoran, Arizona desert to teach, yoga, meditation and art. One year turned into two years and before I really became too concerned about it, 8 years went by as I moved my career and direction into working with youth at risk.

During those years I continued a rigorous yoga lifestyle which included various teacher trainings which took me to study with many great teachers including a wonderful Ashtanga teacher -- Anthony “Prem” Carlisi in Hawaii. I met kindred spirits and teachers along my path through the Osho Ashram in Puna, India and the ashrams in the foothills of Kathmandu. My son David came with me on many of my travels to the Himalaya and Tibet. 

The center I opened in Arizona I called “Evolve” and it became my home and a place to learn yoga and meditation to the many hundreds of young people who were sent by the courts or parents to heal in the desert from drug and alcohol addiction disorders including dual diagnosis. (www.yogaevolve.com)

The work has continued over the years and now in the desert the  little yoga studio called EVOLVE still provides services for Gatehouse Academy which has grown to be the largest Young Adult Recovery Center in the United States with campuses in Taos, New Mexico, Saratoga Springs, New York and Prescott, Arizona. (www.youthatrisk.com)

After close to a decade in the beautiful healing desert my path has led me back to my roots in Ottawa to continue the yoga and meditation focus in my home town.  I have 3 great sisters here and parents that live across the street from me. Only a year ago, I met David Jewitt my business partner and we began a lunch meeting that continued for months and a process that has now created The New Santosha on Elgin St. and the restructure of a wonderful  existing and incredible company called SANTOSHA….  

My life continues on the path of teaching and I love the challenge of participating in a healing business. My two favorite teachers are still Osho and Sri K. Pattabhi Jois.

“99 percent practice – one percent theory”
Master Sri K. Pattabhi Jois

"Remember, only that which you can take with you when you leave the body is important. That means, except meditation, nothing is important. Except awareness (meditation), nothing is important, because only awareness cannot be taken away by death. Compassion, love are intrinsic parts of awareness – that is your only real wealth. "      Osho