Sandi Tindal comes from a noteworthy career in engineering and has applied the rigorous thinking and creativity she cultivated in that profession to her work as a yoga teacher - with a high degree of sensitivity and care, she skillfully adapts the ancient teachings and tools of yoga to help others experience their personal pathways for health, healing, and transformation in the context of modern life. In addition to continuing her professional Yoga Therapist training under Gary Kraftsow of the American Viniyoga Institute, she is actively engaged in supporting the Aquatics Therapy and Rehab Institute with high-caliber material for their members to learn how to bring yoga to the aquatic environment as part of their professional tool set.
Sandi is very interested in making yoga accessible for disadvantaged and disabled populations. She has provided yoga classes for residents of a local safe house for survivors of human trafficking and has worked on establishing a partnership with a local VA hospital to enhance their aquatics program with yoga.
Sandi enjoys studying different wisdom traditions and finds that elements of the yoga sutras appear in palpable, practical ways in the movement of her life when she is really paying attention. She is fascinated by the idea of using the mind to overcome the mind and feels that the depth of meaning in life's moments is infused and hidden in very simple acts - for her, encountering the sacred and the spiritual is about how you are seeing what is happening within you and around you.
Students who have learned about yoga and mentored under her have enjoyed the high level of attention she gives to detail and nuance to support their understanding and personal development, as well as the concrete feedback and encouragement she provides them for their next steps. Anyone who has a leaning toward sharpening their understanding of sequencing asana and movement biomechanics, an interest in delving more into the link between pranayama and physiology, and/or a desire to experience integrating chanting and meditation in their personal practice to support mental-emotional health, will find their time with Sandi to be fruitful and enriching
Sandi is pioneering the work of adapting Viniyoga methodology to the aquatic environment. She is ATRI Certified and has become an active member of the Aquatic Therapy and Rehab Institute. She supports that professional community with explanations and articles about the principles of linking breath and movement. She is the only Viniyoga teacher in the DFW metroplex consistently working with students and clients at pool facilities all year round; she has worked with a wide variety of individuals with conditions that find a greater connection to breath and movement working in the water than on land - conditions such as arthritis, multiple sclerosis, stenosis, hip replacement, knee replacement, shoulder issues, muscular dystrophy, fibromyalgia, complex regional pain syndrome, POTS, hypertension, psychological trauma and many more.
She is an engineer by formal educational training, with special emphasis in electronics engineering. Sandi received her Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering, Summa Cum Laude from New Mexico State University in December 2000. This kind of background has trained her to pay attention to detail and have an orientation around functionality. While grounded in practicality and real-world problem-solving, Sandi as a yoga teacher attunes to those aspects of human life that are palpably felt and harder to see with just eyes alone.
Sandi worked at Raytheon, a major defense contractor, for 7 years and accelerated her professional career as an engineer quickly in the company. She began in test engineering and eventually became a product engineer on a classified system which involved working on digital and analog/radio frequency designs. Her designation at the beginning of the 4th year of her career was an E-3 Multi-Disciplined Engineer.
Yoga-related & Professional Biomechanical Training:
- Viniyoga Foundations 500-hour level Professional Program Completed October 2019
- 200-Hour YTT Certification - North Texas Yoga
- Aqua Kriya Yoga Certification Level 1
- Aqua Kriya Yoga Certification Level 2 - Aqua Yoga Specialist
- IAYT (International Association of Yoga Therapy) Member
- Aquatics Therapy and Rehab Institute Certified
- CrossFit CF-L1
- 6-Day Hands-on Cadaver Dissection Workshop, Integral Anatomy
On track to complete studies with Viniyoga Therapist program which fully aligns with IAYT's current revised and higher standards for Yoga Therapist certification